Smallville made Jonathan Kent’s death even more tragic than the comics when it killed off John Schneider’s character. Smallville shocked viewers in the middle of season 5 by ending an episode with the death of Clark Kent’s adoptive father and role model. In several versions of the Superman story, Jonathan’s demise is an important part of the Man of Steel’s origin story, but the way it was handled in the show was much different.
Jonathan Kent’s Smallville story came to an end in Smallville’s landmark 100th episode, “Reckoning”. His season 5 arc focused on the character getting into politics to help the community. Urged on by his friend and Kansas state senator Jack Jennings (played by Schneider’s Dukes of Hazzard co-star, Tom Wopat), Jonathan was convinced to run for Jack’s senate seat after a scandal forced him to step down. Jonathan ran against Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum), who was relentless in his attempts to discredit Jonathan. In the end, Jonathan won the election. On the night of his victory, Jonathan was confronted by Lionel Luthor (John Glover), who revealed that he knew Clark’s secret. The argument upset Jonathan so much that he suffered a fatal heart attack.
Jonathan dying of a heart attack is often how his story ends both in the comics and in the movies, but in the case of the Superman prequel series, the circumstances behind it weren’t so simple. His death was much more tragic (for Clark) than it was in previous versions. That’s because in Smallville, Jonathan’s death was a direct result of Clark’s mistakes. In the season 5 premiere, Clark made a deal with Jor-El (voiced by Terrence Stamp) and went back on it. For that reason, he was stripped of his powers as punishment – and a powerless Clark was killed two episodes later. Jor-El revived him, but swore that someone close to Clark would be exchanged for his life.
Interestingly, that person was actually fated to be Lana Lang (Kristin Kreuk). After revealing his secret to her and proposing, Lana died in a car accident. Clark went to Jor-El and convinced him to let him undo it with time travel. But despite warnings that there would be consequences, Clark went back and prevented Lana’s death, only to find out that all he really did was trade Jonathan for Lana.
Clark’s mother, Martha (Annette O’Toole), tried to help him deal with the pain and the guilt by telling him Jonathan had lived a long life and he would have accepted what happened, but Clark’s responsibility for Jonathan’s death went back even further than season 5. In the Smallville season 2 finale, Clark intentionally put on a red Kryptonite ring, which twisted his personality. To bring him back home, Jonathan had to get Jor-El to give him Kryptonian powers. Having these physically taxing abilities caused him to develop heart problems. That’s one more reason why the heart attack was Clark’s fault.
In the span of one day, Clark found all the happiness he wanted with Lana, had it taken away from him, and on top of all that, he lost his father. Lana was restored at least, but there was nothing that could be done about all the guilt he was dealing with. Aside from Chloe (Allison Mack) and Martha, the people around Clark believed that he was going through the loss of a parent, but his suffering went so much deeper than anybody really understood. Jor-El was right when he said that Jonathan’s death would prove to be Clark’s “darkest hour”.
