John: Thanks for such a thorough read through.
I sort of think Lois should notice it is a fake old western town.
Since her focus is more on the supermen than her location, she might not.
OK, I did not expect this to happen. I had however forgotten that happened on Perry's birthday.
Lois should realize this is a totally un-Supermanish thing to say.
She is confused by it.
It is sort of sad that Lois did not hear the "might makes right" line. That would have made her even more sure one was an imposter.
Since there is no imposter in this story, it would only have led to more confusion.
Is this because she is now in the rebuilt newsroom?
2 points for John!
Who said anything about heading back.
It is interesting that time is jumping in ways Lois does not recognize.
The injured Superman said he would be right back and for the 1st Superman to wait for him. It was Lois's opinion that the 1st Superman took her to the DP and then returned to the old west town to meet up with the dying Superman.
Faking not dieing is pretty hard.
I don't know. I think Vatman did a pretty good job of it when he returned to his bedroom to get rid of Leek and the hair sample.
Wait, what good is having her watch if she does not look at the time? That is the only way to explain this reaction.
Okay, I reworked the whole scene, so it now takes into account some of your concerns:
She stumbled down the ramp to the bullpen. It looked slightly different than it normally did, but she couldn’t put her finger on what exactly had changed.
Jimbo rushed up to her with a gift-wrapped package. “Cutting it close,” he said.
Lois glanced at her watch… her watch, the one her grandmother had given her after graduation from Metropolis University. Had her watched stopped? It read only 7:52am and she knew it had to be sometime in the afternoon. She shook her wrist, but the second hand kept ticking. She decided to play along and see what happened, even though it was strange to have Jimbo in the newsroom again. “I’ve still got eight minutes. What did I get him?”
“Checked suspenders. Did you remember the card?” Jimbo asked.
“Oh, no,” she groaned. She always forgot the card.
Jimbo held up a light blue envelope. “Who’s your buddy? Who’s your pal?”
Lois grinned. Jimbo really was the greatest.
“I am, right?” Jimbo gloated some more.
She grabbed the card and hit him gently in the head with it, before heading towards her desk.
Clark set down a wrapped gift on his desk and approached her, as if nothing had happened, as if nothing were wrong, when clearly everything was.
Anyway, how could Clark already be here, when Superman had just dropped her off and was heading back to meet the other Superman? Had the second Superman been her Clark? She had been so sure it had been the first one, because the second one didn’t speak like her Clark, her Superman. He didn’t appear to be ‘dying’ though but, then again, he was good at faking a lot of things.
“Good morning, Lois,” he said in that bright voice of his which made her life worth enjoying.
‘Good morning?’ It must have been in the middle of the afternoon from where the sun had been during the Supermen’s re-inactment of ‘High Noon’. For that to be true, though, the old west town had to have been in Italy. Had it only been a movie set? Well, that made sense. Weren’t all those old Clint Eastwood westerns filmed in Italy? The trip hadn’t seemed to take that long but, then again, when she flew in Superman’s arms, time always seemed to fly by. Could it have been a ‘good first time I’ve seen you today’ type good morning? No, it couldn’t be, since he had just seen her, but he didn’t know that she knew he was Superman. Or, perhaps, this was how their day would have gone if he hadn’t met her in the supply closet. Yes, that must have been it.
“You’re late,” she snapped.
“‘Good morning, Clark,’” he replied for her, but the smile on his face told her that he was only teasing. “So, what did you get him?”
“Checked suspenders,” Lois announced, knowing that Perry was going to love her gift.
A perplexed expression crossed Clark’s face as he pointed at her upheld gift. “Didn’t you get him those last year?”
Had she? No, wait, she hadn’t known Perry’s birthdate last year, or had she? It felt like she had, but the past seemed blurry. Anyway, Clark hadn’t joined the Planet until May, so how would he know what she had given Perry for his birthday? Had Perry bragged about her gift? Had she?
“Yeah,” she admitted reluctantly before defending her choice, “He liked them, didn’t he?”
Clark laughed at her faux pas. Damn his smug self.
She heard a man clear his throat behind her, but when she turned around, she was no longer in the office, but in the woods. What the hell? How had that happened?
I hope that works better for you.
I love their friendly teasing. Although I have to admit that the first Tempus episode totally did not fit in with its two surrounding Dan-infested episodes.
Have to agree with you there.
Had Perry bragged about her gift?
JOHN: About suspenders?
Which is why she tosses aside this guess for the next one.
Had she?
JOHN: Why do I not think this at all likely?
About Perry liking her gift, yes I could see Lois bragging about that (it's all about the win).
I was so hoping she would see H.G. Wells.
Not at this time. Sorry.
This should be too odd to process as anything but unreal.
It's a vision, it's not supposed to make total and complete sense.
I wonder if Clark knows enough to know who this person would be. Since he has met Tempus, he should be able to recognize him from a full description, but I guess he was dressed differently so it might be hard.
The Tempus he met in Tempus Anyone and Lois and Clarks, never dressed in this manner and didn't have a beard. I can't see him recognizing him as Tempus without seeing the person she saw in her vision for himself.
But he only wonders how Lois got there, not how he did.
She doesn't know that.
This has to be the most terrifying vision Lois has ever had.
Yes.
So is she thinking Tempus is the Superman clone?
She doesn't know about clones.
