Smallville: Crimson

[butterfly]

My words, on the 24th of September in 2004:
"I'm just so happy that they didn't screw up Lois Lane." And I still feel that way -- I'm intensely thrilled that they haven't screwed up Lois Lane. She's been my model for what being a true, strong woman is for as long as I can remember (One of the reasons that I adore her is also probably part of why I love Rose so much -- they can go toe-to-toe with an alien who has powers beyond their ken... and yet manage to be the one who perplexes and delights the alien). Buffy is my growing up story, but Lois was my already-grown story. Lois was -- in many ways, still is -- my goal. I strive and long and hope to be that brave and tough and resilent.

And I adored Erica Durance's Lois Lane from the first moment that I saw her. In fact, I stopped watching Smallville after Lois left in Devotion, as I didn't know that she was coming back. Amusingly enough, in the time that I was watching the show back then and interacting with fandom, I had exactly the same issues with fandom that I do now (quote from Nov. 10th, 2004: "Lois as irritating, persistent, and lacking that little thing we call common sense is Lois Lane as I've always seen her characterized. She's pushy and tough and always jumps without looking. That's Lois Lane. That's been Lois Lane. For, like, decades, man."). Erica's Lois felt just like Lois, only rougher and still needing a bit of her sharp edges polished off (though not too much).

And so I adored Crimson. Flat-out loved it, excluding none of the parts.

I'll start with my not-quite-as-favorite bits first and work my way up to the Lois/Clark joy!

Jimmy: I love that Jimmy dragged Lois out to set her up with Clark. Adorable and prescient of him. Sometimes outsiders have the best view, and things between Lois and Clark have been on a steady climb since Oracle and the talk in the barn (in my catching up, that's the moment I mark as Clark looking at her differently, and everything I've seen this season has borne that theory out.). Neither of them could possibly admit it yet, but there's something between Lois and Clark that wasn't there before.

Chloe/Jimmy: My heart broke for Jimmy. Honestly, he wasn't asking Chloe to drop Clark as a friend or slag him off or anything -- he just wanted her to say that insulting a room full of people and dragging a pregnant woman off was a screwy thing to do. And she couldn't do it. Seriously, Chloe, keeping Clark's secret does not mean letting everything else slid. It does not mean placing an automatic stamp of approval on all of Clark's actions. You can guard his secret and still be aware of the fact that he can make mistakes (and, yes, he was under the influence, however, as Martha pointed out, that doesn't mean that there wasn't a grain of truth in his feelings and it definitely doesn't mean that people didn't get hurt by what he said). After she point-blank refused to admit to the possibility of Clark being less than perfect, I would have thought less of Jimmy if he hadn't broken up with her. He does, and should, value his own heart more than that and not allow it to get trampled over for the sake of Chloe's friendship with Clark. Aaron did a wonderful job with that scene -- his pain was so clear and he was trying so hard to be strong.

Chloe: She wasn't at her best in this episode, showing both pettiness (Lois) and blindness (Clark). She hurt Jimmy for no good reason. And her behavior in this episode sheds an unpleasant light on her behavior in Hydro -- if she really thinks the idea of Lois and Clark being attracted to each other is ridiculous, then it looks like she was just mocking Lois (because she didn't know the truth) rather than teasing both Lois and Clark. Also, her behavior towards Jimmy means that the Chloe/Clark moment in Zod looks a hell of a lot less like her moving on and growing up and rather more like the bullshit that she pulled in Vortex, when she told Clark that she wanted to go back to 'just being friends' and then held it against him for the entire season when he agreed.

Still, I did ache for her when RedK!Clark threw her feelings for him in her face. Allison Mack does a good 'hurt' face.

Chloe/Lana: Interesting. I'm curious as to how Chloe will continue to play two sides with Lana in the future -- though she may not have to for long, if that bent chisel in Lana's possession means what I think it does.

Martha: Martha was used very well this entire episode -- I love them confronting Martha with Clark's feelings about Lionel's relationship with her. It disturbs him, as well it should -- not only does he not trust Lionel, his father has only been dead for a little over a year. That's moving pretty quickly. I loved seeing Martha's strength against RedK!Clark, that she's the one who weakened him enough to start the process of getting the RedK out of his system.

Lana: I really liked Lana in this episode, as I've liked her all season. Her joy and sincerity with Lex, her uncertainty about telling people about the baby, her anger with Clark, and then her secret at the end. For all that she rails against other people for keeping secrets from her, Lana certainly is in the habit of keeping them herself. If her finding the bent chisel leads to her discovering Clark's secret, we may end up with a more traditional Lana Lang after all -- secret keeper and friend of Clark (who never quite stopped loving him).

Lana/Lex: Their relationship continues to be a layer of sweetness covering an underlying morass of creepiness and secrets. What is it that Lex knows about her baby that she doesn't? And, of course, how true is Clark's accusation that Lana is a competition to Lex and that Lex is just a consolation prize to Lana? Enough to make them both uncomfortable -- their need and want to learn Clark's secret is part of what bound them together so tightly. If Lana does find out Clark's secret this season, and keeps that from Lex, it could very well be enough to dissolve their partnership.

Lex/Clark: Someone's pretty pissed off at Clark. Heh. There are still some very powerful feelings going on between those two. In some ways, Lana really is a battleground that they've been playing on -- she's been used as an object for them since the very beginning, when Clark wanted her and Lex thought that convincing Lana to take Clark on was the best way to win and keep Clark's friendship.

Clark: I've always been intrigued by what they do with Clark when he's on RedK. Part of him is still Clark -- he married Alicia because he was attracted to her, liked her, felt that she could understand him, and Clark on RedK took that to the next level. When he ran off to Metropolis, he wanted to be anybody but Clark Kent, because Clark Kent had destroyed his own family, and so he became all the things that Clark would never dream of being. There's always some part of Clark that gives birth to the feelings that he shows when he's on RedK -- but Clark would never express those feelings the same way off RedK.

Clark isn't in love with Lois Lane right now. But he's attracted to her (see: kissing), he wants to impress her (see: flying), and he trusts her. It's very significant, I think, that Clark tells Lois the truth about himself, when he's on RedK. He tells us in... Red, I think, that he wanted to tell Lana and Lex the truth, so badly. And yet... he didn't. When he's on RedK, he nearly always ends up in some kind of romantic situation with Lana and Lana always wants to know his secret. But he never tells her. His desire to tell her (or Lex) is always outweighed by his caution. Not so with Lois. He told her almost immediately -- the second that the occasion arose, he was not only spilling his own secrets without hesitation, he also spilled Oliver's. He trusts Lois, instinctively, and that's a very good sign for their future relationship. He also, again markedly, isn't cruel to her. He's straight-forward when claiming his desire to be with Lana instead, but he doesn't insult or directly hurt Lois at all. Considering how much Clark went off at everyone else, it shows how healthy the current Clark/Lois friendship is -- he has no repressed anger toward her, the way he does with his mom.

Clark/Lois: I adored them.

I've actually been really thrilled about the slow and steady development of the Lois/Clark relationship in SV canon. They've gone from being sparky but connected mostly by Chloe, to being actual friends, and now there are hints of something more and their friendship is long since not related to Chloe at all. I like that it took over two years for them to kiss, that we saw all the stages of their friendship being laid down first. I like that the kisses still aren't serious -- they aren't ready yet for each other, still have some growing up to do, but that doesn't mean that they can't play around with the idea.

And I love the Lois and Clark relationship. The banter, the friendship, the romantic comedy aspect of it all (the big difference between heroes in romantic comedy and heroes in tragedies is that the heroes of comedies are allowed to look silly and yet still be taken seriously as a romance. Lex and Clark are a tragedy; Lois and Clark are a romantic comedy. Beatrice and Benedick, not Romeo and Juliet. Seriously, when the show takes Lois and Clark lightly, it isn't making fun of them. It's just playing them correctly in type -- Lois is what makes Clark ultimately the hero of a comedy and not a tragedy; she gives him his teasing, his wedding, his happy ending.). I just love it all.

I don't get the arguments against having Lois/Clark on the show, to be perfectly honest. No, it wouldn't be comics canon, but neither is the Clark/Lana/Lex triangle. Chloe and Lionel are characters who have been vital to Clark's development and they aren't comics canon in the slightest. SV is not following comics canon, any more than Superman Returns was.

Lois: I loved getting this peek into her vulnerable, romantic side. That's been a part of Lois, too -- she walls up her feelings behind her massive personal armour, but they're never as deeply locked up as she'd like them to be. I loved how Lois she was under the influence of the love potion (as compared to Devoted, where Chloe under the obsession juice felt almost unrecognizable to me) -- the death threats, her love of Whitesnake, her iffy fashion sense, and her incredibly brave heart.

While I loved Supernatural, as I nearly always do, I find myself devoid of thoughts on the latest episode. Perhaps another day, though.

Comments

[scrollgirl.livejournal.com]

Lex and Clark are a tragedy; Lois and Clark are a romantic comedy. Beatrice and Benedick, not Romeo and Juliet. Seriously, when the show takes Lois and Clark lightly, it isn't making fun of them. It's just playing them correctly in type -- Lois is what makes Clark ultimately the hero of a comedy and not a tragedy; she gives him his teasing, his wedding, his happy ending.

Well said! I don't watch SV at all, but I really like reading your analysis of the show. I'm still a DCU fan, and I'm fascinated by the different permutations of canon we get, the multiverse of stories in the movies, in the cartoons, in comics, on SV. You're absolutely right that SV isn't, and shouldn't have to, follow comics canon. If a tentative, open-ended Lois/Clark pairing is what it takes to end the series on a hopeful note (in contrast to the tragedy I'm sure we'll get with Lex and others) then so much the better.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

One of the great things about experiencing comics-based universes is the multitude of possibilities (every brand of media has its own particular delights, at least for me). It's such an open kind of media.