Call me crazy but I liked this episode. I was trying to compare it to Cure and after some thought, I realized Cure was more of an uneven episode. I really liked it because it was darker, Tom's always good performance and because of the final Lex-Knox scene and the Clark-Knox confrontation where Dean was great.
I Liked Lara alot more overall. I thought the guy they cast as Zor-El was spot on, I thought the beginning was great, I know some people didn't like Kara having another flying sequence and they would rather have Tom in there, but I liked it especially because it's simbolic of how responsible and wise Clark has become as he would never be caught doing something so irresponsible like that.
I didn't mind Lana spying on Lex, not as much as she helding Lionel captive.
As for Lionel itself, I'm not sure he went back on his evil ways, I think what he did to that woman was just Luthor survival instinct.
But one of the traits of Lionel throughout the show was to keep us guessing about his intentions. I still think he's on Clark's side and I think it needs to be this way so that Lex can have the spotlight and to plant the seeds of Lex murdering Lionel in the end thus completing his turn to the dark side.
But with Lex's apparent redemption they have to have someone be deemed as evil, so that's why I think they're once again turning to Lionel having questionable behaviour.
I think Helen Slater did a good job while she did some overacting at times and I hope she will get better in blue.
I can't say good enough things about Tom, he was great in did episode and more and more becoming Superman.
Loved the ending with Clark revealed to have the cristal. Let's see what this week will bring us.
It's great that the editor of SV mag went out of his way to answer for you though. Very cool. You should invite him to visit us here so he can see that there are *other* SV boards that exist. 
