Clark didn't shoot anyone. He simply pulled the trigger (directed into the air) to get the people's attention and his gunshot also save Lois' life. The crazy dude was about to release that blue thing few seconds before the gunshot was heard.

I wasn't expecting much from this episoe but it was actually quite good. In fact, I'd give it an A-, regardless the fact that the blue flame doesn't make much sense. lol

Jake, and everybody else out there....

I've about had it with these vanishing posts.  I think it is something to do with some attempt at spam filtering going on, posts that have formatting seem to have issues.  (I usually will use light formatting to make my post a bit more readable.)

WEBMASTERS, if you are monkeying with rules for accepted/rejected posts, at the very least let us know what they are so we can try and avoid losing everything we typed.  (Better yet, print a rejected message to the screen, and leave our post in the comment box to be edited...)

Sorry, guys.  I've about had it with this crap, and want to complain about it enough to make sure my point gets viewed.

JOE - could you forward this to the tech guys?  Who can we complain to?

Yep, and to UNBOLD JOE's name above and remove a double dash for it to go through.  I'm PISSED.  Can you tell?

Regarding Clark's itchy trigger finger....I've watched the part with Clark and the shot gun a couple of times now online (it didn't TivO for some reason this week.)

Aside from the fact that to me it really looks like Clark did shoot the guy in the back, (but that might be a streaming issue) the direction of that scene is unforgivable if Clark didn't shoot the guy in the back, because it's way too confusing a visual.

LocoLobo, I really didn't see him club the guy with the barrel, but if so, the director should have taken a different camera angle so we all could see what happened. To me it looks like most of the Maniacs in the commentboxes saw it the same way I did, and if that's the case the  scene should have been reshot, because you can't tell me no one on the production team at Smallville didn't see it the same way.

To be honest, I'm still not convinced Clark didn't shoot him, but again, the entire scene was just too stupid for words. The Blue K drenching should have killed him, burying him in the Blue K fortified soil should have killed him. Being in such proximity of all those Blue K townies could easily have weakened him to the point of killing him, or at least making him incredibly ill, Lois's fire and brimstone speech at the end was worthless, the way Clark's back healed up 2 minutes after the scalding was assinine, the fact that he loses his powers because one person is near, but gains full use after the Blue K burial, AND the Blue K bath AND being surrounded by the entire populace of Blue K drinkers pisses me the eff off.

As you know, unlike many of you, while I am a Superman fan, I never got hooked on this show, because whenever I watched in the first 8 seasons, I'd get infuriated with the sloppy writing, but more to the point, I had no desire to watch the teen angst "Kal's Creek" version of Superman.

Since I've been paid to review this show, there have been genunine moments of entertainment, but the sloppy and the lazy and the stupid and the bad always seems to outweigh any good.

The most frustrating part is in each episode I could see a way around these problems with simple rewrites that should be caught before the actors ever get a chance to see the script. Even with this episode, as ridiculously flawed as it was, the story was savable, but no one over there cares. Honestly you guys should be way more pissed than you are because the only way I can see this is they either don't think you're smart enough to see the holes, or they feel since the main character's name is Clark Kent and he was born on a planet other than earth, they can feed the public whatever they choose, and no one will say a freaking word. Seems to be working - this show's been on for 10 years, and it's been maddenly inconsistent from what I gather from you guys since the beginning.

BTW, what the hell? Where is Darkseid? Shouldn't he or his presence be mentioned at least once a show? He could have easily been part of this ep. A smart show wouldn introduce a character like Darkseid early on and then drop tiny hints about him along the way to help whet our appetite for the eventual showdown.

THIS IS WHAT THEY SHOULD HAVE DONE WITH THIS SEASON

How great would it be if Darkseid was this episodes unseen villain? What if he were lurking throughout each and every ep so far? Sometimes overt, other times in the shadows. Clark and Lois realize even though they exposed this Amish-type town, and sent bad people to jail, the real evil is still out there, laughing at them and free to commit more terrible deeds. Darkseid for his part would be watching Clark, figuring him out and really have the upper hand when they finally met. Clark eventually defeating him (in his super-uni of course) would have such a bigger impact, because Darkseid would have been effing with him for 20 episodes by that point. We'd all be waiting for that kill shot - and then Clark, being Clark would spare his life.... or maybe not.... this isn't the comics, maybe it's a huge morale dilemna... kill this powerful, malevolent being or try to restrain him in captivity.

What if Lex has been secretly arming Darkseid with info about Clark and the other superheoes? Lex actually could orchestrate the battle between the two, and since he's such a genius, he'd have the whole thing rigged for his benefit. He'd allow both Darksed and Clark believe he was on their side, and then double cross them both.

Maybe, after the two mighty beings are at the end of their fight, and it looks like Clark is going to die, Lex  helps Clark defeat him, and for a minute we think Lex is the hero - Clark is grateful, but refuses to kill Darkseid, so Lex does that deed for the good of humanity - then he is legitmately furious with Clark for not killing a genuine threat to this planet. As Clark lies weakened from the epic batte, Lex takes advantage of the situation and beats the hell out of Clark with his bare hands, and then - since let's face it, no one is going to kill off Superman - he decided to imprison Clark, and torture him for life in a Green K jail cell or something... the JLA or JSA  - or both have probably all been injured or killed in the Darkseid battle too, and Lex may have them imprisoned as well.

Obviously good triumphs over evil in the end, but man that would show Lex as a seriously dangerous opponent - especially if he and Darkseid were secretly in cahoots, and Lex himself kills Darkseid because Clark can't bring himslef to do it. You'd also have a good amount of people who would believe Lex is a good guy because they would have seen him defeat this threat to the entire world since let's fac it, it would be on TV. Running for president would be a slam dunk, and Superman would be seen by some as a good guy, but others, since President Lex considers him a threat, would despise Superman. That would make for some very interesting showdowns between the two men.

Come on you douche bags at Smallville.... this is easy.

millean, I've spoken to the tech guys, they know the problems, and they're working on them. Personally i have no idea how to fix it, but they're trying..... ALSO, this is how I get around the vanishing posts. If I don't see my post right away, I hit refresh. This usually winds up giving me two posts now, and I delete the second. Not optimal I know, but that's my trick.

I'll yell at Jarrod.  It probably won't help the posts, but I'll feel better.

Yeah, I just sent a private message to Jarrod as well.  I've done the double post thing, and all kinds of other tricks.  I tried quadruple-posting via reload a while ago, but nothing.  Then I typed in "mania sucks" as a test message, and yep, it went straight through.  Ahhh, the irony...

I know sometimes it takes a while for a posted message to show up, but I spent HOURS yesterday (my off day) trying to figure out what was going on.  A lot of special formatting is definitly getting flagged to be rejected for some reason.

I feel like the tech guys are bound to be working on this.  However, if they would at least LET US KNOW that they are would go a looooooong way to making me feel better.  Put an entry on the main page, email all of the maniacs (we do have an email address associated with our accounts), send us a private message, or SOMETHING.

Anyway, I feel a bit better now that I have vented a bit.  I just wanted to post this to let everyone know what I have come across the last few days in hopes to help keep some of you from going insane.  Getting off the soapbox (for now).

Most all the mistakes Smallville has made over the years have been forgivable until this one.  It is WAY to early for Lois to know Clark's secret.

Stop with the suit talk.  The series is pre-Superman.  Once he puts it on, that's the end of the series.

He should have been wearing glasses a long time ago.  When he finally wears the suit, is everyone gonna forget what he looked like before?

When they bring back Lex, he cannot know Clark's secret, either.  They've been really sloppy with the secret identity stuff.

I really can't say much that the regulars haven't covered.  It's all there....or in smallvilles case, NOT there this week.

 What if the Blue fire isn't Blue Kryptonite.  They are country folk so what did they use to melt down a crystal element? And keep it on fire?  

I'd guess that they used sterno as a fuel in the pot and dumped it on the sacrifice.  I use it when I cater and the flame burns blue.  The gun shot was not at the person it was also not straight up.  She shot with it straight out but he didn't shoot it at the guy.  Look at the scene of the townspeople right after......nobody is laying on the ground.