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Who needs to pay to see Zombieland at the movies when you can watch Superman fighting zombies for free on TV?

Clark awakens at the Watchtower next to a syringe with a Kryptonite-laced needle and a cell phone with a message from Ollie that he lost track of Lois. Clark finds her at the Planet, but she’s turned into some kind of zombie-like creature—and not the old-school, shambling kind, but the modern, super-fast killing machine kind. Flash back to twelve hours earlier, when zombies start appearing all over the city, caused by a virus we later discover was introduced by one of Zod’s men to flush out “The Blur.”

Clark manages to save Lois, but not before she gets bitten, and since the disease incubates while one is asleep, he asks a further-down-in-the-dumps Ollie to keep her awake. Ollie fails at his task, and we’re back to twelve hours later again, where Dr. Hamilton has used Clark’s blood to create the antidote, which he put into the water supply and also seeded in the clouds. Clark manages to hold onto Lois until the rain hits her and she’s cured.

There was a time a few years ago when this show started going the way of Charmed and having episodes based on films. Most of those episodes were not very good, which is one of the reasons I liked the direction in which the new showrunners took Smallville. However, this…homage, I suppose, to 28 Days Later wasn’t too bad, and continued the dark tone of last season. And although I know it turned some viewers off, I enjoyed it. Zombie movies are the only horror flicks that ever actually have me on the edge of my seat, and there’s something even creepier about seeing characters you’ve watched for years turn into horrific creatures. The scenes were also very well done, and reminded me a lot of some of the best zombie movies of recent years.

I have to admit I haven’t been a huge fan of the romantic relationships on this show, but it’s about time Lois and Clark started some kind of real relationship. It looks like the love triangle between Lois, Clark, and his alter-ego, “The Blur,” has begun, and so far it isn’t even close to being as annoying the Clark-Lana roller coaster that went on all those years. I particularly liked the “show-don’t-tell” moment where Clark took Lana’s picture out of his wallet and stuck it into an old photo album. 

The Zod storyline is certainly moving along slowly, but it’s still keeping my interest. The fact that he was so ruthless with his own soldier shows what he’s capable of, even in this earlier version than the Zod we’re used to. And the fact that he believes Clark is Jor-El (who was played by Tom Welling in a flashback episode several years ago), and that “Jor-El” somehow betrayed his fellow Kryptonians, sets up a very intense showdown between them (but not, I assume, until the end of the season).

I’ve had an issue with how easily Dr. Emil Hamilton became a confidant of Clark’s from the beginning, and it seems like he is still being let in on a lot of secrets for someone he and Chloe barely know. As in the comics, Hamilton is Clark’s go-to guy for scientific help, including finding an antidote to the “zombie” disease in this episode (almost to the point of being a deus ex machina). But those who have read the comics also know that Hamilton has a tendency to turn against Superman eventually, and the scene on the jet with Chloe might be an indication of those types of things to come. It’s unfortunate that Alessandro Juliani isn’t quite up to snuff as Hamilton, considering he did such a fantastic job on Battlestar Galactica as one of my favorite characters, Gaeta (who, I still believe, was really the last Cylon…but I digress).

While I’ve read a lot of complaints about Oliver Queen’s current, depressing situation from some fans, I happen think it’s a great subplot for the show. The burning of his Green Arrow costume at the end was quite a scene. Which brings me to my favorite line of the night (from Ollie): “What’s the ‘S’ supposed to stand for? Superstar?”

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