I decided to combine the discussion of these two episodes into one thread since it’s a two part storyline. As a season finale, I always thought these two episodes delivered a lot. They wrapped up the storyline of Lex Luthor, and they also threw in a few big, surprise moments. With Clark proposing to Lois, Lois almost marrying Lex, the Daily Planet being blown up, and the reappearance of Kryptonite, there was a lot going on in this episode.
I’ve long debated whether or not Lois not being able to see through Lex damaged her reputation as an intelligent, award-winning investigative reporter. After all, she wasn’t often fooled by the disguises of other criminals. Why was Lex so different? In the end, I’ve come to the conclusion that it is best to look at it as Lex being a master manipulator who could fool most people easily rather than to see Lois’ lack of figuring out who he was as reflecting badly on her. After all, he really did have everyone fooled except for Clark. It wasn’t just Lois who he’d fooled. To me, the fact that he was able to hide his true personality is one of the reasons he’s among my favorite villains that appeared on the show. It was this trait that made him a true threat to Superman.
In some ways, I was a little sad that this was the last episode where Lex was a regular character because he was such a great villain. However, I do think that the good thing about losing Lex at the end of season one is that it allowed us to see other villains, such as Intergang, that we might not have seen otherwise. Overall, I’m glad that we had a little bit of variety in terms of the villains throughout the show’s run.
I enjoyed seeing Clark, Perry, Jimmy, and Jack work together to investigate Luthor. I would have enjoyed seeing Lois and Cat in on the investigation, too, though I understand why Lois was left out of it. Still, I do think Cat should have been involved in the finale in some way, especially since she didn’t return to the next season.
