While I still, admittedly, find it hard to care about Green Arrow that much, there was still some fun to be had in last night's archer-centric episode... especially when it comes to the show's fascinating attitude towards science. It wasn't just the idea that putting bags of ice on top of the poisoned and in-coma Oliver Queen would somehow do anything for him, but also Clark's outburst upon noticing that Chloe could read computer screens at lightning speed: "Chloe, you're getting smarter!" as if it were the worst thing in the world. Way to be supportive, Kal-El.

It helped that even Smallville's own writers seemed to find Green Arrow's origin as dull as I did, fast-forwarding through the whole shipwrecked-on-a-desert-island-so-that-he-had-to-become-the-world's-greatest-archer-in-order-to-kill-animals-and-eat schtick in fade-in minutes in order to get to a retread of Dennis Quaid vehicle D.O.A. that proved just how small Clark Kent's world really is — His best buddy Ollie and new boss Tess Mercer were on that island together! And now they're estranged lovers! Or something (At this point, I'm convinced that the only reason that we've not met Batman in this show yet is because there's no Bruce Wayne in the Smallverse). This being the Junior Superman show, everything ended well, even though Ollie ended up drunk, complaining about mosquitos and dropping accidental Lost references; Tess even won her Eeeevil stripes by killing the bad guy in a way that would've made dear departed Lex proud.

Same as last week, the real fun of the week came from the subplots and the shoutouts to the show's fanbase ("I'd rather avoid a ride on the Clark and Lana rollercoaster," Lois said at one point, prompting cheers from the show's seven-year faithful who know exactly how she feels). Chloe's becoming Brainiac (Possibly)! Davis has a secret side (Definitely)! Tess outright acknowledges her mysterious past and the awkwardness of her sudden arrival (Making us wonder where the hell they're going with this)! It's these strange knowing winks at the audiences that redeem whatever insults the show throws at us, acknowledgement that we're not only not stupid but also in on the joke, that Heroes should learn to start tossing out once in awhile... Because, if I can see a trailer for something as dopey as next week's Maxima episode looks and think "That could be fun," they've got to be doing something right.

While I wasn't too impressed by the generic main plot of the episode - Bus explodes even though there was no bomb onboard (Well, at least it didn't get filled with some fast-setting magic goo), girl turns out to be able to make things explode - it was saved by the apparent new status quo of the show, the freshest part of which is definitely Clark being pro-active and actually seeming to be on his way to becoming Superman for a change: It's not just that he saved the people on the bus and stuck around afterwards to help without giving it any thought instead of running away at superspeed to feel upset about his powers, but much moreso his attempt at inspirational speaking at the end of the episode to Bette, The Bomb-Girl - For the first time ever on the show, you got the feeling that he just might grow up to become the Superman that we know and love.

If anything, the familiarity of the plot helped bring home how different the show and characters have become since its start, eight years ago. It wasn't only Clark's new assertiveness, but also the way that the show's Lois has started to settle into a go-getting reporter role closer to her comic book counterpart (but with added awkward comedy from her not being as good at her job as she'd like), Chloe getting a B-plot to herself (although, seriously, haven't we done the "female lead falls for bad guy" plot many times before on this show? For shame, people), and the complete lack of emo angst - or death of the villain, for that matter. It's like a whole new show that's ripping off old Smallville but doing it better.
Two particular things reinforced the "better" idea this week. Firstly, the introduction of new villain Doomsday was... well, not as terrible as it could've been, really. Sure, in theory I'm still entirely against Doomsday being a human transformed into an unstoppable monster thanks to Kryptonite meteors, but damned if Sam Witwer didn't make newcomer Davis Bloome into an unexpectedly charming figure that even managed to pull off the "shock" final scene of his naked, transforming, body. Much more squee-worthy was the by-now-traditional scene of newLex, Tess Mercer - not as bald, but just as evil - recruiting the villain for nefarious ends, although the reason for my excitement is more likely than not entirely in my head. Let me explain.

We've heard - thanks to Charlie - that evil New God Darkseid may be on top to appear this season. Well, watching Tess recruit Bette to her "team" made me wonder/hope: What if Tess isn't Tess? What if she's a disguised version of Darkseid's hencholdwoman, Granny Goodness, recruiting supervillains to a new televisual team of Female Furies? It'll probably never happen, but such an idea is 100% Smallville: Taking an idea from the comic books and making it work on television involving attractive young people wearing form-fitting clothes. If anyone from the show's writing staff is reading this: You know what to do to make me happy.

But even the fact that I'm fanboy excited about the possibility of something like that happening goes to demonstrate that Smallville is continuing to turn itself around and quietly become one of the more enjoyable (guilty) pleasures on TV right now. Will wonders never cease?