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SV: "Rage"
Spoilers for SV: Rage behind the cut.
Ok, I was spoiled for Lana's pregnancy, which I'm sure is creating a great deal of comment, and I will add my two cents below, but I first have to make a confession that will surprise no one who has read my journal before: during that first Lionel/Martha scene I was SCREAMING "Kiss her! Kiss her! Kiss her!" I know they'll never go too far with the Mionel-- it's more doomed than Lexana--but dammit, I want them to at least get to make out before they pull the plug on this relationship.
I was actually pleasantly surprised by the whole Thanksgiving thing, because I was sure they were setting it up for Clark to have some sort of big explosion at Lionel being invited to Thanksgiving, and that didn't happen. And while yes, it boggles my mind that even as a polite guest Chloe would agree to sit next to the man who tried to have her dad and her killed, I was *still* happy we didn't have a Clark explosion. I actually loved that little speech he made at Thanksgiving; it made me a little teary-eyed.
I also really loved the Lois/Oliver subplot. The opening scene was very HOT, and I very much appreciated his dilemma--poor superheroes, they never get to have sex because they always have to rescue someone. But I felt *really* bad for Lois. And I respect the fact that she refused to just give up on him when Clark warned her about his "drug problem." Does Oliver really have to leave? Can't he just stay on the show? Because I really love the Lois/Oliver relationship--he's always fun to watch and he definitely brings out the best in her. Plus I love all his scenes with Clark, the way they both push each other to do the right thing.
The Lex/Lana stuff was...odd. She's adopting a charity, presumably funded by Lex--already acting like a good trophy wife--so why does she think he has no say in it, if he's the one funding it? They're not married, so it actually is his money and his decision. If she was just doing volunteer work, then yes, he has no control over her, but that didn't sound like what she was talking about. And if she's so unsure about the relationship that a pregnancy causes her to freak out so much, why was she already acting like his wife at the beginning of the episode?
So that was annoying, as was the fact that pregnancy is depicted as trapping her permanently in a relationship with Lex. (And my god, that final scene WAS very effective in depicting that--the long table dividing them, the servants--it was every stereotype of upper-class loveless society marriage in one shot. It was especially effective for the contrast with Clark's happy home.) So, abortion doesn't exist in the SV verse?
I'm sure everyone who was unspoiled is freaking about this development, but I'm not, at least not yet. For one thing, I'm 98% sure that she's never going to have the baby. I'm sure it's going to end in miscarriage caused by one of these experiments Lex is funding, and that will be the thing that breaks up Lex and Lana. But the 2% of me that thinks they might go further with this is interested in the funhouse mirror version of "Lexmas" that's being set up here. Lex, already in this episode, is depicted as being very concerned about Lana's safety--in refusing to allow her to be free he thinks he's preventing the loss he saw in Lexmas, but of course he'll just recreate the freak show that was his parents' marriage. Maybe it will even have the same "Medea"-esque conclusion, with Lana killing the baby to save it from Lex!
I also think regardless of how much or little sympathy you have for Lana these days, you have to admit KK has really been excellent, recently. I am actually finding myself sympathetic to how trapped Lana is feeling, even though *rationally* I don't agree that I should feel sympathetic, just because KK was really *on* tonight, especially in those last three scenes.
Well, I'm off to find out what other people thought about the episode, but I may write more later.
Ok, I was spoiled for Lana's pregnancy, which I'm sure is creating a great deal of comment, and I will add my two cents below, but I first have to make a confession that will surprise no one who has read my journal before: during that first Lionel/Martha scene I was SCREAMING "Kiss her! Kiss her! Kiss her!" I know they'll never go too far with the Mionel-- it's more doomed than Lexana--but dammit, I want them to at least get to make out before they pull the plug on this relationship.
I was actually pleasantly surprised by the whole Thanksgiving thing, because I was sure they were setting it up for Clark to have some sort of big explosion at Lionel being invited to Thanksgiving, and that didn't happen. And while yes, it boggles my mind that even as a polite guest Chloe would agree to sit next to the man who tried to have her dad and her killed, I was *still* happy we didn't have a Clark explosion. I actually loved that little speech he made at Thanksgiving; it made me a little teary-eyed.
I also really loved the Lois/Oliver subplot. The opening scene was very HOT, and I very much appreciated his dilemma--poor superheroes, they never get to have sex because they always have to rescue someone. But I felt *really* bad for Lois. And I respect the fact that she refused to just give up on him when Clark warned her about his "drug problem." Does Oliver really have to leave? Can't he just stay on the show? Because I really love the Lois/Oliver relationship--he's always fun to watch and he definitely brings out the best in her. Plus I love all his scenes with Clark, the way they both push each other to do the right thing.
The Lex/Lana stuff was...odd. She's adopting a charity, presumably funded by Lex--already acting like a good trophy wife--so why does she think he has no say in it, if he's the one funding it? They're not married, so it actually is his money and his decision. If she was just doing volunteer work, then yes, he has no control over her, but that didn't sound like what she was talking about. And if she's so unsure about the relationship that a pregnancy causes her to freak out so much, why was she already acting like his wife at the beginning of the episode?
So that was annoying, as was the fact that pregnancy is depicted as trapping her permanently in a relationship with Lex. (And my god, that final scene WAS very effective in depicting that--the long table dividing them, the servants--it was every stereotype of upper-class loveless society marriage in one shot. It was especially effective for the contrast with Clark's happy home.) So, abortion doesn't exist in the SV verse?
I'm sure everyone who was unspoiled is freaking about this development, but I'm not, at least not yet. For one thing, I'm 98% sure that she's never going to have the baby. I'm sure it's going to end in miscarriage caused by one of these experiments Lex is funding, and that will be the thing that breaks up Lex and Lana. But the 2% of me that thinks they might go further with this is interested in the funhouse mirror version of "Lexmas" that's being set up here. Lex, already in this episode, is depicted as being very concerned about Lana's safety--in refusing to allow her to be free he thinks he's preventing the loss he saw in Lexmas, but of course he'll just recreate the freak show that was his parents' marriage. Maybe it will even have the same "Medea"-esque conclusion, with Lana killing the baby to save it from Lex!
I also think regardless of how much or little sympathy you have for Lana these days, you have to admit KK has really been excellent, recently. I am actually finding myself sympathetic to how trapped Lana is feeling, even though *rationally* I don't agree that I should feel sympathetic, just because KK was really *on* tonight, especially in those last three scenes.
Well, I'm off to find out what other people thought about the episode, but I may write more later.
no subject
I agree with this, too, but I think my issue -- or at least what's keeping me from being particularly sympathetic to Lana even though KK is really selling her emotional turmoil -- is two-fold:
First and foremost, one of the few things this show has ever *consistently gotten right* about Lana across all the seasons is that she actually is pretty damned good about laying out the boundaries of what she will and won't put up with in a relationship, what she expects from it. As far back as S1's Shimmer, she was able to do that with Whitney when he started closing off from her, and she was *only 16* (and this carried through with her finally breaking things off with him once she completely acknowledged they wanted different things; she's always been able to tell *Clark* what she would and wouldn't tolerate and she put her foot down with Jason more than once, too). To me, it's actually *regressive* of the character that now, at 21, she seems incapable of putting up more of a fight for herself. S1 or S2 -- hell, even *S5*!Lana -- would *totally call Lex out* for being patronizing and condescending with her (she did it around the issue of the spaceship, after all, and they weren't even dating). And like Nora said above, there is frankly *no good reason* that if the relationship is really making her as unhappy as it seems to just based on the last two episodes, that she wouldn't just walk out on it entirely.
The other thing is that I don't get why Lana isn't trying to make her own space any more. She did that with the Talon, she did it when she went to Paris. Now granted, neither of those things could have happened without Lex's help and assistance, but the point, again, is that Lana in the past has been capable of carving out her own space/time to give herself purpose, but now all of a sudden she can't do that? So he says no about that charity; she can't pick another one? It suddenly has to become all about the Secrets! And Lies! again when she could just ... pick another one or, here's a radical thought, find something to do that wasn't dependent on Lex or his money at all.
Lana's dilemma feels *artificial* to me because it's predicated on the series pretending all of a sudden that she doesn't have the capacity for *sticking up for herself* within a relationship -- for digging in her heels and getting downright stubborn about it -- when *we know she does* because *we've seen it* from her in the past. I get it that Lex is more powerful and monied than anyone else she's ever dated and maybe that makes her think she can't just walk away from him, but the point is *she hasn't even tried*. And since KK's playing it like it something *other than* love or affection that's binding Lana to Lex, I guess I'm having a hard time understanding *why* she hasn't.
no subject
While agree with this as a general rule wrt Lana, I think despite the fact that she talks a good game in each relationship, her *actions* (more specifically what she puts up with regardless of what she says) ultimately show that she holds Not Being Alone/Abandoned paramount even over those demands; I think she's been regressive in each passing relationship if we look at them more closely. She had the *most* spine with Whitney, but with Jason, Clark, and now Lex the regression has been worse with each time-- resorting to subterfuge (hiding the stone from Jason, working with Lex behind Clark's back, now sneaking behind Lex's back), putting up with things she swore she would not (Clark obviously lying through most of last year-- until *he* broke it off, not Lana), and now this behavior with Lex. Actually I think in the last two episodes she's shown a lot of spine, but was smacked down. Every time she's made one of her ultimatums? Smacked down. Well, they were interrupted the very last time, but still she got the picture-- Lex's ambitions come first. That unsettled her; it used to work in every other relationship to spout her demands, it doesn't work with Lex. (Also I feel like Lex is pulling a subtle "this is my stuff" card and she's reminded of her place in the relationship, the unequal standing.) While she's used to *attempting* to set boundaries and making ultimatums, time after time the ineffecacy of this wrt *Lex* is thrown in her face...she looked pretty broken up about it by the fire in the last episode, and just walked off speechless in this one. Her old tactics are just not working.
Lately I get the very real feeling that the only reason Lana is sticking this out (before learning she was pregnant that is) is because he's all she's really got now- and Not Being Alone is her *foremost* priority, even before setting boundaries. It's not like she's not trying to be stubborn- she has, even to the point of silliness (the cameras). But she's behaving like someone with no options (or more accurately, can't conceive of any herself). She looked like she wanted to talk to Clark about this for a minute there in that Clana scene, but she can't even use him as the trusty back up anymore so she cut herself off. What I mean is, even though *we* think of all these options for her? She doesn't, wanting to hang on to Lex is clouding everything else. This is a classic Lana mindset, even when things were going well in Lexana, she pushed aside those icky thoughts and "duh" questions about Lex doing shady as hell things to forge a relationship with him.
The space thing...while it bugged me that Lana had the audacity to order Lex about his cameras, I think the space issue it's a problem not specific to Lana, the show as a whole has issues with delegating space and dealing with the space issue...why the heck would Lois and Chloe, and two reporters to boot, be paying rent to Lex? I honestly think that while your objection has merit, tptb haven't even considered this. They have this odd thing about putting everyone into these nice, neat boxes space-wise in such a way that they have easy access to the people they need to keep interacting with regardless of whether it makes sense. Which is weird because...they made Metropolis like 5 minutes away by car so I don't see the need for it. But yeah, I don't think they've given this any consideration and it's a show-wide problem,.
no subject
That's a good point and remember -- we'd talked about having this sense back when Sneeze/Wither aired, this feeling that she was compromising not for the sake of the relationship per se but because she doesn't really have anywhere else to go and can't think of/won't come up with any options for where else she could go. Again, though, I don't think it's *organic* at all because this show has had *no trouble* in the past with having Lana be capable of whatever it needed her to be capable of (savvy enough to successfully run a business at 16? check. good enough artist to win a scholarship to a prestigious summer art program? check. and so on). Now, the story needs her to be incapable so we can get Poor Lana, Trapped In Her Loveless Relationship With Lex, so incapable is what she's become.
This is a classic Lana mindset, even when things were going well in Lexana, she pushed aside those icky thoughts and "duh" questions about Lex doing shady as hell things to forge a relationship with him.
Very true. I'd *love* it if she'd acknowledge this to herself, though. That would make the Lexana horrow show a lot more palatable to me than it currently is. If Lana would even just tell herself -- like her reflection in the mirror -- that this apparently miserable situation is partly because of her near-pathological fear of being alone, I'd ... forgive a lot. Because at least then she's taking ownership of the *choices she's made* that brought her to this place. I'm just not in the mood for more victim!Lana. Lots of people makes bad choices that result in them finding themselves in untenable situations. But I'm a lot more sympathetic to the people who *own* that that's what they've done than I am to people who act like it's all somehow someone else's fault. As long as Lana doesn't resort to the latter (and her telling Clark that "Lex hasn't done anything" was a decent start), I'll tolerate the storyline.
ITA on the space-thing being a show-wide problem ('cause seriously -- why *doesn't* Chloe have her own apartment at this point, for example).
no subject
Exactly...I didn't get a strong enough feeling from Lana, ever, that she's with Lex to romantically be with him (to be fair, I'm not sold Lex wants her in a romantic sense either). Sure, they showed them being like close friends last year, with Lana buying him a gift when he went to the hospital, dozing on the couch, eating chinese together, etc. But I never got the feeling that this was more than a rebound thing, and a relationship theyre both using to stave off loneliness (and not to mention deal with their clark issues). It's just opportunistic from all sides. Lana saw the space ship open up last year, she was an asset to Lex. Lex had the resources to fight those things she saw emerge. Add some bitterness at a mutual friend/lover, loneliness, past friendship, boom Lexana.
Now? Lana's bitterness at Clark seems to be waning. She's being cut off from some important developments about the thing that latched her onto Lex in the first place (ebil aliens). Most importantly, Lex is being firm in his priorities-- this is a first for Lana. See, I think that's the difference. All the other guys would bend to her demands; Lex won't budge. She's never had to deal with that. You're right that it's ridiculous that somehow Lexana relationship hasd rendered her incapacitated when she was the ultimate Mary Sue-- but all those accomplishments i realize where when she was *independent* from a guy. iirc. Whitney was off in the marines when she got the managerial position (right? correct me if I'm wrong), when she applied to that Parisan school she was dancing around with Clark but not tethered to him. It's like...when she's with a guy she's stuck on neutral.
Very true. I'd *love* it if she'd acknowledge this to herself, though. That would make the Lexana horrow show a lot more palatable to me than it currently is. If Lana would even just tell herself -- like her reflection in the mirror -- that this apparently miserable situation is partly because of her near-pathological fear of being alone, I'd ... forgive a lot. Because at least then she's taking ownership of the *choices she's made* that brought her to this place.
Totally agree. Now this would take this up a notch from being vaguely interesting to...me actually respecting how they wove this together. I liked that she told Clark Lex didn't do anything; but I was twitched when she said to Chloe she didn't want to hear anything more about Lex. I'm willing to shrug the latter off as preggo hormones or something if she takes full responsibility.
Aside, somehing your response made me think about-- and this...this reminds me of what I have to say whenever someone asks what I see in Lois. A lot of the time she's an obnoxious bitchy bitch. but. I don't have to wait on bated breath like *this*--waiting for the difference between tear-my-hear-out writing and hey-that-was-interesting, like I'm doing now wrt Lana--for her to own her mistakes/flaws. In this ep alone she was knocking herself as a nail-biting tabloid writer. But Lana...we'll have to wait and see if they'll acknowledge this. "Story of their life" to borrow SV lingo.
no subject
*nod* I remember being struck by the progression of the conversation in Fallout about the black box. Lana started out making it sound as though she was worried for Lex ("you're getting too obsessed" or whatever it is she said), but by the time it got to the end of the conversation, it was pretty clear that was *really* concerned her was that she wouldn't be the center of his attention ("it's either me or the box" or whatever). This isn't a knock on her, either. There's nothing wrong with wanting to be the most important thing in your partner's life. Lana's problem, of course, is that unlike Whitney and Jason, Clark and Lex *do*, in fact, have bigger fish to fry than her; in this, she *is* a legitimate victim of circumstance -- the two people she's most involved with really do have destinies/end points that are much, much bigger than she could ever hope to be.
See, I think that's the difference. All the other guys would bend to her demands; Lex won't budge. She's never had to deal with that.
Right. Everyone else bends over backwards to assure her of her status as Bestest/Most Special, but now that Lex has her, he doesn't need to woo her that way any more. It's got to be very confronting for Lana.
Whitney was off in the marines when she got the managerial position (right? correct me if I'm wrong)
Actually, she inititally secured the Talon while dating Whitney (Lex agreed to back her proposal in Kinetic), but it definitely *thrived* under her stewardship after she and Whitney broke up. She did secure the art school placement while single. She and Clark danced around possibly dating each other/being together in S3, but for all intents and purposes, Lana was unattached for that whole season. Emotionally she was wrapped up in Clark, but she wasn't actively dating anyone then.
I liked that she told Clark Lex didn't do anything; but I was twitched when she said to Chloe she didn't want to hear anything more about Lex. I'm willing to shrug the latter off as preggo hormones or something if she takes full responsibility.
That's really all I ask. I just don't want either the pregnancy *or* the general fact that Lana's in a relationship that apparently makes her miserable to be shunted off on anything other than Lana's own choices. She *chose* to get involved with Lex even though she was on-notice that he was a shady mofo. And she chose to sleep with him (because even if you're using protection, you've still got to reasonably understand pregnancy *is* a possibility or you shouldn't be gettin' busy). Like I said earlier: plenty of people make questionable choices that result in them being in untenable positions. The real measure of your character is whether or not you accept responsibility for your own role in that progression. Lana's circumstances didn't happen in some responsibility vacuum. As long as she and/or the show acknowledge that, I'll be okay. But I've had enough of Lana As Victim of Circumstance.
this reminds me of what I have to say whenever someone asks what I see in Lois. A lot of the time she's an obnoxious bitchy bitch. but. I don't have to wait on bated breath like *this* ... for her to own her mistakes/flaws.
*nod* This and her *complete and total lack* of pathological interest in why Clark Is Kind of Weird and Hinky are two of Lois' most endearing qualities, IMO. Lois just thinks Clark is odd and she accepts that about him without devolving into the obnoxious, entitled, emotionally manipulative bullshit Lana, Lex and Chloe (back in the day) all indulged in to try to get him to open up with them. And I love it that she's the first person to acknowledge that she screwed up when she does.
no subject
Oh, it's a tiny tiny hope, but the only hope I'm clinging to re: Lana being held responsible for her actions is that line Lois (in the ep prior) had about Clark not beating himself up about Lexana, that she made her own choice. I hope they have other characters singing this tune too because I recall Martha and Chloe making me crazy last season with their implicit "She's hurting/omgz what will she do that you'll regret?" bs.
re: Chloe
I have to give them credit for the Chloe financial situation though (let's ignore the new-suit-a-day thing though)-- they've hammered it home that she has financial issues, being on financial aid; is a student "on an intern budget"...so I can buy her not having an apartment in Metropolis. Lana, Lois, and Martha (when she worked at the Talon), iono about them though... Just awkward logistics all around. The only way I can fanwank it is...maybe Lex bought up most of the property in SV anyway and it would be nigh impossible to avpid paying him rent on moral grounds. I don't recall that being canon however, just got the implied impression in S1-S2 that he was acquiring SV property.