Tess Mercer
| “ | Well, talk about being fashion forward but I'm afraid you crashed the wrong disco." - Tess Mercer | „ |
Tess Mercer (born Lutessa Lena Luthor) is a villainess in the show Smallville. She is both the former protégé and half-sister of billionaire Lex Luthor.
When Lex Luthor disappeared during a private expedition to the Artic, Tess took control of all his projects and business. Like her predecessors Lex and Lionel, she became obsessed with finding the truth about Clark Kent (Superman).
She had very little touch with everyone who knew Clark, including Chole Sullivan, Lois Lane and her old flame Oliver Queen, who did not have any confidence in her due to being an emissary of the Luthor family.
For a long time, she was obsessed with maintaining the Luthor's legacy and being totally devoted to Lex, whom she considered a hero, but after discovered that Lex was spying on her, she became very angry and took her revenge on him, merging his company with her company leaving Lex without resources to continue his own life.
After learning about Clark's secret and guided by voices coming out of the Orb that Lex had been looking for months before he disappeared, Tess took the power contained within the device and allowed the Kryptonians and Major Zod to be reborn on earth. Thinking that in this way she would be saving the world, Tess helped Zod to achieve all his goals but not without getting her own ambitions and plans.
After being summoned by one of her original organazations, her plans were affected and then Tess was pushed to go underground, to prevent an assassination attempt. Being rejected by Oliver, Zod and all those she knew, Tess realized that she had lost everything she had in her quest for power and in an attempt for redemption, faced Zod and tried to stop him, but he severely burned her with his heat vision.
From her hospital bed, Tess helped Clark use the Book of Rao and apologized for everything she had done. Unable to bear the wounds she had suffered, she then died in the hospital.
She was later brought back to life and awoke in the Cadmus Labs. She soon started to take care of a young clone of Lex Luthor whom she believed she could change but now saw that the clone and its original host were one and the same.
It is later revealed that she was abandoned at the age of 5 by her birth parents, Lionel Luthor and Pamela Jenkins.
In the series finale of Smallville, she is killed by her own half-brother, Lex Luthor.