What I’m Watching: Smallville

Smallville: Season 9, Episode 4 “Echo” (C+)

The setup for this episode really is sort of dumb, especially when Clark can only hear Lois’ thoughts. He usually has an easy enough time messing up romantically with the intrepid reporter, and he doesn’t need to be able to read her thoughts to know, or at least suspect, what she’s thinking. The categorization of Clark’s ability under the catch-all umbrella of Jor-El’s training is a bit loose, and the fact that it just goes away the moment he’s able to properly put all the pieces together is far too convenient and coincidental. Regarding the toymaker, referencing past threads and characters is fine, but only if they’re legitimately interesting. The toymaker falls under the classification of legitimately insane and almost cartoonish in his methods, and his attempt to embarrass Oliver by making him read the humiliating speech is nothing radical or new for the billionaire playboy. It’s about time Oliver gets his act together and starts donning his Green Arrow costume and working with the Justice League again. Clark’s actions seem somewhat rushed in this episode, particularly his abrupt decision to peel away the toymaker’s face with his fire-eyes to reveal his robotic face. Wouldn’t he first use his x-ray vision to ensure that he wasn’t actually just burning a real person’s face off? Chloe’s jealousy is really being amped up as Lois casually talks about how she thinks she might want to date Clark when her blonde cousin clearly has more than just a simple crush on him. I’m now fully in favor of Clark and Lois, and I hope that their wonderfully layered conversation at the end of the episode about second dates and second chances means they’ll end up together in the near future.