Biggest Character Continuity Gaffes in "Smallville"?

[moviefan2k4]

There's a few that I recall, but the one which always comes to mind involves Chloe's knowledge of Red Kryptonite. In the episode "Red", Chloe tells Clark that the Smallville High class rings were made with "red meteor rocks" to save money. Yet, when Clark becomes paranoid in "Splinter", Martha mentions Red Kryptonite as a possibility, and Chloe reacts like she's never heard of it. That episode takes place after the Season 5 opener, where Clark tells Chloe about his heritage...so I think the writers messed up.

What situations like this are you dumbfounded by?

[DJ Doena]

There's a few that I recall, but the one which always comes to mind involves Chloe's knowledge of Red Kryptonite. In the episode "Red", Chloe tells Clark that the Smallville High class rings were made with "red meteor rocks" to save money. Yet, when Clark becomes paranoid in "Splinter", Martha mentions Red Kryptonite as a possibility, and Chloe reacts like she's never heard of it. That episode takes place after the Season 5 opener, where Clark tells Chloe about his heritage...so I think the writers messed up.

What situations like this are you dumbfounded by?

I don't actually see that as a gaffe, because Chloe wasn't in the know back then, it was 3 years ago and she was never (onscreen) told that Clark's change in personality in Red as well as Exodus/Exile were due to the meteor rock.

But in the end, Chloe just got handed the idiot ball so the writers could give Martha a reason to expo all about RedK.


For me the biggest gaffe (all mismatching timeline stuff aside) was when Clark gave Chloe the white rose from their dance for her wedding and claimed it was from the Homecoming dance (pilot) when in actuality they went to the Spring Formal (season 1 finale).

[moviefan2k4]

Well, Chloe's supposed to be the brains of the cast, knowing about the "meteor freaks" and all. I guess I just expected the writers to keep her smart in that arena, especially after Clark confesses his origins.

They did something similar to Lana in Season 6, when she hears the word "Krypton" and sees Zod's abilities in Lex's body, but doesn't react horribly to Clark doing the same thing before marrying Lex in the wine cellar, or after leaving him in the barn when Clark comes clean. I remember thinking, "Lana's smart enough to outwit two Kryptonians sent by Zod in Season 5, and almost kills Zod as well, but fails to bring that or her parents' deaths up when Clark finally tells her everything?" They alluded to it in the "Scare" episode, but seeing it really happen in a less traumatic fashion would've been good.

[DJ Doena]

They did something similar to Lana in Season 6, when she hears the word "Krypton" and sees Zod's abilities in Lex's body, but doesn't react horribly to Clark doing the same thing before marrying Lex in the wine cellar, or after leaving him in the barn when Clark comes clean. I remember thinking, "Lana's smart enough to outwit two Kryptonians sent by Zod in Season 5, and almost kills Zod as well, but fails to bring that or her parents' deaths up when Clark finally tells her everything?" They alluded to it in the "Scare" episode, but seeing it really happen in a less traumatic fashion would've been good.

That Lana didn't figure everything out in Promise was truly bad. Especially after she gets told that Clark has a weakness. By the same guy who once told her "their home is their only poison".


Lana not bringing up her parents: I guess I would explain by Lana being too self-involved to realize that Clark might actually blaming himself for her parents' death.

[moviefan2k4]

Lionel's "home = poison" line reminds me of something else: how did Jor-El know about Green Kryptonite to begin with? He didn't encounter it in "Relic", because Krypton hadn't exploded yet, and Zor-El gloated like he was the only one who knew about it in "Blue". Dax-Ur probably knew, but he never went back to Krypton after arriving on Earth. Jor-El's AI said Lionel's body was made into "an oracle of Kryptonian knowledge", but that's splitting hairs a bit.

[DA_Champion]

moviefan2k4,

It's great you're still thinking deeply about the show so many years later.

There were many gaffes in Smallville for me. Here are a few:

- Lionel Luthor supposedly always having known that Clark was Kal-El... I call BS;
- Chloe Sullivan saying that she really loved Jimmy Olsen and not Davis Bloome in the season 8 finale... actually no, she was written as more in love with Davis Bloom;
- Henry Olsen;
- When Kara Zor-El leaves the show, she flies to Krypton. That doesn't make sense either. There's no yellow sun in interstellar space to power her. Further, how does she fly back to Earth once she makes it to Krypton with its red sun, where Kryptonians lose any power they might have had?

[newbaggy]

When Kara Zor-El leaves the show, she flies to Krypton. That doesn't make sense either. There's no yellow sun in interstellar space to power her. Further, how does she fly back to Earth once she makes it to Krypton with its red sun, where Kryptonians lose any power they might have had?

She never flies to Krypton unaided. In Veritas, she flies off with Brainiac, and apparently travels with him through some sort of "time warp" to arrive on Krypton before its destruction. From there, Brainiac sends her to the Phantom Zone, and she only returns to Earth courtesy of Brainiac-infected Chloe using Clark's crystal to transport Kara and Clark (in Bloodline). When she flies off at the end of the same episode, she has gone to investigate rumours of a lost Kryptonian colony (not attempting a return to Krypton). In Supergirl, she has returned at A.I. Jor-El's request (it has been established that the Fortress can teleport beings across space and time, so she might not have had to do the hard work). When she finally leaves (in Prophecy), she does so using a Legion flight ring to time travel to the future.

There may not be detailed explanations for all of Kara's offscreen movements, but I don't think they amount to a continuity gaffe.

[DA_Champion]

I didn't recall her leaving for a Kryptonian colony rather than seeing the remnants of Krypton, but I'll take your word for it. However, the issue still remains that she would need to fly through interstellar space (where the mean radiation field is red and dim) to get there. When Kara makes it to interstellar space, she should starve to death, unless the Kryptonian colony is on Mars.

I fully realise that this is not a "character" discontinuity and that I am being pedantic on an issue that 98% of the audience would never notice, that I only notice due to my esoteric knowledge of something obscure, but it still bothered me.

[newbaggy]

Lionel's "home = poison" line reminds me of something else: how did Jor-El know about Green Kryptonite to begin with? He didn't encounter it in "Relic", because Krypton hadn't exploded yet, and Zor-El gloated like he was the only one who knew about it in "Blue". Dax-Ur probably knew, but he never went back to Krypton after arriving on Earth. Jor-El's AI said Lionel's body was made into "an oracle of Kryptonian knowledge", but that's splitting hairs a bit.

By the time we reach Commencement the Jor-El A.I. has been active on Earth for a couple of years, and spent considerable time with Clark (notably the three months between Covenant and Crusade). Therefore, it is entirely possible for Jor-El to have gained information about the existence and effects of Green-K on Clark prior to becoming linked to Lionel's mind, and to have extrapolated that it was toxic to all Kryptonians.

[moviefan2k4]

It's great you're still thinking deeply about the show so many years later.

I have my moments.

Lionel Luthor supposedly always having known that Clark was Kal-El... I call BS;

Lionel knew that someone was coming from the stars, but he didn't realize it was Clark until after the body-switch in "Transference". Clark catching the elevator in "Mercy" is what probably connected the dots for Lionel.

Chloe Sullivan saying that she really loved Jimmy Olsen and not Davis Bloome in the season 8 finale... actually no, she was written as more in love with Davis Bloome

I always saw it as her being with Davis to protect Clark, just as she said in the Season 8 finale. Jimmy was her real love after letting go of Clark.

Henry Olsen

Yeah, total BS to arbitrarily line up the show with the comics.

When Kara Zor-El leaves the show, she flies to Krypton. That doesn't make sense either. There's no yellow sun in interstellar space to power her. Further, how does she fly back to Earth once she makes it to Krypton with its red sun, where Kryptonians lose any power they might have had?

Just like Clark, Kara's cells function like one big solar battery, harnessing the Sun's energy for later use. The only way she'd run out of power is by staying away from a yellow star for too long, or being locked away in a place that nullifies her powers like Brainiac did with the Phantom Zone.

[moviefan2k4]

By the time we reach Commencement the Jor-El A.I. has been active on Earth for a couple of years, and spent considerable time with Clark (notably the three months between Covenant and Crusade). Therefore, it is entirely possible for Jor-El to have gained information about the existence and effects of Green-K on Clark prior to becoming linked to Lionel's mind, and to have extrapolated that it was toxic to all Kryptonians.

Did the show ever establish that the Fortress AI could learn? I thought it was just an information library.

[DA_Champion]

Lionel knew that someone was coming from the stars, but he didn't realize it was Clark until after the body-switch in "Transference". Clark catching the elevator in "Mercy" is what probably connected the dots for Lionel.

I think that was a retcon.

I always saw it as her being with Davis to protect Clark, just as she said in the Season 8 finale. Jimmy was her real love after letting go of Clark.

Her body language communicated that she really preferred Davis to Jimmy. She was downright rude to Jimmy in several episodes, as if she were discarding him. That's because she no longer loved him. Think also of the hospital scene. This is an example of the failings of Smallville... they should have had the courage to stay true to their Chloe-Davis romance. It was bold and risky and they retconned in the Doomsfail finale.

Just like Clark, Kara's cells function like one big solar battery, harnessing the Sun's energy for later use. The only way she'd run out of power is by staying away from a yellow star for too long, or being locked away in a place that nullifies her powers like Brainiac did with the Phantom Zone.

She'd be away from the sun in interstellar space. That's why Superman needs a spaceship in other versions.

[DA_Champion]

Did the show ever establish that the Fortress AI could learn? I thought it was just an information library.

I think a general problem with AI's sometimes, is that if the religious concept of "a soul" does not exist in your universe, and it was not shown to exist in Smallville, then you have to accept that an advanced computer has all of the cognitive and emotional abilities of a biological machine. Therefore within Smallville and other versions, also MoS, I always understood AI Jor-El to have the same personality as Jor-El, to be a perfect re-creation.

[moviefan2k4]

Spiritual issues were addressed on the series, though. Clark sees Jonathan in the afterlife when flatlined on a Kryptonite drug, Lex's evil side describes himself as the billionaire's soul, Lionel refers to redemption before Lex kills him, and the Kandorians referred to Rao as divine.

[Jennsen]

Lionel knew that someone was coming from the stars, but he didn't realize it was Clark until after the body-switch in "Transference". Clark catching the elevator in "Mercy" is what probably connected the dots for Lionel.

According to Tess Mercer, Lionel knew who Clark was the moment he received a phone call from Martha Kent who asked him to arrange an illegal adoption ("Eternal").

Also, how the heck could Lionel not have known? He wasn't an idiot. He saw the Kents in their truck carrying a naked little boy from the very corn field where the Traveller ship was supposed to land. The Kents approached him to ask for an illegal adoption. They had no reason to do that unless they had something to hide regarding the kid. A mentally-challenged child would have put two and two together, let alone someone as intelligent and cunning as Lionel Luthor.

No, there was no way Lionel did not know or at least suspect who Clark was from the very beginning. And there was no reason for Lionel to help the Kents adopt him. He murdered the Queens to get his hands on the Traveller, so he would have easily gotten rid of the Kents too. We were told many times that he wanted to possess the Traveller. The fact that he didn't snatch Clark at first opportunity is the biggest character continuity gaffe in the whole show.


And the second biggest gaffe is Jor-El lecturing Clark on how evil he was to want to take a man's life in "Lazarus", given the fact that Jor-El had killed two people and threatened to kill Jonathan Kent in "Covenant" just to teach Clark a lesson. Of course, like everyone in Smallville, Clark has a very short memory so he doesn't think to bring this up and call Jor-El on his raging hypocrisy.