Two episodes in and I'm batting .500 -- the Giants have been sent home, no World Series in their future. But Lex Luthor has also returned home, with great evil in his heart and some pre-cancerous lesions on his sunburnt nose. (Kudos to the makeup team, there, for continuity and execution.)

I've probably blown at least a few of the other predictions, too, but it's a bit early to tell. Though given what we've learned about Helen Bryce Luthor, it's not any too likely she'll be hanging around to tend to Clark's medical needs. In fact, she may need to take care of her own first.

Her story to the public made Lex a hero after a double-crossing pilot (hired, of course, by Lionel) drugged them both and leapt from the plane with the one remaining parachute. Naturally, no one bought it.

But Lex manages to deduce the real story, in which she did the drugging and the pilot-bribing at an unscheduled stop in St. Croix, sending Lex and a doomed pilot off again on a plane with no chutes at all.

Of course, this big confrontation took place on yet another plane, and Helen's second attempt to widow herself takes out yet another pilot, requiring Lex to take the controls and let his wife out of his sight, when she promptly bails out the door. Never to be seen again?

The true story of Helen and Lex's ill-fated honeymoon was the most interesting revelation of last night, a night when for all other intents and purposes, Smallville returned to its previous, ponderous form. Jonathan had Clark back at the farm just after the credits, and the Clark-Lana-Chloe triangle simply refuses to die.

Also true to form, the Luthors stole away with all the good scenes. Lionel and Edge, as I should have guessed, go way back; they know each other so well, in fact, that Lionel knows Edge was responsible for the theft perpetuated on his offices, and demands the bounty returned immediately.

Another thing I got wrong: it wasn't kryptonite, it was the vial of Clark's blood. Which Lionel bought from Helen after Lex gave it back. But since Clark has disposed of it, he'll have to refill it before Edge leaves him alone.

Not that I think Edge was planning to do that anyway, since he knows far too much about "Kal" -- tracking him all the way back to Smallville, watching him display superstrength, seizing his parents, observing the effect of the meteor rocks. And not that it matters, either, for now. Edge was last seen flying into the river at the Metropolis docks, after trying to bring a captive Clark to Lionel, desperate to learn of the source of the mysterious blood.

To be honest, I'm excited to see where this goes. What does Lionel plan to do with the blood? Why did he want it so badly? Just because he knew Lex had wanted it too? Waiting to see how this pans out is almost enough to make me forget the little matter of why Helen would have sold it in the first place, considering how upset she was when she thought it had been stolen.

LuthorCorp could do some very interesting things with that blood, especially now that father and son are back in charge. Lex's time in solitude gave him a new (and eee-vil) outlook on life and brought him back into his father's welcoming (and also eee-vil) embrace. Which makes his re-entry into the Kent family just a little suspect.

No one's surprised that Lex bought the Kent farm. Probably not even the Kents, though Jonathan exhibits all the proper "we can't possibly" sentiments. Ostensibly, it's a gift in return for the wedding gift that saved Lex's life on the island.

Forgive me if, hoping for a little more duplicitous excitement, I doubt that. Also forgive me if, hoping for a lot less romantic entanglements, I don't go into details about Lana (Clark rejects her, she cries, but it looks like next week they'll be right back where they started in victim-hero mode).

Sarah Stanek