So. Lex experimenting on/torturing Lana has precedence in the uber-canon.

Very interesting! I wonder if this is actual foreshadowing.

Personally, I'd probably enjoy him torturing *Lionel* more, but there you go!
:D While I'm still expecting Lex to kill Lionel (I'm surprised it didn't happen at the end of last season, for the parallelism), it's probably too much to hope that torture will precede it.