 Cassidy Freeman portrays Tess Mercer , the acting CEO of LuthorCorp , who was picked by Lex to run the company should something ever happen to him . Tess Mercer 's primary goal in season eight is finding Lex , which draws her inquisitively to Clark , whom she believes will be able to help her find Lex . Tess 's first contact with Clark is when he pulls her from a wrecked city bus in the season eight episode " Plastique " ; she immediately suspects that Clark is not telling her all that he knows about Lex 's disappearance . That same episode reveals that Tess is bringing together a group of meteor @-@ infected individuals , and in " Plastique " she recruits Bette , a young girl with the power to create combustion on command . In the episode " Prey " , Tess enlists a young man who can turn himself into a shadow . In " Toxic " , it is revealed that Tess had a brief romantic relationship with Oliver Queen after she saved his life while he was stranded on an island . 
