I have to admit it, even knowing that he is evil incarnate, I would have a really hard time not being seduced by Lionel myself, so I cut Martha a *little* slack here. He's playing her very well, too, by suggesting that she really *doesn't* want him to win (which is true), and therefore maneuvering her into a position where she accepts his help, ironically, to prove to herself that she really is loyal to him. But honestly, she should know better.


I like this development for Martha! Every powerful person has the guy (or girl) in the back who does the dirty work, the stuff that the golden boy doesn't want to be associated with. MArtha comes from Metropolis, she knows how this stuff works, sometimes you have to get in bed with the bad guys in order to get ahead. I've always seen as conventioanlly tougher than Jonathan and he needs that because otherwise he'd float away on a cloud of idealism. So, Martha is Jonathan's Sammy the Bull Gravano - and that is very cool to me.