There are a few problems, I will admit, with remaining generally "spoiler-free." To wit, my incrementally pitched screeching at about 8:56 pm on Wednesday:

Jonathan? Pa? PA! Oh, no, nonono, they can't do this to me. They can't be killing off the most likable, interesting character on this show, they can't kill a Duke boy, what will I focus on? What will I laud? I know Jonathan offered to do "anything" to get Clark back from Metropolis but I was figuring on testicular cancer, not freaking DEATH! They played this out on Dawson's Creek already, they killed the freaking FLASH... no, no, no no no!

Obviously a few moments on the internet could fix this right up; a few plot synopses or a casting site could clear this right up, but I am stalwart. Despite the fact that the preview for next week's episode resembles nothing so much as 2 Fast, 2 Furious, 2 Years 2 Late, I will maintain my suspense, fearing the worst and hoping for the best.

It's hard to process how I feel about this development. If Pa doesn't die, what was the point? Like Martha's pregnancy, it serves a single plot point and goes no further. And yet, I don't want him to die, not even for the sake of the character development and forward motion I lament each week. John Schneider's performance is a constant high point of this show. Jonathan's warm paternal wisdom cuts through a lot of the rest of the crap this show dishes out in the way of "meaning" and Clark as a character can only suffer from mourning, moping and losing the positive influence of his father.

But if Jonathan does die, either this week or for May sweeps, I don't see what purpose that would serve either. True, it worked for the movies, but it's also another inch closer to that pesky Batman problem I mentioned a few weeks ago. And as I've said since Day One, Clark's family, his parents, his ultimate humanity, is what sets him apart in the world of superheroes and indeed, heroes, period.

There would be a thin line between Clark doing good to honor his father's memory and trying to save as many people as possible as if by doing so he could somehow change the past. It's not a line I have any reason to expect this show to tread upon lightly. And while Clark does have the power to change the future, perhaps more than anyone else ever has, he will never (Superman The Movie excepted) be able to change what has already been done.

Which, not coincidentally, was the exact lesson Clark was in the process of learning when he found his father collapsing in the barn. Isn't it amazing how that works? It's almost like they were trying to make a POINT.

Hopefully that point is not leading up to reversing time to save anyone and I don't care who.

Catalyzing this lesson is another in what I'm sure will be a long line of soothsayers and clairvoyants is a krypto-boy named Jordan Cross. At the slightest touch, he is able to see ahead in time to the moment of a person's death, but he has always been powerless to stop these deaths or change these visions.

Clark, however, has no such limitations; he saves a suicidal cross-country coach but in the process further endangers Lana (inexplicably already back to running, when only two episodes ago she had a freaking CANE).

And to further distract the fanboys, when Jordan glimpses Clark's penultimate moment in time, it's nothing but a billowing red cape in space. Look! Cape! Flying! Over there! Go get it! Good fanboys.

But contrivance is contrivance is contrivance; Jordan will be lucky to make another appearance this season, and the grieving coach and desire to avenge his dead daughter are another drop in the villain-of-the-week bucket. It may have jump-started a few kryptonian neurons but that, like so many other episodes, is all these 50 minutes amounted to.

Adam, however, seems to be staying for a while, so I guess I'd better get used to caring about him. But it's hard; delving into a character's past and learning more about him is fine and good, and might deliver forward motion, but why couldn't it be done with one of our series regulars? It's been three years and we know less about Pete, a character who could be so much more if anyone had any idea what to do with him. Hell, we don't know a whole lot about Chloe beyond how it affects her interactions with Clark; for that matter, what do we really know about Lana, either? Or even Clark, really?

We've been given only surfaces for each character, which would be fine for a more plot-driven show or one that didn't rely on complex relationships to power the drama. Smallville, as usual, is neither fish nor fowl nor good red meat -- not enough depth to be a character show, not enough mythos to be an intriguing 'space opera' and nowhere near enough brains to be any kind of mystery show. Even Murder, She Wrote had a headscratcher from time to time.

No wonder Adam sticks out like a sore thumb. He's the only one with more than two character traits, and the only one who doesn't have a direct relationship to Clark, the center of our krypto-universe.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go light a candle and continue my vigil for Pa Kent. The future of this show might hang in the balance.

Or maybe not.

Sarah Stanek