Um, yeah, some spoilers.
Smallville Official Site
The Time: Thursdays, 8:00 PM, The CW
The Show:
Having
grown up in Smallville under the protective eye of Jonathan and Martha
Kent, Clark Kent, the future Superman, is finally setting out into the
world to pursue his destiny. Ever wary of protecting his
secret, Clark nonetheless secretly uses his Kryptonian superpowers to
help people and save lives. He’s now colleagues with Lois
Lane at the Daily Planet and still friends with Chloe Sullivan, his
childhood pal who knows his secret. Lex Luthor has
mysteriously vanished after destroying the Fortress and learning his
secret. Lex’s hand-picked successor, Tess Mercer, is
nevertheless a dangerous individual who is obsessed with learning Lex’s
fate and the secret he was pursuing. And a dangerous enemy,
in the form of paramedic Davis Bloom is growing ever a bigger threat.
The Stars:
• Tom Welling – Clark Kent
• Allison Mack – Chloe Sullivan
• Erica Durance – Lois Lane
• Aaron Ashmore – Jimmy Olsen
• Justin Hartley – Oliver Queen / Green Arrow
• Cassidy Freeman – Tess Mercer
• Sam Witwer – Davis Bloom
The Episode: “Bulletproof”
When J’onn J’onzz / John Jones (Phil Morris) is shot by a sniper while investigating a group of corrupt cops, Clark goes undercover as police rookie Joe Fordman in order to find the perpetrator. He also discovers that Green Arrow is on the case, and they have differences of opinion on the matter as usual. Meanwhile, Lana confronts Tess about her misguided loyalty to Lex and reveals a startling secret to her about how Lex rewards that loyalty.
The Lowdown:
This was a pretty average episode, although it did have a nice nod to the Superman mythos with the introduction of a young Dan Turpin (David Paetkau), who’s caught up in the band of corrupt cops. Turpin finds himself stuck between his duty as a cop and wanting to punish the crooks who have slipped through the cracks of the system, including the perp who killed his partner and friend. Clark dons the uniform (no not that one) in order to get to the bottom of Jones’ shooting. Along the way, he runs into Green Arrow, who is also investigating the case. As usual, Clark and Oliver have their differences of opinion about how to handle the situation and what it is they’re really fighting for as heroes.
The B-story is Lana finally getting around to meeting Tess at Lex’s mansion. The social visit is a front for Lana using a wifi to download data that Tess has on Lex. We learn that not only does tess know that Lex is alive, but she’s spending loads of LuthorCorp dough on a project called Prometheus, which she says is Lex’s only chance for survival. We also get the skinny on how she came to be in Lex’s service after he saved her life after an accident. However, all we’ve seen of Lex so far this season is his being hooked up to a rack of equipment that appears to be keeping him alive.
Tess gets wise to the fact that Lana has pilfered data from her computer and goes to confront her, which leads to a nice bit of fisticuffs. When Lana gets the upper hand, she shows Tess that Lex had a microtransmitter implanted into Tess’ eye which relays everything she sees back to him. Tess doesn’t take it lightly and takes steps to get revenge on Lex by having him declared dead and promising to ruin his personal fortune.
The episode ends with Clark, Oliver and Jones realizing that maybe they’ve been ignoring the advantage of being a team to their own detriment, further laying the groundwork for the formation of the league in a more official capacity. Clark also realizes that he’s not quite ready to get off the Lana Train yet and puts the old cheap moves on her again. Smallville is in a bit of a holding pattern until the inevitable smackdown with Doomsday and Clark comes to a head. Even though not that much happens this episode, it’s still easy to seen that the show is still benefiting from the new direction it’s taken, setting things mostly in Metropolis now and having lost the Lana / Lex baggage for the most part. With the recent scuttlebutt that the show is most likely headed for a ninth season, it’s chugging along steadily.