The House of El: A Superman, Smallville & DCU Podcast

September 24, 2010 – Following in the previous season finale, Lois removes the blue kryptonite dagger from Clark’s body and hides as he heals. Chloe uses Doctor Fate’s helmet to see her future and later swaps herself for Oliver’s return from captivity. Tess wakes up healed in Cadmus Labs and discovers Lex Luthor clones. One clone escapes and forces Clark to choose between saving Lois or Metropolis; Clark pushes himself harder than before and saves everyone. Jor-El informs Clark that the darkness within himself will make him Earth’s greatest threat, but a vision of his adoptive father Jonathan reminds Clark that he can still be the world’s greatest hero. Meanwhile, Lois decides to take the reporting position in Africa and Tess unofficially adopts a child-aged clone of Lex. The season premiere to end all season premieres has come and gone. Derek and new SHoE co-host (and TV Guide writer/editor) Damian Holbrook discuss the final season premiere of Smallville and all that it involves. Listen to news on upcoming episodes, and detailed analysis on all levels of ‘Lazarus”, including Chloe’s departure and Clark’s journey.

It wasn’t known at the time of recording, but this is the last episode featuring Steve Glosson as a regular host here on Starkville’s House of El. And as sad as that is, there’s not a more fitting time for it to be released than one hour before the final season premiere of Smallville.

Many SHoEligans died to bring you this episode. Rumors of SHoEligans deaths are highly exaggerated. We’re back with an all new episode, featuring the SHoE Braintrust and TV Guide’s own Damian Holbrook who were in attendance at SDCC 2010 and specifically at the Smallville s10 panel as well as the press junket afterwards.

On the eve of ComicCon, Steve and Joe tackle all the latest Smallville news, including hopes for who will be returning season ten and more! Plus news on the rumored Christopher Nolan Superman movie and the upcoming season nine Smallville DVD.

May 31, 2010 – Here is our exclusive interview with Smallville’s own Tess Mercer, Cassidy Freeman. Cassidy talks about her sophomore season on the show, gives some great insight to specific episodes (especially the season finale ‘Salvation’) as well as where she’d like to see the character to go for season ten.

May 14, 2010 – Zod appears to Lois claiming to be The Blur and accusing Clark of trying to reveal Zod’s secret. Tess confronts Zod at the Fortress, in an effort to save Clark, but Zod gets the upper hand and uses his heat vision to burn her and leave her for dead before destroying the main console of the Fortress. Clark takes Tess to the hospital, where she tells him there is a second console that will activate the book. Later, Tess is pronounced dead at the hospital. Zod attacks Lois when she discovers he is not the Blur, but Clark saves her and reveals his true identity to her through a kiss. Zod’s troops learn of his deceptive actions and agree to follow Clark to their new home through the Book of Rao. Zod uses a blue kryptonite dagger to make him and Clark human, and keep them from ascending. Clark intentionally stabs himself with it and falls off the roof of a building, leaving Zod without its protection and forcing him to ascend with the others off Earth. 

May 7, 2010 – Maxwell Lord kidnaps Tess in an effort to find the Book of Rao. Tess escapes only to be caught by the Red Queen, and is forced to give the book to her. Martha returns to Smallville with Perry White, whom she is dating, to the surprise of Clark. Lois informs Clark that they should break up, as she needs to find her true calling in life. Subsequently, Lois and Perry team up on a story about the Book of Rao and the Red Queen that could help Lois regain her job at the Daily Planet. The pair fail to land the story, but a good word to the Editor-in-Chief from Perry allows Lois and Clark to return to the Daily Planet. Meanwhile, Clark discovers that Martha is the Red Queen and asks for the Book of Rao. Martha reluctantly gives him the book, and explains that the book will exile all Kryptonians to another plane of existence, including Clark, and that is why she did not have the original intention of giving Clark the book or revealing her secret identity. And here we are, the final hours. Very shortly we’ll all know what this season has been building towards. Earth vs. Krypton. Good vs. Evil. Clark vs. Zod. But before we get to the end, we’ve got one more great story to tell you about, and that’s the story of a quiet weekend at Kent Farm.

April 30, 2010 – Checkmate breaches the Watchtower computer firewalls and begins stealing information. Clark, needing to find Zod, sends Oliver to the Luthor mansion to look through Tess’s things to see if he can find any information. At the same time, Clark talks to Faora and reveals to her that Zod has had powers for weeks and that he was the reason Krypton was destroyed. Armed with this new information, Faora attempts to organize the remaining Kandorians to seek out peace with humans, and stand against Zod. Meanwhile, Oliver finds Zod at the mansion and they get in a fight that leaves Oliver with a House of Zod symbol branded on his chest. Checkmate locates the Kandorians and attempts to execute them, but Clark arrives and saves them. Meanwhile, Zod confronts Faora about her betrayal and subsequently kills her; afterward he learns she was pregnant with his child. Zod, now honored with the rank of “General”, uses Faora’s death—he blames it on humans—to bring the rest of the Kandorians to his cause. Crunch time! Less than 24hrs to go until the ninth season finale of Smallville, ‘Salvation’, and it’s almost sad to be delivering the last few episodes of SHoE of the season. But we’re quickly approaching episode 150, and with that comes the last two episodes of the season before the finale,

We’ve got a huge episode to make up for being a week behind (that will also line us up with Salvation being our 150th episode) with some amazing surprises awaiting you inside. We’ve got two special guests to help us cover the last two weeks worth of episodes, plus lots of news surrounding the end of season nine.

April 9, 2010 – Tess and other agents from Checkmate successfully kidnap Green Arrow and transport him to the Checkmate organization. While in transport, Amanda Waller attempts to recruit Green Arrow, unaware that he is billionaire Oliver Queen, to a government cause designed around preparing for a potential alien invasion. Green Arrow declines and escapes. With Oliver still missing, Clark and Chloe begin searching surveillance feeds. John Jones is also investigating and he discovers the location of Checkmate’s home base. There, he learns Waller has a sample of Kryptonian blood. Meanwhile, Oliver returns to Metropolis, only to have Tess realize that Oliver is Green Arrow. Tess informs Oliver and Clark that Checkmate has kidnapped Chloe, who was the real target. Clark heads to the Checkmate base and saves Chloe. John Jones destroys the sample of blood, and uses his abilities to erase Waller’s memory of Clark, Chloe, and Oliver’s faces, preserving their identities. Afterward, Clark tells John that Waller may have been correct about an alien invasion, recalling his vision of the future. Sterek Returns! Steve and Derek are getting the band back together, just in time for the end of season nine. With only five episodes left, the duo discuss the release of the season on DVD, as well as what we have to look forward to in the final episodes.