Smallville: Home of the Grim Reaper
Sep. 24th, 2007 05:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
slinklingFirstly, I am using this icon just because I find it really funny, and I don't think I've had a chance to use it yet.
Secondly, I totally had not realized (until seeing other people's posts) that Smallville was starting up again this week. It's been entertaining reading about people's hopes (and fears) for season 7.At some point very soon I mean to write up my own. ETA: I've just posted mine over here. But first--
I've been thinking about it, and trying to remember if SV has a single major character who has not died, or been presumed dead, or been very nearly dead, at least once.
Let's tally it up: Lex's plane went down at the end of season 2, and we saw his funeral at the beginning of season 3. Chloe was allegedly blown up at the end of season 3, and Clark and Lois met at her grave in season 4. Lana died in "Reckoning," but Clark effectively used time-travel to save her. It’s possible both Chloe and Lana died at the end of season 6; I’m guessing TPTB will contrive to bring them back, but Chloe was looking awfully lifeless in the season 6 finale, and we saw Lana’s car blow up (plus Lex got arrested for Lana’s murder). Oh, and there was also that time Chloe was buried alive in season 1. Clark *did* actually die once (early season 5), and there was also the time (I think in season 2) when Van the Vigilante shot him with kryptonite bullets, and Lana reported his murder to the police. Not to mention the time when the cave wall more or less swallowed him (end of S3), and didn't spit him out again until the start of S4 a few months later.
Jonathan was in a coma at least twice before he actually kicked it (once from the Nicodemus flower, once because Jor-El was mean). Martha almost died of Kryptonian diseases twice (in season 2, from breathing KryptoSpores, and in season 5, when Brainiac was being Evol). Lois seemed to be dead in the season 6 finale, before Chloe cried her Magical Shiny Tear Of Glowiness and brought her back. Whitney, Jason, and Adam have all snuffed it. (Lana’s boyfriends have a disturbing mortality rate, now that I think of it.) Then there was also that episode where Lana, Clark, and Lex all “died” for a few minutes – just long enough to chat with their deceased parents – and were brought back.
Lionel was going to die of liver disease, but a well-timed body-swap and the Miracle of Clark’s Goodness saved him. Plus he’s been shot, and crushed by falling masonry, and kidnapped/tortured. But -- okay, except for the masonry -- who hasn't? It seems like almost everybody’s been shot at least once or twice: Lex (more times than I can count), Clark, Lana, Kaylee (no, wait, sorry, wrong show)…
Pete had a handful of near misses, though it never went so far that people believed he had actually died. Is Smallville's Grim Reaper a racist? Or was Pete just too dull? Poor Jimmy has only been around for one season, but even he had the close call with Alien-Vine-Lady, and Chloe had to use the electro-paddle-thingies (what ARE those called? I’m sure I know this, I just can’t think of it right now) to save him. Oliver got shot by Lex, and it would have been fatal but for the rage-inducing super-tonic he'd been injecting. And speaking of Justice Leaguers, Victor more or less died and was brought back all robo-fied, and Bart and AC were both captured and tortured (by Lex, of course), so I’ll give them partial credit.
If we expand the scope to include recurring characters -- well, jeez, is anybody left standing? Dr. Hamilton's dead. Alicia's dead. Tina Greer is dead. Helen jumped from a plane. The lady sheriff got shot. The characters played by both Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder (can't remember their names, am too lazy to look it up) are dead -- although Christopher Reeve is also dead, so that's at least one I can't blame on Al/Miles.
Wait! Is Dominic still alive? We haven't seen him in yonks, but I can't recall any grisly death scenes for him, which may make him the only recurring character to get out of Smallville alive.
Am I missing anyone here, or am I right in thinking SV is an unusually death-happy show?
Secondly, I totally had not realized (until seeing other people's posts) that Smallville was starting up again this week. It's been entertaining reading about people's hopes (and fears) for season 7.
I've been thinking about it, and trying to remember if SV has a single major character who has not died, or been presumed dead, or been very nearly dead, at least once.
Let's tally it up: Lex's plane went down at the end of season 2, and we saw his funeral at the beginning of season 3. Chloe was allegedly blown up at the end of season 3, and Clark and Lois met at her grave in season 4. Lana died in "Reckoning," but Clark effectively used time-travel to save her. It’s possible both Chloe and Lana died at the end of season 6; I’m guessing TPTB will contrive to bring them back, but Chloe was looking awfully lifeless in the season 6 finale, and we saw Lana’s car blow up (plus Lex got arrested for Lana’s murder). Oh, and there was also that time Chloe was buried alive in season 1. Clark *did* actually die once (early season 5), and there was also the time (I think in season 2) when Van the Vigilante shot him with kryptonite bullets, and Lana reported his murder to the police. Not to mention the time when the cave wall more or less swallowed him (end of S3), and didn't spit him out again until the start of S4 a few months later.
Jonathan was in a coma at least twice before he actually kicked it (once from the Nicodemus flower, once because Jor-El was mean). Martha almost died of Kryptonian diseases twice (in season 2, from breathing KryptoSpores, and in season 5, when Brainiac was being Evol). Lois seemed to be dead in the season 6 finale, before Chloe cried her Magical Shiny Tear Of Glowiness and brought her back. Whitney, Jason, and Adam have all snuffed it. (Lana’s boyfriends have a disturbing mortality rate, now that I think of it.) Then there was also that episode where Lana, Clark, and Lex all “died” for a few minutes – just long enough to chat with their deceased parents – and were brought back.
Lionel was going to die of liver disease, but a well-timed body-swap and the Miracle of Clark’s Goodness saved him. Plus he’s been shot, and crushed by falling masonry, and kidnapped/tortured. But -- okay, except for the masonry -- who hasn't? It seems like almost everybody’s been shot at least once or twice: Lex (more times than I can count), Clark, Lana, Kaylee (no, wait, sorry, wrong show)…
Pete had a handful of near misses, though it never went so far that people believed he had actually died. Is Smallville's Grim Reaper a racist? Or was Pete just too dull? Poor Jimmy has only been around for one season, but even he had the close call with Alien-Vine-Lady, and Chloe had to use the electro-paddle-thingies (what ARE those called? I’m sure I know this, I just can’t think of it right now) to save him. Oliver got shot by Lex, and it would have been fatal but for the rage-inducing super-tonic he'd been injecting. And speaking of Justice Leaguers, Victor more or less died and was brought back all robo-fied, and Bart and AC were both captured and tortured (by Lex, of course), so I’ll give them partial credit.
If we expand the scope to include recurring characters -- well, jeez, is anybody left standing? Dr. Hamilton's dead. Alicia's dead. Tina Greer is dead. Helen jumped from a plane. The lady sheriff got shot. The characters played by both Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder (can't remember their names, am too lazy to look it up) are dead -- although Christopher Reeve is also dead, so that's at least one I can't blame on Al/Miles.
Wait! Is Dominic still alive? We haven't seen him in yonks, but I can't recall any grisly death scenes for him, which may make him the only recurring character to get out of Smallville alive.
Am I missing anyone here, or am I right in thinking SV is an unusually death-happy show?
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no subject
Date: 2007-09-24 10:10 pm (UTC)I LOVE your icon, btw.
no subject
Date: 2007-09-24 10:39 pm (UTC)And you're right: last we saw, Victoria was still alive. Desiree was only in one episode, so I'm not counting her; plenty of one-off characters were left alive, though most of them were carted off to Belle Reve or other prison/asylum-type places -- such as 33.1, or Lex Luthor's Academy for Incorrigibly Criminal Meteor Freaks.
But I imagine Victoria and Dominic might cross paths now and then. That's an interesting thing to contemplate, actually.
no subject
Date: 2007-09-24 10:55 pm (UTC)now that you tally it all up, the picture really is grim, isn't it? :/
no subject
Date: 2007-09-24 11:18 pm (UTC)(It kind of reminds me of the scenario of "Murder, She Wrote" -- that series from the '80s, where Angela Lansbury was a mystery writer and amateur detective who wound up solving a murder in every episode. She lived in this allegedly sleepy little town in Vermont, which must have been the homicide capital of the USA; people were dropping like flies all around her. Even when she went on vacations, people would die wherever she went. I used to imagine resort areas paying her NOT to come stay with them.)
no subject
Date: 2007-09-24 11:28 pm (UTC)