When Smallville first appeared on The WB, the series about Superman's youth in the titular Kansas town was far enough removed from the character's predestined future that it pretty much stood on its own, save for the occasional winking reference to the established mythology. In the show's current fifth season, Clark Kent (Tom Welling) and his pals are no longer high-school students, and as they enter into adulthood, that future is looming closer than ever before.

The show's recent 100th episode was an emotional tour de force in which Clark finally revealed his true identity to his high-school sweetheart, Lana Lang (played by Kristin Kreuk), only to lose her in a car accident. When he begs the spirit of his birth father to help him spare her life, Jor-El agrees to turn back the clock just once, allowing Clark to save Lana but denying him the opportunity to bring back Jonathan Kent (John Schneider) when he suffers a fatal heart attack near the end of the episode.

For both Schneider and Welling, the death of Jonathan was a difficult milestone, but they both believe that it was a necessary step to move the main character inevitably toward his destiny as Superman. Recently, the two actors appeared at the Television Critics Association press tour in Pasadena, Calif., and spoke about filming the landmark episode and what effect it will have on the remainder of the series.

What was it like shooting that 100th episode?

Welling: I know that for us it was a really exciting episode to shoot because it's a turning point, and I think from this episode on this show is going to be very different from what it's been in the past. And I also think we're finally going to get to what I believe the audience wanted the show to be. And everything up to this point has just been building. ... These episodes we're doing, I think, are going to be even better than what we've ever done in the past.What do you think the audience has wanted the show to be?

Welling: I find it much more interesting to concentrate on the development of this character and show you what happened in his life to make him become this Superman that we all know him to be. I don't think necessarily that means that with this 100th episode that Clark is going to put on the cape or put on the tights and start flying around. I actually think that makes things too easy for Clark. What I mean is that it's opened up a lot of doors for these characters.

In the past, a lot of our episodes, they're different shades of the same ideas, or the character's just kind of going, you know, "We got in an argument last night. Let's get in another argument." Now we're getting in a point in the series after five seasons, 100 episodes, where these characters are now saying, "All right. Look, we've been doing this for a couple of years now. Let's start moving forward. Let's figure out why we're not getting along. Let's see if our relationship works." Or in other cases, like Lex and Clark, "You're not who I thought you were." And what I mean when I talk about what the audience, I think, wants to see is we're going to actually start seeing the Lex Luthor and Clark Kent rivalry. It's going to start to explode a lot faster than it has in the past.

When you say the audience will be glad to see this change, is that true of you as an actor as well?

Welling: I would include myself in that, yes.Do you think the stories becoming more mature, in part, because the cast has gotten older?

Welling: Well, one of the great things about this show [is] there's always been an open-door policy between the producers and the cast about the direction of the show and the direction of our characters. I don't know specifically if anyone called up and said that, you know, they were ready to graduate high school and that's why the whole cast graduated. Maybe the producers looked at us one day and went, "OK, they don't look like they're in high school anymore." But I think that the producers and the writers have always done a brilliant job of evolving these characters and the storylines, to the point where I think this is a natural evolution of where the show was destined to go to begin with.

Have you made any specific suggestions to the producers?Welling: Well, honestly for me, I don't really have too much time to worry about the future. We're running around so much, at least I am. ... I fly back tonight and we start an episode tomorrow—and I've read that script—but beyond that script I don't know exactly what's going to happen. And it's almost been a blessing in disguise, because in a sense Clark doesn't know what's going to happen. ... I think it's a natural progression for an actor to want his character to evolve, considering we've been doing this for now over 100 episodes. You know, I think it's been a collective [effort]. I think they've all agreed, just because we've been around for five years. I think the producers, the writers, even some of the directors, they're just kind of like, "All right, it's time to grow up a little bit more," And I think we're all feeling that.You're going to be directing an upcoming episode. Was that something you always wanted to do, or did working on the show make you want to do it?

Welling: Well, I think, number one, we have to realize that they're really scraping the bottom of the barrel at this point [laughs]. I've been around the show for a couple of years. I have a pretty good idea of what the show is and what the characters are about, and I think it was probably around the second episode we ever shot that I started thinking about it. I just find it to be very interesting, and I look forward to maybe having a little more of a hand in the shaping of at least one episode.As you know, Superman Returns will be coming out in theaters this summer. Do you see that as having any impact on the show?

Welling: I wish I had a better answer than "I don't know." [Laughs.] I really don't. We'll have to see what happens. I mean, from what I understand, it's a very huge project. There's everything behind it. It's got everything going for it. We'll have to see.Was it difficult for you to see John Schneider leave the show?

Welling: Yes, I mean, we all know that it's the industry that we're in, and we know that. And that's one of the beautiful things about it. Everyone's thrown together in this very intimate relationship where everyone's very focused and it's very much a team effort to get something done, and then all of a sudden it's wrap and everybody turns around and walks away. And it happens every day at the end of the day, and it also happens at the end of an episode when we lose a director or in a series where you lose a cast member. But luckily, when that person dies off the show, they don't actually die in real life, so you're able to keep in contact with them and continue your friendship.Did you know that the death was going to occur well in advance, or did you find out when you got the script?

Welling: We didn't know for sure. [Schneider] got a phone call, I think, before the actual script came out. This show did a really good job, leading up to this episode, to not hint toward it at all. And when the death occurs in the 100th episode, it's a complete surprise to every single character. It's not something that Lex planned or that the audience may have known or have hints about in the future, like sometimes happens in episodic television. This is a complete surprise for everyone. And I literally didn't know who it was until I read the script. I actually thought it was between two different people until I read the script.

John Schneider, how do you think the episode turned out?

Schneider: Doing it, it felt like our best show. And I thought that the Smallville pilot was the best hour of television I'd ever seen. This, I think, beats it.What did it feel like for you to get that script?

Schneider: Well, I knew ahead of time. I'm big on story, so, selfishly speaking, I'm on a show and then all of sudden I find this out, and it's like, well, that's the first time that's happened. But it happens for great reasons. And also—I hope that this came across—trying to live up to his father's expectations, or trying to fill the gap that was left, fill the void that was left by the passing of Jonathan Kent in Clark Kent's life, is, I think, what causes him to become Superman. Not just somebody with super powers.On a personal level, how did it feel to shoot your last episode?

Schneider: Oh, it was very sad, which helped. It really, really helped.How did you find out?

Schneider: [Producer Al Gough] called me and said, "Hey, John. It's a call I hate to have to make, but you kind of knew it was coming at some point." I said, "Oh, I understand. When's it going to be?" I'm thinking, we're doing 24 shows I think this year, so it's going to be show 23, maybe? No, it's show 12. And he'd called me during show nine.Can you talk about the last day on the set?

Schneider: I worked until 3:30 in the morning, and it was probably 18 degrees. It was bad cold out there. But the last thing I did was act with Tom, which I think is very appropriate. The very last thing Jonathan Kent does in the show is tell him it's not his fault. So he's trying to protect him. The very last thing John Schneider did was pull Tom out of the vision of seeing Lana dead. ... And I thought that was very important. I loved it so much. To me it was like John Wayne in The Cowboys, an empowering death, which is so important. Because if Jonathan Kent had just died, that would have been terrible. It would have been meaningless. Like Tom, you've had a chance to direct an episode of Smallville before. Is that something you'd like to come back and do later?

Schneider: I would love to. I'd love to, but that's up to the powers that be. In that realm I'm like the vampire. I must be invited in.