Thanks! I love the fact that this particular episode is generating so much analysis, because it's been a long time since I've seen so much good discussion of an episode. And I love your reviews so much--you always point out things I haven't seen or considered, and often make me completely re-evaluate my reading of an episode. Actually my own thoughts about Lexmas have really changed from reading everyone's analyses, and I think I have another essay on it in me, but I want to rewatch first.
I agree with you about Lana. To me, it's a little unfortunate that the fandom hates Lana so much. I mean, a lot of the time I agree with them--KK's acting wasn't great, the first season or two (but neither was TW's), and the writers have chosen too much to make her simply a symbol rather than a real character, and I often think her storylines are uninteresting--but they don't *have* to be.
I'm not sure if I agree with your reading of her as *trapped* in Smallville, though. I mean, I think Lexmas is primarily Lex's fantasy, but I also think it is the producer's fantasy, too, about Lana--and clearly she was quite fulfilled and happy as the Smallville mom. What Lana wants, more than anything else, is to recreate the family she never had, and she alone, of the orphaned trio of Lex, Clark, and Lana, will be able to do so. Maybe there will be an element of sacrifice in this--that may be what the destruction of the windmill/her death in Lexmas represents, perhaps because she really loves Clark and has to give him up to the world?--but I still think she's going to ultimately end up happy.
Hmm. Now I'm wondering to what extent the producers are paralleling not just Clark and Lex, but Clark, Lex and Lana. I wonder if that means that *she* is going to be offered a choice to reject her destiny. Of course, that might have been how they explained season 4--Lana caught up in dreams of power that pull her outside of her Smallville destiny--but maybe that's how they're going to do Lexana (if they are still going to do that). Lex offers Lana the world, but she rejects it for a quieter life. It would complete the parallelism if she rejects *both* Lex and Clark because they belong to the world--Clark in the "save the world" sense and Lex in the "own the world" sense, and she wants neither of these. She wants children, she wants a family and real love, and ultimately neither Lex nor Clark can offer her those.
Ok, after making the case that Lana is an interesting character, I've just talked myself into being annoyed with the producers all over again that the only female *lead* in the show has to end up representing home, domesticity, and love. Argh.
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I agree with you about Lana. To me, it's a little unfortunate that the fandom hates Lana so much. I mean, a lot of the time I agree with them--KK's acting wasn't great, the first season or two (but neither was TW's), and the writers have chosen too much to make her simply a symbol rather than a real character, and I often think her storylines are uninteresting--but they don't *have* to be.
I'm not sure if I agree with your reading of her as *trapped* in Smallville, though. I mean, I think Lexmas is primarily Lex's fantasy, but I also think it is the producer's fantasy, too, about Lana--and clearly she was quite fulfilled and happy as the Smallville mom. What Lana wants, more than anything else, is to recreate the family she never had, and she alone, of the orphaned trio of Lex, Clark, and Lana, will be able to do so. Maybe there will be an element of sacrifice in this--that may be what the destruction of the windmill/her death in Lexmas represents, perhaps because she really loves Clark and has to give him up to the world?--but I still think she's going to ultimately end up happy.
Hmm. Now I'm wondering to what extent the producers are paralleling not just Clark and Lex, but Clark, Lex and Lana. I wonder if that means that *she* is going to be offered a choice to reject her destiny. Of course, that might have been how they explained season 4--Lana caught up in dreams of power that pull her outside of her Smallville destiny--but maybe that's how they're going to do Lexana (if they are still going to do that). Lex offers Lana the world, but she rejects it for a quieter life. It would complete the parallelism if she rejects *both* Lex and Clark because they belong to the world--Clark in the "save the world" sense and Lex in the "own the world" sense, and she wants neither of these. She wants children, she wants a family and real love, and ultimately neither Lex nor Clark can offer her those.
Ok, after making the case that Lana is an interesting character, I've just talked myself into being annoyed with the producers all over again that the only female *lead* in the show has to end up representing home, domesticity, and love. Argh.