'Smallville' fans rejoice! Lex Luthor is back!

Last week disappointed fans were coming to terms with news that Michael Rosenbaum wouldn't be returning as Lex Luthor for the series finale. Well, now it seems Rosenbaum was listening to the wailing and gnashing of teeth, as he's changed his mind. Was it our own Brad Trechak's 'Open Letter' that did it?

In an interview with TVLine.com, Rosenbaum confirmed that he's signed a deal to play Superman's archnemesis in the two-hour season finale. "I'm delighted to return for the series finale," he said. "I'm simply doing it for all of the fans out there who made 'Smallville' the great success it is. I appreciate all of their passion, their relentlessness, and even their threats. Ha ha."

Rosenbaum continued, "I can't wait to hug the old crew back in Vancouver one last time and see all of my old friends once again. Oh, and for Lex to become the bad-ass he's destined to be."

Lucy Lawless has joined the cast of 'No Ordinary Family' to give the Powells a healthy butt-kicking.

According to TVLine, the 'Xena' and 'Battlestar Galactica' star will appear in five episodes, with her story arc leading up to the season finale.

Lawless, who can currently be seen in Starz's 'Spartacus: Gods of the Arena,' will play a potential adversary for the Powells. Her agenda might put the Powell family in danger.

Following 'No Ordinary Family,' Lawless will shoot the new season of 'Spartacus: Blood & Sand.'

In other TV news ...

• Callum Blue is reprising his 'Smallville' role. The 'Dead Like Me' veteran is returning to the CW show as Zod in one of the final five episodes of the season. [TV Guide]

• Justin Bieber and Ozzy Osbourne, the new dynamic duo? Well, they will be during the Super Bowl. Bieber will appear alongside Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne in a Best Buy commercial. [Entertainment Weekly]

• ABC has scheduled its first summer show: a CIA drama about a missing child. 'Missing' follows a former CIA agent who travels to Italy in search of her son who has gone missing during a summer internship. [EW]

The thing about being incredibly evil is that, well, it can sometimes backfire on you. That's what happens on 'Smallville' (Fri., 8PM ET on The CW). Supervillain Zod (Callum Blue) takes out his rage on the woman he's been having a relationship with. But what he doesn't realize is that she's carrying his child.

(S09E19) With the season winding down, Zod really needs to get down to business if he wants to take down Clark and take over the world. That is what he wants, right? All shall kneel before Zod. I think I've heard that expression a time or two. In fact, I may have heard it a time or two too much, by now.

Maybe I'm getting impatient for these threading storylines to actually go someplace, but I found myself frustrated through most of tonight's episode. We got a good chunk of it with Tess and Chloe locked up in Watchtower together, because this is a generic 1980s action show ... or a comedy ... or really any cliche show you can think of.

The dialogue seemed a little off tonight, and I could have really done without Tess giving all these weird looks to everyone through most of the episode. I found myself hoping Chloe would open the door and keep walking. You know what I mean.

(S09E17) Five episodes left in this ninth season, so General Zod needs to start putting together whatever his endgame plan is going to be. Steps were definitely taken toward that this week, but first we got the return of one of Superman's deadliest foes: Metallo.

It's always nice to see Brian Austin Green, and he's actually quite effective in this role. I was a little disappointed in how quickly they were able to re-establish his character in whatever way they needed him for this week, but I'll forgive it because it was so much fun seeing almost everyone else turned on their ears.

Checkmate and The Wall took a break from intimidating everyone and pushing Tess around, which freed Tess up to make an unexpected alliance. Also missing from the fun was Green Arrow, but there was plenty of action without them.

When Clark saved Zod on 'Smallville' (Fri., 8PM ET on The CW), he gave him the power to fly. But that's not all he gave him.

"When you saved my life, I realized that I could trust you," said Zod. And Clark replied, "Together we'll make sure that our people can call Earth their new home."

Cue speedy exits and leaps off of tall buildings.

Watch the video after the jump.

(S09E14) There goes that possible future. Actually, the destruction of the solar tower was probably a good thing. Since we already saw where that would lead in that "future" storyline, we now have no idea where the season will go. Obviously, there will be some sort of Clark/Zod confrontation down the line, but the context remains a complete blank.

Here's hoping the writers think of something good and it doesn't become one of those 30-second final confrontations with the season's Big Bad in order to save on the special effects budget (so much for 'Doomsday').

The cast and crew of Smallville showed up in San Diego at Comic-Con to talk about the upcoming 27th season of Smallville on The CW. Highlights included a new costume for the will-be Superman, but not the underwear-on-the-outside one we're waiting for. In keeping with the tradition of shiny leather and jackets, Clark's new look is black with a silver logo and a black cape trenchcoat. But it does sport the Superman logo (in silver), so that's progress.

Laura Vandervoort (Supergirl) is out, but Erica Durance (Lois Lane) is in 18 episodes, and we can look for that relationship to start a slow burn. Honestly, though, isn't everything on this show slow by now. Hell, Clark's going to be 40 before he starts flying around regularly.

'Jon & Kate' earns record ratings, Eve joins the cast of 'Glee,' MTV greenlights Audrina Patridge's reality show pilot and more TV news.

For those of you who weren't paying attention during the last ten seconds of Smallville's eighth season finale, the "big bad" of the ninth season is going to be the Kryptonian Phantom Zone villain, General Zod. Now it's been announced that Callum Blue of The Tudors and The Secret Diary of a Call Girl will be playing the character.

I was secretly hoping for Terrance Stamp, a.k.a. the voice of Jor-El, for the role but this will do. At least they stuck with a Brit. It would seem like heresy at this stage to have Zod played by someone with an American accent.

Considering that Zod has been a presence on the show for several of its seasons, it makes sense that they wrap up the whole series with a final confrontation between Clark and Zod. Now if they can only give Clark the tights and let him fly, the fans of the series can walk away happy.

It's almost been a year since we last gave you news about the straight-to-DVD Dead Like Me movie. Back then, it was rumored that the movie would be released during the summer of 2008, more precisely around Comic-Con time. Well, looking at all the snow outside my condo and at my DVD collection, it's clear that summer has gone by and that the rumor turned out to be false.

After months and months of waiting for the release and trying to find every tidbits of info about the movie (aka spoilers and trailer), our wait is almost over. In an official press release, MGM and FOX not only announce when the movie will finally be released but also that they are putting a collector's edition of the series on the market!

If you are excited for season 2 of The Tudors on Showtime but can't wait until it airs on Sunday March 30th, check this out. Showtime is making the season premiere available to fans online now. Just click here and enter the password: Royal.

For an early look at the show, read on past the jump...

Even if the Dead Like Me straight-to-DVD movie will only be released next summer, the first trailer already made its way to the world wide web. The quality of the trailer is not the great but it does give a good glimpse at what's in store for the reapers and introduces Sarah Wynter as Daisie and Henry Ian Cusick as Cameron Kane, the new head reaper.

Even if you haven't read the movie spoilers and news released over the summer, you will still grasp most of what is shown in the trailer even if George's narration doesn't give a lot hints.

Over the summer, I kept you in the loop as to the latest spoilers and info about the direct-to-DVD Dead Like Me movie. Since I last gave you news about the movie about three months ago and because the DLM posts here at TV Squad still get a good number hits, I thought it was time I check up on the movie status and see if I could get more dish. Thanks to the movie's IMDb page (it's been up for a while now but I had given up on it since usually IMDb creates pages before or during shooting and it hadn't done that for the DLM movie) I can bring you some news.