Smallville: Suspect

This episode and the preceding installment, "Insurgence," confirm that Smallville can be extremely dramatic without needing to feature any meteor-induced powers. Interactions between the established characters are more than sufficient.

It really looks as if Jonathan has shot Lionel but he has been elaborately framed. It also looks as if Lionel is dead but that cannot happen yet. However, surely the real attempted murderer, who was neither drunk nor drugged and used to handling guns, should have been able to shoot to kill?

Martha had not told Jonathan or Clark about the watch given to her by Lionel but Jonathan finds it anyway. It looks as though the idea of Martha continuing to work for Lionel in order to spy on him has gone by the board. Lionel is incapable of relating to other people except through control or manipulation. Having bought out LexCorp, he claims to have allowed Lex the illusion of independence only in order to teach him the futility of opposing Luthor Senior. We are confident that Lex will turn the tables.

This series has not just one powerful Luthor but two. In the post-Crisis comics, Lex's father was a drunken Metropolis slum-dweller, murdered by the very young Lex for insurance money. Similarly, Miracleman presents the young Emil Gargunza as a genius, clever enough to engage in criminal activity from an early age.

Martha has also, in the previous episode, hidden an octagon in the house and Lana continues to have up and down interactions with her biological father. Thus, the other plot themes continue to develop. Smallville is both a series and a very long term serial.