Originally posted by Christina: Something I just realized...
Lois wasn't expecting to go back when they were making the decision to open the Phantom Zone. If I remember correctly it pulled the whole plane into it. She would have been lost had she not fallen out of the plane.
That's not quite right, I don't think. Originally, they were all expecting to come back. Or at least that they might. They were originally supposed to drop one phantom drive out of the plane and onto the spaceship. But that plan didn't work out because they couldn't get the code key inserted right and Hardy was going to try the kamikaze route, but Hamilton got the phantom drive on their plane activated, so the portal-black-hole-whatever-it-was opened.