Alright, so, I'm not sure what it means that Oliver was (by far) the most interesting thing about this episode for me.

I'm not sure how much more I can take of the Lois and Clark show. I came for Clark, stayed for Chloe, and now I'm not sure I have it in me to watch any longer....but I probably will...because I always have hope.

I love zombies, so this was fun in that regard.

I always hated that level in the Resident Evil games.

I thought this was very exciting and at times scary. I liked the make-up for the zombies.

Best episode of the season, bar none. Whatever apathy I had after last week has been swiftly kicked in the ass. I honestly can't think of anything at the moment to complain about. Okay, no Tess/Zod interaction, but that's a minor quibble.

Also, it serves as a kind reminder that ODs are generally more wrong than they are right. I need to remember that in the future.

I'm really getting tired of this crappy show!
Too much Nois, not enough Chloe!
Chloe saved the world again, that's my girl!

Dude, Zod is awesome. Do not screw this up Smallville. You're doing an awesome job with Zod, let this payoff. Please for all that is good keep up this awesomeness with Zod.

I enjoyed the shoutouts to Resident Evil. From Oliver referencing it, to Lois dressed like Jill Valentine. Oliver was giving off a Leon Kennedy vibe, only Leon wouldn't have screwed up like he did. The only thing missing from Lois was the shirt tied around her waist.

Loved it. Best episode so far and I'm loving this season. Delayed gratification- I feel like the series finally came into its own, 8 years in. The episode was nice and dark and anguished and I love me some Tom. Chloe broke my heart when she was torn between saving her fellow citizens or staying to make sure Clark was OK. I'm really, really rooting for Lois and Clark-- there's some very palpable anguish and repressed nookie desire between them. Glad I stuck around for this season-- I finally got what I was looking for from the characters and story line. Oh and did you guys realize we're getting continuity, at long last? Kudos Smallville. Those writers finally got it right!

I liked this better than Savior & Metallo. SV generally does better with a single plot strand. The zombies were cool-looking and the fights staged very well. Having hottie!Doc turn out to be a saboteur Kryptonian was a nice touch.

Oliver's endless whining drives me up the wall though. Inadvertently funniest moment: Oliver talking to Lois while staring, fascinated, at his own reflected face.

I like the actor who plays Emil but Emil + Chloe = redundancy. They occupy the same character space. Let Chloe charter the plane and seed the antidote on her own!

I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by this episode. Overall, I actually thought it was the most outright entertaining episode of the season so far. And it has quite a few nice little touches that I liked, such as:

The "It'll take me half an hour to get there"/""Do you get motion sickness" bit with Clark and Dr. Hamilton (Dr. Hamilton!).

The thing with Lana's picture near the end. Weird, but I liked it. And I wonder if that was supposed to indicate Clark "closing the book" on his relationship with Lana.

Oliver's "The place went all Resident Evil" line. It's so rare for this show to actually include current pop-culture references. I was thinking how appropriate a 28 Days Later mention would be early in the episode, but resigned myself to the fact that they almost never make references like that. So Resident Evil was a good consolation prize.

I also liked the mention of Davis, though I wound up being a bit confused. At first I was hoping maybe the implication was that Davis' Doomsday genes were responsible for the murderous rage virus (which would make sense), but then later with Clark it seemed like they were just saying it was general Kryptonian thing. Right?

I was also surprised to see Zod actually appear in the final scene, even though it crossed my mind that the Kryptonians might have had something to do with the virus (without reading the episode description).

P.S.: Zombies make everything more fun. Except my nightmares last night about zombies, but oh well. Also, I thought it was funny that Zod and his minion thought Jor-El was the Blur. Heh.


I thought it was hilarious that Lois fell asleep in the middle of his speech (although I did appreciate them acknowledging their relationship).

It was a parallel to Oliver having a picture of Lois in his wallet. Clark took the one he had of Lana out and put it away. So yes, Oliver is still holding on while Clark is letting go, but not forgetting.

I actually kind of enjoyed this episode. It felt out-of-place and abruptly executed, but the directing was fantastic and Tess with a sword is the coolest thing I've seen in Seasons. I remember thinking when I first heard about the "zombie episode" that the new cold, dark Metropolis lighting would suit a zombie story perfectly (also - some of the acting), and it really did look great. I still think that the perfunctory Lois/Clark pairing comes off artificial and insipid, but romantic relationships that make no emotional sense are nothing new on Smallville.

I am officially watching this season for Tess, Zod, and Oliver. Seems like Season 2 Chloe all over again - the less she's used, the more you appreciate her, and want more of her. Must be because TPTB tend to destroy things when they focus on them - their writing skills have the effect of a magnifying glass on an ant in the sun.

Scruffy Ollie is hotter than scruffy Clark. Yeah, I said it.

Loved it!

The overall look of Smallville has been stunning so far this season. Clark and Lois in the rain had a Breakfast at Tiffany's feel to it and it was beautiful. Who knew an episode with zombies could hit so many emotional notes. I really liked the literal closing of the book on Lana and then Lois walks in. Cool.
Also, I think Lois thinks she knows who the Blur is and that ties in with her speech telling Clark what she wants. Oh, and the last scene between them - no more friendly arm punches, nope, Clark wants more!
How could I forget, ZOD! They think Clark is Jor-el? Good way to bring them together.
Now, the science was cheesy as all get out, but I appreciated Emil being around to try to add some legitimacy to the whole thing. When did Chloe become knowledgeable about running blood test and enzymes and all of that stuff? The Chloe storyline is interesting, I still can't stand her, but it is interesting that she feels she can spy on folks for their own good because they apparently can't take care of themselves.
Crap, I forgot about Ollie! I liked the symmetry of showing that Ollie can't move on while Clark can. Too bad they were having two separate conversations there though.

Overall, this season is getting better and better. Its like Tom Welling said, it has been reengergized.

ETA: The jealousy of Chloe has gotten old already. Now she's jealous that Emil caught a ride and she didn't? Ah well, I can't stand her anyway, what's one more unattractive trait?

Drivel. The city's being taken over by zombies and Clark and Lois are flirting like 11th graders in the offices of the Planet, which happens to be infested? Cool.

"God I miss you." Do what? Huh? Random at best.

Since when can Clark hear Lois scream? Another SWF moment. Snore.

Best part of the ep was Ollie telling Clark where to shove his satin trenchcoat.

Are we going to see the Clois sex scene in EVERY single episode? Jesus.

This is worse than Lanaville at its most insufferable. How I long for the glory days of Jason Teague and MuLana.

There's just no depth left at all. It's an empty shell.

Wow, I thought it was awful, but you all liked it? Maybe I need a rewatch. I AM pretty wasted tonight, and the picture on my tv is poor.

I need more closure on the Clana than that, Clark. Till I get it, much as I'd like to, I can't truly buy into the Clois. If you'd thrown the snapshot of Lana into the fireplace (occupied by a lit fire, of course) that would've been a start.

So, where is Lana, anyway? Off Saving the World? How come she's never around when there's a catastrophe? or does she just figure Clark can handle it. And, oh, yeah, if she and Clark can't be "together," she can't bear to be around him--and, that's all that matters.

Enough with the Jesus refs, Geez!!

This episode was captivating at least from an entertainment standpoint but I do have issues with it.

Clark IMHO has no right to talk to Oliver about the events of Doomsday, only reason Clark Kent is back is because he wants Lois plain and simple.

Also it is sad that Superman inspires a fellow hero to burn his costume...

I am sick of the Clois. Everytime I hear teamwork wrt to them I feel another swipe at Chlarkers. Chlark have been a team for freaking years and I am sick that Clark can praise Lois but not Chloe.

I am also hating watching Clois fucking over Chloe's dead body. That basically what these future visions are and it is an obvious swipe at Chlarkers for years who have been musing that Clois will only fully get together over Chloe's grave so fuck you PS

also how much more selfish can Lois be? "I like helping him saving the day and all but what I like about him and me is.... Me! I don't want to be alone anymore." Jesus Lois, it has been proven you can get any guy you want! God...

Oh and Lois mentioning seeing a new side of Clark... he took a fucking bullet for her last season, what more does Clark have to do to keep that other aide known?

Anywho Loved Chloe, Emil, Tess, Zod, and Oliver in this episode.

OK, as a random TV show it was entertaining. Certainly fun to watch Zombies.

As an episode of Smallville, it was a fail. First of all, we know Lois isn't dead, so we know as soon as we see zombie Lois that by the end, all the zombies will be all better. So we know the show is actually going nowhere. Tess will be fine, Clark will be fine, chloe will be fine. It will be a waste of an hour, with no real movement.

My daughter was turned off by the total lack of blood at the end, of course with an 8pm show we can't have blood dripping off the sword. But it was obvious zod wasn't going to let a free thinker around.

Raining Clark's DNA over the city? Way to go -- remember when we were nervous about a single vial being lost?

Always good though to see Tess with a sword.

That was awful.
Cnois is the new Clana.... Complete with Nois making everything about her.
Chloe is once again marginalized completely so we can watch the adventures of Nois and Clark...
Do we know what episodes ED is absent in yet? Because I have a feeling those'll be the only ones worth watching if this trend continues in the episodes... Cnois is just.. mind-numbingly.. awful. I watched this show for 8 years, and THIS is not where those eight years LOGICALLY brought us... But why am I still expecting logic?

The only thing that gives me any hope is that they're still showing Chloe cares... Even this episode with her, "...Really?", and not wanting to leave Clark... So hopefully that's actually paid off at some point? And they don't just make it, "Yeah, Chloe's feeling replaced and unhappy... and, oops, now she's dead like she deserves! HERE HAVE SOME CNOIS SEX!"
But look at what show I'm talking about... Their track record with pay-off is abysmal.

The good things

Zod
Zombies weren't an absolute FX mess, and Tess was legitimately scary.
Chloe saved the world... again..

Can I say it again? So happy I am not watching any more. And yeah, let me know the eps Nois isn't in... I'll watch then.

Kandor

Oh the imagery this brings to mind.

Superman does no such thing. Superman does not exist. However, Clark did not make him burn his jacket. Clark tried to snap him out of it. He tried to help him. As usual, Oliver was on his high horse and ignored him.

The drugs and alcohol made Oliver burn his costume.

I have to say...I'm surprised at how much I liked this episode. Nois was actually tolerable in this episode. Her crush on the Blur was much more understated and how it should be for an adult. That crap in the first two weeks was just fucking annoying.

And, I can't believe I'm going to say it..But, I actually liked that Chloe wasn't in as much as she was....And, I'll explain. When Chloe isn't in the episode for long stretches of time, my bitterness at what they've done to the character tends to fade and I can just zone out and watch the episode. But, then they include a scene like the one where they put the needle in Clark and she is jumping to get to him to protect him and my bitterness starts to come back.

They handled the Zombies extremely well. I had a feeling they wouldn't make it campy like the vampires (maybe they actually learned their lesson on that one). It was very well excecuted and shot.

And, ZOD RULES!!!!! They have so far nailed hit character. ZOD kills a minion because he went off the reservation and even though it worked out in the end, ZOD can't allow that happen. If he doesn't do what he does, then that guy runs back and tells them what he did and how right he was and starts to take credit. He then becomes a threat to ZOD.

I'm really hoping that they don't screw this up.

Finally....Is Tom getting absolutely huge or are they purposefully putting him in smaller shirts? Because I think I know why he hasn't been in the episodes as much..Man's been working out.

It's not even about Chlois or Chlark...

I hate that we saw Chloe sacrificing for Clark, helping him save the world over and over and Clois makes a good team? Give me a fucking break.

I can't take the "Ignore Cannon" aspect of this series anymore! I watched for 8 fucking years, I can't just go "Oh that never happened now? Ok." I am not a computer and can do file delete to make things make sense! God I think that's what is so infuriating about this show!


Then why is there a Love triangle between Clark, His alter ego and Lois Lane? He is wearing the S, yeah no longer in red and blue (Which makes Clark's line "And not even in red and blue" makes no fucking sense) and honestly there is the ICONIC traingle and Clark has the job, exactly why isn't he Superman now?


That was trying?

My day opens with Southland being cancelled and ends with this junk of an episode.

I tried really hard to like it but just can't. The show has finally crashed and burned for me. I am so digusted with Friday night tv right now...

Whether you agree if he was trying or not, the point is he is NOT the one that drove him to burn his outfit.

I think that's debatable. Merely watching Clark douche around for an hour a week drives me into a Heine or two. I can't imagine if I had to hang around him and listen to his sanctimonious, flip-flopping attitude all the time. Dick.

Sounds like Oliver.

You know, I thought it was excellent. Best episode of the season and it was well-shot too.

-I dug the zombie thing. Again, it was well-shot and the make-up was creepy. It led to some good action sequences, the standout being Tess taking down the zombies with a samauri sword. Lois knocking Clark through a window was pretty good too.

-Character development front was good too. They're still forcing the Clark/Lois relationship but as I've often said, Welling and Durance have good chemistry together and their scenes played out pretty good tonight.

-Oliver was being a pissy, little ***** tonight and I actually found myself on Clark's side tonight. Clark is finally doing the right thing and Oliver still whines about him. Didn't expect him to burn his costume though. I thought that "doing what he needed to do" meant him confessing to the police that he killed Lex.

-The addition of Gaeta...er, Dr. Emil Hamilton is a good one, even if his role is identical to Chloe. Having him discover Chloe's secret gave him an extra level of character development.

-The scene with Zod was pretty freakin cool at the end.

The action scenes were pretty cool and the lighting was great. Zombie makeup was excellent but beyond that, this was a load of crap. Maybe if there'd been even the slightest bit of lead-up to the zombies it would have been better but instead it was:

Scene 1: Lois and Clark flirt
Scene 2: ZOMG ZOMBIES!!!!

Even in mindless action movies there's a least a tiny build up to the action. So since the show was not engaging my brain in any way, it gave me time to ponder other things, like:

- Why has Jimmy's death has driven Oliver to drink? Did they have a little something going on in Offscreenville because he's acting like the love of his life was gutted by Doomsday.

- Lois is officially Lana 2.0. She's got guys obsessed with her for no obvious reason, she finds herself in mortal peril and in need of rescuing, and she manages to turn any situation around to be all about her. All she needs to do is start wearing pink.

- How exactly did Chloe - who, last I checked, didn't know where the JL was - manage to put a camera on Oliver's belt? Is there Chloliver going on in Offscreenville?

- Emil wants to put the cure into the water supply to get people as they take a shower. That's great and all, but if they turn into zombies after a good night sleep how would that help? How many zombies out there take a leisurely morning shower before biting people's faces off? The rain made sense and should have been their plan from the start.

- If the virus was airborne, then why wasn't Oliver infected? Tess was bitten and so was Lois (or she was at least hurt by them) and they both turned. Seems to me it was more the typical zombie infection technique.

- Lois is no Jill Valentine and the only time she was tolerable was when she was a zombie. The way Oliver discovering she'd turned was shot reminded me of the end of Resident Evil (the movie) when Michelle Rodriguez's character changed on the train. Too bad it didn't end the same way.

- Maybe I missed it, but the entire voice over from the ad (Clark asking Lois on a date but not really a date) wasn't in the episode at all. Not that I minded.

- Emil tells Chloe he wants no secrets between them but based on how he said it, I'm thinking he'd like nothing between them. *wink*

- Seeing Lana's picture made me ache for the good ol' days of Clanaville.

- The way Callum Blue moves his mouth is very distracting and it always looks like Zod is about to burst into tears.

This show has broken my heart. Why is Chloe still on the show? Watching it tonight, I was thinking, "You know, if this were a completely new Superman show...it might not be awful". But then, there were the brief Chloe scenes.

She seems to remember the last eight years, so of course she finds it strange that Clark wants to work with everybody but her, and of course she tenderly lays her wrist on Clark's brow when he's in pain.

But, then, she's off screen and it's back to Metropolis: The Reboot Years. Just kill her. For the love of Zod, just KILL CHLOE so I can stop watching.

See, I like Hamilton well enough, but I'm so distracted by the fact that he's clearly being prepped to take over Chloe's role next season. I hate that Chloe's gone before she's gone. I understand giving him more face time at the end of S9 but doing it so early just feels odd--especially since IMO they're the two best characters/actors on the show. Forcing them to share a minor role in episodes spent mainly following Mopey and Dopey bumble around is like finding yourself at the liquor store staring at 12 cases of Natty Light and one teeny bottle of Stella. More of the good stuff, please.


Is he? I don't even know. He's talking about how he should've killed Davis, but isn't he supposed to be acknowledging that it was a mistake worth making if it means believing in humankind? Or is Clark Kent still dead? Is he only hanging around again to find out what Lois knows about the future?


I can't even get mad at Ollie for Lex's "murder." Clark would've killed Lex before Ollie had the chance if Lana hadn't stopped him. This is why I don't know who I'm supposed to be rooting for, who's good, who's good but struggling, who's bad but partly good...too many blurred lines in episodes that happened too recently.

He'd been taking pills to keep himself awake. The virus only took over when the person fell asleep, which both Lois and Tess did.

Oh, I'm not mad at Oliver either. He did what Clark should have done years ago.

I think Clark did the right thing by trying to save Davis...it was the writers who decided to make Davis a one-dimensional villain at the very last second.

I like how Clark isn't letting himself be burdened for every single thing. He knows it was a mistake to not kill Davis when he had the chance but he's determined not to make that mistake again. Last week, Metallo revealed to Clark that a person he saved from the train killed his sister. In years past, Clark would have blamed himself for something like that. Just like he blamed himself for something he had nothing to do with whatsoever, like his arrival on Earth.

I agree. It's like he's eating taffy while preparing for a good weep.


Superman is not a murderer. Clark would never have killed Lex - this is what distinguishes him from other heroes, and also from JusticeLordSuperman.

So we're supposed to believe Clark moved on from Lana? Right. We all know that if she came passing by even for a second, he would completely ignore Nois once again, even if it meant he had to stare at Lana from afar.
However the scene could be interpreted in a different way, he smiled at photo, keeps a photo album of Lana, and has the word "love" in the middle of all the photos. I actually thought it was quite a sweet (or bittersweet for Clanaers) moment. He expressed more emotion in that scene than during all of this season so far. Heck, at this point i'd much rather a Clana ending after all that's happened during 9 years.
Its bad when Clark has more chemistry with a photo than with Nois...

What they are doing to the character of Chloe is a travesty of Epic proportion. I do not want to see any romance with Chloe & Emil, either. Allison Mack is one of the primary reasons for the show's success. Pushing her & her character aside to make the show all about Lois & her badly written showtime after dark sex, sex, sex romance is insulting to me as someone who's watched from Day 1. Who knew I would wish for Lana's return to save me from Noisville.

I haven't posted much here, but I thought I'd step out of the shadows to say that I quite enjoyed "Rabid." I also enjoy where this season is headed. It is very much different from last season and Lois and Clark are a breath of fresh air.

I liked the sense of closure that we got from this episode, from Lois admitting that she didn't want to be alone anymore, to Clark having a bittersweet moment and closing the book on Lana... That scene was nice. It's good that we got to see Clark have that sense of Closure. There were allot of good moments, allot of ugly, and a few bad... but all in all 'Rabid' is my favorite episode of this season so far...

I came to New Mexico for the Balloon festival so I missed the show but from what I'm reading I'm glad I did. If they are going to continue to give Chloe less screen time and have this rift between her and Clark I really have no reson left to watch.

Oh Dr Gaeta, how funny you are with your macrobiotic korean diet.....

I ended up watching the whole episode rather than fast forwarding, simply because I like zombies. And in terms of being a Zombie pop culture homage, the episode was fun. But once again, my enjoyment was tempered by the ratio of interesting character behaviour in comparison to characters going on about how they love Lois.

So in the end, props to the show for giving Tess and Zod a sword. Good job editors for knowing how to edit like a zombie flick. A+ to Allison Mack for continuing to deliver even when being abused this way by the writer and producers. Clois.... man, I don't even care enough to hate it anymore. Go have your better-than-thou babies already but please, stop hogging the screen.

Oh wait. No zombies next week so I can fast forward the puppy dog eyes again. Awesome.

Worst episode of the season so far.

The good:

-Chloe and Emil are still great together, and I loved how, despite their issues with each other, she was still worried about Clark. I'm happy the OD was way off on this one.

-The Oliver storyline is being developed well, and certainly better than last season's "Ollie gets drunk" story. I really liked the last scene when he burned his GA gear.

-Though he was only in one scene, Zod was great. It was a shocker that the doc was not only a Kandorian, but also behind the zombie plague. I'm happy that they didn't go the obvious route of having Zod be behind it. That said, whoever wrote the OD didn't watch the episode very closely.

- Nois was surprisingly tolerable. This was the first time I haven't totally hated her this season.

The bad:

- While Nois was okay, the Clois was not. This relationship is being rushed, and a rushed relationship is not one I care for at all.

- Zombies? Really? The idea of zombies was as dumb as I thought it was going to be.

Overall, a dumb story idea where the handful of intense moments were far outweighed by the cringe-worthy ones.

Wouldn't surprise me. Everything interesting happens on Offscreenville.



This! Oh, god, yes this!



Silly goose! When have they ever given Chloe fans what they want? They'll kill her, eventually, but not until there's nothing left of our girl to put in the ground.



This is why PS will never make Clark into Superman. Comic book Superman would never kill Davis if there was the slightest chance he could be saved. Even when Superman was fighting the real Doomsday he didn't fight to the death until the very last second. It would make more sense if Clark had said he should have sent Davis into the Phantom Zone until another solution could be found. That would have been a hard choice, but at least it would be somewhat Supermanly.

Completely pointless ep. Ya know last season I said I would only approve of a 9th season if Clark and Chloe got together for large amounts of sex.................... I still stand by that.

It was the best episode in a long time. Loved the zombies and Tess fighting them off with a sword. Being a big Lex fan I was worried about Tess in the beginning, but I feel she's really come into her own.

I thought the Lana thing was nice. I don't see why he should have to burn the picture to move on. This was the first time I bought Clark and Lois as a potential couple.

Another episode to skip.

Funny, I looooove zombies (and am in that W18-34 target demo, as are many other horror-loving viewers) but the talks of more Cnois romance (which was unbearable enough in the leaked scene) completely turned me off.

Good to hear Chloe saved the world (AGAIN), despite being in 1/5 of Nois' screen time. You go, girl!

Maybe Jimmy, er...HENRY, was the love of his life. ;)

I don't think Oliver has been playing with a full deck since he learned Lionel killed his parents and he was starting to go down a dark path when he killed Lex. The Jimmy thing and the ten seconds of havoc we saw DD wreck in Metropolis probably threw him over the top.

Maybe Oliver feels especially guilty about Jenry because without Oliver's intervention - hiring him and dragging him into the middle of an extremely dangerous situation (the Doomsday/Davis/Clark confrontation) in which an ordinary human without superpowers or special talents to defend himself has no business being - Jenry probably would not have died.

Or, yeah, maybe it was Twue Luv.

So I see some who are usually disappointed (as I usually am) liked some aspects of this episode. Does that mean this should be one of the eps I should watch?

I haven't posted in awhile, & refuse to watch anymore destruction of Chloe this season. However, my comicfan boyfriend continues to do so. Which means I get "running commentary" about the show as he's watching.

This is almost word for word the same thing he said last night:

Along with random utterings of "Lame" "What? Oliver still has a thing for her too now?" accompanied by eyerolls. He's a hardcore comicgeek, & totally doesn't like this direction.

Wow, I'm so glad I am not watching this show anymore. It pisses me off, but I would be even worse off watching it play out on the screen.

I'm not even in a position to say "Oh, how nice that Chloe and Emil are totally going to beat it up like they owe each other money" because she's going to be as dead as a doornail by the end of the season.

Also, can we just call a spade a spade? This isn't even Smallville anymore. At least before the name referred to the town, and later the character. So I propose a new name: Metropolois. I think it adequately encompasses what this new season and new direction are all about. It's also, looking at screentime totals, a little more accurate of a name than Smallville.

I watched it but I regretted that, mostly because of the Clois.

We actually got some decent villain action this episode. The zombies were a positive in that we got fight scenes. Decently choreographed fight scenes. Made me sad Chloe wasn’t a zombie because I would have enjoyed watching her clock Clark. Oh well, I enjoyed seeing Tess with the sword. The scene with Zod was decent characterization, and helped build up the story there. I would have liked to see more of this. Now don’t get me wrong, the action wasn’t that good. You can go watch any Chuck episode at random and get better action sequences. Still, it was relatively decent for Smallville. I can appreciate that as a flashy romp it suceeded in being fun.

In terms of characters acting smart, it was a mixed bag, mostly negative. I get that Chloe and Emil are supposed to be super smart. Unfortunately they aren’t being written in a way that highlights that and makes it fun. I like watching the mystery be uncovered bit by bit. The investigation aspect was shortchanged again this week. Emil just spouts out the solution moments after being presented with partial information. Chloe is suddenly a qualified chemist? The show pushed a ship I loathe instead of developing the battle to uncover and solve the problem.

Clark flaunting his powers in front of Lois is more like unwise than outright dumb, but it irritates me. Logically even the most obtuse person is going to catch on to that eventually, so one presumes that he wants her to discover his identity. He should know by now that she’s a disaster area waiting to happen. I get that the story is indicating that he feels like dealing with tough emotions with Chloe is difficult. I understand he is supposed to find splashing in the shallow end to be a relief. It doesn’t make me respect him though. I’d like to feel this character was gaining wisdom, and he might move to appreciate all Chloe has done and is. I can’t like a character who is still fixated on the superficial after all those years of suffering of endless Clana. Clark needs growth.

I did not appreciate getting 5 minutes of Chloe. I did enjoy her rolling her eyes at Clark showing off with Emil, but that was about it. Her acting concerned about Clark just reminded me how hollow the rest of the episode felt emotionally. In general, I like having stories centered on a variety of characters. That would even include the occasional Lois centric episode. That would not include as much Lois as I have had shoved in my face this season.

I did not appreciate the continue darkish Chloe crap. The show doesn't have the balls to make her very dark and let me vent though her taking vengeance. All it does is make her dabble just enough to encourage character attacks. I want to like the characters. I'm running on fumes of past love here.

Since I don't like the show much anymore, no doubt I should probably follow the lead of millions and tune out. Thing is I WANT to like Smallville. Such a pity.

Superb episode. Nothing cheesy about these zombies... the look of this episode was stunning, the makeup horrific, the desaturated color, the jerky missing-frame cinematography. The fight scenes just kept ramping up in intensity. This season has had a surprisingly high-budget look, and "Rabid" managed to outdo the previous two episodes. The sword action from both Tess and Zod (nice symmetry!) was impressive. There was a lot of symmetry presented in this episode, like the wallet photos (Ollie, then Clark).

I thought it was great that Clark had so much character development. He finally (finally!) decides to stop carrying Lana's picture around with him. He's moving on, and this time he's not compelled to by outside circumstances. With Lois, he was confident and very much in his role as Superman-ly hero, literally sweeping her up in his arms and carrying her to safety. The look these two exchanged then spoke volumes. The way he then bandages her thigh-- no embarrassment, no hesitation-- what a difference from the bashful, hesitant youth he used to be, afraid of touching a girl. Later, when Lois does her patented playful arm-punch, he stops her, catching her wrist with gentle lightning fast reflexes, as he might catch a bird on the wing; and once again they exchange a look that speaks volumes. I find an unspoken intimacy here that opens up a whole new side of Clark Kent.

I like biker-dude Ollie. First, nice motorcycle stunt in that front-wheel braking slide. And black leather is just so much more becoming than green. (About time he burned that hideous getup!) Oliver may be down in the dumps, but the degenerate playboy lifestyle has its upside, like female police officers sans pants who don't give him a ticket but do give him a happy. Her: "Don't call me." Ollie: "I never do". LOL!

I think the writers are having fun with Ollie's angst; not only does he deliver his self-indulgent self-pitying elevator monologue into a mirror, he also manages to put Lois to sleep with it!

Gotta say it doesn't suck to be Chloe. It seems to be true that her days as Clark's sidekick are over (she barely had any screen time with Clark at all in this episode). But it seems to me they are separating Chloe and Clark in as gentle a way as possible. Clark of course has Lois, while Chloe has a good friend (and possibly eventually more...) in Dr. Emil. Not only do these two work symbiotically together, they also seem to have a good deal of fun. Loved the opening bit where she offers to share her Chinese takeout with him, and he expresses his preference for Macrobiotic (was it "Korean macrobiotic salad"?) Their mutual reactions were priceless (and given her diet, how does the girl stay so thin???)

Zod. How awesome is Major Zod?! He had that clever, upshot soldier of his turned every which way but loose. Callum Blue in the role just exudes calm authority, he's a master manipulator with just a touch of the crazy!

I think it's sad when Clark/Tom has more chemistry with a photo than with a woman he is interested in. And that he finally manages an expression that actually conveys deep emotions with said photo.