TVSquad

(S09E04) It's when the writers give Clark abilities he's not supposed to have that I begin to worry, like his "reconstruct the Great Wall of China" vision from Superman IV. Thankfully, in this instance it was yet another of Jor-El's senseless tests and only temporary.

Admittedly, I don't get the title "Echo" for this episode. Is it that Oliver is an echo of his former self? Is it that he's turning the path back to heroism? It certainly seems that way.

Since Clark has switched to the black outfit, I hope people (including Lois) stop calling him the "red-blue blur". Now he's just the Blur. Or maybe the Black Blur, but that could be construed as slightly racist.

One can tell by watching the flow of the season that eventually Tess is going to learn that Oliver killed Lex (or likely only tried to kill him. There was that "cameo" of Lex at the end, and you know Lex will still be around to menace Clark when he finally dons the cape).

At first, I thought this was a replica of a Buffy episode from way back when, but the whole "our hero gets telepathy" angle was handled differently enough for me to change my mind rather quickly. I still don't get the point of Jor-El giving Clark this power, but it was obviously a device by the writers to further the tangled Clark/Lois relationship (which is still quite reminiscent of the Lois & Clark show of the 90's). The last relationship I've seen on television that has been this complex was Clark/Lana.

Why didn't Oliver just admit to being a murderer then? He could have easily recanted later, arguing that he said it under duress. Of course, it might have led to further investigation of Luthor's death. In the end, we'll likely find out that Luthor is alive anyway and Oliver is torturing himself for nothing.

This must have been an easy paycheck for Chris Gauthier. He only appeared in one scene with anybody else. It's the little details that remind me how much this show tries to keep a budget.

It was very nice how they merge together the Metallo and Toyman storylines at the end. It makes it seem like the writers have a plan for the season.

This is why comic book supervillains are laughable. Toyman can build human-looking robots, but he's a terrorist. He could finance his own terrorist army with that sort of know-how. Clark still has things to learn, like how to use his x-ray vision on people so he can tell a robot from a person.

The episode was better than usual. Despite the angst and melodrama, I like how the series has been progressing since after the first episode. Perhaps it's the lack of Lana and her whine.

Other bits:

• Anybody else catch the reference to the Toyman of the Superman and Justice League cartoons with the giant toy head at the beginning? If so, then you're a nerd.
• What about the retro feel of Clark being at a phonebooth, which is a very Superman thing before cell phones existed? If you caught that, you're also a nerd but less so (plus it's been a repeating motif in the series).
• Apparently, everyone in a standard Mexican bar is either criminal or hot. Or both.

[Watch episodes of Smallville at SlashControl.]