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It appeared that Lana took off willingly and left Clark a “Dear John” video last season, only to come back to Smallville recently to be kidnapped by Lex’s minions, so they can perform an evil experiment on her. Well, things aren’t always as they appear…

Lana disappears and her apartment’s been ransacked, so Clark and Chloe assume the worst—that she’s been kidnapped by Lex’s people. But it turns out Tess is just out to help Lana destroy Lex now, and Lana has actually gone to Lex’s scientists to become the guinea pig for Project Prometheus, which is supposed to be some kind of invincible battle armor. In a series of flashbacks, we see what happened to Lana after she left at the end of last season: She actually made the videotape to Clark at gunpoint, then escaped from Tess and went to a man named Carter to train and become strong enough to withstand Prometheus. At the end of the episode, the experiment is successful, and Lana has powers on par with Clark’s, thanks to the battle suit (which is actually grafted onto her skin).

This show actually wasn’t bad for a flashback episode, especially since the flashbacks were new rather than clips from past episodes. I would have preferred that Lana train herself to be invincible, Bruce Wayne-style, rather than have her be the prototype for a Luthorcorp experiment. I’m not sure where they’re going with this storyline, but I don’t really like the direction. All I can guess is that they may be going back to the Lana character’s roots in the early DC Comics, where she gained powers and became the Insect Queen.

While doing some research on the character of Lana Lang, I discovered that she has continued to vie with Lois for Clark’s affections throughout comic book history, even as an adult. I had always thought Lana was just Clark’s childhood sweetheart, and that he only had eyes for Lois once he arrived in Metropolis. That’s very interesting to me, and I assume the writers on the show are aware of it, as they continue to have Clark move toward Lois, then back to Lana.

Tess is a lot more interesting to me now that she’s no longer Lex’s lap dog. It’s much more interesting to have another ruthless character to butt heads with him, like Lionel did up until last season.

I realize Jimmy was seriously injured a few episodes back and Lois is supposedly staying by his side, but when are they planning on bringing those characters back? After all, Chloe is around and she’s Jimmy’s wife.

This series continues to maintain better quality episodes than we saw the past couple of years, which is good considering there will probably be a ninth season. I just don’t see how they can go much longer without heading into the old “Up, up and away.” We know it’s going to happen, not only from flashes of the future we’ve seen, but from the fact that the cape and flying ability were mentioned by Lighting Lad when he came from the future.

If they don’t go for it at least in the series finale, I for one am going to feel robbed.

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