Lex and Lana, sitting in a tree ....

In the first season or two of “Smallville,” the show fell into the rut of Clark battling a different “meteor freak” pretty much each week. This season, it looks like Clark’s going to be spending a lot of his time rounding up super-powered criminals who escaped from the Phantom Zone in the season-opener.

Aside from nabbing one of those villains, there were a few key developments in last night’s episode. Clark, in a stirring little speech at the end, told his mom he was ready to embrace his destiny rather than whining about how his powers make him different. And the relationship between Lana Lang and Lex Luthor began to fracture. I know Lana and Clark won’t end up with each other, but I’m looking forward to Lana realizing again that Clark’s the good guy, not Lex.