By Brandon Nolta

Seems like it was just last season when Clark Kent (Tom Welling) was just a high school lad, dreaming of the prettiest girl in school (Kristin Kreuk) and marveling at his good luck in befriending people skill-challenged billionaire Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum). Actually, that would have been a relief to Clark; last season was spent hunting super-powered criminals from the Phantom Zone, while the love of his life married his new best enemy, who is busily whipping up his own army of kryptonite-powered mutants.

By the finale, viewers had met the Martian Manhunter (Phil Morris), and seen the nascent Justice League globe-trotting in an attempt to take out 33.1, Chloe (Allison Mack) using some krypto-power to swap health conditions with her dying cousin Lois Lane (Erica Durance), Lana apparently dying in a fiery car explosion, and Clark running into the last of the Zoners, a body-jumping cloud with the power of imperfect cloning. Just before the end credits, we saw the Zoner slap Clark around, then fly off just before his face went all gray and angular. Plus, Martha Kent (Annette O’Toole) exited the show as a U.S. Senator, and Lex got arrested. Damn, that’s a lot of plot.

So, it’s premiere time, and before the credit sequence even rolls, we’re off and running. The dam where Clark and Bizarro had their throwdown gives up the ghost, greatly disturbing Lex, who was locked in the back of a police car on the dam at the time. Clark wakes up from a punch-induced nap just in time to duke it out with Bizarro again, this time getting the upper hand and sending Bizarro into the clouds. Then, because he’s feeling manly, he zips over and vaporizes the rampaging reservoir running downriver with his heat vision.


Jeez, I’m already tired, and we’re not twenty minutes in yet. OK, so Lex is on the verge of drowning in the police car, when he sees what appears to be an angel, who rescues him. Of course, fans of the show who haunt Web forums already know who she is, but we’ll get to that next episode. Meanwhile, Bizarro heads back to the farm; it turns out that he’s not as invulnerable as Clark, as indicated by the big piece of metal pylon sticking through his side, but kryptonite accelerates his healing process. Chloe, meanwhile, dies … then comes back to life in the morgue, complete with toe tag.

Next plot development, please. Bizarro springs Lex from prison and convinces him to give up his kryptonite so the Bizarre One can charge. The Manhunter finally clues Clark into the role of Earth’s sun regarding his powers. Our hero punches Bizarro into the clouds again, this time on purpose now that he knows Bizarro doesn’t take to sunshine. Lex turns himself in again, believing he was rescued to face his demons and make amends … but in the back of his head, you know he’s thinking about the new hints he’s received about Clark. The episode closes with Lex’s blonde savior sitting on a water tower, whereupon she puts on a bracelet and flies off. Yep, flies off.

To say a lot happens is an understatement, but the nice thing about SMALLVILLE is that not only does it draw on a 70-year mythology, but it incorporates that with six years of TV and draws it into the present story without making a fuss about it. The things fans already know—like the bit about the yellow sun—are pulled in naturally, and Welling and company play it off so smoothly you believe they’re just now finding this stuff out. Welling has the showier acting job here, and he jumps in nicely, making the behavioral differences between Bizarro and Clark obvious without chewing all the background scenery in the process. Rosenbaum makes Lex far more human than usual, and Mack, who spends most of the episode dead, does a fine job of showing Chloe’s wrestling with mortality without ruining it with on-the-nose dialogue. Damn, that’s a lot of good stuff.


With the Manhunter making an appearance right off and Chloe’s krypto-power manifesting itself so dramatically, this season promises to be another set of curveballs in the life of Clark Kent, who is overtly grappling with the issues that have haunted Superman ever since the stories started being written for grown-ups. More Justice League, more Lex perhaps trying to be less evil, the mysterious blonde and eventually, Lana’s return: there’s bound to be lots of twists and turns this season, and Gough and Millar have thrown open the floodgates for the season. Just wait ‘til next week.