Much fanfare was made about the reference to “Clark’s friend Chloe” in the November 13 episode of Supergirl, which was titled “Midvale…” but upon further inspection, that’s far from the only reference in this Smallville-iest episode of the Girl of Steel’s TV series.
For starters, Midvale High School might look a little familiar… it’s Vancouver Technical Secondary School, which as you can see to your left occasionally doubled as Smallville High on the 2001-2011 WB/CW show that starred Tom Welling as Clark Kent in the days before he was Superman.
This episode also featured a Smallville tribute in the presence of Erica Durance, who played “Noel Neill” (really J’Onn in disguise.) Interestingly, her voice seemed to have a little bit of Smallville’s “Sheriff Nancy Adams” within; we aren’t sure if that was intentional or not, but we liked it. On Smallville, of course, Erica Durance played Lois Lane, and now she is the second actress to play Kara’s Kryptonian mother Alura on Supergirl.
One could argue the whole “speed in and knock someone out” move was perfected by Welling’s Clark Kent in the early years of the WB series, where it seemed villains were always put out of commission before they realized the farm boy from Kansas was saving the day.
Of course, the idea of a young man using a telescope to peer into the stars was something that Clark Kent would do in the early days of Smallville. Like young Kenny, sometimes he also would use that telescope to look at things that are closer to home, like Lana (Kristin Kreuk).
No Super-costume was seen in this episode, which again, was a Smallville mainstay.
For those of us who may have visited this very website and obsessed over Smallville, it’s kind of weird to see a flashback period piece to something that would have gone on during Smallville Season 7… but it’s pretty cool, isn’t it?
Our thanks to the Supergirl team for “always holding on.” Play “Save Me” for us next time, though?