Clark's past seems much more complex than I expected. But there were so many factors that led him down the wrong path.
Losing Martha and Jonathan as a moral compass left him dangling over temptation. Those foster brothers of his weren't any help and then the foster father sounds non-existent as far as the boys are concerned.
And so Lilah steps in. He needs the older role model to fill the gap that M/J left, but Lilah isn't that role model.
Complex and interesting.
One small typo:
You wrote "Rachel stepped away." I think you meant "Lilah"
gerry
