"Echo" is a flawed but fun episode. Clark's ability to read thoughts is a bit of a rip off of What Women Want, but it's used to create some entertaining scenes between him and Lois. As for the main villain of the week, I liked the first appearance of The Toyman in "Requiem" from season 8, but I disliked the episode itself. Here it's the opposite problem. I think this episode was overall solid, but The Toyman was more out of place. You'd almost think that The Toyman's part in the story was a last minute addition. Just once it would be nice to see him in a well balanced episode. My real problem in "Echo" is the drunk and troubled Oliver Queen. The producers already tried that in season 8, and it didn't work then. Having him in the dumps again only a year later was weak and unoriginal. By this episode it had just become repetitive. The good thing is the climax comes close to bringing the downward spiral of Oliver Queen story arc to a close, and it actually does it effectively. This is a decent episode, just unbalanced.