Smallville Review: "Supergirl" (Airdate 10/8/10)

We were treated to the return of Clark's Kryptonian cousin, Kara, on Smallville Friday night.  Frankly, I like her better as a Kryptonian than as a lizard alien on V.  I'm going to try to keep this review a little shorter than last week, since I know most of you could give less than half a crap about Smallville.  If you want to follow the plot, just go to the CW website in a couple days and watch as many full episodes of Smallville as they have.

There were things I liked about last Friday's episode and there were things I did not.
What I did not like:

• After revealing Clark's new look last week and symbolically moving the character into the light, it seems as though they misplaced his fancy new jacket and decided to return him to the shadows while we weren't looking.
• Lois Lane is possibly the best-written and most likable character on the show ever (with the possible exception of John Schneider's portrayal of Johnathan Kent), dressing her up all fem-dom and then tying her up all bondage style seriously cheapens the character and the show.  
• Why is Lois the one trying to keep the heroes from revealing themselves to the world?  Everyone else (except the Suicide Squad) wants heroes to believe in and trust - heroes they can see.  Is Lois being selfish?  Or is she just worried about Clark?

What I did like:

• Kara comes back to earth, to the only family she has left, and shows Clark up in every way imaginable.  All the fanboys out there (who mostly are idiots) are going to be all like, "in the Superman mythos, it is Superman who takes Kara under wing and teaches her what it means to be a hero.. blah, blah, blah...," but in the context of what they've been doing on this show for 10 years, that Kara would help guide Clark to his destiny makes perfect sense.  I hate fanboys.  Fanboys ruin comics and any adaptation of comics by insisting that their own individual assumptions and ideas about a given character are the immutable truth. 
• Flying!  Even a little flying is AWESOME.
• No Tess
• The way they hinted, just barely, at the connection between the dark force and the "Suicide Squad" from last week.  
• Clark makes good points, but recognizes (in the end) where he falls short.  While it seems that he and Kara have come to an understanding regarding "the Darkness" ("I BELIEVE IN A THING CALLED LOOOOOOOOVE!"), we know that, by the end of the season, it will be Clark who faces the dark force threatening the world and we know he will have to overcome his own doubts and fears to do so.  He's not ready yet, but he will be.  This show is about how Clark Kent becomes Superman, not about Superman.  Smallville gives Clark Kent room to make mistakes, learn how to deal with difficult decisions, and get out of his own way in order to become the world's greatest hero.  Superman is the best ever.  Smallville shows us how he became that.

Next week: "Homecoming," and you can check out the preview here.