Tess Mercer: the LuthorCorp heiress created for Smallville

Who is Tess Mercer? Taking over from Lex in Smallville

Tess Mercer is a character invented for the series Smallville, not taken from the comics. Cassidy Freeman plays her as part of the main cast of seasons 8 to 10, which aired from 2008 to 2011. She appears in 47 episodes: 13 in season 8, then 17 in season 9 and the same number in season 10. So she is missing from several episodes across those three seasons. The actress is the sister of voice actor Crispin Freeman.

Her first appearance comes in “Odyssey,” the first episode of season 8, which aired in the United States on September 18, 2008 on The CW. Brian Peterson and Kelly Souders wrote the story, Todd Slavkin and Darren Swimmer the teleplay, and Kevin G. Fair directed. Clark doesn't meet her until the second episode, “Plastique” (8x02), when he pulls her out of a crashed bus. In France, TF6 launched season 8 on January 29, 2010, under the title “L'Odyssée” for that first episode, and W9 aired it starting July 31, 2010. French viewers therefore discovered Tess more than a year after American audiences.

Why Smallville created Tess in 2008

Tess arrives just as Smallville changes hands. At the end of season 7, Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, the show's creators, depart. Michael Rosenbaum, who plays Lex, leaves the main cast, and so does Kristin Kreuk, although she comes back as a guest star during season 8. The eighth season therefore opens with a new team at the helm: Brian Peterson, Kelly Souders, Todd Slavkin and Darren Swimmer. Tess is born on their watch, and the DC Database credits them with adapting the character. So she isn't a creation of Gough and Millar, who had left before she arrived.

Someone has to fill the space Lex left behind. On June 19, 2008, The CW announced Cassidy Freeman's arrival in a press release, picked up by the KryptonSite website. In it, Tess is introduced as the person Lex chose to succeed him before he disappeared, who comes to Smallville to run LuthorCorp on an interim basis. Lex himself all but vanishes from the screen: Michael Rosenbaum only returns for the series finale. When Lex appears in “Requiem,” in season 8, he is played by Kevin Miller, with Matt Adler providing the voice.

Eve, Mercy and Lena: where her name comes from

Tess Mercer's name pays tribute to two of Lex Luthor's assistants who were born outside the comics. Eve Teschmacher was created for the 1978 film Superman, where Valerie Perrine plays her. Mercy Graves was created for Superman: The Animated Series in 1996, voiced by Lisa Edelstein. You can hear both of them in the name: Tess as in Teschmacher, Mercer as in Mercy. Yet Tess is neither one: her name simply gives them a nod.

The series plays on this reference. As early as “Toxic” (8x03, aired in the United States on October 2, 2008, titled “Les Fleurs du mal” in the French dub), Oliver Queen nicknames her “Mercy.” The same episode reveals their shared past: Tess, then a marine biologist, saved his life on an island. Her license plate even reads “NO MERCY.”

The character also has an older model, which the series only reveals later. On July 30, 2008, before the first episode had even aired, the Comic Book Resources website relayed comments from producers Darren Swimmer and Todd Slavkin: according to them, Tess is a brand-new character who simply nods to Teschmacher and Mercy. It's season 10 that ties her to Lena Luthor, Lex's younger sister in the comics.

Acting CEO: an heiress with no title to the company

At the start of season 8, Tess runs LuthorCorp because Lex appointed her, not because she inherited it. She is the heir apparent he handpicked and the acting CEO of a company that doesn't belong to her. At that point, she is his heir only in the sense that she succeeds him. Her position stays shaky. In “Bulletproof” (8x12, January 22, 2009), Lana reveals that Lex implanted a nano-transmitter in Tess's optic nerve to spy on her. Tess then turns against him. Two weeks later, in “Requiem” (8x14, February 5, 2009), Queen Industries buys a controlling stake in LuthorCorp.

Season 10 reshuffles the deck once more. In “Beacon,” the Lionel from Earth-2 has taken over the company, and then Tess takes it back in “Scion.” So she did not run LuthorCorp alone and without interruption from 2008 to 2011. As for the name, early in the series Lex had set up his own company, LexCorp, by buying the Smallville plant. In Tess's time, however, the company is called LuthorCorp from start to finish. It isn't until the Smallville Season 11 comics that Lex renames it LexCorp.

Tess vs. Clark: the Traveler, the orb and Doomsday

The rescue in “Plastique” isn't enough to make Tess an ally of Clark's. Tess has inherited the journals kept by Lex and by Lionel Luthor, and she suspects Clark of being “the Traveler” Lionel talks about. In “Turbulence” (8x16, March 19, 2009), she sets a trap on board a plane to force him to reveal his powers. The plan fails, and Clark keeps his secret.

The end of season 8 then links her to Krypton. In “Eternal” (8x18, April 2, 2009), she has the Kryptonian orb in her possession. In “Injustice” (8x21, May 7, 2009), a voice coming from that orb guides her, and she pushes Clark to kill Doomsday, aka Davis Bloome in the series. Finally, in “Doomsday” (8x22, May 14, 2009), it's the orb that brings Zod to Smallville. The object Tess was keeping thus paves the way for season 9, in which she will have to deal with him.

Checkmate, Zod and Cadmus: dying, then coming back

In season 9, Tess maneuvers between Zod and the Kandorians. The series also reveals that she works for Checkmate, the organization run by Amanda Waller, starting with “Absolute Justice” (9x11, February 5, 2010), which The CW aired as a single episode. The episode “Checkmate” (9x16, April 9, 2010) is titled “La Reine Blanche” in the French dub, and that White Queen is Waller. The season closes with “Salvation,” which aired in the United States on May 14, 2010: Zod burns Tess with his heat vision, and she is declared dead at the hospital. The episode is numbered 9x21 in the United States, but 9x22 in France, where “Absolute Justice” counts as two episodes.

“Lazarus” (10x01, September 24, 2010, “Le Projet Cadmus” in the French dub) shows her awake and healed at the Cadmus labs, surrounded by clones of Lex. She takes the child clone LX-15, nicknamed “Alexander,” under her wing; he will become Conner Kent in “Scion” (10x16). This Smallville Cadmus is not the one Lillian Luthor runs in the Supergirl series. A month later, in “Isis” (10x05, October 22, 2010), Clark and Oliver invite her to join their team and take charge of Watchtower, called “la Tour de contrôle” in the French dub.

“Abandoned”: Tess Mercer discovers she is a Luthor

The big turning point comes with “Abandoned” (10x08), which aired in the United States on November 12, 2010 and is titled “L'oiseau bleu” in the French dub. In it, Tess learns that she was born Lutessa Lena Luthor, the illegitimate daughter of Lionel Luthor and Pamela Jenkins, Lex's nanny. So her mother isn't Lillian, and Tess is Lex's half-sister through their father. That's where the name she goes by comes from: Tess is short for Lutessa.

As a child, she went through the orphanage run by Granny Goodness, where her memory was wiped, before being adopted by the Mercer family in Louisiana. Mercer is therefore an adoptive name, the only one she and the audience know during seasons 8 and 9. In the series, Granny Goodness serves Darkseid: the orphanage thus connects Tess to him, although the series never turns it into a showdown.

The birth certificate shown on screen bears the date November 12, 1984, 26 years to the day before the episode's American broadcast. According to the Smallville wiki, the series actually contradicts itself, since a newspaper article seen in “Turbulence” gave her age as 30 in 2009. Tess then becomes an heiress in a second sense: she is no longer just the successor Lex chose, she is also one of Lionel's daughters. In “Luthor” (10x10, December 3, 2010), on Earth-2, Clark even comes across a Tess Luthor raised by Lionel, still played by Cassidy Freeman.

The finale: Tess protects Clark's secret

Tess's final act plays out in “Finale,” a double episode (10x21-22) aired in a single evening in the United States on May 13, 2011, and titled “Superman” in the French dub, in two parts. Lex comes back from the dead in it, and so does Michael Rosenbaum. He kills Tess. Before she dies, she sweeps her glove, coated in a neurotoxin, across his face; the toxin seeps through the skin and erases his entire memory. Lex forgets everything, including who Clark is: the secret identity of the hero played by Tom Welling stays safe.

Tess had already died once, burned by Zod at the end of season 9, and her consciousness will live on in the comics that continue the series. So this finale is neither her first death nor the definitive end of her story. The same episode shows the shattered LuthorCorp sign, whose wreckage leaves the word “LexCorp” readable. In France, TF6 aired the finale on June 23, 2011. In the French dub, Laurence Dourlens voices Tess.

Season 11, Red Tornado and the other Lenas

Tess Mercer has no place in classic DC comics. Off screen, she only lives on in Smallville Season 11, the comic book continuation of the series, published from 2012 to 2015. Bryan Q. Miller, a former writer on the show, writes it, and Pere Pérez draws the first issue. The first digital chapter came out on April 13, 2012. In these comics, the neurotoxin has kept Tess's consciousness alive inside Lex's mind. Her friends then transfer it into the Watchtower computer, during the “Haunted” arc. In Continuity #3 (cover-dated April 2015), she builds herself an android body and becomes Red Tornado, the second one in Smallville continuity after Abigail Hunkel, a former member of the Justice Society. She has no connection to the android John Smith from the classic comics. Her last appearance is in Continuity #4 (cover-dated May 2015).

Her model, on the other hand, has belonged to the comics since 1961. Lena Luthor, Lex's younger sister, appears in Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane #23 (cover-dated February 1961), created by Jerry Siegel and Kurt Schaffenberger. Those two creators made Lena, not Tess. In live action, Tess is the second Lena, after the one in the Superboy series (Denise Gossett, 1991) and before the one in Supergirl (Katie McGrath, 2016-2021). In Supergirl, Lena is also Lionel Luthor's illegitimate daughter. The Smallville wiki sees an echo of Tess in this, but no statement from the writers confirms the borrowing.

Conclusion

Tess Mercer moves through the last three seasons of Smallville, switching sides several times, until she discovers her real name. On American screens, she arrives on September 18, 2008 as Lex's heir apparent, learns on November 12, 2010 that she is a Luthor, and dies on May 13, 2011 saving Clark's secret. The comics then give her one last life, as Red Tornado.

Smallville is just one of the Superman series to reinvent the people around Clark. Lena Luthor, for example, later comes back in Supergirl with a different face.