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Smallville 6.19 Progeny
Edited to add: This review contains material that most would characterize as Lex bashing, so please read at your own discretion.
You know, I've been watching Smallville from the beginning, and Chloe and Lex have always been my favorite characters, and I never thought I could choose between them. But one thing I was certain of, and that was that I would always love both of them. I certainly never thought that Smallville could ever actually make me hate Lex.
Apparently I was wrong. I haven't felt this kind of passionate hatred toward an SV character since Lionel in "Shattered" and "Asylum." I'm sure I'll eventually recover my Lex love--I eventually forgave Lionel, after all, and I do like villains--just not when they're targeting characters I love. I honestly feel guilty, since all season I've been wanting Lex to be an effective villain, and he was nothing if not effective in this episode--downright masterful, really--and I found myself actually wanting Chloe to shoot him. And I was actually happy he got hurt when Clark saved him from the bullet.
Targeting Moira was brilliant, and the way he manipulated her and then the way he kept Chloe from releasing the story--grade A effective villainy. Not only that, but his desire to control Moira made sense--he feels he needs to control the mutants both to reduce their danger to society and to counter the alien threat--I could actually kind of see that in this episode. And I still wanted to crush his skull ever time he was gloating at Moira or Chloe.
ARGH. Cognitive dissonance!! I don't want to hate Lex! I wanted sexy villainy, not really evil villainy, dammit.
I don't actually have a lot else to say about the episode. It was a very effective piece of Chloe characterization; I loved getting to see how similar her 8-year-old self was to her adult self, both in her interest in the weird and her sharp perceptions of people. And it was, of course, heartbreaking to see her regain and lose her mom. I was a little disappointed we didn't get to see what Chloe's meteor power was in this, but I loved that her mom didn't actually abandon her, but had herself committed just to protect Chloe.
When Lex played the motherless card as part of his attempt to manipulate Moira, I realized that at this point every single main character on SV has lost at least one parent, which just serves to reinforce the idea that it's not the loss, it's how you deal with it. And speaking of loss, I wonder how Lana's going to deal with her double loss--first losing the baby, and then losing all faith in Lex when she finds out there never was a baby. She told Clark "I'm going to come through this like I always do," and I actually hope that's true--and that she manages to wound Lex and Lionel on her way out. Look at me, rooting for Lana against Lex and Lionel! It's like the whole world has turned upside down or something.
P.S. I am UNSPOILED for future episodes and would really, really appreciate it if people are careful about what they say in the comments so that I can remain unspoiled.
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You seem to be forgetting the number of times Lex has used his money/influence, and even risked his own life, to help others...though I'll grant you that no one else in the SV universe seems to recall them, either. To mention just a few: Lex helped to rebuild Smallville after the second meteor shower (and possibly after the tornado at the end of the first season, though I'm not as certain of that one), and did the same for Metropolis after Zod's attack, for which he himself was in no way to blame (no matter Chloe's snide crack about 'guilt money'). He helped to save Smallville's largest source of jobs by saving the Luthorcorp plant, putting his own fortune at risk in the process. He walked into a situation where he was overwhelmingly likely to be killed in order to save a group of hostages, most of whom he didn't even know. Lex is capable of great nobility, and it is perfectly in character for him to sacrifice whatever he has to in order to save the world.
You assume, without a doubt, that...Lex should be this leader.
Lex is, quite simply, the only one who has stepped up on this -- the only one who has seen the looming threat and done his best to respond. Is the world supposed to wait until someone else -- someone with a higher approval rating, perhaps -- gets around to thinking about saving it? Lex is the leader here by default: there is no one else. Clark, Chloe and the proto-Justice League are actually part of the problem, given that they're all out undermining Lex's efforts.
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Grand public displays of charity from which one can benefit are dwarfed and stamped out by what Lex's is doing to people secretly, all while reveling in the fact that he's not getting caught and destroying evidence of it.
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You had commented as follows:
I see no textual proof that Lex's motives are as altruistic or noble as you're presenting them here; they could very well be entirely self-serving. An army to do his bidding for only his ambitions, the world be damned. Lex has not shown viewers anything to the contrary.
I simply pointed out textual proof of instances where Lex's motives seem to me clearly altruistic. If you choose to see them otherwise (though how you otherwise view "Jitters" I can not imagine), that is entirely up to you.
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To be honest, I think the Zod-related 'charity' is probably the only particularly relevant incident to our current point in S6, timeline wise. Yes, I agree that Lex has arguably done some selfless things, but most of them are pretty early on, and as SV is (supposed to be at any rate) about the journey Clark makes to being Superman, and consequently Lex's journey to being his arch-nemesis, I don't see how you can relate those earlier events to now. Especially not to use them as justification for believing in Lex having ultimately good intentions when there's little other canon to support that. The whole point is that they're changing, growing characters, and what happened early on isn't necessarily or clearly going to fit or relate to their later actions.
Not to mention that even if Chloe's crack about guilt money was snide, there is some element of truth there. Yes, it was Zod, not Lex. But it was Lex's choices that put him in that position, and he continued making those choices even when it became clear that Fine might not be particularly trustworthy. No one just randomly picked him out of a crowd and said 'hey you, you'll make a good tool for Zod,' he did place himself in those cross-hairs under his own steam. So, no, I don't think it can be said that Lex trying to help clean up after Zod paints him as being nobel or self-sacrificing, there's a definite element of justified responsibility there for him.
You're also saying that the baby Justice League is part of the problem because they're undermining Lex, and he's the only one who has stepped up? I really can't see your rationale for this. There are other people trying to do things, or we wouldn't have the baby Justice League in the first place. One of Oliver's gripes with Clark has consistently been that Clark 'waits for trouble to land on his doorstep' rather than, and in contrast to how Ollie and the baby League work, seeking out ways in which the world needs saving. As far as I can see, the only way Clark and co. undermine Lex is because they provide a far less grey example of how to 'save the world' which Lex can be compared to and found wanting. That doesn't intrinsically mean they're a bad thing, it just means they help show where Lex goes morally wrong, even if he has good intentions. (Which I'll admit, I doubt he has all that much of them, or if he does have them that they're less important to him than his self-serving ambitions.) A character/s showing up flaws in another favourite character/s doesn't make the first bad in their own right. Yes, they're hindering Lex's ability to act by attacking 33.1, but Lex's actions have caused death, injury, and he has illegially caught/imprisioned people, exercised power without a shred of authority, blackmailed and manipulated people, and performed experiments on live subjects without their consent. I don't think many of those things would be out of place in an alien invasion scenario, so if Lex is justified in trying to take them down or prepare for that scenario, then I don't see how you can argue that Clark and co. aren't justified in taking down Lex for the same thing. Both see others as a threat to the human community as a whole, on a large scale, but one is on more solid group morally in their means and methods. And I hate to say it, but it's not Lex.
And to
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Thanks! And it seems like a lot of us are really conflicted about Lex, so it's definitely not just you. And feel free to jump in--I actually love when folks have discussions in my journal, it makes me feel like I'm hosting an SV salon, or something.
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Early on or not, they show Lex's essential nature. There's also, as I mentioned above, the more recent incident from "Scare" in which, despite the fact that he'd been exposed to the virus significantly later than everyone else and thus had more time than they did, Lex used an untested and potentially lethal vaccine on himself rather than choose someone else to use as a guinea pig. (And also turned down Clark's urgent offer to experiment on him, which effectively shows up Clark's later insinuation that Lex would do anything for the chance to experiment on him.)
Yes, it was Zod, not Lex. But it was Lex's choices that put him in that position, and he continued making those choices even when it became clear that Fine might not be particularly trustworthy. No one just randomly picked him out of a crowd and said 'hey you, you'll make a good tool for Zod,' he did place himself in those cross-hairs under his own steam.
Fine wanted to work with lethal viruses. Should Lex have let him do that with someone else -- someone who might not have looked beyond the surface or suspected that Fine had a hidden agenda? Lex had every reason to believe that Fine was hoping to destroy the human race with a supervirus; in response, Lex kept an eye on him and a hold on the project and created enough supervaccine for everyone in an attempt to save the entire human race from Fine's machinations. Hardly a selfish or evil plan on Lex's part! And it is in no way Lex's fault that Fine's true goal was to free Zod, since Lex had no way to know that Zod even existed. (Clark and Chloe and Martha and Lionel knew about Zod, and about Fine's intentions toward him, but naturally none of them bothered to give Lex enough of the truth to warn him. I'd say a lot of the blood from Dark Thursday is on their hands.)
Don't forget, either, that Fine's first attempt was to use Clark as Zod's vessel, and that it was Clark who 'placed himself in those crosshairs.' Does that prove that Clark is also 'evil'?
The proto-Justice League sees Lex as the Big Evil, and is working to destroy him (rather inefficiently, as has been said elsewhere) by destroying his 33.1 operations. Lex sees the return of Zod, or someone like him, as the Big Evil and is using his 33.1 operations to prevent that. Considering Zod's stated goal was to wipe out the human race and replace it with his own offspring, I'd say he and others like him pose a far greater risk that Lex Luthor, who clearly has no desire to kill off humanity (hence his making enough supervaccine to save everybody). Moreover, and as I have said before, Lex is apparently locking up only those people who would otherwise be locked up by the authorities anyway for having committed crimes; and doing it Lex's way means that those in captivity may do some actual good toward saving people beyond just not killing anyone while they're locked up. So how is that bad?
To paraphrase a writer I greatly admire, Lex knows that some of what he's doing is unethical, but he's doing it for a greater good -- the survival of the human race -- and, for that greater good, he's willing to get his own hands dirty when necessary. Which, really, is yet another example of Lex's willingness to sacrifice himself for others.
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Clark and Chloe and Martha and Lionel knew about Zod, and about Fine's intentions toward him, but naturally none of them bothered to give Lex enough of the truth to warn him. I'd say a lot of the blood from Dark Thursday is on their hands.
I think it's interesting that you put it on them for failing to stop Zod, when Clark could have easily done so by killing Lex as instructed.
Don't forget, either, that Fine's first attempt was to use Clark as Zod's vessel, and that it was Clark who 'placed himself in those crosshairs.' Does that prove that Clark is also 'evil'?
I don't think I said that I thought Lex was evil for his role in the Zod arc, I think you missed my point. My point was that I don't think you can say that Lex's charity post-Dark Thusday is noble or selfless, because his choices played a large role in Zod's ressurection, even though that wasn't his intention. I think it parallels Clark's extreme efforts to help in the clean up to the point of practically running himself into the ground, because if he had acted differently (killed Lex to stop Zod) then Zod wouldn't have had the chance to wreck havoc. I don't think Lex is evil, just his charity after the fact isn't selfless but in fact him actually fulfilling a responsibility given his hand in the event.
I'd also argue your determination that no one informed Lex of the potential destruction from Fine's intentions, as I do believe Lionel tried to sit him down and warn him. Also, I don't think they weren't aware of Fine's intention to use Lex as a vessel until after Lex had already been deducted. Lana overhead Clark and Chloe figuring that link out at the planet, I do believe. At which point Clark refused to kill Lex the next time they met, even though Lex was already being pretty destructive under his own steam. Not to mention, Lex doesn't have a 'right' to the truth, especially not to truth from or relating to Clark until it's proven absolutely necessary, which I don't think it was in the case of Fine setting Lex up as the vessel, they worked that out too late. But Lex has proven himself untrustworthy in relation to Clark. See Nixon, the chamber of Clark, the shenanigans in Moral that put Lana and Clark's parents at risk because Lex believes he has a right to do whatever it takes to learn a secret before Clark was ready to share it. Lex may have an ability to do a lot of what he does, but he doesn't always (I might even argue often) have an unquestionable right to do it, even though he can.
Personally I think this is where Lex falls down. He thinks he has the right or authority to do whatever he believes is for the good of all, but no one gave him the right to play God. He isn't an elected government, no one gave him permission to do morally grey things to protect the people, he doesn't actually have any authority to do the things he do. This is why I said the proto-League is a 'less grey' example of saving the world to compare Lex to, because they're also on questionable ground there as well, but they also aren't causing deaths, injuries, or blackmailing, torturing, experimenting on people, or holding them against their will. Which gives them slightly more leverage in the morality stakes than Lex.
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But Lex has proven himself untrustworthy in relation to Clark. See Nixon, the chamber of Clark, the shenanigans in Moral that put Lana and Clark's parents at risk because Lex believes he has a right to do whatever it takes to learn a secret before Clark was ready to share it.
First off, I point out that there is no evidence that Lex sent the mutants after Clark in "Mortal." Yes, it was Lex the lead mutant bumped into in order to turn off his restraining device, but that strikes me as pure coincidence. Lex had every reason to be at Belle Reve on that day; Lionel had just been admitted in a state of catatonia strikingly similar to the state whats-his-name the linguist was in before he abruptly gained superpowers and started running around blasting people, so Lex naturally wanted to get another close look at his father before personally giving the doctor instructions to notify him immediately if Lionel's condition changed. And of course Lex had extra security (including extra cameras with a separate power source) on the kryptonite solution he'd been experimenting with; he had good reason to expect attempts by superpowered mutants to try to steal that solution, and he wanted it kept safe, if possible, and to know exactly who had taken it, if not. After returning to Smallville and being informed that there'd been a power outage and a possible break-in, Lex naturally checked the video footage, and was surprised to see Clark and Chloe breaking in, and further surprised to see Clark apparently injured by the laser when Lex had long had good reason to believe that Clark was far harder to hurt than that. Clark and Chloe promptly leaped to the conclusion that these bits and pieces somehow 'proved' Lex's guilt, but then they also concluded that Lex was the one who had exposed Clark to the 'silver kryptonite' in "Splinter," and they were dead wrong then, too.
And, in fact, Lex has proven himself utterly trustworthy regarding Clark's secret. In the "Shattered"/"Asylum" arc, Lex saw Clark use his powers and yet, aside from his initial startled outburst while drugged out of his mind, he kept Clark's secret the entire month he was locked up in Belle Reve -- despite the fact that Clark had allowed him to be locked up in the first place, and then flatly refused to break him out when he came to visit and Lex begged him for help. Lex kept Clark's secret throughout his imprisonment, even though he could have used it to bargain with Lionel for his freedom. Lex kept Clark's secret, even though he could have used it to bargain with Lionel to keep Lionel from frying his brain. I'd say that's at least as much proof of trustworthiness as Pete's refusal to tell a crazy scientist that Clark was the alien the guy was looking for. Yet Clark not only never trusts Lex with the truth afterwards, but he endangers Lex's sanity and Lex's life in "Memoria" in order to keep Lex from possibly remembering what he'd seen Clark do. If you ask me, it isn't Lex who's untrustworthy -- it's Clark.
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I think it's interesting that you put it on them for failing to stop Zod, when Clark could have easily done so by killing Lex as instructed.
Clark might have done so by warning Lex, too, but -- even at the last possible moment, with the fate of the world at stake -- he couldn't bring himself to tell Lex the truth. Clearly, lying is a tough habit to break.
I'd also argue your determination that no one informed Lex of the potential destruction from Fine's intentions, as I do believe Lionel tried to sit him down and warn him.
Lionel has lied to and manipulated and betrayed Lex all his life. Lionel has drugged Lex and poisoned him and locked him up and fried his brain. Lionel has tried to swap bodies with him, leaving Lex trapped behind prison bars in a body dying of liver disease. Lex has no good reason to blindly trust anything Lionel has to say, and Lionel did not bother to give Lex enough of the truth to make it credible and/or useful.
He thinks he has the right or authority to do whatever he believes is for the good of all, but no one gave him the right to play God. He isn't an elected government, no one gave him permission to do morally grey things to protect the people, he doesn't actually have any authority to do the things he do.
If I pass a small fire in dry grass, and I stop to put it out before it can spread and maybe destroy thousands of acres of timber or homes or whatever, am I wrong in doing so just because I'm not an official firefighter? Sometimes you have to step in because the 'officials' aren't there ready to do what needs to be done, but you are; the circumstances themselves give you both the authority and the ethical responsibility. Lex tried to get an official position in the government from which to work, but he lost the election, so he's forced to do what needs doing as a private citizen. No one else is seeing the danger Lex sees. No one else is doing anything about it. If Lex doesn't take these steps, no one will, and the human race will be left defenseless. Clearly, Lex considers that an unacceptable risk -- so he's stepped up to do what needs to be done. He's not evil; he's just taking responsibility.
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Also, I dunno, maybe it's just me but I don't really equate torture and kidnapping and possible murder with a small fire in dry grass. *shrug* And I'd really argue that no one sees the danger Lex does. Clark is better informed about dangerous aliens running around than Lex is, and it's not stated clearly but it's possible that Oliver/the League are now being brought in on it too as it was Ollie that got Clark the heads up on Zoner activity in Combat.
Anyway, as I said, I can see where you're coming from but I have to disagree with your interpretation of Lex's motives. And I think categorising Lex as evil is risky business, because evil is a much disputed term. I go more for defined terms. I think he's dangerous, misguided, self-righteous, and with the potential for even greater harm, as is pretty clearly depicted in pre-Smallville canon anyway. But I think we're going to have to agree to disagree there.
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Honestly, that sounds like my description of Clark and the pre-Justice League, especially given that the JL is being lead by Oliver Queen, who -- in SV, at least -- is a sadistic sociopath.
But, yes, we'll have to agree to disagree.
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Moreover, and as I have said before, Lex is apparently locking up only those people who would otherwise be locked up by the authorities anyway for having committed crimes.
Just because the authorities should be locking them up anyway, doesn't give someone else the right to step in and try to do their job. There is a system for a reason, because no individual has the right to play God, and one person's view of what the authorities would or should lock someone up for, doesn't always tally with the majority of the rest of their society.
Not to mention, even though Moira believes she's abused her power with Chloe and she does highly questionable things when she feels cornered by Lex, there's no reason to believe that in canon Moira has done anything along those lines of being worthy of prosecution before Lex pushed her. Considering Lex's team has pulled innocent people, who are meteor infected but haven't done anything wrong, off the street (and the show isn't devoted to cateloguing each and every mutant Lex captures) I don't see that you can argue that every mutant Lex grabs is a good thing. We have dubious methods, we have a number of instances of Lex acting without the consent of the infected people involved, and we have him acting without any authority to do so. Perhaps you don't see damning evidence there, but I at least see room for doubt and for questioning.
I think there is validity in believing that a greater person or organisation should 'dirty' its hands for the greater good of all. I don't always agree with it, but I can see the reasoning behind it. However, surely there needs to be checks and limits in place, some kind of accountability, and authority given for these actions in the first place. I see none of that with Lex. And even if you believe absolutely in his good intentions, if he has the right to march in and do what he likes in his quest to save the world just because he is able to do it, then so does anyone else. There's no rules or reasoning that give him the right to do what he does other than that you trust his judgement and motives, and that makes him dangerous, because motives change. Judgement changes. There's no reason that anyone else, without the same motives you agree with, can't walk in there and do the same thing. That in and of itself put Lex's actions into question, in my book, because he will not submit to that kind of rules and believes himself above everyone else. Then to add morally dubious actions on top of it?
I dunno, I love Lex, and I can see why and where you're coming from because a part of me still wants woobie, good Lex and Clex and all that good stuff. But, objectively, he's doing some questionable things and he's doing them the wrong way. He's not good Lex anymore, even if he believes he's doing the right thing. The fact is, he's not just getting his hands dirty, he's slowly but surely causing some extensive harm, and he doesn't appear to be bothered by it. This isn't just a case of being willing to undermine your own ethics for the greater good, this is actually letting your ethics go. And when he's letting your ethics go, you have to question when his motives are going to change. 'The ends justifies the means' doesn't carry a whole lot of weight if one day you stop needing the justify those means. That's where Lex is getting dangerously close to.
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At the time Moira sent Chloe after Lex, all Lex had done was to awaken Moira from a catatonic state and ask for her help. No, he hadn't let her leave; she'd been given an experimental drug, and her powers were potentially dangerous even without the drug, so just letting her walk out would have been dangerous not only to her but to everyone around her. Yet Moira has Chloe run Lex off the road and then bash him over the head and steal his flashdrive; these are, in fact, serious crimes worthy of prosecution, committed at a time when Lex had in no way harmed or mistreated her.
The fact is, he's not just getting his hands dirty, he's slowly but surely causing some extensive harm, and he doesn't appear to be bothered by it.
Actually, we've seen indications that he is bothered by it. He has nightmares. He tells Lionel he's worried about being seen for who he really is. He tells Lana he prays that he doesn't get what he deserves. Lex is suffering the emotional consequences of his actions; he just can't afford to let his own pain stop him from doing what needs to be done. Which, in my book, is pretty heroic.
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Actually, that isn't canon. We don't know exactly what Moira told Chloe to do. She didn't tell Chloe to turn a gun on Lex to get out, and a command to get out for her own safety is a fairly morally safe thing to do. And yet, there was Chloe with a weapon pointed at Lex because he stood in her way. I wouldn't be surprised if Moira's instruction was more along the line of 'Lex Luthor is holding me hostage, find out where I am so you can get me out.' Or whatever.
The only nightmare I'm calling to mind is over the fake!baby? That's kind of a whole seperate issue with me and my opinion of Lex, and I can't see even the slightest excuse if he was behind Lana's fake pregnancy. As for what he's told Lana and Lionel, he doesn't really seem to have the most honest relationship with either. Actually, I'd hazard that his relationship with both seems to be more fraught with lies and manipulation than anything else. He doesn't even appear slightly remorseful during the actual doing of any of these things, and as the Lexana relationship has shown Smallville doesn't have a problem with showing beneath Lex's facade when he turns away from someone he's trying to fool, so I don't buy that he's just hiding his 'real' emotion behind a mask to get the job done. Actions speak louder than words, particularly when those words are to people you're rarely honest with. That's not heroic, that's just doing what you please because you can.