Fall TV Round-Up: Smallville 10.01 - Lazarus *Spoilers*

When we last saw Clark Kent, aka Kal-El, aka The Blur, he managed to send the evil Zod and his cloned Kryptonians to a new inter-dimensional prison via the Book of Rao, whilst being mortally wounded by a super-power-sapping Blue Kryptonite dagger.

Ok....

So naturally we pick the story up seconds after this event. Does Clark finally put on the suit, you ask? Er...no.

Maybe it's just me but I thought that the writing of this episode was way better than most Smallville episodes.Maybe I was in a more receptive mood. The banter between Lois and Clark was less grating and twee with a genuine bit of "I know, but you don't know I know" farce when Clark needs to look for a file at super speed and Lois provides him with the time to perform the task while she's "not looking".

It's no secret that Allison Mack is leaving before the end of the season, which is a great shame. Whilst I find her character, of late, trying too hard to be ambiguous, the actress has put in some hard work throughout the last ten years. In this show we see a glimpse of just how she might exit the series but I'm betting that the Dr Fate thing is a red herring. Maybe she did a Colin Farrell, as Bullseye from Daredevil;

"I want a f*cking costume!"

We see more shadowy government types (presumably) smack Olly around. The Green Arrow hasn't got a superior healing factor so who knows how he survives the kickings he receives. But chicks dig the guy without his shirt on.

Tess Mercer is back, and through a deus ex machina in the form of a Luthercorp lab experimental gunge, has her face restored from the damage it received last season. Clearly on a network such as the CW you can't have a an attractive actress wandering around with half her face hidden. The archetypal Luther Lab is something out of Alien 4 with half finished Lex Luthor clones suffering in man sized tubes. Tess finds a child who purports to be "Alexandra" only to let out "The Bad One" as the child informs her. He's an older Lex and has a hatred for Mr Kent. So, rather than hunt him down in the City, goes off to the Smallville farm. Oooo-kay.

Lois is at the farm rifling through Clark's possessions; the naughty scamp. Here she comes across the costume that fan boys all over have given up hope of Tom Welling ever wearing before he reaches 40. But, shock-horror - it's the Superman Returns costume. The producers couldn't even spring for a new one! Hopefully it hasn't still got Brandon Routh's sweat stains on it.

The older Lex-Clone captures Lois and manages to spray paint her under sized T-Shirt (couldn't she get a T-Shirt that fit?) with a perfect S. It's a great job! I'd be at least shaking a little bit whilst trying to concentrate on the artwork instead of anything else.

He puts her on a cross similar to the one that Clark was put on in the pilot and sets the field alight.

Clark finds the Clone and they have a little chat where Clone berates Clark and says he's self-righteous. Coming from Lex that's gotta hurt. Clark narrowly resists the temptation to squeeze the life out of the clone before it gives Clark a choice of saving either Metropolis citizens from the Daily Planet globe (a bomb has been left on timer to blow sending the globe to the streets below) or Lois who is reliving one of Clark's high school humiliations. Whoooosh! Clark saves both in a not surprising scene, Clone keels over and passes on it's mortal coil handily.

Clark returns to the Fortress all pumped up and proud before Jor-El bursts his bubble and tells him that he isn't worthy. Tess is seen looking after the Lex child. Olly gets released. Lois buggers off to Africa afterall. The Super suit is all iced up in the Fortress. Clark has a touching visitation by John Scheider playing his Dad, Pa Kent again before we see a teaser of this season's Big Bad; Darkseid.

Entertaining if not typically vacuous.