Episode Summary: Clark develops heat vision when he's turned on by a sexy substitute teacher. Yes, you read that correctly. How is this getting Superman right, you ask? Well, this is the first episode of Smallville which finally acknowledges that although it might be silly, it doesn't mean you have to pretend it doesn't exist. Heat vision looks odd on film, even in Man of Steel, so Smallville decides to play it for laughs and it works. Tom Welling absolutely sells the excruciatingly embarrassing scene in which Jonathan Kent (John Schneider) tries to teach him to control his urges by getting him to aim at a haystack and think of Lana Lang. It's ridiculous, but then, comics have ridiculous elements too. After all, we are talking about a character who, prior to the reboot, spent his childhood travelling to the far future with a teen superhero team and grew up to wear his underwear over his tights and deceive everyone with a pair of glasses. It's possible to do Superman right without these things, but Smallville stakes its claim to the silliest of concepts in this episode and somehow produces an entertaining hour. It's the first episode in which Smallville acknowledges that emo pop music playing over angsty staring will only get you so far.
