It's depressing to me that the pregnancy seems just to be a contrived situation to keep Lex and Lana together when they have stopped making any sense as a couple. It's hard to see what he sees in her, now that he has her--he's no longer treating her with any affection, as you say, and they're mutually very suspicious of each other. And frankly there's no reason Lana wouldn't walk out of the relationship at this point, given how controlling he is, except for the baby.

Now I know it will all end up bad, Lana will get hurt, Lex will sink further and be the bad guy. No more Lex who needs love-- only Lex who takes, tarnishes and ruins and IMHO that's not at all what they have built all these years, and it saddens me to see it end so predictably.

It's not even that he's tarnishing Lana, it's that he's doing it so--joylessly, or something. When Lionel was still being obviously soulless he was more fun to watch than Lex is, now. They need to show us more of his interior life, or something. His fears and dreams--remind us *why* he wants to control Lana, give us flashbacks, SOMETHING.

Hell, it would even be more fun if he were deliberately toying with Lana, making her fall for him to deliberately fuck up her life as payback to Clark in some twisted way. I'd rather see him as a mustache-twirling villain (preferably in leather pants) than this!