Tess Mercer (Cassidy Freeman) tragically died in the last episode of Smallville, but this actually wasn’t the end of her story. The Smallville Season 11 comic found a surprising way to bring her back, and achieved this by turning her into a classic DC Comics superhero.
Tess was a bit of a late addition to the Smallville cast, as she didn’t join until the entire status quo changed in the beginning of season 8. Everything was different after Lana (Kristin Kreuk), Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum), and Lionel Luthor (John Glover) departed the series and Clark (Tom Welling) became a reporter at the Daily Planet. Replacing Lex at the Luthor Mansion was Tess Mercer, who took his place in more ways than one. Like Lex, she knew that Clark was more than he appeared, and was willing to descend into morally grey territory to get what she wanted. But over time, she evolved from a villain into an ally. But unfortunately, she met a tragic end in the Smallville series finale when she was murdered by Lex, who was resurrected and brought back in a cloned body.
Tess died feeling like she had redeemed herself and that Clark had saved her from becoming like Lex. But before she died, she used a chemical on Lex that made him forget everything that he had experienced in Smallville, which meant that he no longer knew Clark or his secret. The Smallville Season 11 comic expanded on this ending by revealing that Tess had been appearing to Lex in what he originally thought were hallucinations. As it turns out, the chemical Tess used on Lex bonded them somehow, and caused her consciousness to be absorbed into his mind.
Later, the main characters find out what’s been going on with Lex and Tess and manage to download her consciousness into a computer. Tess becomes an A.I. and resumes her position with Smallville’s Justice League, which she was offered by Clark back in season 10. After adjusting to being an A.I. with a transparent, red form, Tess gets an android body and becomes Smallville‘s take on Red Tornado, an android superhero from DC Comics. She assists Clark and the Justice League through several of the challenges that they face throughout the Smallville Season 11 comic. At the end of the series, it appears that Tess is becoming romantically involved with Emil Hamilton (Alessandro Juliani). The possibility of a relationship between them was teased in a season 10 episode.
Tess being brought back in the comic continuation to rejoin the team as an android serves as a nice way to tie up her story, as her death at the hands of Lex was such an abrupt and sad ending for her character, which wasn’t even addressed by Clark or anyone else. In Smallville, Tess was an interesting character, because in a way she was the opposite of Lex, even if it started out feeling like she was just a substitute for him. Ultimately, Tess was different to Lex in that she started off on the wrong path, but eventually became a hero.
