I always had a sneaking suspicion Tess Mercer wasn’t all bad on Smallville this season, and now I’ve been proven right. In last night’s episode, she discovered that Lex has been spying on her using a nano-transmitter he implanted in her eye so he can see what she sees.

After Lana told her this, Tess instantly evolved as a character, feeling sad and betrayed by the man she loved. If Lex was hoping that would be the end of it, he clearly underestimated Tess Mercer.

Tess vowed to destroy Lex Luthor’s empire, starting with the formation of a merger between LuthorCorp and Queen Industries. She also seemed open to the opportunity for other kinds of mergers between herself and Oliver Queen. That should be an interesting dynamic, not only for their personal relationship, but to see how Tess fits into the super hero world.

While the Tess Mercer part of the episode was interesting, the rest was pretty bad. Clark going undercover as a cop was derivative and laughable, as was the entire plot about vigilante cop justice. Smallville succeeds when it’s about the super=powered villains, not when the bad guys are renegade cops.

The other major development was that huge liplock between Clark and Lana, which only serves to frustrate me. We all know Lana won’t be around for long, and we all know Lois and Clark wind up together, so this is just a pesky distraction. Love triangles aren’t compelling when we already know which point loses.

Let’s just hope, for Clark’s sake, Lois doesn’t find out. As Tess showed us last night, Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

-John Kubicek, BuddyTV Senior Writer
(Image courtesy of the CW)

John Kubicek

Senior Writer, BuddyTV

John watches nearly every show on TV, but he specializes in sci-fi/fantasy like The Vampire DiariesSupernatural and True Blood. However, he can also be found writing about everything from Survivor and Glee to One Tree Hill and Smallville.