I liked doing yesterday’s list about Supernatural‘s high points of the season so much that I figured I could bash out a similar list on Smallville. Although I picked the number five because it was Supernatural‘s fifth season, bumping it to nine because this is S9 of Smallville would just be ridiculous. So let’s stick with five. Without further ado.

John Corben becomes Metallo (“Metallo”): The series has been hit or miss with its interpretation of DC Comics characters, but I’d argue that they didn’t hit any character more on the head than Metallo. He’s a little goofy in my opinion, but Brian Austin Green gave this version more depth and heart, and the writers helped the situation by having him appear in one full episode has a normal guy before going straight into villain mode.

The Clois kiss (“Crossfire”): I don’t want to go all shipper on anyone, but despite its paper-thin plot, “Crossfire” remains as one of the season’s best episodes because of the chemistry between Tom Welling and Erica Durance. Their back-and-forth battle as prospective morning show hosts was charming, hilarious and heartfelt, but it’s all capped off by an iconic kiss in the Daily Planet that surely had all of the Clois’ers cheering at the top of their lungs — and for good reason.

Clark discovers the history of the Justice Society of America (“Absolute Justice”): The two-hour mid-season event was full of high points, but the best two moments had to be the old-school newsreel with clips of the JSA and Clark’s discovery of all the cases with weapons and costumes. Even as a non-fan of the comics or the JSA, those moments were totally geeky and completely awesome, especially for a series in its ninth year.

Clark saves Chloe from Checkmate agents (“Checkmate”): We’ve seen Clark save Chloe — and everyone else — multiple times, but I still can’t get over how original this specific sequence looked. Clark’s break-in to help his BFF was broken up in slow motion still shots that played out like comic panels without the cheese or ridiculousness that could have made it seem out of place. It was probably done to save money on the budget, but that doesn’t mean it also wasn’t damn cool.

Martha Kent, Perry White return (“Hostage”): It’d been too long and too damn long since we’d seen these characters, and despite their initial appearance as a couple, the episode handled both Martha and Perry as individuals very well. Perry was able to interact with Lois Lane, playing on one of the series’ best tricks — nostalgic foreshadowing — and the reveal that Martha was the secret Red Queen was actually intelligently played. Plus, the writers didn’t actually gloss over the reasons for why Martha hadn’t came home and made sure to remind us that Jonathan Kent is still important in his family’s life to this day.