Great to see this story return! Guess RL (not me) has been hitting you hard lately.
Today, however, if you chose to do so, there’d be up to three people –mom, dad and, of course, Lois- leaving your life –and everybody else’s- for good.
I'm surprised Clark hasn't already gone off to save his parents. Even if he couldn't take Lois away for her protection, it shouldn't have taken Clark very long to hop over to Smallville, gather them up, and put them somewhere safe (or at least somewhere it would take Luthor ages to find).
If I was Clark, I would have been carrying a tape recorder to record all the threats Luthor made against him and his family. (what kind of a reporter is he to not have a recorder?) Even if they're not admissible in court, they sure can do Luthor a ton of damage. And it would be reverse blackmail, protection for Lois and his family if Luthor ever tried to do anything to them.
Clark's being far too reactive. There are things he could have done against Luthor, such as investigating him. Doesn't look like the gang of Perry, Jimmy, Jack, and Clark ever got together to fight back.
A life without Lois by his side was not a prospect to look forward to; but a life spent at Luthor’s beck and call and without Lois and his parents was far worse, no matter how he looked at it.
Tough call. Could he live with himself if he sacrificed them? There's no way he could live with himself if he allowed Superman to be used by Luthor. But then again, there's still something he can do to protect his parents.
"..The moment you took your seat, you activated a small device placed right under the bench. You can check if you want, but if I were you I wouldn’t stand up. Its mechanism isn’t too complicate; it’s basically a sensor, set to monitor your movements.”
Luthor actually has something to lose if Clark exposes the sensor to the public if it's actually connected to something nasty, depending on how he plays it. Clark should have had that tape recorder.
But she’d told Clark that her heart belonged to Lex and, for the first time in her life, she was going to face the consequences of her choices. There was no turning back now. And if she wasn’t able to do it for herself, then she had to think of Clark.
Here's where I'm completely lost. In the last part, Lois didn't think much about Lex at all, spending most of her time agonizing over Clark and finally realizing she loves him. But in the space of one night, she's completely flipped and accepts that Lex is a bad person. The reasoning isn't clear. Why does she suddenly believe Clark? She thinks that he may know something as Superman, but she still doesn't really know this for sure. Feeling that Lex doesn't share Clark's values doesn't necessarily mean he's evil. It just means he's not necessarily a nice guy, but she knew that going in. I think a bit more of Lois' reasoning is needed here to clarify just why Lois has changed her mind about Lex.
That follows to the logic as to why she's marrying Lex for Clark. That doesn't make much sense to me. Then again, Lois never made much sense in this arc. Lois up until this morning thought Lex was a fine, upstanding person. Now she's marrying him to protect Clark? How exactly does that follow? How does marrying Luthor protect him? Is she doing it so she could spy on Lex? Does she think Luthor will harm Clark if she doesn't marry him? Why would her marrying him or not make any difference to what Lex would do to Clark? If he's Superman, how does Lois expect that Lex could harm Clark? She doesn't know about the kryptonite, nor does she even know kryptonite exists at this point. If anything, marrying Lex would be the worst thing she could do to Clark. So I think more reasoning on Lois' part is also needed here as to why she thinks marrying Lex would help Clark.
As for the phrase, "her heart belonged to Lex," that really isn't true. She may have given herself to Lex, but she never gave her heart to him.
Now, she realized that Clark probably knew much more than he let on, but hadn’t been willing to say anything for lack of proof. He hadn’t wanted to hurt her but, at the same time, he hadn’t been able to watch her go without a warning. In the end, his everlasting care had had a price: his secret.
I'm glad she realizes this, but I'm still at a loss as to how she arrived at this conclusion. Is it that she believes Clark because she now believes he would never lie about something like that? And that getting over her anger made her see beyond her thoughts of jealousy? She originally thought Lex had uncovered Clark's secret because the two were competing against each other for Lois. She even forgave him as long as Lex admitted he'd been wrong to tell her about it since it had been Clark's secret to tell. Now she thinks Lex uncovered it for nefarious reasons?
She was the most beautiful bride he’d ever seen. His heart ached at the thought; he’d always assumed that’d be a privilege reserved for his wife. Some dreams weren’t meant to come true.
This is heartbreaking. I can feel for him.
