After a fairly silly, though entertaining, episode last week, Smallville got back to business this week with the Luthor family taking center stage. And, oh, that ending!
Watching this episode really brought back some of the memories of the first season as Clark found himself a father/big brother figure to young Alexander. Yes, Alexander has had a full system reboot and remembers nothing of trying to kill Clark but shooting Martha instead, or his encouragement by Lionel. Now he’s just a kid named Connor (actually CNR, his designation while at the Luthercorp labs) who has some very special abilities. Tess brought Connor/Alexander to Clark so he could mentor the boy and be a better influence on him, but once Clark learns the boy is only half Luthor — the other half of his DNA being Kal-El’s — he begins teaching Connor how to train himself and control his abilities. In one of the show’s more humorous moments (and very reminiscent of season one), Connor has a bout of premature heat-jaculation when he gets a gander at Lois taking off her shoe … or maybe he just has a foot fetish.
The episode’s highlights had to be the tug of war between Lionel and Tess (she proved he was a fake and regained control of Luthercorp), Lionel and Clark, Lionel and Lois and Lionel and Connor. Honestly, any scene John Glover is in is just television gold. I love seeing him play evil Lionel Luthor again, and he just elevates the performances of any actor in a scene with him. And I know I say this week after week, but Erica Durance is amazing. The scene where she was tied to the chair and that moment when she told Lionel that he didn’t scare her just gave me goosebumps, she was so good. I don’t know what the future holds for her after Smallville ends, but I hope it isn’t too long before we see her in a regular role again. She has developed such great comic timing, but she can pull out the drama when she needs to. I think she’d be a good fit on Desperate Housewives now that they’ve already cast Wonder Woman.
It will be interesting to see how this story plays out with Connor and Clark. Will he be able to keep the Lex Luthor side of himself bottled up and become a real superhero? I originally thought Alexander was going to mature into the adult Lex by the finale but those last few seconds of the show have given me second thoughts about that theory. The episode gave us another goosebumps moment and a great cliffhanger for the six week hiatus as Lionel became the first person to see the physical manifestation of Darkseid while at Lex’s grave. Could the Lex that we now know is coming to life for the series finale be just another permutation of Darkseid? I supposed we’ll find out in about twelve weeks.
“Are you trying to tell me that Connor is the genetic love child of Clark Kent and Lex Luthor?” – Lois upon learning of Connor’s lineage
“You don’t scare me. The Lionel I knew never got blood on his hands.” – Lois at gunpoint
“I’m not the Lionel you knew.” – Earth Two Lionel
Clacked by Chuck Duncan 
on Mar 05, 2011 @ 09:00 EST5EDT
Did the last scene with Connor and Clark remind you of Harry Potter and Sirius Black?