Well, I probably going to regret joining this debate, but whatever.
First of all, I always thought Clark should have told Lois about Superman after their first date.
However, given how bent out of shape he is about telling ANYONE (not just Lois, remember Martha had said he had never planned on telling anyone at all.), I think it's in character to have waited until the beginning of ATAI.
Whether it's in character to have frozen her is debatable. Clark always regarded her savety above EVERYTHING. (Even above keeping his secret, actually. In "Fly Hard", Clark believes she is calling for Superman and obviously plans on going to her, even though he WOULD HAVE TO DO IT IN FRONT OF EVERYONE, EVEN LEX. - But she was just stating her password to her computer.)
But I think it's a matter of being so desperate he's not thinking straight at that point. He wants to find a way to save his parents AND Lois. She presents him with an oportuntiy to do it.
Furthermore, Lois can be VERY determined when she wants to be. And she was at that point.
Technically speaking, he wasn't obiligated to do it. He could have just said "no" and flown out the window. But I get the impression if he didn't help her save Clark and his parents (which is what Lois was trying to do by asking this), she would never want to speak to him again, secret or no secret.
As far as the sercet goes, like I said before, I definitely think he should have told her before he did. But telling her right before he freezes her just doesn't work for me. In the first place, from a writer's perspective, it alters the dramatics of the story, which is what they were trying to achieve.
From a personall perspective, it just doesn't make logical sense that he would say that in that situation. I know there have been plenty of authors who have written it so he does, but I still can't make sense of it.
Now as far a proposing before he told her, THAT WAS WRONG. Period. But it was also in character. Even though Clark had been ready to tell her before, he wasn't ready to marry her unless he knew she loved "the real him." He's remembering his exprience with Lois a year ago in "Barbarians."
The writers (who were looking for dramatics and good plots, not for us to be happy with the characters), wanted them to create a mirror image of that episode. In that episode, Clark told Lois he loved her and she rejected him in favor of Superman.
In ATAI, Lois chose Clark above Superman (before she found out the truth), and ONE OF THE REASONS WHY SHE DIDN'T SAY YES WAS BECAUSE SHE WASN'T SURE SHE WANTED SUPERMAN. (IN WHATTA)
I've also been thinking about Clark's feelings for Lois over the first two seasons and I think "I Loved YOU from the Beginning" was baloney.
Was he attacted to her at the beginning? Yes. Did he value her passion for her work and desire to make the world a better place? Yes. Was he protective of her from the beginning? Yes. Did he feel a "connection" to her from the beginning? Probably.
But - was he friends with her from the beginning? No, that happened later. Did he TRUST her from the beginning? NO. I think after the first season (particularly after she didn't publish the Kryptonite), he trusted her not to blab his secret, but he still didn't trust her heart. Part of that is the "I'll never tell anyone", like I said before, but part of that is "I want her to love Clark." That's what I meant about not trusting her with his heart. And he didn't trust her with that WHEN HE PROPOSED. So, really he didn't have true love then, either.
And what about being HONEST? True love is honest, as well, and Clark wasn't honest with her until the third season, either.
So, no Clark you didn't "love her from the beginning." Maybe you thought you loved her in the first season, but that's it.
Now, that being said, I don't think he did him or Lois a diservice by waiting to tell her until they were dating.
Because Lois wasn't in love with him back then, either. She wasn't in love with Superman, even though she believed she was. She admits this in the third season. "Did I ever tell you why I gave up MY CRUSH on Superman?" - Here she admits it was a crush. An intense crush, but still a crush. "Because he was a FANTASY."
And that's exactly why I think Lois loved Superman. Yes, she loved his ideals, but she loved the idea that he was a fantasy, too. That made him unattainable. An unattaniable fantasy was a perfect guy who could never hurt her like all the other men did in her life. So she could be "in love with him" wihout worrying abou it.
I really think she had to start noticing Clark as a boyfriend rather than a friend (because Clark wasn't "safe" at all), before she would be ready to know that Clark was Superman. That's why I say he should have told her after their first date.
Okay, so some of that was kind of off topic...but it all relates...I think.
