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New executive producers, new villains, and a new direction for Smallville. Will it all be enough to bring the show back to its former glory, or are we in for a decline into Suckville?

After we’re treated to a “Previously on Smallville…” recap that took up about half the show, we find out it’s a month later and neither Clark nor Lex are anywhere to be found. Lex’s people, led by new villainess Tess Mercer, are trying to find him, the Justice League is looking for Clark, and Lois is searching for Chloe, who wasn’t really arrested by the Department of Domestic Security, but by Luthorcorp thugs. Eventually we learn that a powerless Clark (that’s how Jor-El intended for him to be “controlled”) is stuck in a Russian work camp, and Green Arrow comes to save him after Aquaman and Black Canary have been captured by Luthorcorp as well. Luckily, they all end up in the same Luthorcorp facility in Montana, where the baddies take control of Ollie, who shoots Clark through the heart. When Clark dies, Chloe’s healing power fails to work, but John Jones—whose superhero name might as well be deus ex machina rather than Martian Manhunter at this point—shows up and whisks Clark away into space.

After a short commercial break, they’re in Clark’s loft and Clark is back to normal because John apparently took him to the sun…yes, the hero whose only vulnerability is fire flew as close to the sun as he could to save Clark, which also took away John’s powers (how they got back is anybody’s guess, since Clark was unconscious at the time). To wrap things up, Chloe says “yes” to Jimmy’s marriage proposal from last season, and Clark has a new job…you guessed it: working as a reporter at the Daily Planet. Apparently a couple of years at your high school newspaper and a semester of journalism at college is all it takes to become an ace reporter for the world’s biggest newspaper if you live in the DC Universe.

In my review of last season’s finale, I asked a lot of questions, including: “…with only the characters of Clark, Lois, and Jimmy returning next season, is it going to just be Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Smallville?” Well, it turns out that Chloe is back, too, so maybe we don’t have to worry about that. Oh, who am I kidding? Clark works at the Daily Planet now, at a desk adjacent to Lois Lane’s! You could probably go straight from this episode of Smallville to the second episode of Lois and Clark (since the pilot obviously wouldn’t match up), and except for Pa Kent still being alive nobody would bat an eyelash.

I don’t want to get all fanboy on everyone, but didn’t they bring in Perry White a few years back specifically to set up his hiring of Clark at the Planet sometime down the road? Now, I’ve seen all the different versions of Superman’s hiring at the paper, and as far as I can remember, it was always Perry who did the hiring. Was this really something that needed to be changed? And if they’re going in that direction with the story anyway, who wouldn’t love to see Michael McKean as a regular on this show?

It seems odd that they had the JL break up at the end of the episode, but I suppose if Justin Hartley is going to be a regular as Green Arrow now, then they would always have to be explaining the absence of the rest of them. I think it’s good that they chose Green Arrow to be on the show, since he’s the most realistic of the other superheroes they’ve had, but I feel like he’s obviously a stand-in for Batman since they’re not allowed to use him. He’s also a billionaire playboy by day who fights crime at night wearing a mask, despite the fact that he doesn’t have any powers. And like Batman, Green Arrow is often at odds with Superman in the comics over their methods, and conflict is always a good thing for a TV show.

I guess I shouldn’t give the new show-runners too hard of a time until I see where they’re going with it. After all, they have to work with what they had, and by the end of last season, what they had wasn’t much. I will say that having the Justice League around might be a good way to freshen things up, and it did seem more than a little ridiculous that Clark was staying in Smallville all these years for no apparent reason.

So here’s the question for this week: Will Clark be sporting some eyeglasses in the next episode?

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