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With an episode titled "Doomsday" it is hard not to have high hopes for "Smallville's" eighth season finale. From the opening episode of the season, the show has gone to move beyond the departure of Lex Luthor and plow towards an epic smack down between the Man-of-Steel and his Kryptonian nemesis, Doomsday.

Fun as this season has been, those episodes have all been in vain as Clack Kent (Tom Welling) disposes of his nemesis with freak-of-the-week speed and precision that leaves you feeling oddly hollow and unfulfilled. This is not an epic-scaled battle to the death between Superman and Doomsday that was promised (or expected). Instead, "Doomsday" carries around a lot of emotional baggage and never quite settles whether it is a fight-to-the-death or an intimate character piece.

It's certainly not for the lack of ideas – "Doomsday" picks up on several breadcrumbs that were carefully laid throughout the year to prevent the seasonal arc from sprawling all over the place: Tess' betrayal by her former mentor, the almost off-screen death of Lex Luthor, the Legion and the Justice League, Brainiac in a Chloe suit, billionaire corporate takeovers and the only villain that ever killed Superman are all substantial elements in their own right but the episode fails to wrap them into the satisfying conclusion that such concepts deserve.

Scenes of carnage as Clark's pitifully executed master plan to save Davis failed and Doomsday is unleashed on the world were incredibly small scale in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it kind of way and in no way, shape or form do they reach the chaos that carried so much weight at the end of the fifth season. The streets of Metropolis are terrorized in a brief five-second sequence leading into the shortest fight in "Smallville's" history in which our hero takes a super- jump into a stock footage explosion along with Doomsday (leaving not a mark on the knocked about Clark Kent).

What keeps the episode moving is the small-scale character stuff that unfolds in a big way: the conversation between Lois (Erica Durance) and the Red Blue Blur is another surprisingly romantic moment that comes as a sheer delight for both characters; Green Arrow's (Justin Hartley) exile from the Justice League naturally comes into play following the disagreement between the two headlining heroes (the Kryptonite arrow isn’t quite a boxing glove but it does the trick); Chloe's (Allison Mack) Jimmy/Davis triangle finally reaches a satisfying conclusion and Tess (Cassidy Freeman) is, well, skulking about too.

It is a setup that longtime fans that are already invested in these characters will certainly get some joy out of, but, unlike the opening episodes of the season, "Doomsday" fails to capture the same intrigue and anticipation that made this year fresh, exciting and new.

What Worked

Lois and RBB round two is every bit as mesmerizing as it was in "Stiletto." The melody behind their conversations is simply enchanting and the dialogue absolutely filled with hints and nudges to the future of both characters. There is also the added symbolism of having Clark "transform" into RBB in a phone box without every changing his clothes.

It may screw up the future of the mythology in a big way, but Jimmy learning of Clark's identity as RBB was a seriously cool moment. Clark's matter of fact statement of "I am the Red Blue Blur" was wonderful to hear and the admission of his secret identity for the first time in eight years comes as a welcome event where he can accept himself as a hero. But from the moment Jimmy grins with delight at having his theories confirmed it was clear his fate had already been determined.

The subsequent reunion between Chloe and Jimmy was touching and brought a sense of closure to the doomed-relationship which in turn gave Jimmy's final act of heroism some degree of meaning. In addition, his demise comes packed with irony: Clark fought to save the Humanity in Davis only for that human side to reveal the destructive and monstrous nature of people and inflict the most damage.

What Didn’t Work

The casual nature of "thanks for meeting me" as Clark Kent meets with Cosmic Boy in the episodes teaser comes off as an easy and all-to-convenient way to bring the two heroes together. That same conversation also leads to a brief summary of the main events of the season whilst also slipping in a small piece of key information that has thusfar gone unannounced: Doomsday is now invulnerable thanks to the Krypto-cage he was imprisoned in. Beyond that, it was a pointless exercise to undo an ill-conceived act that took place earlier this season: Clark's destruction of the Legion ring.

Lois' snapping of "Chloe is missing with some beastie boy and you're doing what exactly" comes into play completely underplayed and without any impact due to the absence of the character in the last few episodes. In a series of outings featuring an alien beast that eventually kidnaps Cousin Chloe, Lois should have had role in shaping those events and instead comes off the bench in the finale with very little to do besides charm us with another shipper-happy telephone call with RBB.

Her throw down with Tess comes as a disappointing excuse to trash the set of The Daily Planet and send Lois into the far flung future (again leaving her curiously absent from the episodes activities). Aside from being incredibly short, the fight lacks any kind of impact or tension as these two characters have shared very little screen time throughout the course of the season. Unlike the Clark Vs. Doomsday mega-slam that has been carefully developed all year, this matchup was unnecessary and their verbal dueling was, much like the episode's ending, completely sub-par for "Smallville."

The death of Jimmy is a bold statement to make which could have further defined the series from its comic book canon. However, in what has to be one of the poorest one-line explanations that "Smallville" has offered, it turns out Jimmy Olsen is not the "real" Jimmy.

Even the final twist to the episode comes as a random move that completely dispels most of the mythos developed over the course of the seventh season. The mysterious purple orb that came into play as the driving force behind Lex Luthor's obsession into controlling The Traveler was introduced as a gift to the Earth by Jor-El – should The Last Son Of Krypton turn to the dark side and become a threat to the Human race, the orb would quell his thirst for power and allow Humanity to control him.

One year after its discovery, how it would it do such a thing remains shrouded in mystery and aside from a handful of recent episodes it has never had any impact or use in the show. And, in all of five seconds, what it can do is revealed in a meaningless "Terminator" like way.

Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due

"Smallville" stars Tom Welling, Erica Durance, Allison Mack and Justin Hartley. "Doomsday" was written by Brian Peterson and Kelly Souders. The episode was directed by James Marshall. "Smallville" airs on The CW Thursday at 8 p.m.