Hidden

Job: "Why is life given to a man
whose way is hidden,
whom God has hedged in?
I have no peace, no quietness;
I have no rest, but only turmoil.
What strength do I have, that I
should still hope?"

Job's friend: "Your beginnings will seem humble,
so prosperous will your future be."

Job 3:23, 26; Job 6:9; Job 8:7

Overall Plot

This episode managed to wipe twenty-four episodes into oblivion. And that is an incredibly good thing.

Leaving "Mortal" in the dust and snapping Clark back into harsh Smallville reality, this episode roared to a start with a Superman-movie-reminiscent scene as two keys must be turned simultaneously on opposite ends of the room. (In the third movie, a villain faced this dilemma.) And this villain is not a lovesick cheerleader or a mercenary high-schooler (good-bye season four), but a vulnerable, twitchy, pitiable genius, with a weird streak of the sadly likeable shot through the incurably neurotic. A good start, a good villain, and a brilliantly movie-ish camera shot (see "Moments"), and the new season of Smallville is up and away.

The way that the writers carefully built up tension was just right. Although they grabbed viewers' anticipation immediately with Chloe's slow, urgent, worried line, "What – happens – in – an – hour?" and the countdown clock, they knew not to push it too far. They took the commercial break and then allowed the pace and stress level to develop and intensify as the plot went deeper and darker and truer to Smallville. As a result it wasn't hectic, like some. They also punctured the surface that they were walking around on all Season Four, and reconnected us to the complex, rich characters we used to know. It was the perfect plot.

Verdict: 9.99.

Clark

Clark reconnected to earth and Krypton in this episode. He is no longer living for himself and his irresponsible flings. He's got a burden again (one that he happened to forget for about a year), and somehow just having the burden back, the struggling silences, the dark destiny, made him Superman again. The feeling was as if we had been brought to the floor of the ocean in Season Four, and with Clark reactivated we came out of the water into activity and oxygen again.

Clark's burden is the most promising affliction the writers have ever given him. (Plotwise, of course – not for him.) In former seasons, particularly Three, they made him serious and secretive by having him take upon himself responsibility that wasn't his – saying he had "killed Lana's parents", telling people "there were things about him that could hurt people", "you don't really want to know me", and all the rest of it. Now, however, his burden is very real. He is going to be responsible for someone's life. That's something to break you.

Lana

Last year Lana was badmouthing Clark everywhere she went, but now she's his vehement, loyal advocate and he is the love of her life. The leap was a sudden one, but it's such a relieving change that I'm quite ready to erase the Lana Lang of Season Four and let the new/old Lana write over the marks. This is, for the most part, the Lana we've seen in Season Two and early Season Three. Welcome back.

Lex

Lex was the weak link in this episode. In former episodes (watch the beginning of "Insurgence") he has rebuked his subordinates with cold, sinister words and hands folded on his desk, a symbol of power, exuding strength. Now he's shoving his father against the wall, yelling at his subordinates…basically, almost every time you see him he's on a rampage. It's very easy to shrug off this Lex. It's like shrugging off Creepy Photographer. In the best villains, there is something empathetic, something tragic, something human that you want to save. They also have enough power that the only reason they shout is when a tender wound is touched, a point of extreme vulnerability. A great deal of it is in the way Michael Rosenbaum plays it (probably as he was told to play it) – calculating, hard-hearted, with no weaknesses whatsoever. Not even bothering with the twisted complexities that used to link him and his father because he's so busy charging, head down, at any obstacles to the mysteries which he used to coolly mock Lionel for being obsessed with. We've been given the real Clark back…now it's time to see the real Lex.

The Clark-Lana Relationship

I think that even fans of Clark and Lana's relationship were disappointed with the, um, union. Not that it wasn't exciting enough, but that it was there at all. Their relationship for three seasons was about their common way of thinking, their unique understanding of each other. (Think about the graveyard scene as Lana talked to her parents, and how Clark handled it.) Their outlooks complemented each other, they were there to support each other. And when the first kiss happened, Lana woke up the next morning and had some serious thinking to do about whether she was willing to risk their friendship for a dating relationship. Now she's urging Clark to – well, unite – and, having done so, they get up the next morning and giggle and whisper and try to sneak out like a couple of stupid teenagers. Yes, they're teenagers, but not stupid. And that whole thing was, in all honesty, stupid.

Good/Bad Moments

1. Beautiful camera shot, epic, as Gabriel stands there in front of the monitors, and the camera moves from the back of the room forward, past him, past the monitors, to the missile. Part of the big opening clue that this was going to be on a scale surpassing "Commencement".
   
2. Good, subtle acting when Chloe comes in and sees Clark, who is uncertain of what to feel, and glances subtlely at his father's hand on his shoulder.
3. It was an interesting angle that Chloe was so calm when she told Clark about her dilemma. Almost perky. It was perhaps unrealistic, considering that she's had a weird day, starting with getting up to leave for college extremely early, getting the phone call that Smallville will be destroyed in an hour, going to Clark's house and finding Lana fleeing from the house… One would think she would be pretty agitated by the time she got around to telling them what was going on. However, it did allow the tension to build up.
4. Interesting to note that Lex didn't comment on Clark's shirt on Lana. It also didn't show him taking anything in, but that's in keeping with his covert character, in the past as well as now.
5. "You're not crazy." That was a good line, because you knew Lex's motives, and saw what was going through Lana's head. Nobody had told Lana that she was delusional so emphatically as Lex. But his reassuring stance, protecting her from a threat that hadn't existed in her mind until he spoke those words, awakening ideas – a lot more was going on than just his lie. The subtlety made it a "what-lies-beneath-the-surface" moment.
6. The only thing I would have changed about that Lana-Lex dialogue was Lana's line implying that she was hurt by Clark's dismissal of it all. Either show him cheerfully blowing past it and let us see that she's hurt, or take it out altogether. Don't have another scene with a stoic, longsuffering Lana giving her reasons for disliking something Clark does. In the beginning of the show, Sweetheart Lana with Issues was probable and human. But Longsuffering Lana, who can't converse with a male without lowering her voice and breathing hoarsely about Clark's issues – that needs to go.
7. "It's a routine drill at the Hamstead farm…that – whoa! – that…" A touch of realism. I liked it.
8. "Yeah. I'd say he lapped me a few times." "Call me conventional, but shouldn't this have been a red flag for Gabriel's dad?" See "Things Said and Unsaid".
9. The belligerent Lex stomping into the room with the spaceship was hard to believe. Nothing is sinister unless it knows that it has control. The most frightening villains are never the ones who rage. Lex has coolly threatened people, taken away their identities, held their careers in his hands, but he's always been like Lionel: so full of power that they can let their words drip, and the subordinate will cling to hope. And when the death blow is dealt it is with a creepily calm finality. Now he's animal-like, but not with the emotional vulnerability of S3's rage, letting out repressed emotions, but like he's emotionally ironclad and so can slam himself against these issues without danger. He's a two-year-old throwing a tantrum. Writers, let him grow up and be who he is, someone with repressed emotions and scarring memories. If he's going to grow hardened, let him do it and know what he's doing. Now it's more like he's drugged.
10. Scene with Lex shoving Lionel around. I rest my case.
11. Chloe's screeches as Clark got shot took away a little from the moment…You noticed them too much, thought about how hard it would be for an actress to play that part, listened to them – when you should have been watching. There was something almost comical about the way she screeched. She should either have been shouting his name, calling him; or screaming it, calling deeply for him. As it was, it wasn't like she was calling him at all, just yelling for the sake of protest.
12. However, the slow-motion, blue-sky background, drip of blood shooting was movie-like. The first time you've seen Clark that way, almost a physical shock.
13. When Clark stretched out, we had another Biblical parallel moment - his arms stretched in a cross-like position, a wound in his side.
    
14. The female doctor at the hospital had a spiritless way of delivering her lines, that made her sound like she wasn't really interested. Since she was involved in the most breathtaking, gut-wrenching moments in the episode, she shouldn't have spoken her lines so flatly.
    
15. Gabriel, pleadingly: "Don't look at me like that, Chloe. You're safe…" Moments like that endeared him, and yes, I know the Lex subject has been beaten to death in this review, and I won't draw comparisons of twisted childhoods and sick fathers and repression resulting in heartrending madness. (Key: heartrending. Okay, I'm done.)
16. When Lana came in and sat down next to Clark, the very fact that she was there when his parents weren't (granted, she sneaked in) managed to deaden her first few lines. I was too busy thinking, "Oh, that's convenient," to pay attention to proclamations of love that I'd probably heard her say before. It awakened too much skepticism. However, I can't think of any other way they could have had some of the good moments that followed (mainly (t) and (u)), so it's forgivable.
17. Lana's dialogue…"I don't even know if you can hear me, but I need you to know that from the first moment that I saw you, I knew that no one could make me happier than you. But I also knew that you would never change. You would always be running around, trying to save the day. All those times I pushed away was because I knew this day would come." Clark looks at her, smiles, and dies. Wow.
18. The music as the doctor says, "Clear," Lionel's eyes light up, Clark is dying… Epic. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up. Moreover, I watched it again and got chills the second time, which is the real test.
19. When Lionel thrust his fist through the glass, the first thought that came to my mind was a skeptical, "No way." And as he stood there with his fist still in place as the glass shattered down, his arm completely unharmed, something about that stance seemed vaguely familiar – Clark-like. Then as it showed his shoes stepping down on the broken glass, I thought, "Oh my gosh. Is he…" The camera panned upward, the cameras switched, and he supersped out. That was perfectly paced to let your thoughts and emotions build up for it.
20. Kristin Kreuk's acting stepped up from last season when she witnessed Clark's death. Lana has so long been accustomed to thinking of Clark as almost invincible – and certainly the rest of us have – that to hear the heartbeat stop and "Time of death, 7:18 a.m.," was like physical shock. Her disbelief, her horror, the sickening feeling that drove into her stomach – you could see it all and feel it with her.
21. Jonathan holds Martha's hands in his, as they silently weep in the waiting room. They look up and see Lana staggering down the hall, sobbing with almost physically-disabling grief. Their first clue. The doctor comes out and says, "Mr. and Mrs. Kent?" (Pauses briefly, to give them another clue.) "We did everything we could. But – " And before things have a chance to get predictable – "Doctor? We have a problem with the Kent boy." Because you aren't given a chance to think about what could have happened, you're running down the hallway with them, and seeing the empty pallet the way they see it. That was staged perfectly.
22. It was interesting that Gabriel was so frail – the perfect twisted "moderate genius" type – that he and Chloe were pretty much an even match as they fought for the gun.
23. Allison Mack's acting once again pulled the audience in, as she turned to the missile and whispered intensely, "Oh, God." It was the perfect blend of exclamation and prayer, from someone about to lose everything and everyone.
24. The first we see of Clark, he is lying unconscious somewhere, with the light rippling across his face, as if he were underwater. As it pans out, we start to understand that it is not water but ice, and as he wakes up we understand at the same time that he does where he is and what happened. We experience things with the characters in this episode. We see things from their points of view. As Clark raised himself up from the ice bed, there was a slight feeling of a child having fallen asleep and been carried to his bed by his father, and waking up later and understanding where he is. I liked that.
25. You know immediately that it is Lionel who appears from the depths of the Fortress of Solitude. They only just left him a minute or two ago, after he was transformed/possessed: the pacing was just right so that somehow, it seemed perfectly natural and unnatural that he was there. Also the fact that they didn't show his face right away, and let you hear Jor-El's words first, eased you into it, so that you weren't jolted by Lionel's presence there. And then comes the most intriguing dialogue of the season.
26. "The life of someone close to you will be exchanged for yours." "For everything in nature, there is a balance. The life force that has been returned to you will be taken from another." "The lessons that we learn from pain are the ones that make us the strongest." "You are about to face your darkest hour, my son." "Always know…that I love you." That was the most fulfilling dialogue I've heard in a long time. This episode is the second "Rosetta".
27. It was good to see Clark with a mission again. He landed on earth, turned, saw the missile, and raced to stop it. The fact that he was chasing a missile (watch "Superman the Movie"), and watching him grip the sides and climb up, re-empowered, and seeing the missile fall apart and watch Clark tear out the explosive component and toss it out of our atmosphere – it excited me so much that it wasn't until later that I realized…after running toward the missile, Clark flew. (For those of you on the verge of quoting the "no flights, no tights" rule, keep scrolling...)
28. I liked it that instead of simply heading the missile off, as Superman did in the movies, Clark was still bound by some physical laws. It made it much more interesting.
29. Jonathan: "The hospital lost our son…" Martha turns and sees what certainly must be Clark, and gasps and cries out. Jonathan looks over, stiffens, his brow furrows, and he says vaguely, "I have to call you back," and hangs up.
    
    Then they show us Clark, torn and ragged, looking as if he has emerged from (insert something violent and rough on him here). Battle? War? In a way, yes.
    
    Jonathan: "They told us you were dead!" Clark makes a stifled sound and falls onto his father's shoulder, emotionally drained. After the embrace, during which he pulls himself together a little, he says hoarsely, "I was."
    
    Movie-ish music playing. Jonathan, reading his face and immediately knowing what's been left unsaid, says, comprehending, "Jor-El."
    If you read everything said from the time Jonathan first addresses Clark, it's nine words. But so much is communicated.
30. "…he didn't ask for anything in return." Clark, standing with his back to his parents, loaded with sadness: "No." So simple. So perfect. You didn't need anything more. This scene had so little talking and so much to say.
31. When Lana opened the door, bowed with grief, and said in that subdued, drained voice, "Mr. and Mrs. Kent," the camerawork was unclear. It looked like she had stepped into the room where all three stood. That confused me for a moment.
32. The way Clark appeared to Lana made you enter into her head. Dead – missing – and then appearing at the end of the hallway, clothes torn, with that sad, wise look of having journeyed to the grave and returned, of knowing things not meant for men to know. Suddenly Clark's an adult again, and Lana – after what she's been through, exhausting herself with grief, where is she? She seems in a more mature place too now. Then Clark picks her up, hugging her, carrying her slowly down the hallway, savoring every minute. Not because he wants sensual gratification, but because he faced death and eternal separation from her, and he discovered anew how devoutly he loved her. That's their real relationship. That's what I wanted to see.
    
33. "Whatever new lie he told you, however he swept it under the rug, a normal person doesn't rise from the dead." The camera shows Lana looking cold, walking out the door, then swivels to show Lex starting to return to his desk, then Lex turns around and the camera swivels to show Lionel bounding cheerily in, practically risen from the dead. That was the subtle humor of "Perry" (Lex rambling about decorating styles to his psychiatrist). Use of cinematography to make a joke is back this season.
34. They finally had another loft scene. Not just a token scene, but one in which Clark is sad and someone comes to him and talks to him about it and there's emotional vulnerability and emotional action going on. Wow. I'd almost given up hope of seeing another good loft talk.
35. See "Things Said and Unsaid" (l) through (r) for more on the loft talk.
36. "And now someone else is going to have to pay for it." The new theme of the season.
37. "I never should have given up my powers? Why didn't I listen to him?" Clark finally asks the question we've all been asking. It's good to see him learning from his mistakes, with some serious emotional consequences. (I don't know yet if the physical consequences (someone dying) are a good thing for the show or not.) The strain to come, the toll this takes on Clark, and above all the promising way this was handled, will keep me coming back.
38. "Chloe, I think I've made a terrible mistake." Ending. It shows the credits, and we sit there with our mouths still open for a moment, before we shut them and step back into our world. And we know that Smallville's good again.

Things Said and Unsaid

So much of a good episode relies on what is said and what is left unsaid. In this episode they took some good steps toward leaving important things unsaid. We understand them already, and we don't need the characters to spell them out for us. On the other hand, they did spell some things out that they shouldn't have. So here are the said and unsaid messages.

1. "Wall of Weird times a hundred!" We hadn't even gotten to see what those sheets of paper said. It would have been stronger if the camera had panned closer up around the room, so you could see that they were all news articles, and read the headlines, as on the Wall of Weird.
2. Then, once you realize what it is, and start wondering if Chloe's Wall of Weird inspired this room or if Gabriel had motives for wanting to be at the Torch because he already had this weird interest…Clark makes the obvious comment, "Looks like Gabriel is giving you a run for your money." We caught that, Clark. Give us time to be creeped out and think our own thoughts.
3. While I'm on it, having Chloe and Clark commenting the whole time took away from the impact of discovering it for ourselves. On the other hand, I guess if you've just broken into a retired-colonel's creepy house to look for his psychotic son and found yourself in a room produced by a twisted mind, you'll get unsettled and start casually talking out of nerves.
4. "You've been obsessively drawing these for weeks. They're identical to the ones in the ship." It was clear that he'd been drawing them for weeks. Since Lionel wasn't in a strait-jacket any more, we assumed it had been some time since last episode, and since his walls were covered with the drawings, we could see that he'd been obsessively drawing them. Also, we knew they were kryptonian, and we knew that Lex knew they were kryptonian. (He's seen keys, caves, tables, and Walden's messages with those kinds of symbols. If he didn't understand what Lionel was drawing, he'd be Clark reincarnated.) So those two lines told us nothing, and made Lex look a little weird, telling his nearly catatonic father how he'd spent the past few weeks, just in case he'd forgotten.
5. "I'm calling it. Time of death, 7:18 a.m." That was good because it served two purposes – a) giving you chills, and b) letting you know where the situation with the missile stood.
6. "…Kal-El." "How do you know to call me that?" Part of it is always in the acting, but the crafting of Clark's response was a factor in introducing Clark's deeper self. Formerly when anyone has called him Kal-El, he's denied the name and his destiny, sometimes block-headedly. Now he asks, "How do you know to call me that?" It's as if he knows his name now.
7. "How did you get me here?" "Through the portal in the cave." They have never gone in-depth into how that whole strange portal thing works, but since it's been there and we've known it ever since Season Three, its mystery can continue without looking gimmicky. No need to explain.
8. The first meeting between Jonathan and Martha and Clark, after Clark's death, was an excellent example of leaving important things unsaid. The unspoken hung in the air despite the silence. (See "Moments".)
9. "You went and got your powers back, didn't you?" Chloe's intuition came back as Clark's emotional inability to answer questions (and stoical "hold-it-back" attitude) did. The chemistry of their relationship returned as their individuality returned, and their roles complemented each other. Clark's failure to speak still communicates…perhaps even makes communication better.
10. "And besides, it makes my whole sidekick role easier if you can bring super-duper strength to the table." We didn't need Chloe to spell out their new relationship for us. We can see it for ourselves. Besides, "sidekick" is an oversimplification of their relationship, which is a lot more intricate than that. It might define her Season Four role, but that's in the past. Now she is a friend, a unique friend, someone different from Pete and different from Lana.
11. "Are you healing, or…how does that work?" Chloe and Clark haven't really talked about it, since when they've both known that each other knew (interpret that), Clark's been mortal. Good consistency.
12. Clark lifts his shirt and Chloe touches the space where the wound was. We don't need to see her cheerleading after a love potion to know anybody's motives here.
13. "Unscathed on the surface." (Clark walks away and stands with his back to her, and we see that his thought processes are too complicated to be described.) We see that he is thinking, something he rarely did in S4, and we see that Chloe has her knack for tapping into the heart of the matter and reading Clark's mind again. She knows that he is "scathed" beneath the surface.
14. "But that’s not what's going on underneath, is it Clark?" She didn't really need to say that. But in a conversation where the other person remains morbidly mute, sometimes you need to offer a prompt.
15. "I guess I never will be able to escape who I really am." He's had this conversation before, plenty of times, although at least now he has a disturbing inner life and outer experience to back it up. To a degree, though, it was pointing out the obvious.
16. "Mainly Lana?" "That's because we don't need to, Clark." I was glad they said that. In S4 they would have had a filler conversation about it in which everyone said exactly how they felt and told the other person how they should feel. Just leave it unsaid. That was so much more realistic.
17. "I can't expect her to act like you did." That was a good line, and it needed to be there. It shows Clark's trust of Chloe, his vulnerability about the whole issue, and brings up the question in the viewers' mind…"Can he?"
18. "You know, I never really believed in miracles, but…" Here Rosenbaum's acting makes this line hypocritical and slimy. But how would he have said it in Season Three or Two? With a ring of irony, a slightly sarcastic smile. Now with his innocent little act – well, see "Lex".

Details

1. Clark said he'd loved Lana ever since he was seven. In "Calling" he said he'd loved her ever since he was six.
2. Sketches of secrets are nothing new, as Clark foolishly drew them and left them lying around in "Blank". I found it easier to believe that Lana tried to preserve what she remembered, though. What was more difficult to believe was the level of memory she had, to replicate the vague ideas she must have had. It wasn't as if she had a great deal of time to cement the images in her mind - immediately the Kryptonians scared her practically into fits, she fought with Lex, she fainted, and it was all non-stop action when she woke up. The first opportunity she had to sit and think about what happened would have been some time later, when the image in her mind would have faded.
3. For a recently-retired colonel, Gabriel's dad wasn't finicky about security. I'd think he'd have a barbed-wire fence around his whole creepy house, not a front door that could be penetrated with a credit card.
4. The expert who had been so anxiously poring over the spaceship obviously wasn't looking too closely, if he hadn't noticed the new symbols. When did the symbols appear? A) They appeared when the guy trickled out of it in "Arrival" (where is that guy?), or B) they appeared because Clark was going to get shot in a few minutes, and eventually die. The last one makes no sense whatsoever. It wouldn't make sense for them to appear until Clark actually died, which didn't happen until a while later, and even if they had appeared as a sign of Clark's death…so what? Not a very profitable spaceship. On the other hand, it makes sense for symbols to appear to show when someone leaves or enters the spaceship, and is a lot more practical. Assuming that the symbols had been there ever since "Arrival" Guy left the spaceship, the expert must not have been looking too closely for at least a month.
5. The setup of having Gabriel respond to Chloe's phone call was a good one, and gave humanness to his character. But they should have had a far better plan than having Clark simply walk up and demand, "Which silo did you activate?" The more intelligent and Chloe-like plan would have been to have her ask him to take her back with him to the silo, then have Clark track the GPS on her Blackberry and call the sheriff with the location. Since he had no powers to hide, he would have been free to give her all the details on how he knew. Even if he tried to follow them and Gabriel saw him and shot him, it would make far more sense than his inane confrontation.
6. "…mumbling things like 'Krypton,' and 'Kal-El'." We saw Lionel say two complete sentences ("Only he can open it."), which apparently were the first things he'd said (judging by Lex's reaction to getting some speech out of him). However, even if he'd said something else, he was acting as an oracle, delivering short, meaningful messages. Not mumbling incoherently to himself. Was Lex using phrases he'd heard the Kryptonians use as bait?
7. Lana saw Clark with his clothing in shreds and his face and body covered with grit and dirt. Is she going to ask questions? I personally hope not. Reawakening the wide-eyed "secret" issue is the last thing they need. If she brings it up, she had better be willing to let things go and support Clark no matter what. It remains to be seen if she can do that.
8. "You've had your doubts about him too, you can't deny it." Just how did Lex know this? Yes, in S4 we saw her broadcasting all her frustration with Clark's reluctance to open up (ironically, in the only season where he didn't struggle with hiding something). But we never had any reason to believe that she shared her suspicions that Clark was different. The one time she revealed to anyone that she thought Clark was physically different was in "Extinction", when she reacted by confidently telling Van McNulty that Clark was more human than he would ever be [despite any powers he might have], and telling Clark that if he were a meteor freak, it would be okay. (Which, incidentally, does cast a weird little angle on Clark's reluctance to tell her.) But back to the point: did Lana confide any doubts to Lex? Or is Lex merely trying to plant seeds of unrest, without bothering to disguise his suspicions of Clark anymore?

Reasons why the writers should not pretend that Clark did not fly:

This is how high it was before Clark grabbed on. In other words, Clark "jumped" at least this high. That's flying, in my book.

This is how high it was before Clark destroyed it and returned to earth. How did he return to earth from that height? If nothing but gravity brought him down, he'd have disappeared into a Clark-sized hole somewhere.

Questions

• When Lionel came in chirpily, almost giddily, with no questions and glib answers, did he know more than he was letting on? Also, the last time his body was inhabited by a Kryptonian's spirit, he woke up "changed", or at least in a state of moral shock. That wasn't the case this time, but could it be a similar state of change causing him to use loving phrases and dismiss the symbols? (Please say no.) It has been suggested that Jor-El is still in Lionel's body and is play-acting, but it's hard for me to imagine dignified, noble Jor-El skipping into the Luthor mansion and pretending to be Lex's father and saying things like, "…your old dad…" If that's Jor-El, the writers get another black mark.
• This one won't get answered, but what was Lana's motive for going to Lex with those files? Did Clark ask her to step in, or did she have the intuition to see what was going on by herself? Or, a cross of both – Clark told her what had happened between him and Lex, but going to Lex was Lana's idea? Which leads to the question that should have come first but isn't as interesting: does Clark know that she showed Lex the files? If he did, then he probably gave them to her to show him. How would Lana get them on her own, after all, when even Lex Luthor couldn't get them?
• "It's not easy to sacrifice the thing you want the most to save other people." Did Jonathan's line have a double-meaning? He meant, of course, that Clark had sacrificed his mortality to save others. But what if it also means that Clark sacrifices someone to save others? In which case, "the thing Clark wants the most" would have to be…Lana.

"The life of someone close to you will be exchanged for yours."

Who Will It Be?

There are several people who could conveniently be disposed of (from the writers' point of view). The top two are Chloe and Jonathan, and after them come Martha, Lana, Lois… Since at this point we're given little to go on, it could also be Pete. This is the circle of people that Clark loves, barring Lois. But since almost everyone would rather see Chloe with Clark than Lois, they could dispose of Lois in this way, too. Also, we don't know how literally the removal of someone's "life-force" is to be taken. Clark and Lex are still linked closely together. Lex has thwarted death more than once. The definition of "life-force" is so broad, and the method of "exchanging" one life for Clark's so undefined, that Lex could die as Clark died, awakening in another place to be resurrected or to fight through death and return again. At this point, any guess is worth a look.

Who Should It Be?

First of all, Chloe has already "died" once. Although it would be heartrending and compelling if she truly died, particularly with the bond reestablished between her and Clark, the Law of Diminishing Returns applies again here. Also, Chloe's fear of going insane, and the fact that her mother's disease is hereditary, were useless unless they follow up on it. Of course, one could lead to the other – insanity could lead to death – but the other drawback is that – simply put – Chloe's death would be a little predictable. Based on comics and movies, Chloe does not exist in the future. Someone close to Clark is going to die this season. Put the two together, and come up with the Obvious.

The next person would be Jonathan. There has always been an interesting relationship of intimate knowledge and tension between Jonathan, Jor-El, and Clark. Jonathan knows Jor-El perhaps better than Clark does – was tormented by him during all of Season Three – communicated with him more often and more personally and in states of vulnerable desperation. Jor-El has been watching Jonathan, knows him better than Clark does. He knew his parents before he was born, bequeathed his son to Jonathan's care. And then there's Clark, the reason for the tension in the first place. If Jor-El were to take Jonathan away from him, there is a potentially bittersweet and moving dynamic there. It would also force Clark to be a man, and he would have to step up and accept his destiny, a bittersweet choice.

Like I said in "Details", Jonathan had potential double-meaning when he spoke of sacrificing the thing Clark wanted most. That would be Lana. I'm not certain what sense it would make to sacrifice Lana, but it would certainly make for a heartrending, Clark-screaming ending.

It's not going to be Martha. Of that I'm positive. What good would it do?

Unlikely that it will be Lois, since Clark isn't close to her and I would be overjoyed if she died. Not the effect they're going for. Although Chloe is far more Lois-Lane-ish than Lois, and has written articles under Lois's name, and her ambition is to work in the Daily Planet, and she has worked in the Daily Planet…I don't know if they'll let her be Lois Lane. It would be a gift, but the writers have withheld gifts in the past.

So far, I think it should be Jonathan. But it's only the beginning of the arc, and hopefully we've got a long, complicated, rich journey ahead of us.

© Voice of Reason, 2007