I never thought I would cry for Jonathan Kent (for Martha and Clark's grief, sure, but not for the man himself), but *dammit*, even though I knew they were being deliberately emotionally manipulative with those home movies, I bawled like a baby when Jonathan said "goodbye."
Same here. It was the good kind of emotional manipulation, though, where you know it's happening, but it still feels organic to the story/scene/moment.
Second: Oh, Lionel, you are *such* a magnificent bastard. I knew you'd start making a play for Martha, but I *didn't* expect you to play the Lillian card, and that was *masterful.*
What I loved was how it harkened back to the first time he showed interest in her, which was, I think, in Skinwalker. He compared her to Lillian then, too, saying that Martha had the same kind of "no bullshit here, please, kthnxbi" attitude. I'm enjoying the way this season is reaching back, not just to other episodes within the season, but to other eps within the *series*, to sustain a sense of emotional continuity/history between the characters in their interactions with each other (although it'd be nice if everyone remembered that Lionel went to prison for murdering his parents, that he tried to kill Chloe, and that he basically kidnapped and subjected his own son to needless radical psychiatric treatment).
And I didn't really expect Martha to actually mean something to you--giving up your takeover of Luthercorp?
I look at it this way: Lionel is a master strategist. If his end game is to secure Martha's affections so that he can have access to *Clark* as a resource/ally (and it's certainly a strong possibility that the leverage he had on Jonathan had to do with Clark, and that the types of favors he was going to ask for would implicate Clark's abilities, etc.), then he can't afford to alienate Martha right now. Her love and grief for Jonathan are so strong right now that I'm not sure that even with his capacity for spin, Lionel could twist it such that she wouldn't hate him if she believed his actions in someway precipitated Jon's death. Alienating Martha is too big a risk, because he wouldn't be able to regain a foot-hold if that info came out right now.
So. I suspect that Lionel decided to concede this round to Lex because he's just arrogant enough to believe that if he eventually wins Martha over, then he can diffuse the threat himself; if she's *in love* with him when she learns, and if she hears it from him with the best Lionel-spin he can give it, then she could probably forgive it. But if she heard it right now, and heard it with the spin *Lex* could put on it? Lionel'd probably be lucky she didn't run him over with one of the farm's tractors.
It was a strategic move on Lionel's part. But like I said over in fleegull's LJ, he'd better hope Lex doesn't have some other little stinkbombs hidden here and there, just waiting for the right moment to deploy them. The fact that he knows about something that secret? And something that happened while he himself was shit-faced drunk? Means Lex has got his eye on Lionel something fierce, and if he's been paying *that* much attention, then there's no telling what *else* he's uncovered that Lionel might not want anyone to know.
but it's interesting that they seem to be setting up a complicated suicide slums plotline, linked to Lionel.
And here's where Lex's attentiveness may end up paying off. After all, it doesn't make much sense that Snake (the thug Andrea killed) would be *lying* when he said Lionel ordered the hit on Andrea's mother, whose activism seemed to be blocking some development Lionel's got brewing. Given their respective positions, it only makes sense that someone like that would cross paths with someone like Lionel *almost exclusively* under shady conditions. So I wonder if this Suicide Slums business isn't the means by which Lex brings about Lionel's fall/destruction. There's a certain symmetry to that, after all, since *escaping* the Suicide Slums life is what spurred Lionel to kill his parents and set out on his Master of the Universe path in the first place. It makes a certain kind of sense that his Reign of Terror would come to an end because of Suicide Slums.
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Same here. It was the good kind of emotional manipulation, though, where you know it's happening, but it still feels organic to the story/scene/moment.
Second: Oh, Lionel, you are *such* a magnificent bastard. I knew you'd start making a play for Martha, but I *didn't* expect you to play the Lillian card, and that was *masterful.*
What I loved was how it harkened back to the first time he showed interest in her, which was, I think, in Skinwalker. He compared her to Lillian then, too, saying that Martha had the same kind of "no bullshit here, please, kthnxbi" attitude. I'm enjoying the way this season is reaching back, not just to other episodes within the season, but to other eps within the *series*, to sustain a sense of emotional continuity/history between the characters in their interactions with each other (although it'd be nice if everyone remembered that Lionel went to prison for murdering his parents, that he tried to kill Chloe, and that he basically kidnapped and subjected his own son to needless radical psychiatric treatment).
And I didn't really expect Martha to actually mean something to you--giving up your takeover of Luthercorp?
I look at it this way: Lionel is a master strategist. If his end game is to secure Martha's affections so that he can have access to *Clark* as a resource/ally (and it's certainly a strong possibility that the leverage he had on Jonathan had to do with Clark, and that the types of favors he was going to ask for would implicate Clark's abilities, etc.), then he can't afford to alienate Martha right now. Her love and grief for Jonathan are so strong right now that I'm not sure that even with his capacity for spin, Lionel could twist it such that she wouldn't hate him if she believed his actions in someway precipitated Jon's death. Alienating Martha is too big a risk, because he wouldn't be able to regain a foot-hold if that info came out right now.
So. I suspect that Lionel decided to concede this round to Lex because he's just arrogant enough to believe that if he eventually wins Martha over, then he can diffuse the threat himself; if she's *in love* with him when she learns, and if she hears it from him with the best Lionel-spin he can give it, then she could probably forgive it. But if she heard it right now, and heard it with the spin *Lex* could put on it? Lionel'd probably be lucky she didn't run him over with one of the farm's tractors.
It was a strategic move on Lionel's part. But like I said over in
but it's interesting that they seem to be setting up a complicated suicide slums plotline, linked to Lionel.
And here's where Lex's attentiveness may end up paying off. After all, it doesn't make much sense that Snake (the thug Andrea killed) would be *lying* when he said Lionel ordered the hit on Andrea's mother, whose activism seemed to be blocking some development Lionel's got brewing. Given their respective positions, it only makes sense that someone like that would cross paths with someone like Lionel *almost exclusively* under shady conditions. So I wonder if this Suicide Slums business isn't the means by which Lex brings about Lionel's fall/destruction. There's a certain symmetry to that, after all, since *escaping* the Suicide Slums life is what spurred Lionel to kill his parents and set out on his Master of the Universe path in the first place. It makes a certain kind of sense that his Reign of Terror would come to an end because of Suicide Slums.