Smallville 5.15 Cyborg
Feb. 18th, 2006 01:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bop_radarOh joy! A fast torrent and a brilliant episode.
Reflected selves
The casting of Victor, the cyborg, was brilliant. He was hot and he could act! Joking aside, he worked really well as this week’s reflection of Clark. The parallels were neatly drawn: superhuman strength, football player, milk drinker (cute!), physically perfect, good-natured and courteous. It’s unsurprising that Clark identified so strongly with him.
Furthermore, Victor revealed that he had a girlfriend he wished to marry, before he was killed in a car accident. Victor asks Clark if he thinks his girlfriend will accept him now that he is super-human (or part ‘bionic’). Clark replies ‘I’m not the best person to be asking about that.’ I loved this wry self-aware comment from Clark. Having recently experienced the death of his own girlfriend as the result of revealing his secret to her, and having lived through his own ‘death’ not so long ago, Clark is too close to the situation to comment objectively. The parallels are too real for him to be able to give an encouraging response.
Instead, it is Lana not Clark who allows Victor to realise his romantic ‘destiny’. Catherine and Lana are also paralleled. They are of a similar physical type and the first person Victor runs into on exiting the hospital is Lana. She becomes emotionally intrigued and moved by his story. Victor asks her ‘what would you do if you had one last chance to see the person you love?’ Lana recognises someone with a similar romantic temperament to her own. She also sees in Victor the qualities she used to love in Clark—particularly his desire to place her first above his own life. There is even more to the investment in Victor for Lana, as he experienced the death of his family and has survivor guilt, something she knows a lot about. In helping Victor reunite with Catherine, Lana is living out her own fantasy of reaching a loving and honest connection with someone else.
At the end of Cyborg, Victor is reunited with Catherine. As they embrace, Lana and Clark watch. Each of them show in their expressions that they recognise themselves in Victor and Catherine. Lana shares these thoughts with Clark later, telling him that they reminded her of their ‘glory days’ together. Clark does not share his thoughts, but his expression reflects the bitterness of understanding that the happy ending will not be his. The audience, privileged to Clark’s journey, knows he is holding himself back in order to protect Lana, to do what he thinks is right. This scene, beautifully constructed, combines two main themes in this week’s episode: the reflection of oneself in others and the sharing or hiding of secrets.
Villainy
For Clark, the emotional investment in Victor is not about romance, but about his own darkest fears. Victor has been experimented on and turned into a vehicle for potentially dark purposes. Clark admits he has ‘a thing about being experimented on in labs’. Again, I loved the self-awareness from Clark. He’s clearheaded about what he’s identifying with and why he takes up Victor’s case with such enthusiasm. Clark would, of course, save anyone, but in Victor’s case, there are subtle suggestions that he’s more personally invested than usual.
Chloe and Clark uncover that Luthorcorp owns the lab where Victor was created. No surprise there, as we can tell from Chloe’s tone of voice. She expected it to be Luthorcorp, and probably so did Clark. He rushes to confront Lex.
Lex is revealed to be the ‘vilain of the story’ in this episode. We’ve finally reached a place where Lex is shown to be lying outright to Clark. What’s wonderful about the construction of this plot, is that Lex still appears as the victim of Clark’s assumptions to begin with, as he is eager to point out. He calls Clark on his abrupt entry, impolite behaviour and presumptuous allegations. We’ve seen this behaviour from Clark in the past when the course of events did not justify it, when Lex was proved innocent. Later Lex and Clark both find themselves at the ‘scene of the crime’, Dr Hong’s suicide. Clark immediately suspects the worst of Lex: ‘why else would you be here?’ Lex argues that he is trying to remedy the situation, just as Clark is. It’s a believable argument, because Lex has often shown this sort of initiative in the past.
Lex plays his final card: an appeal to Clark to bring Victor to him. But Victor is trapped, not by Clark’s betrayal of him, but by going to Catherine. That’s a neat reflection on the fact that Clark’s own love interest is a weakness for him. Lex will exploit that in the future, for he has learned, in the most direct way possible that ‘the heart has a way of clouding one’s better judgement.’
When confronted, Lex claims that his intentions have been misconstrued. Clark replies that ‘that seems to happen a lot to you’. Oh what a bitter echo that is, since it is Clark who so often misconstrued Lex’s genuine intentions in the past.
Clouded judgement
The secondary plot this week centred on Martha and Lionel. In this plot we see another demonstration of how true Lex’s words on the heart clouding one’s judgement really are. Martha is exposed to an attempted blackmail scenario. Without Jonathan constantly building a wall between his family and the Luthors, Martha falters. Lionel appears in the doorway of the Kent kitchen, framed in light, but no less of a sinister character for that. He is polite and excessively obliging, and puts Martha on the spot when he suggests that it’s not seemly for her to be seen with him. The reverse psychology works: she replies ‘I’m not the sort of person who turns her back on her friends because of what people think.’ Martha’s warm heart leaves her open to Lionel’s manipulation.
Unlike with the Lex plotline, where the construction suggested that Lex was not the villain, the construction of the Lionel plot suggested from the start that Lionel was behind the blackmailing. We know he is capable of it and we know he gathers evidence about Clark. What a lovely twist was in store though! In the final scene we see that while Martha burns the evidence, Lionel pays off the blackmailer and obtains another copy of the video footage. He watches Clark saving Lana from the warehouse explosion and reveals ‘Your secret is safe with me … Kal-El.’
I admit I squeed with glee. Finally we have evidence of a far more direct connection between Jor-El and Lionel. In fact, it seems most likely that Jor-El is using Lionel’s body permanently. If so, fantastic! This puts a different spin on Lionel’s interest in the newly widowed Martha. He is aiming not to win her heart but to protect his son and he can best do this by staying close to the family. One father usurps the other’s position: does this mean we need to reinterpret Jonathan’s death? Did Jor-El/Lionel have a more deliberate hand in it than first appeared? Oh, what exciting possibilities!
Profound miracles
Lex also delivers another important message in Cyborg: “Some miracles have a price but that doesn’t make them any less profound.” In the context, this appears at first as simply the argument of a supervillain: he has created the ‘miracle’ of Victor at great expense. This parallels Lionel’s purchase of the blackmailer’s information (the secret of Clark’s true nature) at a high price. However, the truth of Lex’s statement also reverberates in deeper ways. This season’s arc has been about the price that Clark pays for his powers, the loss of Lana, the death of his father. The cost in human terms has been huge. There have been many ‘miracles’ this season, not least of which Clark’s idyllic proposal in Reckoning and Lex’s dreamscape in Lexmas. Each resulted in a huge emotional cost but represent moments of profound revelation.
Rumours of the death of clex have been greatly exaggerated
Last week![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
latxcvi posted about having lost interest in the clex reading of Smallville. She pointed to the apparent indifference that Clark and Lex demonstrated towards each other, and to a large degree I agreed. I held out hope for its return though, since episodes like Splinter took the slash subtext to an extreme degree. So I was amused to find this week rife with clex-slash undertones. They don’t really need spelled out, right? Oh, hey, it’s fun…
I admit to enjoying Clark and Lex’s catty fighting in this episode. Clark walks in to find Lex in front of the fire (romance) but won’t be drawn into amicable conversation, despite all Lex’s prodding about the lack of ‘small talk’. Lex’s lip-suck when Clark left the room was very funny. He’s getting a kick out of the irony of the situation! And despite all Clark’s bravado, Lex’s words still touch him at some level, if the long stares are anything to go by! ;-)
Lex and Lana have been strongly paralleled this season, and this continued in Cyborg. Lana confronts Clark about hiding his feelings and Lex says that he knows Clark is angry. Clark himself is distant with both of them. He acknowledges neither of them. Though the talk of glory days reminds us of the time when he held hope for happiness in his relationships with each of them. That time has passed but the echoes are strong. However Clark can’t state the truth and have it accepted by either of them. His declaration of love to Lana sounds hollow, just as any words to bridge the gap with Lex would. I don’t believe Clark wants to bridge the gap there, but I do think he’s hiding how much it tears at him.
Um… and did I mention the fact that Lex created a (very attractive) cyborg with Clark’s strength and speed!? Oh, Lex--you and your toys!
Reflected selves
The casting of Victor, the cyborg, was brilliant. He was hot and he could act! Joking aside, he worked really well as this week’s reflection of Clark. The parallels were neatly drawn: superhuman strength, football player, milk drinker (cute!), physically perfect, good-natured and courteous. It’s unsurprising that Clark identified so strongly with him.
Furthermore, Victor revealed that he had a girlfriend he wished to marry, before he was killed in a car accident. Victor asks Clark if he thinks his girlfriend will accept him now that he is super-human (or part ‘bionic’). Clark replies ‘I’m not the best person to be asking about that.’ I loved this wry self-aware comment from Clark. Having recently experienced the death of his own girlfriend as the result of revealing his secret to her, and having lived through his own ‘death’ not so long ago, Clark is too close to the situation to comment objectively. The parallels are too real for him to be able to give an encouraging response.
Instead, it is Lana not Clark who allows Victor to realise his romantic ‘destiny’. Catherine and Lana are also paralleled. They are of a similar physical type and the first person Victor runs into on exiting the hospital is Lana. She becomes emotionally intrigued and moved by his story. Victor asks her ‘what would you do if you had one last chance to see the person you love?’ Lana recognises someone with a similar romantic temperament to her own. She also sees in Victor the qualities she used to love in Clark—particularly his desire to place her first above his own life. There is even more to the investment in Victor for Lana, as he experienced the death of his family and has survivor guilt, something she knows a lot about. In helping Victor reunite with Catherine, Lana is living out her own fantasy of reaching a loving and honest connection with someone else.
At the end of Cyborg, Victor is reunited with Catherine. As they embrace, Lana and Clark watch. Each of them show in their expressions that they recognise themselves in Victor and Catherine. Lana shares these thoughts with Clark later, telling him that they reminded her of their ‘glory days’ together. Clark does not share his thoughts, but his expression reflects the bitterness of understanding that the happy ending will not be his. The audience, privileged to Clark’s journey, knows he is holding himself back in order to protect Lana, to do what he thinks is right. This scene, beautifully constructed, combines two main themes in this week’s episode: the reflection of oneself in others and the sharing or hiding of secrets.
Villainy
For Clark, the emotional investment in Victor is not about romance, but about his own darkest fears. Victor has been experimented on and turned into a vehicle for potentially dark purposes. Clark admits he has ‘a thing about being experimented on in labs’. Again, I loved the self-awareness from Clark. He’s clearheaded about what he’s identifying with and why he takes up Victor’s case with such enthusiasm. Clark would, of course, save anyone, but in Victor’s case, there are subtle suggestions that he’s more personally invested than usual.
Chloe and Clark uncover that Luthorcorp owns the lab where Victor was created. No surprise there, as we can tell from Chloe’s tone of voice. She expected it to be Luthorcorp, and probably so did Clark. He rushes to confront Lex.
Lex is revealed to be the ‘vilain of the story’ in this episode. We’ve finally reached a place where Lex is shown to be lying outright to Clark. What’s wonderful about the construction of this plot, is that Lex still appears as the victim of Clark’s assumptions to begin with, as he is eager to point out. He calls Clark on his abrupt entry, impolite behaviour and presumptuous allegations. We’ve seen this behaviour from Clark in the past when the course of events did not justify it, when Lex was proved innocent. Later Lex and Clark both find themselves at the ‘scene of the crime’, Dr Hong’s suicide. Clark immediately suspects the worst of Lex: ‘why else would you be here?’ Lex argues that he is trying to remedy the situation, just as Clark is. It’s a believable argument, because Lex has often shown this sort of initiative in the past.
Lex plays his final card: an appeal to Clark to bring Victor to him. But Victor is trapped, not by Clark’s betrayal of him, but by going to Catherine. That’s a neat reflection on the fact that Clark’s own love interest is a weakness for him. Lex will exploit that in the future, for he has learned, in the most direct way possible that ‘the heart has a way of clouding one’s better judgement.’
When confronted, Lex claims that his intentions have been misconstrued. Clark replies that ‘that seems to happen a lot to you’. Oh what a bitter echo that is, since it is Clark who so often misconstrued Lex’s genuine intentions in the past.
Clouded judgement
The secondary plot this week centred on Martha and Lionel. In this plot we see another demonstration of how true Lex’s words on the heart clouding one’s judgement really are. Martha is exposed to an attempted blackmail scenario. Without Jonathan constantly building a wall between his family and the Luthors, Martha falters. Lionel appears in the doorway of the Kent kitchen, framed in light, but no less of a sinister character for that. He is polite and excessively obliging, and puts Martha on the spot when he suggests that it’s not seemly for her to be seen with him. The reverse psychology works: she replies ‘I’m not the sort of person who turns her back on her friends because of what people think.’ Martha’s warm heart leaves her open to Lionel’s manipulation.
Unlike with the Lex plotline, where the construction suggested that Lex was not the villain, the construction of the Lionel plot suggested from the start that Lionel was behind the blackmailing. We know he is capable of it and we know he gathers evidence about Clark. What a lovely twist was in store though! In the final scene we see that while Martha burns the evidence, Lionel pays off the blackmailer and obtains another copy of the video footage. He watches Clark saving Lana from the warehouse explosion and reveals ‘Your secret is safe with me … Kal-El.’
I admit I squeed with glee. Finally we have evidence of a far more direct connection between Jor-El and Lionel. In fact, it seems most likely that Jor-El is using Lionel’s body permanently. If so, fantastic! This puts a different spin on Lionel’s interest in the newly widowed Martha. He is aiming not to win her heart but to protect his son and he can best do this by staying close to the family. One father usurps the other’s position: does this mean we need to reinterpret Jonathan’s death? Did Jor-El/Lionel have a more deliberate hand in it than first appeared? Oh, what exciting possibilities!
Profound miracles
Lex also delivers another important message in Cyborg: “Some miracles have a price but that doesn’t make them any less profound.” In the context, this appears at first as simply the argument of a supervillain: he has created the ‘miracle’ of Victor at great expense. This parallels Lionel’s purchase of the blackmailer’s information (the secret of Clark’s true nature) at a high price. However, the truth of Lex’s statement also reverberates in deeper ways. This season’s arc has been about the price that Clark pays for his powers, the loss of Lana, the death of his father. The cost in human terms has been huge. There have been many ‘miracles’ this season, not least of which Clark’s idyllic proposal in Reckoning and Lex’s dreamscape in Lexmas. Each resulted in a huge emotional cost but represent moments of profound revelation.
Rumours of the death of clex have been greatly exaggerated
Last week
latxcvi posted about having lost interest in the clex reading of Smallville. She pointed to the apparent indifference that Clark and Lex demonstrated towards each other, and to a large degree I agreed. I held out hope for its return though, since episodes like Splinter took the slash subtext to an extreme degree. So I was amused to find this week rife with clex-slash undertones. They don’t really need spelled out, right? Oh, hey, it’s fun…I admit to enjoying Clark and Lex’s catty fighting in this episode. Clark walks in to find Lex in front of the fire (romance) but won’t be drawn into amicable conversation, despite all Lex’s prodding about the lack of ‘small talk’. Lex’s lip-suck when Clark left the room was very funny. He’s getting a kick out of the irony of the situation! And despite all Clark’s bravado, Lex’s words still touch him at some level, if the long stares are anything to go by! ;-)
Lex and Lana have been strongly paralleled this season, and this continued in Cyborg. Lana confronts Clark about hiding his feelings and Lex says that he knows Clark is angry. Clark himself is distant with both of them. He acknowledges neither of them. Though the talk of glory days reminds us of the time when he held hope for happiness in his relationships with each of them. That time has passed but the echoes are strong. However Clark can’t state the truth and have it accepted by either of them. His declaration of love to Lana sounds hollow, just as any words to bridge the gap with Lex would. I don’t believe Clark wants to bridge the gap there, but I do think he’s hiding how much it tears at him.
Um… and did I mention the fact that Lex created a (very attractive) cyborg with Clark’s strength and speed!? Oh, Lex--you and your toys!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-02-17 02:31 pm (UTC)Anyway, thank you for this analysis, because I think you at least partially salvaged an episode that I was going to give up for lost.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-17 02:37 pm (UTC)Personally I get a kick out of villain!Lex. And hey, not every ep's a winner for everyone. But I'm glad you were interested enough to read my thoughts. Thanks for the comment!
no subject
Date: 2006-02-17 02:42 pm (UTC)I was mostly disappointed in this episode because I felt that it gave up the ambiguity that is essential to SV. But it only did so in relation to Lex, and then recuperated itself somewhat by the end. It changed the recipe (in a way it was also changed in S4 but I tend to ignore S4) and I didn't want that recipe changed. But you're right, the change was still nuanced and complicated and makes sense--so I can't dismiss it as bad writing.
Hmm, look at me ramble! Guess I just have SV on my mind this morning...
no subject
Date: 2006-02-17 03:12 pm (UTC)Ramble away! I ramble lots... (like you didn't notice!) It's a difficult show to watch--I think we all respond emotionally at times. Personally I mourn the fact that Lex will not be redeemed. My heart still longs for that even though I also love the idea of him wreaking havoc and revenge on the world.
I don't think ambiguity is gone forever from Lex's character. It was in this episode--they did the big reveal on him as villain. But I doubt very much if they have dropped all light from his character forever. There's way too much potential for them in milking the moments of losing the last 'goodness'. Eep! I get nervous thinking about it.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-18 02:03 pm (UTC)But then I was lucky enough to watch S4 in one hit, not dragged out week by week. I think that helped--I got into the shift, and it seemed a lot more plausible and convincing to me than it did to many a week-by-week watcher.
Oh yes, I can see that that definitely would have been easier to take. I found watching that year a bit of a torture, all the waiting and the hoping, and even though there were quite a few episodes I really thought were pretty good, somehow the memory of those was swallowed up with the waiting and the hoping and the disappointment. I should probably give some of those episodes another chance. It's the one season I don't own on DVD.
It was in this episode--they did the big reveal on him as villain
Yes, I suppose, given that, I should just accept that I'd have an emotional response to that, and all things considered it was pretty well done.
There's way too much potential for them in milking the moments of losing the last 'goodness'.
Okay--here enters my denial! :) I just won't think about that until it happens... Till then I shall revel in whatever little bits of ambiguity they allow.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-18 11:22 pm (UTC)*g* Denial is great! Good luck with it! (And I will revel in any permitted ambiguities too.)
no subject
Date: 2006-02-17 02:42 pm (UTC)Rumours of the death of clex have been greatly exaggerated
Made me squeal with joy!! I can't wait to see this episode. I'm just DYING OF EXCITEMENT. *faints*
no subject
Date: 2006-02-17 03:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-17 03:14 pm (UTC)Again, brilliant analysis. And though I accepted long ago that Lex was the villain, it stung like hell when his baldness appeared at Victor's girlfriends house all smug. I realized if you remove the two scenes with Victor, we have the same scenario thats been played out in the past..Clark accusing and Lex proclaiming his innocence, and Clark not being right in the end...but what if Clark has been right all along.
Welcome to villainy Lex, its time you arrived:)
no subject
Date: 2006-02-17 03:21 pm (UTC)Oh, yes, the villainy stings! Even though it also makes me squee with delight. SV is an emotional roller-coaster that way.
It's a fascinating structure: Clark projects hist distrust onto Lex for years, but in the end is proven right. Which came first? The seed of 'evil' or the distrust? The formation of a villain is very interesting.
I love the possiblities that villain!Lex raises--if he is making cyborgs, what else is he already doing?! Whee!
no subject
Date: 2006-02-17 04:46 pm (UTC)See, your initial interpretation was my interpretation as well: That Lionel set the whole thing up from the outset. And honestly, I think it's left ambiguous enough at the end. I need to rewatch, but I think the only thing that exchanges hands between Lionel and the "blackmailer" is Lionel giving him money; I don't think the blackmailer hands Lionel anything, which, IMO, sustains either reading: That Lionel was paying him for the whole ruse or, alternatively, that Lionel was paying him for the footage.
And though I accepted long ago that Lex was the villain, it stung like hell when his baldness appeared at Victor's girlfriends house all smug.
I find this reaction really curious (I'm not being snide here, either, it really is *curious* to me) because you say you've long ago accepted that Lex was the villain. If that's the case, then why did it sting to see him behaving ... like a villain? It's interesting to me because my experience in SV fandom has been that the people most likely to be resistant to Lex's villainous acts or to feel that sting in the moments when he reveals shades of his iconic self are the people who've not made peace with the fact that SV has *always* been telling, in part, the story of how Lex becomes his iconic self. It's unusual to come across people who've been convinced of his villainy all along (or at least for a significant chunk of the story) who find themselves still taken aback by it when he acts like a villain.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-17 04:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-17 04:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-18 12:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-17 04:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-17 11:56 pm (UTC)part I
Date: 2006-02-17 05:11 pm (UTC)*nods* I did like it that Clark recognized he wasn't in a position to give any sound advice on this to Victor. Maturity makes one capable of recognizing when something is beyond one's emotional ken, so it was nice to see those glimmers of maturity in Clark (although I have my own theory about what's really going on with him continuing to lie to Lana; I think the "protecting her" angle is something he's telling himself because the actual truth -- he's starting to realize she really may not be the one for him -- is too painful/scary/unbelievable for him to consciously contemplate right now).
In helping Victor reunite with Catherine, Lana is living out her own fantasy of reaching a loving and honest connection with someone else.
*nods* I found Lana watchable and engaging in her interactions with Victor in a way I actually didn't in her last scene with Clark. I found myself really frustrated at *her* frustration with Clark there because really -- did she think their problems would go away once Clark got over the grief of his father's death? She put herself back into that situation when she decided her need to "take a break" from her and Clark didn't matter in the face of Jonathan's death. So at this point, I find myself thinking "Either break up with him again and mean it this time, or STFU about him not opening up to you, Lana."
Lex is revealed to be the ‘vilain of the story’ in this episode. We’ve finally reached a place where Lex is shown to be lying outright to Clark. What’s wonderful about the construction of this plot, is that Lex still appears as the victim of Clark’s assumptions to begin with, as he is eager to point out. He calls Clark on his abrupt entry, impolite behaviour and presumptuous allegations.
And you know what? Even though Clark wasn't wrong in his assumptions this week, Lex still wasn't wrong to call Clark out for his behavior. One thing I firmly believe, both in life but also within the context of morality tales (which SV is, in part), is that how you (general 'you') treat people, even people you think are bad, is *still* a reflection of your own moral/ethical character (this is why I loved the movie Munich so much; it dealt with this idea head-on).
No, I don't think Clark needs to coddle Lex or kiss Lex's ass, but I still think that if his actual objective in dealing with Lex is to get some form of cooperation from Lex -- be it in the form of honest answers, the use of Lex's resources, etc. -- then some basic goddamned civility wouldn't go amiss. The idea that Clark can treat people however he likes as long as he doesn't like them/thinks they're bad strikes me as fairly *anti-*Superman, and I sometimes find myself wishing Millar & Gough didn't seem to have this attitude that as long as someone's a bad person, then that person don't have to be treated with any kind of human consideration at all.
Re: part I
Date: 2006-02-18 12:04 am (UTC)how you (general 'you') treat people, even people you know are bad, is *still* a reflection of your own moral/ethical character
SO TRUE. And so you are right--Lex is right to call Clark on his behaviour. Which makes those scenes between them great. Because I think someone needs to be calling Clark on his pissy behaviour. He's a teeny bit more restrained now than at the start of the season, but he's still uncivil, and as you point out, this doesn't even do him any good in reaching his own objectives. A more subtle approach would be more successful.
I'm really interested to see Munich, which has just come out here. Even more so after your comment!
part II
Date: 2006-02-17 05:26 pm (UTC)I also think the line -- which I, too, loved like *crazy* -- is a direct reference to Lex himself. A miracle saved him the day he drove his Porsche off a bridge, but it's come at a very high price. Over on TWoP, someone made the very cogent and intriguing argument that Lex's life probably would have been a lot better, in terms of less emotional suffering/less emotional hardship, had he *never come to or stayed in Smallville*. And I thought about this when Lex said that line and it ... *really* got to me, especially within the context of him saying it to and while dealing with Clark. These days, Lex has got to be thinking it might have been better to have never met/dealt with any of these people, because the cost of doing so, from an emotional perspective, has been *incredibly* high for him.
Last week latxcvi posted about having lost interest in the clex reading of Smallville. She pointed to the apparent indifference that Clark and Lex demonstrated towards each other, and to a large degree I agreed. I held out hope for its return though, since episodes like Splinter took the slash subtext to an extreme degree.
It's funny because as soon as I wrote that last week, I told myself the trade-off of saying it out-loud probably would be that the very next episode would be chuck full of slashy Clark/Lex interactions. *g*
I don't know, though. I'm still on the fence about it. I did love watching Lex *stand up for himself* to Clark for a change and I loved that he wasn't ever cowed by any of Clark's moral indignation and righteousness. As I noted to someone else, the screenwriter also seems to really get it that Lex and Clark actually *aren't* peers. Lex is the 25 (soon-to-be-26) year old president and CEO of a multi-national, billion-dollar corporation. If he doesn't *want* to put up with some bitchy teenager constantly being in his face, then he *doesn't have to*. I loved the way the screenplay openly acknowledged the idea that Lex indulging Clark/Clark's antics in the past was partly a function of them being friends. Now that they're not friends, Lex actually *doesn't* have to put up with it if he doesn't want to. I *loved* the way he more or less put Clark on notice that he wasn't going to any more.
However Clark can’t state the truth and have it accepted by either of them. His declaration of love to Lana sounds hollow, just as any words to bridge the gap with Lex would. I don’t believe Clark wants to bridge the gap there, but I do think he’s hiding how much it tears at him.
See, this is where I'm still not ready to celebrate the not!death of the CLex. Lex's comments to Clark outside Dr. Hong's house, in which he acknowledged Clark's anger towards him, struck me as being about manipulating Clark into giving Victor up rather than Lex expressing any kind of real ... regret that Clark's upset with him or there's this divide between them. As for Clark, I'm just not getting any sense from him at all that he's bothered by his decision to end his relationship with Lex. At least with Lana, I can *see* the ways in which it eats at Clark that he's basically self-destructing his relationship with her (I think he needs to suck it up since he made the choice to do so, but that's a different issue *g*). With Lex, though, I get no sense that it bothers or troubles Clark that they're not friends any more or that there's nothing he could do to reach Lex/bridge the gap. Even when Chloe suggested the possibility that the renegade doctor was taking advantage of Lex, Clark was all "That's not important", which, you know, just isn't something you say about someone if they're actually a person towards who you have any real regard.
I'll admit, though, that I'm not really an enemies-slash fan, so Clark and Lex being at each other's throats doesn't ignite my pilot light the way it might others'. They didn't seem as indifferent to each other this week as they did the past few weeks, true, but I don't know. I still think that for me, personally, the good ship CLex has sailed.
Re: part II
Date: 2006-02-18 12:20 am (UTC)I told myself the trade-off of saying it out loud would be that the very next episode would be chock full of slashy Clark/Lex interactions
Hee! Yes. Always the way. I seriously thought of you and the ironical timing while I was watching.
Yes: I loved Lex putting Clark 'on notice' too. The writers are showing us that to some extent, we were blinded in the earlier seasons to just how unusual Lex's acceptance of Clarks antics was. That his tolerance continued for so long sustains a slashy reading.
But you are absolutely right that we are entering enemy-slash territory now. And if that's not your thing, then I can totally see why the Clex ship has sailed for you. I don't think it has for me. Enemies slash can be ok for me, if, and only if, it comes with a complex relationship. And Clex has that. For so long the Clex has had that tragic edge of knowing that they were going to become enemies. But that wasn't really real until now. Seeing them as enemies now is poignant because they were once friends. And in retrospect seeing them as enemies now, deepens the tragic undertones of the earlier seasons (and I'm a sucker for the tragic). The show reflects forward and back. I personally am going to enjoy the shift to 'enemies but with momentary echoes/shoutouts about how they were once friends'. One difficulty with Clex at this stage though, I think, is that we're much closer to comic canon. So it's harder to imagine the slash at this point in time (for me at least!). Even for me, it's either retrospective, or AU, if that makes sense.
(I think I should drink my morning coffee before replying to comments! It's quite possible that made no sense at all.)
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Date: 2006-02-17 06:37 pm (UTC)I came into Smallville with very little sense of the comic book world surrounding Superman, and I thought Lex being actually evil was awesome. But then, I've always been a Clark fan, and it's his journey that I'm interested in and invested in, so I don't have the woobie!Lex mentality that I see around fandom a lot.
I really loved how much spark they had when they were arguing, too. So lovely!
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Date: 2006-02-18 12:23 am (UTC)I too think evil!Lex is kind of great. And while I woobied the hell out of Lex for a while there, I didn't find it sustainably interesting. It's much more fun to see him move out of victim phase and try and kick some butt!
Let the sparks fly! *g*
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Date: 2006-02-17 08:24 pm (UTC)I love what you say about Lex being "the villain of the story" this week, and how Clark responds to that. One of these things I've always thought about Clark and Lex's relationship on SV is that they are such a catalyst to each other's future. I think that in this world, Clark's reactions to Lex's behavior (be they right or wrong) ends up pushing Lex into being evil. And Lex's evilness pushes Clark into being Superman. So I thought this ep was a serious lean in that coming to fruition.
And yes! The Clex was in full force. Touching! *squees*
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Date: 2006-02-18 12:26 am (UTC)Yes. I think what I enjoyed most about this episode was the jump into future identities. You are right that they respond to each other--Clark will be even more valliant in his attempts to save people from Lex after this, and Lex will be even more keen to have his plans succeed next time. They are defined in opposition to each other. Good comment.
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Date: 2006-02-18 01:39 am (UTC)Or maybe the wanting... it became too much. *nods* That has to be it.
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Date: 2006-02-18 03:54 am (UTC)The chest is new. I like that it's new, because their dynamic is different. It suggests intimacy yet distance. Lex is keeping a wall around himself, but still wants to connect with Clark. And the wanting. Of course! *g*
I also like that Clark follows Lex around. Lex gets up and moves to his desk or to the drinks cabinet and Clark follows; Lex walks out on him and Clark is left behind. It's subtle powerplay stuff that shows Clark's dependency on Lex and leaves Clark unsatisfied. Hee!
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Date: 2006-02-18 05:47 pm (UTC)*nods* This is what I was getting at re: how *powerful* it was that Lex *walked out of his OWN den* and just left Clark standing there. I mean, that's dismissive with a capital "D". It's "You're not even worth me telling you to get out of my house. I'll just leave you here to figure out on your own that you need to go."
I really love it that it's Clark who keeps running over to Lex. It's been that way since Mortal. Lex has been content to leave Clark alone since then; it's always Clark approaching him. Even in Fanatic, Lex didn't come to the hospital for Clark; he wanted to disabuse Jonathan of the notion that he had anything to do with the attack. It was Clark who followed him and sought to continue the conversation after Lex walked away.
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Date: 2006-02-18 11:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-17 09:53 pm (UTC)Although I do think they are dragging the Clark/Lana breakup on for way too long, I did like these parallels a lot, too. I did wonder, though, if Victor being captured because of his desire to reunite with Catherine wasn't just a lesson for Clark but also for *Lana*. It's true that she couldn't have stopped Victor from leaving--but by encouraging him to go after Catherine earlier she was actually encouraging him to put himself--and Catherine--in danger, and I think this was a foreseeable trap. And although Victor and Catherine seemed to have a happy ending, did they really? Lex clearly knows Catherine can be used to get to Victor, so that reunion was *really* ill-advised on Lana's part.
We’ve finally reached a place where Lex is shown to be lying outright to Clark. What’s wonderful about the construction of this plot, is that Lex still appears as the victim of Clark’s assumptions to begin with, as he is eager to point out. He calls Clark on his abrupt entry, impolite behaviour and presumptuous allegations. We’ve seen this behaviour from Clark in the past when the course of events did not justify it, when Lex was proved innocent.
Yes, I loved how they played with our expectations in this episode, both with Lex and with Lionel, as you pointed out. I was *completely* fooled by Lex.
Lex also delivers another important message in Cyborg: “Some miracles have a price but that doesn’t make them any less profound.” I had the same thought that
Um… and did I mention the fact that Lex created a (very attractive) cyborg with Clark’s strength and speed!? Oh, Lex--you and your toys!
Yeah, I commented in
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Date: 2006-02-17 09:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-18 12:34 am (UTC)I was fooled! I was fooled by both Ls although the minute the reveals came, I was squeaking with joy and thought 'yes! of course!'
Re. miracles: there's such a history of miracles for Lex. What about the miracle of his own healing powers? The price for those is being an outsider, an alien, a potential 'monster'. And then there's the miracle the audience was privileged to in Shattered, when he gets to see Clark revealed. But the price he paid for that was soooo high: memory stripped and another nail in the coffin of his friendship with Clark, since Clark does not tell him about it. (Of course I realise that *Lex* is not thinking of this when he says the line, but many lines in Smallville are written in such a way that they can be taken by the audience to reflect on other things.)
Heee to the deleted scene! Yes. It was very reminiscent of Aqua as well. I love that they're establishing that Lex likes to strap guys to tables and flirt with them/torture them. They are teasing us so much with that! We just *know* he'll do that to Clark at some stage in the future. And, at a darker level, how great that Clark's fears about being a lab rat, could be true. And true at the hands of Lex. Hotness much!
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Date: 2006-02-20 06:07 pm (UTC)It’s also unsurprising that Lex found Viktor to be a nice material from which to create himself a mechanical replacement Clark. He planned to have a robotic fucktoy, brainwashed and free from all asshattish tendencies, thank you.
Lex will exploit that in the future, for he has learned, in the most direct way possible that ‘the heart has a way of clouding one’s better judgement.’
Lex is really bitter at Clark now, isn’t he? Being the spurned lover and all…
Finally we have evidence of a far more direct connection between Jor-El and Lionel. In fact, it seems most likely that Jor-El is using Lionel’s body permanently. If so, fantastic! This puts a different spin on Lionel’s interest in the newly widowed Martha. He is aiming not to win her heart but to protect his son and he can best do this by staying close to the family. One father usurps the other’s position: does this mean we need to reinterpret Jonathan’s death? Did Jor-El/Lionel have a more deliberate hand in it than first appeared? Oh, what exciting possibilities!
Exciting possibilities indeed! And I definitely think we have to reinterpret Jonathan’s death. Jor-el has been trying to get rid of Jonathan since early season 3. this is very juicy material. *bounces with excitement*
Um… and did I mention the fact that Lex created a (very attractive) cyborg with Clark’s strength and speed!? Oh, Lex--you and your toys!
Yes! This is exactly what I was thinking. Lex is preparing for a life completely without Clark, only he can’t let go, and needs a substitute. What did he say to Viktor? Something about taking the edge off his (Viktor’s) loneliness? Slashy indeed.
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Date: 2006-02-20 10:05 pm (UTC)Heee. Yes. Exactly. He chose well! You can so see his thinking... It was very very slashy. It's very Lex to just create his own version when things don't go his way. He's all 'well Clark won't play with me, and I can never expect any better from him, but I can sure as hell make do on my own, thanks very much!' It's also a nice echo of Aqua, when he was all pissy about Clark's new 'boyfriend'! I guess he figured he'd get one of his own!
I'm glad someone else is excited about the Jor-El/Lionel connection. It's all so mysteriously convenient... I want more!! But the show will probably tease us with ambiguity for a while longer.