With Lex Luthor out of the picture, Smallville needed another villain to step in and fill his shoes. That role seemed to be filled by actress Cassidy Freeman's character, Tess Mercer, but Freeman wouldn't use that word to describe her character.
"I think instead of being a villain or a hero, she's a human. I think that she wants certain things, I think that her morals are pretty iffy and questionable, and that she might do a bad thing to get something good done. But I don't think that she's too easily categorized."
Freeman said that she doesn't know if
Smallville will get a 10th season, but that she is
"contracted through season ten if they want me."
Tess Mercer was turned into a zombie after being exposed to Major Zod's virus, which Freeman said was a nice change of pace.
"...it was actually really, really fun. I enjoyed playing something different."
Freeman admitted that much of what she knows about
Smallville she's not allowed to talk about, but other things she simply does not know.
"I don't know that Tess knows that Oliver is the Green Arrow. I don't even know that Tess knows what the Green Arrow is. But she definitely knows a lot about Clark, and I think that the reason she doesn't out him is that it's a power play for her. She knows something that other people don't know, and I think that Tess enjoys that -- I think she enjoys having that kind of power.
Is Lex dead? For all Tess Mercer knows, he is. For all Cassidy Freeman knows... I have no idea."