Episode Summary: Clark, despondent about his heroism, is taken on a journey through his past and future by the benevolent Brainiac 5. Critics of Smallville argue that it was never really about Superman, and in some ways, they're right. The show stuck so closely to its original premise of Clark becoming Superman that it slowed the journey to that endpoint to a crawl. If you're waiting impatiently for Clark to don the cape, this is the wrong show for you, but as this list shows, if you accept that Smallville is only ever going to be about the road to get there, you'll see that Superman's character shines through. In Homecoming, Clark needs some encouragement at his high school reunion and it comes in the suitably silly form of Buffy alumni James Marsters as Brainiac 5. He's whisked to the future, where he is initially repelled by his uptight future self in his Clark Kent guise before he realises that Lois knows his secret here and helps him to keep it. Then he catches a glimpse of a red and blue blur flying past the window. They're conventional moments in the comics, but in Smallville they take on added meaning because we've waited so damn long to get there. At this point in the present Lois does actually know Clark's identity, and she tries to tell him at the episode's conclusion, but he shushes her and neither one notices that they float up into the air as they dance. Yes, Lois is the key to Clark's ability to fly, which is a spot-on dramatisation of the importance of their relationship. It's the crown on top of a series which was always caught between promising the inevitable ending and preventing it from occurring, and Homecoming finally lets us know that Clark's almost there.
