Best Kept Secrets: SMALLVILLE

What separated WB series, Smallville, from the others was the concept of origins of a superhero. Before Gotham, Arrow, The Flash, there was Smallville. The series debuted in 2001 and the world was impartial to the origin story of Superman. Most of the films that have come out on Superman were already deep into the reporter from The Daily Planet who is also a superhero angle. 

When Smallville debuted, the series was nowhere near focused on Superman. Instead, the creators, Al Gough and Miles Millar, focused their attention on Clark Kent, played by Tom Welling, the young man destined to become Superman. From the beginning point, the creators started off in Clark Kent's freshmen year of high school, so fans of the beloved superhero not only got to watch their favorite hero, but they got to grow up with him. Fans got to watch Clark Kent's human parents, Jon and Martha Kent, played by John Schneider and Annette O'Toole, raise a superhuman child as well as Clark growing up with normal high school friends and having a best friend like Lex Luthor, played by Michael Rosenbaum, who turns into his nemesis.

The series turned out to be so successful that it lasted for 10 seasons. Like most shows, a series isn't complete without character development and transformations as well as a good twist. Smallville was good at best kept secrets in large part to do with the fact that, well Clark Kent is keeping the biggest secret of his life: He's an alien from Krypton.

These are the 10 best kept secrets on Smallville. 


10. GRANT GABRIEL IS JULIAN

  Michael Cassidy graced his way onto the series in Season Seven as Grant Gabriel, the new editor-in-chief of The Daily Planet. Of course fans enjoyed his presence when he was a breath of fresh air for Lois (Erica Durance) as her new love interest and wasn't a superhero. However, like most characters on the show, he had secrets of his own. Gabriel was only appointed new editor because Lex was his friend.

Later on in the show, fans discovered that Grant wasn't just editor of the newspaper, but he was in fact, Lex' s dead brother, Julian. Back in the previous seasons, fans found out Lex's little brother, Julian, was killed by his mother so she could save him from Lionel's terrible parenting. Talk about family issues.

It was an unfortunate ending for Grant Gabriel when Lex had his own brother killed, but not to worry. Grant was more of a subject in a lab it turns out rather than actual blood. Grant was shot when about to go to dinner with his dad, Lionel Luthor (John Glover).


9. BIZARRO IS CLARK KENT

 In season seven of Smallville, the fans got to meet another comic book familiar by the name of Bizarro. A phantom from the phantom zone escaped after season six and Clark had been trying to capture the phantoms to put them back in prison. When the phantom collided with Clark in the season six finale, it split Clark into two entities. In the comic books, this entity was called Bizarro.

There is a difference between evil Clark and Bizarro Clark. Bizarro is not exactly evil, but he is the opposite of Clark Kent. Just like red kryptonite affects Clark differently than blue, gold, and silver do, Bizarro isn't an evil version of Clark. The best way to describe Bizarro is that he is a backwards, strange character with a peculiar view on the world. Bizarro has emotions, but his view of the world is warped. Throughout season seven, we later find out in "Gemini" that Clark Kent was trapped in the fortress and Bizarro was parading around pretending to be the real Clark. Lana unfortunately couldn't tell the difference, but Chloe noticed a difference. Eventually Clark had trapped Bizarro back into the phantom zone, but it put a strain on him and Lana's relationship.


8. LANA LANG KNOWS CLARK'S SECRET

 Throughout Season 6, though Lana Lang (Kristin Kreuk) was in a relationship with Clark's nemesis, Lex, she started digging up information. Slowly, piece by piece, she had theories about Clark Kent's identity and who he was. The first clue was the metal chisel that Lex stabbed into Clark's stomach in episode "Crimson". Although, most of her theories begun in "Hydro", Lana wasn't sure until the wedding episode "Promise".

It was to be Lex and Lana's wedding. In the beginning of the episode, Lana trapped Chloe down in the wine cellar, forcing Chloe to call Clark. Lana hid behind the wine shelves and watched as Clark sped into the room and broke the door open for his best friend. Chloe tried to convince Clark to say something to Lana before she made a huge mistake in marrying Lex, but Clark refused to get involved. Lana watched as Clark sped off. When Clark worked up the courage to go to Luthor mansion to convince Lana not to marry Lex, she assures Clark that she doesn't want to marry Lex. Lana wants to be with Clark and Clark is happy. When Lionel Luthor comes in and threatens to hurt Clark and expose his secret, Lana is forced into a marriage she doesn't want to be in forcing Clark to attend the wedding and confront Lana about what happened. Eventually in the season 6 finale, Lana ends it with Lex and goes to Clark in the barn and tells him that she knows he is superhuman. Clark is relieved to find out that Lana sees him as the same Clark Kent he has always been.

7. JASON TEAGUE AND LANA LANG

In perhaps one of the best written seasons on the series, Season 4 introduced two new characters to the cast. Lois Lane (Erica Durance) and Jason Teague (Jensen Ackles). However, the story in season 4 took an interesting turn for the run-of-the-mill Superman angle and meteor freaks of the week.

Lana met Jason in Paris when she was there for the summer and while they started out as an epic romance story like the one in a movie, a tomb in a church that caused Lana to blackout and wake up with a tattoo sends her back to Smallville. Jason makes a decision to follow Lana back to Smallville and be with her by getting a job as the high school's football coach. The best kept secret is that Jason and Lana didn't meet by accident. The audience discovers that Jason's mother, Genevieve (Jane Seymour) was a descendant of Gertrude Teage, a woman who was the nemesis to a witch in Salem named Isobel Thoreaux. Lana discovers that she is the vessel of this 16th century witch in season four and Isobel takes possession of her body a few times in the season. Jason ends up searching for the same stones that Isobel is looking for, putting him against Lana. Jason ends up in the crossfire of a battle between Lana, Clark, and the Luthors, resulting in a tragic death.

6. TESS MERCER IS A LUTHOR

When a new character comes into the show that has nothing related in the comic book, the audience can get skeptical at how they will fit into the universe. After the finale of season 7, Lex Luthor left the show. To fill his place in the LuthorCorp world the writers brought in Tess Mercer (Cassidy Freeman). Tess ran the Daily Planet, the company, and took her place as Lex's successor. It almost seemed she was chosen for a reason. In the final season of the show, the fans discovered that Tess Mercer was a Luthor. In Season 10's "Abandoned", Tess was a foster child under Granny Goodness' care. When she goes back to her past, she finds out that her father Lionel Luthor, gave her up for adoption. Once we saw that, it was no surprise how she fit into the Luthor world with her boldness and her intimidating demeanor. She was a strong woman and this Luthor, Clark was able to save from darkness. In the end, Tess chose to protect Clark's secret by erasing Lex's memories of him. Unfortunately, Tess died protecting Clark's secret.

5. LANA LANG'S PREGNANCY

This should come as no shock, but Season 6 was one of the most ridiculously written stories to occur on Smallville. The fans reactions to the Lex and Lana love story wasn't hidden and it made the season very difficult to watch. Loyal fans managed to push on through this odd turn of events. Not only was it hard to watch, but Lana finds out she's pregnant in "Static". That wasn't the real kicker. Lex induced her pregnancy with fake hormones forcing her into a marriage she didn't want. Keep in mind that this was season six, so given that season five was a college year for Clark, Chloe, and Lana, either that meant Lana was marrying at the age of 20 to a billionaire in his 30s. If the writers, however, wrote in a gap between season 5 and 6, it made sense since they didn't continue to explore the college years of Clark Kent. It's almost as if he dropped out, but Lana ended up finding out that her pregnancy wasn't real and called off the marriage. She gave Lex a good slap for it.

4. MARTHA KENT IS THE RED QUEEN

Martha Kent without a doubt had become one of the characters on Smallville that had the largest transformation in the series. Throughout the first few seasons, Martha Kent was the heart of the family and was sweet. She was wholesome and was a loving mother to Clark, keeping the family strong. She took on the Luthors in Season 2, working as Lionel's assistance. The fans discovered she was pregnant with a child in Season 2, but ended up having a miscarriage. Martha became the rock of the family when Jonathan had a heart attack. In Season 4, Martha took on the responsibility of running the Talon. However, it was in Season 5 where Martha had to decide on a bigger transformation. After the death of her husband, the night he won the campaign for State Senate, Martha had to carry on as Jon's successor. Martha Kent became a beacon of hope and was a strong Senator. When she returned in Season 10, she was the voice of the heroes as the world tried to turn against them. The biggest surprise was that the fans discovered that she was the Red Queen, a vigilante in her own way making sure the heroes weren't seen as villains. There wasn't anything that Martha wouldn't do to protect her son, but in the end, she did what Jonathan always did. She put her family above everything else.

3. THE EMISSARY OF JOR-EL

One of the most impressive twists to happen on the show was the involvement of Lionel Luthor in Clark's life. In the Season 4 finale, Commencement, Lionel has a Kryptonian stone in his pocket that ends up putting him in a comatose state. Throughout the first few episodes of Season 5, Lionel is trapped in a mental institution spouting nonsense until Kal-El needs him. Lionel had temporarily become a vessel for Jor-El.

The Kents were always worried that Lionel knew the truth about Clark Kent. However, when it came to the Season 5 finale, Clark discovers that Lionel did know who he was, but knew his Kryptonian origins. Somehow, Lionel Luthor became the emissary for Jor-El, according to Martian Manhunter. Jor-El was using Lionel to send messages in Kryptonian to warn Clark that Zod was coming. Though the relationship was a tough one to handle, Clark eventually trusted Lionel, seeing as how Lionel did everything he could to protect Clark's secret. Lionel was so ruthless in the beginning of the show and he raised Lex with an iron fist, but Lionel had a different opinion of Clark. Though Lionel's fate was an excellent one, his own flesh and blood threw him out the window of his LuthorCorp office, killing him.

2. CHLOE'S SPECIAL POWERS

Aside from Martha Kent, the biggest transformation for a character throughout the series was Chloe Sullivan (Allison Mack). In the beginning of the series, Chloe started as Clark's best friend with a tenacious attitude to writing about all things meteor freak related. She had a Wall of Weird, which held the articles of every strange thing that happened in Smallville since the 1989 Meteor Shower.

Chloe Sullivan wasn't a comic book character. She was written in by the writers, but now she is a staple in the Smallville world. Her spunky attitude is what helped shape Clark's future in journalism. In Season 6, the fans got to find out more about Chloe's mother and her background. When Lex sent out a hitlist for meteor freaks, Chloe discovers that she might be one of them after being kidnapped and implanted with a chip. Clark has to use his heat vision to burn it out of her skin. It's the first moment that Chloe realizes she might be a meteor freak after spending so many years doing stories on them. It isn't until the season finale of 6 that Lois dies of a knife wound, forcing Chloe to cry a tear that heals her cousin.
The only drawback with Chloe's healing abilities is that she takes on the side effects of the injury.

1. CHLOE FINDS OUT CLARK'S SECRET

At our number 1 spot for the Smallville Best Kept Secrets is Chloe Sullivan knows Clark's secret. There is dramatic irony in this seeing as how once she finds out, Clark doesn't know she knows. That's why it ends up being so fantastic to watch!

In Season 4 episode "Pariah", Clark Kent was dating Alicia (Sarah Carter), a meteor freak from Season 3 that returned. Alicia had the ability to teleport. When she was angry with Clark, she went to The Torch to take Chloe along for the ride to show Chloe who Clark Kent really was. Alicia fakes a car going out of control and calls Clark. Alicia then teleports Chloe and herself out of the car and to the side away from the wreck. When Chloe watches, Clark Kent suddenly speeds in front of the car and the car goes up an incline and into the air. Clark catches the car like its weightless, stunning his best friend. The whole episode is quite amazing especially when Chloe is still trying to process what happened. However, what becomes even better is throughout Season 4, how Chloe handles being around her different friend.

She makes little jokes throughout each episode after towards Clark, waiting for him to eventually trust her enough to tell her the truth. In the first few seasons, Chloe had assured Clark once before that being from another planet was something amazing, but because of her tendency to be obsessed with all things weird and write about it, Clark didn't feel like she would understand. It isn't until Season 4's "Blank" episode when a meteor freak takes away Clark's memory that forces Chloe to have to remind amnesia Clark who he really is. Through this journey, she discovers more about him and when his memory is restored, Clark confronts Chloe about what happened and she informs him that he trusted her. It isn't until the epic season finale when Chloe stops Lex from going into the caves and she ends up transported to the fortress of solitude with Clark when Clark finds out Chloe knows the truth.

Chloe almost freezes to death in the fortress, so when Clark finds her, she tells him to speed them out of there, leaving Clark with a shocked face. In the hospital, while Chloe is warming up, lying in the hospital bed, Clark sits a few feet away from her trying to figure out how she knows, which is a great scene.

Chloe tells Clark that she saw him catch the car as if it were a beach ball. When Clark confronts her about why she never said anything, Chloe tells him that she wanted him to trust her in his own time. When he was ready to tell her the truth, he would, proving that Chloe is a real friend. Clark decides to tell her that he is from another planet and he wasn't born on Earth, leaving Chloe speechless because he looks like everyone else.

In the end, Chloe informs Clark that he is a superhero and thinks that he is one of the most amazing people she's ever known. This moment brings them closer together, making Chloe and Clark's friendship one of the best written friendships on television.

Smallville was the master of secret keeping. As Clark would say, "I'm the Fort Knox of secrets."