S marks the spot
Apr. 29th, 2007 01:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xparrotSPN 2x19 was terrific fun as always. We caught John Shiban's writing credit at the beginning so didn't bother watching for plotholes, just enjoyed the ep. Loved Dean especially, fitting into the prison environment so uncomfortably easily, so determined to do the job. Sam questions the merit of helping convicted criminals at such risk to themselves, but Dean is blind to human evil, except when it's directly targeting his family. As far as he's concerned, it's Us vs Them, and while he's relentless and ruthless in his pursuit of Them, when it comes to Us he is solidarity all the way. If Agent Hendricks was in danger from a ghost, Dean might bitch about it, but he'd save him in an instant without hesitation. The only exception are people who are deliberately using ghosts/spells/etc.; they're siding with Them. (And folks who go after Sam, naturally!) Everyone else in the human race is part of Dean's extended family, and gets the protection that implies.
Of course the other reason the plotholes didn't bother me is because after a steady diet of Smallville, I'm becoming inured against the common garden variety of logical inconsistency. SV doesn't so much have 'plot holes' as it has 'a few tightrope strands of plot suspended swaying over the void'. Which doesn't mean that "Nemesis" wasn't awesome.
Not that I liked it unreservedly. In contradiction to most of the rest of the fandom, I still cannot stand Lana. I can't enjoy the badass villainess-in-training when I know she's going to flipflop back to helpless victim in a week or two anyway. And while I think she's justifiably outraged, what Lex did to her was totally, undeniably beyond the pale (even if she should have seen it coming) - it gets to me how much she revels in playing the Luthor game. She doesn't hesitate to sink to their level. Even if she's bad at it. Hello, opening the briefcase in Lex's office? Which she knows is wired with cameras?
She better be found out. It doesn't sit well with me that a hick farmgirl can run rings around Lex flippin' Luthor, who has been trained in this kind of psychological warfare and manipulation from birth. Unless you want to argue that Lana has natural talent for corruption, while Lex has been wrestling against his dark side all his life...(I gotta admit, it would be fun if Lana stayed married to Lex and they contentedly passed time manipulating and backstabbing one another. All the more entertaining if Lana did it supposedly to protect Clark, only to make herself such that Clark is forced to go against her...that would be kind of awesome. And I just made myself almost enjoy thinking about Lana, I'm going to be quietly sick now.)
Oh well.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
gnine and I are still trying to figure out why Lex wanted to marry her at all. One would think he would be less than eager himself to be trapped in a loveless marriage, after what happened after his last two weddings. The whole faux-fetus plot is entirely nonsensical to us.
But who cares about Lana! We have Clex! And it was marvelous fun. After racing to finish "Contingencies" it was great to see that I didn't have to; pretty much everything that happened in the fic is totally supported in the episode, up to and including Chloe wanting to see Lex dead and Clark not being able to, for heroic reasons or something else. Loved Clark & Lex talking, loved that Lex came back for him (and at substantial risk to his own life; he could have just run off, with the clock ticking - for all the times Clark has saved Lex, how many times has he actually put himself in danger to do so?gnine pointed out that if Clark hadn't bothered to come save Lex, Lex would probably have gotten out safely anyway; Clark doesn't do a heck of a lot...)
Loved the Martha-Clark conversation. (even if I did shriek at "Maybe this is the one time Lex was actually telling the truth", because yeah, I know, hyperbole, and Lex is being an ass now, but what about, oh, most of 3rd season when Clark blamed everything from global warming to the Spanish Inquisition on Lex and it was never Lex's fault?) Loved that Clark actually is wondering if part of who Lex is is because of him. The answer,MacLeod Clark, is YES. OH YES. Not that I blame Clark for what Lex has become. While Clark made some major mistakes with Lex, he's not accountable for Lex's choices. And he shouldn't guilt over lost chances; all the what-ifs don't mean anything. Maybe if Clark had told Lex the truth from the start it would have gone beautifully; maybe it would have gone horribly wrong (I wish the show had just once given us some evidence for the latter, but...) There's no way to know.
But the truth is that every person is a product of their environment, a result of the influences around them; and Clark was an incredibly strong influence on Lex's life, and knew it. So yes, whatever Lex is, Clark played a role. And it's great to see Clark realizing this, to see him wondering if maybe there were things he could have done differently. Not just for the Clex; it's good for Clark, a necessary part of growing up and coming into his own as a hero, to realize how significant he really is in people's lives, to make an effort to do right by them.
And loved that Clark said, "I saw a glimpse of something I hadn't seen in years - my friend." Not that he saw good in Lex, not that he saw a chance for redemption; just that incredibly personal epiphany. That whatever else Lex was, or might be now, Lex was Clark's best friend, and he can't forget that. It ultimately doesn't matter if Clark had anything to do with Lex's fall; even if he's not responsible at all, he's still losing something in losing Lex, something worth fighting for.
--So don't listen to your mother, Clark. You're going to be freakin' Superman; you don't ever have to let go if you don't want to. And you sure as hell did give up on Lex - deserved or not - and you shouldn't, not if you're going to be worthy of the incredibly heavy mantle of the hero. By the way, hope isn't your greatest weakness. Kryptonite is. Just want to clarify that.
Also, regarding Lionel, I will never believe he's "made an effort"; I will never believe he's gone good. Sorry, drugging your son to drive him to a schizophrenic break, so you can commit him and submit him to illegal electroshock therapy, so he can't testify that you murdered your own parents? Yeah, that trumps faking a pregnancy, hands down. If Lionel is redeemable after that, then Lex is totally, utterly forgivable - but Lionel isn't trying to save Lex. (Unlike in 4th season, in which I honestly believe Lionel might have reformed, and in part because he was so eager to reform Lex as well. The genuinely saved tend to want to save others.) Instead Lionel's damning his own son to get an in with the good guys. It's manipulative as ever, and I love the Magnificent Bastard for it, but man, Martha is blind sometimes.
Finally, the very end was the awesome, and not just because when I first saw the director's cut last week, I predicted exactly what happened, that we were going to go to credits with Lex standing over the not-dead husband. (Also not just because, hey, Helo! Great to see you! Even if you were cheating with a blond chick. Poor choice, that. Sharon's so much hotter.) But because Lex finally confirms that whatever 33.1 and Project Ares are, he puts them above his own life. I don't know what Lex thinks he's doing, fighting against mutants, fighting against alien invaders (he did have the Zoner attack video on the Ares disk), whatever. But he's not in it for profit or power; he's got a cause bigger than himself. He's found his Great Things and they're consuming him, he's letting them consume him for the greater good, and I can't help but find a tragic nobility in that.
Of course the other reason the plotholes didn't bother me is because after a steady diet of Smallville, I'm becoming inured against the common garden variety of logical inconsistency. SV doesn't so much have 'plot holes' as it has 'a few tightrope strands of plot suspended swaying over the void'. Which doesn't mean that "Nemesis" wasn't awesome.
Not that I liked it unreservedly. In contradiction to most of the rest of the fandom, I still cannot stand Lana. I can't enjoy the badass villainess-in-training when I know she's going to flipflop back to helpless victim in a week or two anyway. And while I think she's justifiably outraged, what Lex did to her was totally, undeniably beyond the pale (even if she should have seen it coming) - it gets to me how much she revels in playing the Luthor game. She doesn't hesitate to sink to their level. Even if she's bad at it. Hello, opening the briefcase in Lex's office? Which she knows is wired with cameras?
She better be found out. It doesn't sit well with me that a hick farmgirl can run rings around Lex flippin' Luthor, who has been trained in this kind of psychological warfare and manipulation from birth. Unless you want to argue that Lana has natural talent for corruption, while Lex has been wrestling against his dark side all his life...(I gotta admit, it would be fun if Lana stayed married to Lex and they contentedly passed time manipulating and backstabbing one another. All the more entertaining if Lana did it supposedly to protect Clark, only to make herself such that Clark is forced to go against her...that would be kind of awesome. And I just made myself almost enjoy thinking about Lana, I'm going to be quietly sick now.)
Oh well.
gnine and I are still trying to figure out why Lex wanted to marry her at all. One would think he would be less than eager himself to be trapped in a loveless marriage, after what happened after his last two weddings. The whole faux-fetus plot is entirely nonsensical to us.But who cares about Lana! We have Clex! And it was marvelous fun. After racing to finish "Contingencies" it was great to see that I didn't have to; pretty much everything that happened in the fic is totally supported in the episode, up to and including Chloe wanting to see Lex dead and Clark not being able to, for heroic reasons or something else. Loved Clark & Lex talking, loved that Lex came back for him (and at substantial risk to his own life; he could have just run off, with the clock ticking - for all the times Clark has saved Lex, how many times has he actually put himself in danger to do so?
gnine pointed out that if Clark hadn't bothered to come save Lex, Lex would probably have gotten out safely anyway; Clark doesn't do a heck of a lot...) Loved the Martha-Clark conversation. (even if I did shriek at "Maybe this is the one time Lex was actually telling the truth", because yeah, I know, hyperbole, and Lex is being an ass now, but what about, oh, most of 3rd season when Clark blamed everything from global warming to the Spanish Inquisition on Lex and it was never Lex's fault?) Loved that Clark actually is wondering if part of who Lex is is because of him. The answer,
But the truth is that every person is a product of their environment, a result of the influences around them; and Clark was an incredibly strong influence on Lex's life, and knew it. So yes, whatever Lex is, Clark played a role. And it's great to see Clark realizing this, to see him wondering if maybe there were things he could have done differently. Not just for the Clex; it's good for Clark, a necessary part of growing up and coming into his own as a hero, to realize how significant he really is in people's lives, to make an effort to do right by them.
And loved that Clark said, "I saw a glimpse of something I hadn't seen in years - my friend." Not that he saw good in Lex, not that he saw a chance for redemption; just that incredibly personal epiphany. That whatever else Lex was, or might be now, Lex was Clark's best friend, and he can't forget that. It ultimately doesn't matter if Clark had anything to do with Lex's fall; even if he's not responsible at all, he's still losing something in losing Lex, something worth fighting for.
--So don't listen to your mother, Clark. You're going to be freakin' Superman; you don't ever have to let go if you don't want to. And you sure as hell did give up on Lex - deserved or not - and you shouldn't, not if you're going to be worthy of the incredibly heavy mantle of the hero. By the way, hope isn't your greatest weakness. Kryptonite is. Just want to clarify that.
Also, regarding Lionel, I will never believe he's "made an effort"; I will never believe he's gone good. Sorry, drugging your son to drive him to a schizophrenic break, so you can commit him and submit him to illegal electroshock therapy, so he can't testify that you murdered your own parents? Yeah, that trumps faking a pregnancy, hands down. If Lionel is redeemable after that, then Lex is totally, utterly forgivable - but Lionel isn't trying to save Lex. (Unlike in 4th season, in which I honestly believe Lionel might have reformed, and in part because he was so eager to reform Lex as well. The genuinely saved tend to want to save others.) Instead Lionel's damning his own son to get an in with the good guys. It's manipulative as ever, and I love the Magnificent Bastard for it, but man, Martha is blind sometimes.
Finally, the very end was the awesome, and not just because when I first saw the director's cut last week, I predicted exactly what happened, that we were going to go to credits with Lex standing over the not-dead husband. (Also not just because, hey, Helo! Great to see you! Even if you were cheating with a blond chick. Poor choice, that. Sharon's so much hotter.) But because Lex finally confirms that whatever 33.1 and Project Ares are, he puts them above his own life. I don't know what Lex thinks he's doing, fighting against mutants, fighting against alien invaders (he did have the Zoner attack video on the Ares disk), whatever. But he's not in it for profit or power; he's got a cause bigger than himself. He's found his Great Things and they're consuming him, he's letting them consume him for the greater good, and I can't help but find a tragic nobility in that.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Re: Hey, I don't know you, but...
Date: 2007-05-02 11:05 am (UTC)This is an awesome point. I've never really thought about it that way but yeah. Not to mention, umm, Parenting 101? Telling your teenage son not to do something - e.g. "don't hang around with Lex Luthor" - is tantamount to saying "THIS IS THE MOST AWESOME THING DO IT RIGHT NOW!" That's just the way teenagers work. The much wiser parental strategy would've been getting close to Lex to be able to keep an eye on him, and whatever he got up to with Clark. Especially since Lex himself was being scrupulous about...er...courting the Kent family. (He totally was scoping Jonathan out to ask for Clark's hand :P)
I like the Kents in theory more than practice - I love close families and they're very caring of Clark. But the way they care is often highly suspect...raising Clark to be so suspicious of everyone that he lies without thought to the consequences, man, that's disturbing, especially since it's pretty much unjustified - there's all these people with wacky powers around town, and none of them have ever been dragged off by the government. Where exactly did they get their paranoia of laboratories? Was Martha an X-phile or what?
Re: Hey, I don't know you, but...
Date: 2007-05-02 11:35 am (UTC)Maybe it all goes back to when wee!Clark picked up the bed, and Jonathan and Martha were going to take him to some doctor/scientist/whatever, and then belatedly realized that they'd probably never see Clark again if they turned him over. They keep remembering what they now see as a terribly close call, and they feel so much guilt and anxiety over it that they go overboard in stressing to Clark that he must never, ever let anyone find out about his differences.