What I’m Watching: Smallville

Smallville: Season 10, Episode 10 “Luthor” (B-)

This episode may be the strongest installment of the season so far by a mile, but unfortunately, it’s still considerably disappointing. For those who don’t know, I absolutely love alternate realities, more than anything with the possible exception of time travel (which, more often than not, leads to alternate realities). Therefore, engaging with a parallel universe and a character even named Alterman is absolutely exciting, and it’s just a shame that the show couldn’t quite make the most of their plotline. The show does also fall prey to making Tess over-important the same way that “The O.C.” utilized Che later on when Luke was no longer present in its alternate universe episode (which, to be fair, was considerably dumber). Now that Tess has been revealed as a Luthor child, she’s suddenly a huge deal and entirely connected to every other plot the show has ever had. The chance to see scenery-chewer John Glover is always welcome since he consistently turned in a fine performance when he was on the show, but it’s weird not to have Lex and instead have two other Luthor children. I enjoyed alternate Tess until she slipped right back into being regular Tess when Lionel threw her out of his office. Oliver moping around in the alternate universe wasn’t all too impressive either. I enjoyed Clark’s return to his world with Tess, Oliver, and Lois all ready to shoot him, and it’s the kind of scene that makes me wish we had been there to see it but also works just well enough on its own. Ah well, back to real life (or rather, our world) now.