Clark Kent and the Learning Curve

[butterfly]

Last night's Smallville really worked for me, and it comes down to Clark. He's trying so hard not to automatically use his powers. Throughout this season, he's been shown to be learning lessons. He's trying to do things the right way first, the legal way.

And each time, it doesn't work, because the system is in the pocket of the criminals. The system is flawed.

So he gives into his worst instincts and does the illegal, unsustainable thing - he tries to break Lex out of Belle Reve, he 'borrows' Lex's car to try to save Pete. In the first case, Lex was destroyed anyway, in the second, someone died.

And his friend betrayed him - because that was a betrayal that Pete just did, and the writers must be aware of that, Clark must be, after Pete's words about Lex - "I've got your back, but Lex won't." Clark has to be thinking that he never should have told Pete about his powers. Never should have given Pete the temptation. In other words, he's falling more and more into keeping secrets - Chloe had to verbally smack him about keeping Pete's and he couldn't admit to Lex even something that Lex already knew. If Lex had said straight-out, as Chloe did - "This mysterious solution wouldn't be stealing my car, now would it?" Would Clark still have evaded? His secrets are locked up even more tightly from Lex, who he probably thinks that he's hurt enough already.

And the last Clark/Lex scene was a touch chilling for me - Clark is now, I think, afraid that Lex will ask him to cross boundaries for him. He's already done that (he strong-armed two people in Shattered, and if Edge hadn't been dead already, hitting Clark probably assured that he was dead by the end, in Aslyum, he breaks in only after trying the more legal way leads to someone's death). More than that, he crossed the familial boundaries for Lex - directly choosing Lex over his parents (he also was willing to place Chloe and Lana in danger to help Lex). But Clark is learning - from Lex and from his own experiences - that you have to say 'no' sometimes. And I think that it disturbed him a little that Lex's 'no' was really a sidewides 'yes'. He learned that he can't make moral exceptions even when it comes to friendship, and Lex is saying that what he just decided was wrong was all right. Ouch.

Clark is learning, putting the pieces together, and he's weaving a secret composed of many. His friendship with Chloe is now directly dependant on her not trying to find his secret. The fact that he sidesteps even the things Lex already knows probably tells Lex the same - as a result, Lex appears to be focusing on a different young man with secrets, one that he isn't friends with, one that he can concentrate on without worrying about caring. In a way, Adam is a Clark proxy, a way to focus the energy that he used to spend on Clark, a way to discover a secret without hurting his friendship with Clark. Right now, Clark probably wishes that his friendship with Pete were like the ones with Chloe or Lana - suspecting but unknowing.

So, he sets up an absolute - never again.

Yeah, I can definitely see why a secret identity was needed.