Wayne stumble into view from around the edge of the barn.
“Martha!” he gasped. “Martha!”
Wayne has made it to safety.
The first thing on his mind is his son?
“No, Martha,” Wayne insisted. “The rock. Did Thomas bring you the rock? There’s men at my place, looking for it. Bad men.”
Martha: No, good men have held you prisoner for four days. Oh course they are bad men.
“Thomas told us. The rock is well hidden.
We can only hope.
“I’ve got to catch my breath,” he said, leaning up against the tool shed.
Clark:The bad guys our on their way. You had better run and hide.
Jonathan rolled out onto the back porch. “Time’s a wasting, you two. Get inside!”
Clark: At least someone has the fight idea.
Before she could answer, an army truck and a white van came barreling down the access road. The van stopped next to them, but the truck continued on to the house. Four men jumped out,
Is this from the van, the truck, or both?
“Trask, I told you. That’s all there was. I sent the entire sample to the lab,” Wayne replied. “Just leave us alone.”
Why exactly is Trask so convinced there is more than just the sample? I guess the minimum explanation might be he is a crazy fanatic, who likes kidnapping and killing people, so he might not believe there is more, but just hopes there is more.
“I’m willing to do a trade. You give me the green rock…”
At first I was expecting a trade of Clark for the rock.
“Mr. Kent, I presume? I was just explaining to the missus that I’m willing to set you all free in exchange for that rock Mr. Irig, here, asked you to hold for him.”
Jonathan: Wayne never asked me to hold anything for him. I havn't seen or talked to Wayne since before you so rudely barged onto his property.
and they both knew that Trask was lying to them. He would never set them free.
Clark: Trask is the type of devil you can't deal with. He always lies.
The soldier gritted his teeth. “A box perhaps?”
Jonathan: Oh, you mean what he gave us the Christmans presents in three years ago. I think I burned that box a few falls ago in a nice big bonfire. You can find the ash down by the creek.
“Uh-huh.” Trask considered their denials. “Okay. What if I told you that I have your son in the back of my van there? Would you give me the rock to spare his life?”
Jonathan: We have no son.
Her fingernails bit into Jonathan’s shoulder. Did he mean Jerome?
Clark:Don't listen to him at all. He is evil, and will not bargain fairly.
Thomas had said that Jerome had been captured.
Thomas:Why would Trask think Jerome
Lane is Jonathan and MArtha's son?
Did this man already have Superman under his control and didn’t even know it?
Clark: Fortunantly, yes. Well, at least the last part, the first part is not good.
Positive Reader: Trask knows nothing.
Did he know that the green rock had taken away Jerome’s powers, and wanted it to finish the job?
Negative Reader: No he just suspects the rock can be used to kill Superman. Not knowing it can kill Clark will not prevent him from killing Clark with it.
He must not know that Jerome was currently vulnerable.
Is this Martha thinking "he must not realize that Jerome is vulnerable" or her thinking "we need to keep Trask from learning that Jerome has been hurt by a glowing rock"?
On the other hand, did the fool actually think that Jerome was just Clark Kent, reporter for the Daily Planet, and their son?
Clark: That is what he thinks. The first half is also what Lois thinkings.
Lois: No, I don;t think you are "just" Clark Kent. I know you are not Clark Kent at all.
Wayne’s brow furrowed. “The Kents don’t have a son.”
Jonathan: Don;t rub it in.
Martha wanted to elbow him to shut up, but Wayne wouldn’t understand.
NR: Elbow him anyway. It is good to release stress.
Trask pondered this. “He looks a bit brawny for a daughter.”
“So, you’re telling me that I can just go to this van and open it up.” The man did as he said. “Pull out my gun...” He pulled out his pistol and cocked it. “— and shoot him, and you wouldn’t care?” He lifted his gun and pointed towards the inside of the van.
Jonathan: I would care. I am a kind caring man. I don;t like people gettingb killed, even when they are not my children.
“Wait!” Martha caved first. “How do we know you have anyone in the back of the van at all?”
Good question. Always force your enemy to show his hand.
Oh, if their Clark had survived, would they have had a son as wonderful as Jerome?
Lois: Probably a better son. He would not be a lieing, double-crossing, no-good-nic.
Clark: When have I ever double crossed you?
Lois: See you admit you lie.
Would he have been kind, generous, and as helpful as Jerome was,
PR: At least as much so.
Clark: I really try.
NR: You let Lois getting shot cause you to give up on helping others.
Clark: Without Lois, there is no point. I could not go off and leave her unprotected at that critical time.
with a dry sense of humor, and a good heart, who still needed her advice after all these years?
Clark: I need your advice too, I just don't know a good way to ask.
Would he have called her ‘Mom’ and loved her as she would have loved him?
NR: Yes, he would have.
PR: Why are you saying that.
NR: To rub salt in her wounds.
PR: Get out.
If she and Jonathan had been blessed with a son of their own, even a human son, she would have been the happiest woman in Lawrence County.
Fate is so cruel. So many who have children don't want them, and so many who want children don't have them.
But to have had a son equal to Jerome, her heart doubled in size, she would gladly take any such orphan in under her wing, no matter the risks. Even if it meant risking her own life to save his.
PR: Lookie here. We have a Martha with no son and a Clark with no Mom.
“Let them go, Trask. They have nothing to do with me. We’re not related,” said Jerome’s voice from the back of the van.
NR:I hope he does not hurt their feelings.
PR:He is trying to save them. Anyway, we already told you to leave.
Relief flooded her. Jerome was still alive.
Clark:I have never had anyone be so glad to hear me deny relation to them before.
PR: That is because you have not dealt with a Lois who thought you might be her long lost cousin and then you got to tell her "we are not related".
“It would have to be a pretty big coincidence that the very same reporters who first interviewed Superman in Metropolis end up here, in Smallville, Kansas – of all places – at the very same time I do. The same small town where Superman’s spaceship landed back in 1966,” Trask said.
Hmm, is Trask a total idiot? He has proof that Superman has been her for 27+ years (at least that is what he surmisez it to be) and that Superman came here as an infant. Thus he must have been raised among us. Why does he not go for the obvious "CK=SM" a lot earlier?
Martha glanced at Jonathan with wide eyes. How did he know that?
He has SM's ship.
Was he part of the same group of men who came and asked them questions about the Russian satellite that week after they had found their Clark?
Of course he is.
Jonathan had said that he had destroyed the spaceship, burned it up and hauled it to the dump, so any germs that might have killed the child would harm no one in Smallville. Her wide eyes narrowed on her husband’s face.
Jonathan lied to you Martha.
Jonathan looked away from her, guilt written all over him.
Yep, he didn't burn the ship. Even when it seemed to be a germ infested death trap. But why not? Hmm, did he not try, or just not succeed?
What did you do, Jonathan Kent?
I hope we learn more about this development. I guess Clark did not even know they had ever found the ship back when he first met Bureau 39, so he couldn't ask them about it then.
“Superman landed in Smallville?” Wayne whispered to Martha.
Martha: Well, that Superman was dead before we found him. We now think it was the green rock that killed him.
She shrugged non-committally. She didn’t know for certain where Jerome had landed.
Jerome "landed" in Metropolis, but of course they don't know his true story. Will he tell them?
“Have you ever considered that you might have a leak in your organization, Trask? A leak who could have told us about your warehouse with your collection of space junk? A leak who told us you were planning on coming to Smallville, and informed us once you got here?” Jerome’s voice suggested.
Actually if Trask had gone around town trying to learn if there was anyone who though CK=SM, this would be his most logical conclusion.
Actually, if Trask realized that SM landed in Smallville, why didn't he try to identify who from Smallville was SM by doing interviews in town before? Hmm, maybe removing the tag from SM's ship really did set back Trask's investigation.
Did he? No, she had called the Daily Planet and told Lois that these men had come to Smallville.
Clark: Well I can't tell trask that. It would be like throwing Martha out of the frying pan and into the fire. From a potential relative to a proactive collaborator against Trask.
“I thought reporters don’t give up their sources?” Trask retorted.
“I don’t, and I haven’t. You wanted an explanation for these coincidences. I gave you a much more plausible reason than the one you leapt to,” explained Jerome.
Clark: Give up source or let my new folks get killed.
Go Martha!
“Trask, don’t! No!” Jerome yelled. “I’ll give you Superman.”
“No! Don’t!” Martha screamed.
Martha: If word of this gets out, people will try hostage takings more often.
Clark: Well, we just hope other people don't learn about Kryptonite.
“You’re Superman?” Trask echoed with disbelief, exchanging a glance with his associates.
Yes, Trask does not believe him. The secret still lives.
Martha shrugged and shook her head, as if she didn’t know the answer.
At least some keepers of the secret are good at lieing.
“I stole their dead son’s identity to use as my own, so I could live a normal life with a home, a job, and friends,” Jerome admitted.
Lois: See, I knew he wasn't really Clark.
“So, you come here to repay them for stealing their son’s identity?” asked Trask. “Did you steal his body as well as his name, so they would think that you were their son?”
“No!” Jerome groaned in what sounded like frustration.
Martha: We know he is still safely buried, no body robbing involved.
Martha murmured under her breath, “Just stop. Fanatics can’t understand logic.”
“So what you’re saying is that, you, the man who loves humanity more than I do, are Superman?” said Trask wryly.
Trask is really obsorbed in his delusion. Most people realize that Superman loves people more than most does. Otherwise he would not go out of his way to help so much.
