Lionel asks if Clark has ever 'taken a really honest look' at Lana. Good question. Later Lex says that he can see in Clark's eyes that Clark doesn't trust her. And Lex's assertions about Lana hiding the Isis Foundation from Clark resonate with Clark's inner feeling that there's something 'darker' about Lana these days. Clark takes that honest look at Lana at the end of the episode--and she notices, saying 'I wish you wouldn't look at me as if you hadn't seen me before'.
This a huge part of why I love this episode SO MUCH. Because I feel like all these moments of people telling Clark/Clark realizing that he's never really taken a good look at Lana were the pay-off for something the series alluded to all the way back in *S2's* Accelerate. Why, it's almost as if ... there were long-term character arcs or something. *bg*
It was full-on enough to see him go there to meet Lana earlier in the season, but I loved it so much more that he'd pulled a Clark and let himself in in order to accuse Clark of something.
I think it was Kate who was like, "Can't these two pick up a phone or shoot off an e-mail?" It's wonderfully slashy, but also kind of hilarious that two people who supposedly can't stand each other keep swanning into one another's homes to say stuff they could say from a distance.
Good question: IS Lex to blame? I don't think so. Lana's always had fewer moral boundaries than Clark. ... But at another level I don't completely buy it--the capacity for these acts was in Lana and Lex before Clark came along.
I've never had patience for any of the characters acting as though Lana lacks agency, so when Clark and Lex launched into that with each other, it was the equivalent of white noise to me. Not only do I think they're both wrong when they do it, I think they both also being annoyingly paternalistic and chauvinist. "Oh, she's just a girl who needs help/saving/protecting. She couldn't possibly make her own choices about how to do things unless it's influenced by some man." I want both of them to STFU when they start that nonsense because of course Lana is responsible for her choices. Yes, what Lex did to her was terrible and yes, the way Clark jerked her around for years was, from her POV, emotionally unkind. But Lana, like most people, made choices about how to deal with those things. Those choices are on her and her alone, in the same way Clark's choices belong to Clark, and Lex's choices belong to Lex, etc.
Sorry to be ranty, but they annoyed the crap out of me in that last scene between them.
OMG BARN SCENE. This is possibly my favourite Clana barn scene ever.
Mine, too.
Clark admits that looking below the surface has never been part of their relationship. OMG, that might be the greatest revelation of the whole episode!
I KNOW! That's what I mean about being so gobsmacked and delighted to realize they've apparently been headed towards this on purpose since Lana's speech to Clark in Accelerate, that in fact it's why Lana's speech to Clark in Accelerateexisted in the first place -- to set the stage for this moment, for this barn scene.
I've never seen Lana assert her independence more than when she said 'I have to live with the decisions that I made'.
I've never loved her character more than I did in that moment.
Lana appears to forget she knows Lois, but I'll forgive that if it's the means by which Lois gets a lead on Lex's latest project.
I don't think it's that Lana forgets that she knows Lois so much as Lana going directly to the person with the power to actually print the story. Lois could write it, sure, but Grant says whether it runs or not. In the DP scene, Lana's a woman on a mission, so she doesn't have time for the niceties of saying "hello" to Lois. I saw her amusement at knocking Lois through the window as being less about hidden hostility towards Lois and more about Lana being drunk on her own power by that point. Not for nothing is it the scene that immediately precedes Lana finally confronting Lex directly.
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branchandroot
part III
Date: 2007-11-11 06:59 pm (UTC)This a huge part of why I love this episode SO MUCH. Because I feel like all these moments of people telling Clark/Clark realizing that he's never really taken a good look at Lana were the pay-off for something the series alluded to all the way back in *S2's* Accelerate. Why, it's almost as if ... there were long-term character arcs or something. *bg*
It was full-on enough to see him go there to meet Lana earlier in the season, but I loved it so much more that he'd pulled a Clark and let himself in in order to accuse Clark of something.
I think it was Kate who was like, "Can't these two pick up a phone or shoot off an e-mail?" It's wonderfully slashy, but also kind of hilarious that two people who supposedly can't stand each other keep swanning into one another's homes to say stuff they could say from a distance.
Good question: IS Lex to blame? I don't think so. Lana's always had fewer moral boundaries than Clark. ... But at another level I don't completely buy it--the capacity for these acts was in Lana and Lex before Clark came along.
I've never had patience for any of the characters acting as though Lana lacks agency, so when Clark and Lex launched into that with each other, it was the equivalent of white noise to me. Not only do I think they're both wrong when they do it, I think they both also being annoyingly paternalistic and chauvinist. "Oh, she's just a girl who needs help/saving/protecting. She couldn't possibly make her own choices about how to do things unless it's influenced by some man." I want both of them to STFU when they start that nonsense because of course Lana is responsible for her choices. Yes, what Lex did to her was terrible and yes, the way Clark jerked her around for years was, from her POV, emotionally unkind. But Lana, like most people, made choices about how to deal with those things. Those choices are on her and her alone, in the same way Clark's choices belong to Clark, and Lex's choices belong to Lex, etc.
Sorry to be ranty, but they annoyed the crap out of me in that last scene between them.
OMG BARN SCENE. This is possibly my favourite Clana barn scene ever.
Mine, too.
Clark admits that looking below the surface has never been part of their relationship. OMG, that might be the greatest revelation of the whole episode!
I KNOW! That's what I mean about being so gobsmacked and delighted to realize they've apparently been headed towards this on purpose since Lana's speech to Clark in Accelerate, that in fact it's why Lana's speech to Clark in Accelerate existed in the first place -- to set the stage for this moment, for this barn scene.
I've never seen Lana assert her independence more than when she said 'I have to live with the decisions that I made'.
I've never loved her character more than I did in that moment.
Lana appears to forget she knows Lois, but I'll forgive that if it's the means by which Lois gets a lead on Lex's latest project.
I don't think it's that Lana forgets that she knows Lois so much as Lana going directly to the person with the power to actually print the story. Lois could write it, sure, but Grant says whether it runs or not. In the DP scene, Lana's a woman on a mission, so she doesn't have time for the niceties of saying "hello" to Lois. I saw her amusement at knocking Lois through the window as being less about hidden hostility towards Lois and more about Lana being drunk on her own power by that point. Not for nothing is it the scene that immediately precedes Lana finally confronting Lex directly.