Need I say more than pointing out that moment of Lois Lane emerging from the lake in the skimpiest bikini known to man? They created a loneliness in the character which they felt would drive him to reach out to the teenagers, a loneliness echoed in Clark and Lana.
Smallville's darkest season ended on an incredibly dark note as all of the season's threads come to a soul-crushing head.
He even met a replication of his biological mother.