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Reviews
5:11 Lockdown
by Zoomway
The episode opened with Lex complaining about being neck and neck
with Jonathan Kent a week before the election. His campaign manager
assured him that no one was completely squeaky clean and that they'd find
something on Jonathan. At that moment a male and female cop entered and
informed Lex that they had to get him out of the mansion because there'd
been a bomb threat.
When Lex became suspicious that security hadn't contacted him about
a bomb threat and started to call them, the cops drew their weapons.
The male cop said, "You always got to do things the hard way, don't you?"
"Let me guess, you're not a cop."
"Not anymore."
The campaign manager tossed his briefcase at the faux cops and ran.
Here's a tip, if your only weapon is a briefcase against loaded guns,
put your head between your legs and bid your rump adios.
While the campaign manager was being gunned down, Lex leaped into
his panic room. I'm sure the show's producers have a similar facility.
From the confines of the panic room, Lex asked the intruders what they
wanted.
"I want that ship that landed in the meteor shower, or that room is
gonna be your coffin." Not tomb to rhyme with room?
After the opening credits we enter the farm loft of discontent.
"Okay," Lana began. "When you said, 'Let's get together and study,' you
actually meant study?"
Clark looked up from his book. "Hmm?" he asked and then turned back
to his book.
"Kiss me," the Chosen One commanded.
Whipped Kent gave her a perfunctory kiss and returned to his book.
"Clark, what am I, your cousin? Really kiss me."
Even if we acknowledge Clark's dilemma from last week where he told
Chloe he was afraid to have sex with Lana now that his powers had
returned, Lana comes across as a bit sex starved.
Clark delivered the "really" kiss, but then broke it often suddenly
saying he didn't want to be late for class.
"I wouldn't want you to be late for class," she mocked.
"Lana, come on."
"Clark, what is it?" she asked angrily. "When we kiss, when we
really (there's that really again) kiss, I can feel how much you want me.
Why can't we just be together?"
"It's complicated."
"It shouldn't be, not when you love somebody." Oh, sweetheart, you
can't be that young and stupid. Nothing is more complicated than loving
somebody.
Lana began to clomp past Clark on the stairway when she dropped her
bag. Illustrations of the spaceship bearing Luthor Corp logos spilled
out.
Clark picked up the pages. "What is this?"
"Nothing." Wow, nice comeback.
"Did you get this from Lex?"
"We've been researching it together for the last couple of weeks." A
couple of weeks? This is what happens when someone puts math homework
aside for sex.
"Why would you keep this from me?" For the same reason you keep
things from her. On some basic level you two just can't trust each other
and you both know it.
"Because, Clark," she said with a slight sneer. "Every time I try to
bring up the ship I saw, you change the subject."
"I just don't think there's any point in dwelling on it."
"I saw what came out of that ship. I watched them kill all those
police officers. I almost died (actually the helicopter crash is what
nearly killed you at that point) and all you can say to me is there's no
point in dwelling on it?"
Clark said nothing.
"I turned to Lex because he wants to find out the truth, not avoid
it." And off she clomped.
Back at the mansion, we got exposition from the male officer as he
explained how he was left for dead under his cruiser and watched the
occupants of the ship kill everyone on his response team. He also said
that he had seen Lex and his team arrive and remove the ship and haul it
away, but never bothered to look for survivors.
Lex kept pretending he didn't know what the man was talking about
and said, "Looks like we have ourselves a stalemate."
"Well, I guess I'll have to find a way to break it."
Then we shifted back to the Kent farm where Clark explained to
Martha that Lana and Lex were working together studying the spaceship.
"She's been lying to me for weeks," Clark hurrumphed.
"Well, you haven't exactly been honest with her either, Clark.
Sometimes the truth isn't easy to share with the one you love if you think
it might hurt them."
"It's just that everything was so perfect when I didn't have my
abilities." If there is perfection in blandness, you two certainly achieved
perfection.
I'm so sick of Clark whining about his powers and how everything
would be swell if he didn't have them. He's the type of guy who, if you
asked him how to solve hunger in India, would say, "If we can just get
them to start eating the sacred cows, everything would be fine."
Instead of whining about what he can't change, Clark is at the age
(and well beyond) where he should be thinking about how best to live
with his powers and the good they can do.
"But now that I have them back, all I do is lie to her," he griped.
"About the ship, about why I ca..." he glanced at Martha and decided
not to finish his sentence, 'can't have sex with her.' "Just wish I could
tell her."
"Well, I'm not saying you should," Martha replied. "But Pete found
out the truth and Chloe and they accept you for who you are."
"Yeah, I'm an alien."
"No, as a friend who they love very much no matter what star you
were born under."
"I'm just not sure Lana's going to feel the same way."
Martha shrugged. "Then maybe she's not the one you're meant to be
with."
"Mom, I can't imagine ever loving anyone else."
Martha smiled at him and shook her head. She wasn't amused by his
misery, rather she realized something he wouldn't for a few years. That
there's a great wide world out there beyond Lana.
On cue, Lois Lane drove up ... finally. I say finally because last
year in Devoted, Martha had told Clark there was someone out there for
him and I had said a smart show would have clipped to Lois, but didn't.
Great memory, Ryan. It's a year late, but they got around to it.
"Hey, Smallville, Mrs. Kent," she said as she exited the Ford Fusion
("put your life in drive"©). "Have you guys seen the future senator?
It's crunch time and we've got some billionaire butt to kick."
"I think he's in the barn, Lois," Martha said.
Lois smiled. "Salt of the earth. Voters love that," she said, but
then noticed Supermope. "Turn that frown upside down, Skippy. Unhappy
family members reflect badly at the poll."
She smacked his arm and exited. Thank you for smacking him, Lois.
Now if we can just get Chloe to smack him the next time he tries to
burden her with his trite little love life, she'll be well on her way to
recovery.
Jonathan was on the phone promising a chicken in every pot, or
dollar in every wallet when Lois entered. He finished the interview by
saying that he intended to win and didn't care how big his opponent's
checkbook was. I'm sure there's a euphemism in there somewhere. "If you need
any more comments, feel free to call my campaign manager Lois Lane."
Lois complimented him on how smooth he had become with the
interviews and reminded him they were in the home stretch and then gave him a
rundown on all the campaign promotions from radio sports to billboards.
"Lois, this is all really fantastic, but how can we afford it?"
Ah, the deadly question. You'll recall last week that Martha made a
deal with the devil's advocate, Lionel Luthor, to get matching campaign
funds.
"Oh, you know what? Don't even bother with the details. You just
have to shake hands and kiss babies, all right?"
Then night fell, well more like it plummeted as the scene shifted to
Lana driving down the highway whining to Chloe on her cell phone about
her relationship with Clark. "I know how he feels about Lex, but what
am I supposed to do, Chloe? There's this part of Clark that just shuts
down any time I start talking about the meteors or what I saw."
The funny thing is, Lana really doesn't talk about anything else.
Okay, she has been nagging for sex, but in terms of a real conversation,
they never have any. During their carefree no-power day.. or two, Lana
said happy little chipmunk things about how great it was the town got
together for a barn raising and then pushed for sex. Oh, well, sirens
began to go off. No, not metaphorical sirens in Lana's mind, but real
ones driving up behind her. It turned out to be the female cop. She took
Lana to the mansion and Lex saw her arrive on the screen in his panic
room.
"Let her go!"
"Remember that stalemate you were talking about, Luthor?"
"Lex, why are they doing this?"
"Lana, they're looking for a spaceship."
"What spaceship?" Lana asked.
The female cop asked a rhetorical question. "Is everybody stupid
around here?" How could you live in Smallville and not already know the
answer to that?
It should have been obvious to both Lana and Lex that if they knew
enough to kidnap Lana, that they already knew that she was part of the
private spaceship club. Anyway, the male cop threatened to kill Lana if
Lex didn't come out of the panic room. He did.
Lana hit the male cop and Lex hit the female cop and took her gun
and shot a scrambling device that was blocking the silent alarm signal.
Then he and Lana leaped back into the panic room where Lana discovered
that Lex had been shot. Why didn't Lex just shoot the male cop
instead of the scrambler? The female cop was unarmed and both Lex and Lana
would be free if he'd taken out the only other armed person. Well, at
least the female cop got an answer to her earlier question.
We cut to the Talon, which is now doubling for Jonathan's campaign
headquarters. Lois was on the phone talking to someone named Bob about
dropping ten grand on a prime time commercial spot. Jonathan entered and
asked everyone else to leave so he could have a moment alone with Lois.
I'll bet that set tongues wagging.
Jonathan told Lois he'd been crunching the numbers and "we seem to
be spending more than we have. A lot more."
"Well, I just called in a few favors ..."
"Lois, I appreciate everything you're doing, I really do, but you've
got to stop sidestepping my question. Where's the money coming from?"
Lois was fresh out of lies. "Lionel Luthor."
Jonathan looked disappointed and began to walk away.
"I didn't have a choice," Lois said, taking the rap for Martha. "The
well was dry and without Lionel's backing our campaign would have
folded weeks ago. It was the right thing to do. We actually have a chance to
win this thing now."
"What is the point if the devil owns your soul?"
"It's not like that. He doesn't want anything from you. This is
about Lex. Lionel is going to do anything he can to stop Lex from becoming
senator."
"I'm sure that that's true, but you don't know Lionel like I do. He
doesn't give anyone anything for free. There's always a price and now
I'm the one who's going to have to pay it," Jonathan said, more
disappointed than angry.
Lois sighed and even looked a bit tearful as he left. She knew she'd
let him down, but she also knew she couldn't betray Martha.
This scene was well directed. Instead of the usual static soap opera
technique of one character walking up stage towards the camera while
the other character stands in the background talking to the back of their
head, Lois and Jonathan kept moving around the room and confronting
each other.
When Lois initially tried to breeze past Jonathan, he stepped in her
path. When he turned and started to walk away from her, she followed
after him. If he shifted direction, so did she. In fact most of the
scenes were staged better than they usually are.
We have reached the part of the episode where it's time for Clark to
impose on Chloe. To be honest, though, Chloe also imposes on Clark, as
she did in the Lexmas episode, but Clark's impositions generally entail
whining about something dealing with Lana. It's made worse than usual
in this episode because Lana was also whining to Chloe.
Clark arrived at the dorm at super speed, which sent Chloe's
homework papers flying. "Clark! Can you at least put on the brakes before you
tornado my homework?"
"Sorry," he said, with no sincerity. He sat down and made his sulk
face.
Chloe, like a mommy who felt she'd been too brusque with a child for
spilling her cookie batter, set her homework aside to spray Bactine on
her little boy's boo-boo. "Ms. Sullivan's advice column is open for
letters."
"Lana and I had another fight."
"I know, she called me right after the big blow out."
"What'd she say?"
"Just the headlines -- spaceship, boyfriend that always changes the
subject, forced to turn to everyone's favorite villain-in-waiting ..."
"How long has she been working on this with Lex?"
"I don't know. Actually this is the first I've ever heard of it."
Clark moved from his chair to sit with Chloe on her bed. It was
almost a blatant visual cue to illustrate the lack of sexuality between the
two of them. It's intimate positioning, but Lana is clearly sitting
between them even without being physically present. Clark's bizarre
obsession with Lana has transformed a bed into a park bench and transformed
his friend Chloe into Ask Jeeves.
"Next time she calls, you have to find out how long they've been
working together."
Well, this is interesting. Lana told Clark "a couple of weeks," but
it's obvious he thinks she's lying or he wouldn't have asked Chloe to
find out. So, added to his obsession, which over the years has included
peeping and stalking, he's trying to recruit someone to spy on her.
"Are you asking me to spy on Lana?" Duh.
"It's very important." You'll notice he didn't even attempt to deny
it.
"I understand and you're my friend, Clark, but so is Lana and there
is no way I'm getting in the middle of this."
I hope Chloe is beginning to see how nutty Clark has become. He was
bad enough when he used to pine for Lana, but now that he has her, he's
much worse.
Chloe was saved by the phone bell, but even before she could answer
the phone, Clark asked, "Is that Lana?" Creepy, creepy, creepy.
Chloe was informed that Lana's jeep was found abandoned on the
highway, so Clark whooshed off to the highway and I can only hope Chloe
breathed a sigh of relief.
The sheriff rambled on about a perimeter search and that it looked
like Lana was abducted because her purse was left behind and nothing
stolen. Clark x-rayed the jeep and found a GPS tracking device, which
prompted the sheriff to say she could use someone like him on the force.
Yeah, a paranoid obsessive is just what Smallville's finest needs.
The sheriff noticed a serial number on the GPS and called it in and
Clark whooshed away as soon as he heard the number. Then the sheriff
was informed that a silent alarm was triggered at the Luthor mansion and
that Harris (the female cop) was checking it out.
The sheriff called Harris. "What's the situation?"
"All clear, Sheriff. Looks like it was a false alarm."
Meanwhile Lex and Lana were being taunted by the male cop. "Getting
a little warm in there?" he asked and then said he had messed with the
climate controls. "It should hit a buck-thirty in about a half hour.
Give me a yell when you're medium rare." Of course I have to wonder why
any home system climate control would be capable of reaching 130 degrees
unless they occasionally use the mansion to bake nachos.
"By the way," the male cop continued. "How's that bullet feel? I
know I got you."
Lana Nightingale, tending to Lex's wound, said she couldn't stop the
bleeding. Lex told her not to worry, that help should be on the way
soon since he shot out the scrambler that had blocked the silent alarm
signal. "If we'd been at the fair, I would have won you a stuffed
giraffe."
Lana, who had become tearful, said, "I'd have liked that a whole lot
more than you getting shot trying to protect me."
Lex poo-pooed his heroics. "I was just trying to get us back in the
panic room."
"I know what you did, Lex. Thank you."
"Lana, I'm sorry you got sucked into this."
"Why didn't you just tell them where the spaceship was? This isn't
worth your life."
"I can't tell them the truth, because they'd kill both of us."
Suddenly they heard the sheriff's voice over the closed circuit
screen. "Mr. Luthor?"
Harris asked the sheriff why she came to the mansion after she'd
been told that it was a false alarm. The sheriff said she didn't want a
billionaire senatorial candidate chewing her backside because she didn't
show up personally to hold his hand. Then she asked where Lex was.
"Out, I guess, I haven't ..."
"Out? You don't stand down an alarm without talking to the primary
resident, Harris. Now get your head in the game!"
The sheriff continued into the study and saw the dead campaign
manager and pulled her gun. Then she recognized the male cop. "Flynn?"
He pulled his weapon and BAM. The sheriff dropped her gun and opened
her jacket. She looked at the blood on her shirt. "Well, ain't that a
mother," she said. Poor Sheriff, vita brevis, especially in Smallville.
When she fell, Harris was behind her and apparently was the one who
shot her. Lana stood up and looked at the screen, but her expression
didn't register sorrow or even really shock. Maybe she's lived in the
town too long.
At the Daily Planet, Clark was whining at Chloe again, "Why is this
taking so long?"
Chloe gave some techobabble about firewalls and encrypted protocol
and that she didn't have a super speed mode, "But I am the slickest
blonde you'll ever meet."
Chloe found out the GPS belonged to Gregory Flynn. While she was
waiting for information to come up on the screen, she looked at Supermope.
"Clark, Lana's gonna be okay. She has you, doesn't she?" Is this a
trick question?
Clark gave a little smile as if to say, "Yeah, I am pretty awesome."
They found out that Flynn was a former member of Smallville's
sheriff department and that he'd had a psychotic break after witnessing all
of his fellow officers being killed during the meteor shower. So Clark
and Chloe decided to go to the mental facility and get hold of Flynn's
psych workup. I guess the magic computer couldn't get that information
like it has every other time.
For some traveling time transition, Jonathan was shown splitting a
few logs. "I can't believe Lois would take money from Lionel behind my
back," he grumbled. "She has no idea what that man is capable of."
"It wasn't her fault," Martha said as she followed Jonathan to a
grinder. I'm not kidding, he had an ax to grind literally and
metaphorically.
"Martha, please, don't defend her to me."
"I'm not. I took the money from Lionel."
Jonathan stared blankly for a moment. "Martha, how could you do
that?"
"Because I know how much this means to you, Jonathan. To be able to
make a real difference in the world, the way our son does every day."
Oh, please, not that. I'd have more respect for Martha's words if she
had said, "like our son should be doing."
"I love you so much," she continued. "I don't want you to miss that
chance just because Lex has a bigger bank account."
"I promised the only people I would owe if I won this election were
the people who voted for me. Now that I've taken this money, I'm no
different from any other lying politician," he said. This was during
another nice following shot.
"You really think the Farmers Association, the Rotary Club and
everyone else who gave you money won't be asking for favors?"
"Martha, they can ask anything that they want, but no matter how
much they donated, I won't do something I don't believe in."
"Then why should it be any different with Lionel?"
"Martha, you know it's not the same."
"I know nothing is black or white, especially in politics. If you
win this election, you'll be able to help so many people who desperately
need it. Please don't let your pride get in the way," Martha pleaded,
but seeing Jonathan's implacable expression, she sighed and walked away.
This was good dialogue and interaction between Jonathan and Martha.
They've actually grown as a couple over the course of the series. In
the beginning Jonathan was an overbearing hothead and Martha was a mouse
who rarely let her opinion be known and actually seemed to fear
Jonathan. Now they truly seem like partners in their marriage. Their son,
unfortunately, has regressed.
Back in the hot and bleeding panic room, Lana tried to keep Lex
conscious, which is more than she can do for the audience.
"Tell me something."
"What?" the fading Lex replied.
"Anything. Just keep talking, okay?"
"Think I'd look better with hair?"
Lana laughed. "I don't know, I've never thought about it."
"Oh, I have. I've thought about a lot of things. Clark has really
nice hair." A brief nod to the old hoyay days.
"Yeah, I guess he does."
"Does he know?"
"That he has nice hair?" Don't push for miracles. It's enough he can
tie his shoes.
"How lucky he is." Here it comes. Clark is lucky because he has ...
drum roll ... Lana!
"I had a dream once, Lana. About how different things could be. It
was Christmas. Clark and I were friends again."
"That sounds really nice."
"You were in my dream, too."
"I was?" she asked, knowing full well she's the dream girl for all
the guys in Smallville.
"You were the best part about it," he said and touched her cheek.
"Lex, we have to get you out of here, all right? Just give them what
they want."
"I can't tell them where it is."
"The spaceship isn't going to make any difference to you if you're
dead."
"I can't tell them where the spaceship is because I honestly don't
know."
"What?"
CLUNK! You weren't completely open and honest with Lana and now you
must pay the price, you dying blob of flesh.
"One minute it was there and the next nothing but static on the
security cameras. It's an empty warehouse. I'm sorry."
Lana's tears of sorrow turned into poison dew drops of venom. "How
long have you known this?"
"A few weeks." Is that like your "couple" of weeks, Lana?
"Lex, how could you have lied to me this entire time?"
This is so funny. Lana has been lying to Clark "this entire time"
and yet she justified away her lies as being all Clark's fault.
"Because I didn't know how to tell you the truth, Lana. Your life,
mine, they've both been affected so much by these meteors. That ship was
our one chance to understand why. I was hoping that I might find it
again. I should have been honest with you."
Then Lex found the one out from a Lana Lang harangue, he passed out.
"Lex! Lex! Stay awake!" No chance. He knows a good thing when he's
got it.
Lana opened the panic room door. She told the faux cops she'd tell
them where to find the spaceship if they got medical help for Lex. They
told her to show them the ship first, then they'd get help for Lex. So,
off they went.
The scene with Lana and Lex was good. I know that some people cringe
at Lex and Lana together, but there was some poignancy in the scene and
even a little humor.
We finally get back to Clark and Chloe breaking into the mental
facility. Clark whooshed at inviso-speed into the guard's office and gave
his soda a "super shake" so that it spewed on his uniform. After getting
past the guard they brought up the tape of Flynn recounting the carnage
caused by the aliens from the ship. He said they killed everyone except
him and the girl (Lana) and that Lex Luthor came and got the ship.
As soon as Clark heard Lex, he whooshed off and Chloe said, "Damn. I
wish I could do that." No, Chloe, those powers are a burden, remember?
I'm not sure why this scene was necessary since all roads should
have led them to Lex to begin with after both Clark and Chloe found out
that Lana and Lex been researching the ship together.
Clark arrived at the mansion and found the dead sheriff and the
blood-soaked Lex. Then the scene shifted to the warehouse. "All right,"
Lana said. "We're here. Make the call and get Lex help."
"After I see the ship."
Then we get exposition about the faux cops' plan to make a big
explosion that they know won't destroy the ship, but will expose it so that
everyone will finally know it exists. They're afraid more ships like it
will be coming. We also find out that Harris and Flynn are engaged.
They enter the room where the ship used to be and a brawl ensues when they
don't find it. The fight sets off the timer on the bomb device and Lana
is left behind unconscious.
Meanwhile Clark was at the medical center badgering semi-conscious
Lex to find out where Lana was.
"Warehouse 15."
Whoosh.
He arrived at the warehouse, x-rayed the building and saw a skeleton
lying down. There's a big help. I really hate the x-ray vision effect
on this show. He scooped up Lana just as the bomb detonated.
Lana, as usual, regained consciousness just after the event
finished. "What happened?"
"I don't know. Lex told me where to find you and when I got here you
were laying on the ground." Lying on the ground, Clark. You really need
to hit the books now that your sex life is on hiatus.
"I don't understand."
"You're alive. That's all that matters." Yep.
The faux cops were arrested and still raving about the spaceship.
Clark told Lana he couldn't believe Lex risked her life.
"Clark, it wasn't his idea. I brought them here on my own."
"You did?"
"It was my only chance to get Lex help."
"You risked your life for Lex?"
"He did the same thing for me back at the mansion. Clark, if it
wasn't for him, I'd probably be dead. Lex saved my life."
Clark actually looked disappointed as if Lana's life being saved was
tainted by Lex being the one who saved her.
At the Kent farm, Jonathan and Martha watched the latest campaign TV
spot. Lois walked in with Jonathan's cow coffee mug. "What do you
think?"
Jonathan turned to Martha. "I think the flag might have been a bit
much, don't you?"
"Nothing says America like the stars and stripes."
Lois handed him the cup. "Except the name Jonathan Kent."
Jonathan laughed, but Lois became serious. "I'm sorry I accepted
Lionel's contribution without asking you first. It was wrong and I
shouldn't have done it, and ..."
"Lois," Martha interrupted. "He knows."
"He does?"
"I know. Martha told me she's the one who accepted the money. That's
a little fact you might have shared with me when I was yelling at you."
"Well, the decision to use it was still mine," she said. "Look, I
think you are going to be a great senator, Mr. Kent, but the hard truth
is, you wouldn't have a chance of winning without Lionel's money."
"No, Lois. The hard truth is by taking it I'm no longer the man you
just saw on television," he said and then turned to Martha. "And I'm no
longer the man you married." That's a good thing in my book. "That's
why I've decided to pay back Lex Luthor every cent he loaned us."
"How?" Lois asked. "Not having any green is what put us in this
hole."
Jonathan pulled out a check and showed it to Martha. "I sold the
back forty this morning."
"Jonathan, that land has been in your family for generations."
"Yeah, and I've never done a thing with it, sweetheart. I should
have sold it years ago. I was just too proud. I'm sorry."
He gave the check to Lois and said it was a start.
"So what happens in the meantime?" she asked. "You know if you're
right about Lionel, he's going to want something from you."
Jonathan shrugged. "Guess I'll find out soon enough," he said and
kissed Martha's hand. "Right now we have an election to win."
Lois smiled. "Absolutely."
It would be nice to think of this trio together in the future. Lois
with the Kents as her in-laws, but I fear Jonathan won't be there in
the future and I wouldn't wish this version of Clark Kent on anyone.
I agree with Ryan that money from Lionel can come to nothing good
and that Lois should have fought the point with Martha. Maybe if Clark
actually behaved like a devoted son, he'd have fought against using
Lionel's money. Unfortunately his obsession with Lana has turned him into a
moron. I wonder if Chloe's homework being Dostoevsky's The Idiot was a
reference to Clark.
At the hospital, Lana dropped by to visit Lex. He apologized to her
again. That has got to put him high on her grovel list. "I'm sorry I
didn't tell you about losing the ship."
"Wouldn't matter, it would still be gone."
"Yeah, but at least you wouldn't hate me for it," he said, kind of
like a kid on the playground who stole her Twinkie. Yeah, I know, Clark
stole her Twinkie.
"I don't hate you, Lex. How could I after you risked your life to
save mine?"
"You're one of the few good things in my life. I hope that won't
change."
"That depends on you. All I ever asked for was the truth."
Arghhhhhhhhh!
"And that's all you'll ever get from me from now on. I promise."
Arghhhhhhhhh! "Lana, we may not have the ship, but that doesn't mean we
can't keep trying to find it and solve all the mysteries that go with
it." Lex extended his hand. "Partners?"
"No," Lana said and seemed to enjoy Lex's misery for a moment and
then she smiled. "Let's try being friends."
Then they hugged and I mean a long hug. Certainly long enough for
Clark to exit the elevator and see them. He whooshed away instead of
being a man and walking in and thanking Lex for saving his girlfriend's
life. It's unclear to me whether Lana saw him or not. Lex asked, "What is
it?" and she replied, "It's nothing." That's for sure.
The scene shifted to the Daily Planet with more whining from Clark.
"The only reason Lana almost got killed, was because of Lex."
"She's a big girl, Clark," Chloe said, sounding as tired of his
complaining as we are. "She can make her own decisions."
"I'm not saying she can't, but we all know Lex. He twists everything
around, one lie on top of another until you don't know what to
believe," Pot Kent said of Kettle Luthor.
"No, Lex is a snake, believe me, I've seen his scales, but he did
almost die taking a bullet for Lana."
"I saved her from a bomb, doesn't that mean anything?"
This is so ridiculous. Clark is playing "My save was bigger than
your save" when all that should matter to him, regardless of who saved
Lana, is that she was saved. It's also lost on Clark that Lex risked his
life to save Lana. There was no risk of life involved in Clark's rescue
of Lana.
"Yeah, it would if she knew about it. Clark, the only reason Lana
started talking to Lex in the first place was to learn more about that
spaceship."
"And if I'd been honest with her, she never would have had to."
"No, she wouldn't."
Supermope sighed and sat down. "I love her so much, Chloe."
Chloe stared a moment and looked hurt. No doubt the irony of loving
Clark and knowing his secret and accepting him for who he is has
started to unravel her emotions more and more with each visit Clark makes on
Lana's behalf. He seems utterly oblivious to her feelings. "I know, but
all you're doing right now, Clark, is pushing her further away."
"That's not what I want. I want us to be together for the rest of
our lives." That actually sounded more like a threat considering Clark's
controlling obsession.
The pain in Chloe's eyes seemed to deepen. "The only way that's
going to happen is if you tell her the truth."
The End
I thought this episode was superior to Fanatic, but Clark has
evolved into such an unlikable and unsympathetic obsessed kook that it just
overrides everything about him. There is no Clark Kent anymore. There is
merely this thing that longs to possess Lana and has no higher
aspirations than that. He doesn't help his dad's campaign, he doesn't see Chloe
as a person anymore or how he hurts her and he even resents Lex for
saving Lana's life.
I know someone will die in the 100th episode, but is it wrong of me
to wish for it to be Clark?
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