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Let me say right out that I enjoyed the episode, I truly did. I saw Lana's role as that of Symbol rather than Lex's true love/motivation for turning evil, and it worked very well for me. There's just a few things that made me pause (actually, since I believe this was all Lex's fantasy rather than a true visitation, they're easily understandable as dream logic, so you can consider this simple commentary):
1. Lionel got control of the company back ... how? Lex walked away without taking his fair share? Good Lex gave up on LuthorCorp as unreformable, thus gutting his ability to engage in Bill Gates-style philanthropy and as a bonus ensuring that a powerful corporation would be a force for evil? Good really is stupid! I mean, I'm willing to try the idea that Lex knew he had to remove himself from the temptations of money and power to stay good, but in this great country of ours surely there is a potential CEO who is not, you know, Satan. I hear there's this guy at CostCo, just for instance. Maybe Good Lex could have gotten the board to install somebody like him before jumping ship.
2. So Smallville has a big homeless problem? Seriously, homelessness as Lex's cause makes sense in the vision, since this Lex is all about sticking close to home, the illusion of security created by a small-scale, familiar world.
3. What's up with Lillian, aka brother-murdering spirit guide, showing Lex a depressing happy future? (And how perfect is it that Oedipal Lex gets Lillian as his Beatrice?) Possibilities: (a) she has such a powerful belief in giving Lex full information that she shows him the downside of choosing well (unlikely, since full information would include showing him the alternative, bombs going off and all); (b) she is seeking revenge on Lionel, trusting Lex to come through for her as he did before by driving him to choose money and power (not enough information about her to evaluate, since we only ever saw her in the depths of postpartum depression and through Lex's treasured anecdotes); or (c) she just has really, really bad judgment. If she's just Lex's fantasy, I guess that makes her something between (b) and (c).
4. I think we were being deliberately teased with Chloe/Clark -- the way it was done made it easy to read them as friends or as lovers, though Clark's still unwilling to commit. Indeed, Clark's dream-life is evidence to me that this is Lex's fantasy, since he's lacking crucial information about the real future (Lois, who should at least be at the party, not to mention Clark-as-hero needing to run off every minute). I don't think Clark would have told good-Lex the truth, since he hasn't bothered to tell Lana, so I can't say that Lex's continued ignorance is the product of his own present state of mind as in The Spike's "The Butterfly Effect," but I did feel that Chloe and Clark were creatures of Lex's mind even more than Lana was.
4. Relatedly, even Good Lex had to know (and suspect) many things about Clark that should have led him to ask Clark for help, but if he had, the dream might not have been able to come to its inevitable conclusion. Lex would rather be the only superhero around, and if he's no longer larger than life, Clark can't be either. And Lex has stopped relying on Clark for help, even when he's willing to go to his father.
5. Pure squee: Lex, even you know your poor little rich boy anecdotes grow old with repetition! Awww! Seriously, Michael Rosenbaum and Kristen Kreuk nailed that scene -- I suspected he told that heartfelt story every year even before she said so, and I found it perfectly plausible that he'd tell it both as magically-transplanted-to-the-future Lex and as Good Lex.
1. Lionel got control of the company back ... how? Lex walked away without taking his fair share? Good Lex gave up on LuthorCorp as unreformable, thus gutting his ability to engage in Bill Gates-style philanthropy and as a bonus ensuring that a powerful corporation would be a force for evil? Good really is stupid! I mean, I'm willing to try the idea that Lex knew he had to remove himself from the temptations of money and power to stay good, but in this great country of ours surely there is a potential CEO who is not, you know, Satan. I hear there's this guy at CostCo, just for instance. Maybe Good Lex could have gotten the board to install somebody like him before jumping ship.
2. So Smallville has a big homeless problem? Seriously, homelessness as Lex's cause makes sense in the vision, since this Lex is all about sticking close to home, the illusion of security created by a small-scale, familiar world.
3. What's up with Lillian, aka brother-murdering spirit guide, showing Lex a depressing happy future? (And how perfect is it that Oedipal Lex gets Lillian as his Beatrice?) Possibilities: (a) she has such a powerful belief in giving Lex full information that she shows him the downside of choosing well (unlikely, since full information would include showing him the alternative, bombs going off and all); (b) she is seeking revenge on Lionel, trusting Lex to come through for her as he did before by driving him to choose money and power (not enough information about her to evaluate, since we only ever saw her in the depths of postpartum depression and through Lex's treasured anecdotes); or (c) she just has really, really bad judgment. If she's just Lex's fantasy, I guess that makes her something between (b) and (c).
4. I think we were being deliberately teased with Chloe/Clark -- the way it was done made it easy to read them as friends or as lovers, though Clark's still unwilling to commit. Indeed, Clark's dream-life is evidence to me that this is Lex's fantasy, since he's lacking crucial information about the real future (Lois, who should at least be at the party, not to mention Clark-as-hero needing to run off every minute). I don't think Clark would have told good-Lex the truth, since he hasn't bothered to tell Lana, so I can't say that Lex's continued ignorance is the product of his own present state of mind as in The Spike's "The Butterfly Effect," but I did feel that Chloe and Clark were creatures of Lex's mind even more than Lana was.
4. Relatedly, even Good Lex had to know (and suspect) many things about Clark that should have led him to ask Clark for help, but if he had, the dream might not have been able to come to its inevitable conclusion. Lex would rather be the only superhero around, and if he's no longer larger than life, Clark can't be either. And Lex has stopped relying on Clark for help, even when he's willing to go to his father.
5. Pure squee: Lex, even you know your poor little rich boy anecdotes grow old with repetition! Awww! Seriously, Michael Rosenbaum and Kristen Kreuk nailed that scene -- I suspected he told that heartfelt story every year even before she said so, and I found it perfectly plausible that he'd tell it both as magically-transplanted-to-the-future Lex and as Good Lex.
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btw, i have written you several times from an AOL screen name, telling you how much i've enjoyed your SV stories. so if i ever comment here and act like i know who you are, but you're wondering who in the world i am, it's not that i'm trying to spook you! my (real) name's Vicki. :)
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