Lois and Clark Romance Even Beats Rabid Zombies on Smallville

It's tough to be the fan of a show with decreasing ratings and improving quality, but that's where Smallville lovers are stuck this year. The latest episode "Rabid" is yet another winner in a season that looks like it'll be one of Smallville's best, even if nobody's watching it.

"Rabid" is not quite as good as the first two episodes of the season. How could it be? They set the bar impossibly high. But it continues to pull all of the elements together which distinguish good Smallville from bad Smallville: decent special effects, a coherent plot, and a consistent focus on Lois and Clark with interesting contributions from the rest of the cast.

And remember I'm saying all of this while fully aware of the fact that my favorite character on the show, Chloe Sullivan (the wonderful Allison Mack), is getting phased out of any relevance to the season arc. Not only has the focus on the budding Clark-Lois-Blur triangle thing robbed Chloe of her closeness to our hero, the emergence of the surprisingly effective Dr. Emil Hamilton (Alessandro Juliani) as a strong and resourceful character on the show has even replaced her usefulness in the tech-mistress Watchtower role.

The rest of the show is in high-gear, however. Yes, they did zombies this week with "Rabid" and that is rarely good news. The surprising thing was that the zombie plot didn't ruin the show. The special effects were really good, which I guess is everything in a zombie plot. There were some genuinely creepy moments, and how many times can you say that about Smallville?

The heart of the show, however, remains the return of Clark (Tom Welling) to his humanity, mostly in the form of his now obvious affection for Lois. It helps that Erica Durance is having her best season as an actress thus far. And is it my imagination, or did she even get prettier? Whatever the case, Lois is very fetching this year and since most episodes appear to revolve around Clark being fetched, this is crucial to the show's believability. I mean if you're going to do zombies, the romance thing better ring true.

Outside of Lois and Clark we see most of the other characters struggling. Tess has a kick-ass fight scene but in general she's one step behind Zod so far. Oliver (Justin Hartley) is drunk and out of it again, and goes as far as to lie to Clark that he's getting better and burn the Green Arrow costume. Chloe pretty much watches as Dr. Hamilton saves the day (and Metropolis) and Mack's acting suggest a character who realizes her lack of direction.

Chloe's even spying on Oliver hoping the Justice League gets back together and makes her new Watchtower digs relevant. This comes out in a great scene where Ollie has gone to bed with the police woman (just a little too hot) who pulled him over in a chase. Hartley plays the bad boy so charmingly, with more self-depreciating humor than egotistical bitterness, that it's fun just to watch him spiral downward.

The only thing the show really lacks is a focus on Zod (Callum Blue), who doesn't show up until the end. It turns out one of his Kryptonian flunkies was behind the zombie virus and since he wasn't following orders he gets to "kneel before Zod" just one more very unfortunate time. At least Zod now knows that Clark exists (although he seems to think he is Jor-El, which makes sense). This will hopefully lead to a Zod-Clark meeting soon to kick the main season arc into gear.

Overall, another solid show for Smallville which is showing a lot more quality and consistency than last year. If only we could get more folks to tune in.

Smallville "Rabid" Episode Rating (1-10): 9

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