'Smallville': Winners and Luthors

On “Beacon,” Friday’s installment of Smallville, Alternate Universe Lionel Luthor started shaking things up, Martha Kent taught us all the value of a bulletproof vest, Lois made some muffins and, perhaps most importantly, the VRA got voted down — a major win for our fearless heroes.

What with the (sometimes literal) backstabbing and the cloning and the evil business empire, the Luthors have got to be the most messed-up family since Oedipus and Antigone’s clan. Life among the Luthors got even more complicated tonight when Lionel found a grown-up Alexander — fresh from shooting Martha with kryptonite bullets — and pledged to help him on his quest to kill Clark. It seemed as though Alexander was all set to go along with the plan… until he revealed that he’s still angry about the whole Lionel-choosing-Clark-over-him thing, knocked his father out, and set their mansion ablaze.

There could be hope for Alexander yet. Tess and Clark seemingly succeeded in convincing him that he’s not Lex and therefore doesn’t have to become a murderer, though Tess revealed at the end of the episode that she didn’t really believe what she was saying. While comforting her clone half-brother, she surreptitiously held a vial of cyanide and tried to inject him with it — only to be foiled when the needle wouldn’t pierce his skin.

Meanwhile, Chloe and Lois launched a guerrilla campaign to rally voters to strike down the VRA. Their final product, a set of hundreds of videos in which regular citizens told The Blur how much he meant to them, reminded me a little of Dan Savage’s It Gets Better Project. In the end, the VRA was repealed after all — probably due in no small part to Chloe and Lois’s efforts. See what happens when you work together, kids?

The preview for next week’s episode implied that the moment of triumph Clark and Co. experienced tonight will be short-lived — it’s looking like it’s going to be a dark one. So let’s savor this while we can. What was your favorite part of “Beacon”?