Photo courtesy of The CW/Michael Courtney

One thing that has frustrated me with Smallville over the years is that the show tends to leave a lot of loose ends dangling. I must admit that the “Veritas” storyline, introduced a few episodes ago, seemed to be another one of those plotlines that would be introduced without any apparent direction (cough, 33.1, cough).

Instead, this story arc seems designed to resolve some long unanswered questions about Clark’s connections with Dr. Virgil Swann and Genevieve Teague from seasons two and four, respectively. The Dr. Swann character was unable to be more fleshed out due to Christopher Reeve’s unfortunate death, but now through flashbacks we are seeing how the Swanns, Teagues, Queens, and Luthors were conspiring together with knowledge of the arrival of “The Traveller.” While I really couldn’t care that much about the Queens’ involvement, bringing the Swanns and the Teagues back into the fold makes sense, as both families clearly had a great deal of knowledge about Clark’s origins that was never adequately explained in the series.

The other highlight of this episode was the return of a strong Brainiac. While it isn’t yet clear what he wants with Kara, we do see that he is willing to do whatever it takes to get her with him, including turning Lana into his own little puppet. (Though the thought of having Kristin Kreuk under my complete power isn’t so terrible, but that’s a story for another day…) Tom Welling showed a lot of emotion as Clark seeing his love being reduced to Brainiac’s plaything, and we have to hope that this anger will come into play when he and Brainiac cross paths again.

Viewers were also in for a real treat seeing Lionel Luthor reduced to a sniveling toad, begging Clark and Chloe to believe him. His character has gone from good to evil and back a few times, so it has been hard to peg what his true intentions have been, but it seems now that he is genuinely concerned about doing the right thing. Of course this would come at a time when no one trusts him or will listen to anything he has to say. Maybe he should cut to the chase a little faster next time he has something urgent to get off his chest.

Overall, the episode moved quickly and all of the storylines were told tightly and woven into each other in a way that made for a very exciting episode. I’m hopeful that the rest of the season can pay off these stories, but I am slightly hesitant since the show has promised big things before and failed to deliver. Plus what and could be in that bank vault that is so damn important? It can’t be Clark’s identity since it was sealed before he arrived – perhaps it’s a key to decipher the Kryptonian symbols that allowed Swann to determine that Clark was Kal-El? Fortunately, there’s only a three week wait for new episodes, and hopefully these stories will make for an exciting finish to the season.

Alan’s Score: 9.0 out of 10