Smallville: "Hex"

Entertaining at Chloe's birthday party at The Ace of Clubs, young Zatanna Zatarra (Serinda Swan) grants Chloe's whimsical wish to have Lois's life at the Daily Planet working with Clark. I expected a Vice Versa, Freaky Friday-like switch, with Clark revealing his secrets to Lois-as-Chloe. Instead, Chloe wakes up the next morning looking like Lois, but Lois herself is unaffected, conveniently away on assignment.

For a while, Chloe gets to see how Clark interacts with Lois on the job, but soon enough she wants to undo the spell, just not enough, according to Zatanna, to actually undo it. Zatanna is after her father's book of magic, appropriated by Lex, which will allow her to resurrect her father. To stop this, Chloe must help Clark, who has wished himself no memory of his alien origin or powers. Strange to her Lois's voice and remember it's Chloe's sentiment.

As part of the resurrection spell, a soul must be exchanged for Zatanna's father. Zatanna plans to sacrifice herself, but Chloe gets in the way, and I wondered if she was being written off the show. Allison Mack was absent most of the episode, after all, with Erica Durance playing Chloe-as-Lois.

Exemplifying how uneven Smallville is, Clark, who two episodes earlier didn't have the wherewithal to deal with mudslinging Linda Lake, convincingly talks Zatanna out of her plans by drawing on his own loss of Jonathan.

"I'm finally the man my father wanted me to be."

Kudos to writer Bryan Q. Miller and director Mairzee Almas.