Smallville “Beacon” 

Well we all knew Lionel was back…but now he’s BACK. This week’s episode of Smallville, “Beacon” saw Lionel return to a position of power within Luthorcorp and the heroes have to find a would-be assassin all the while campaigning to kill the VRA on the ballots before the Justice League is outlawed forever…no pressure, right?

The vote to repeal the VRA is coming up and Martha Kent gets shot at a pro-vigilante rally. Clark and Oliver do some digging and it turns out it was Alexander (the clone of Lex that Tess was trying to raise) in an attempt to actually kill Clark who he is now obsessed with killing (remember, he has all of Lex’s memories and figured you shoot a kryptonite bullet at Martha who else is going to step in front of it?) With Lionel now back in charge of Luthorcorp and trying to be the father he never was before to Alexander, the heroes have some serious problems on their hands.

There were a lot of great moments and to be fair not so great moments in this episode, but I think overall this was a solid show all around. It was slightly clumsy how they handled Lionel coming back in the sense that they glossed over the technicalities of what it took to make people think he had faked his own death, but I suppose for the sake of the story the episode was trying to tell it wasn’t important.

Nit picks aside, we finally got a scene between Oliver and Lionel and good lord was it electric. Justin Hartley and John Glover have amazing chemistry and you could really tell that John was pushing Justin in that scene and it paid off in spades.  Likewise, Lois had a nice moment with Martha and how can any scene with Annette O’Toole not be great? I love the family dynamic that was built between her and Lois in that simple little scene as she almost passed the baton off to Lois knowing it was her job now to be the woman in Clark’s life.

And of course we got to see the story of Lex’s clone advance after what seems to have been many episodes without mentioning it at all. It was cool to see a young version of Lex being groomed by Lionel, and somewhat devastating to see the Luthor mansion which has been a staple of Smallville since the pilot finally burned to the ground. I guess with the destruction of both the Talon and the Luthor mansion they are making sure that when Smallville ends, it REALLY ends. I for one was shocked by the twist ending after he had decided to join with Clark and Tess and Tess was about to inject him with poison (way to go mommy dearest) and then she finds out that he has the same powers as Clark! If you’ve been looking at all online then you already know but if you don’t want a spoiler look away now…

****SPOILER****

…Alexander is actually Kon-El aka Connor Kent! He’s Superboy! This would fit with comic continuity where Superboy is actually a mix of Superman and Lex Luthor!  Pictures are floating around of him in the Superboy outfit and it appears this is the way the show is going. Ver,y very cool development that we should see in the next couple of episodes.

****END SPOILER****

Before I end this, I have to touch on the huge Smallville news that broke last week…Michael Rosenbaum has confirmed he is coming back as Lex Luthor for the series finale!  I think I speak for all fans when I say that this is amazing news and I honestly couldn’t imagine ending the show without him in it. I guess we’ll all have to wait just a little longer for Sorority Boys II now…

The next episode looks super intense and now that the VRA has been appealed hopefully we can pick up the Darkseid storyline. Gah! It’s all happening so fast!