Rachel, I think you posted your comments on the feedback here at about the same time as I posted my feedback, so that you didn't see my post (which wasn't all that short laugh ).

Anyway, now that I'm here again, I want to amend something I said. I made it sound as if I thought that Clark had decided to keep every last thread of his Superman persona away from Lois after she had saved him because he calculated that it was safer to deceive her. Well, of course I realize that Clark wasn't calculating much whatsoever at that stage. He was going to pieces at that time, purely and simply, and he was totally, totally unable to be Superman in any way or manner at all. He should have talked to Lois about it, he should have come clean with her - but he couldn't. He couldn't deal with Superman in any way at all.

Instead, when Lois talked to him while he was in her apartment, and he was still Superman to her (but not to himself) and she spoke contemptuously of Clark Kent to him, that, perversely, made him even more determined to keep Superman away from her and to be only Clark Kent to her. Not only that, but he put on his nerdiest glasses and presented himself to her in his most pitiful Clark Kent guise - and then, he rather determinedly set out to - well, not exactly to woo her, but certainly to get close to her as this wreck of a man.

Clark wasn't calculating any of this, of course. He was just unable to be Superman at that time, and he was totally unable to deal with Lois Lane's love for a side of him that he felt completely unable to live up to. One reason why he shied away from Superman so much was that he had just discovered that the flying man that was himself was an alien, which horrified him - and the fact that it was Lois who had broken the news of his alienness to him didn't make it easier for him to be Superman with her.

Interestingly, I think Clark channeled much of his fear into his Clark Kent persona, where it merged with the clumsiness and awkwardness that he had cultured earlier as a part of his disguise, but which had now truly become a part of Clark Kent. Adding some crippling fear to that awkward persona didn't make Clark Smallville Kent more attractive to Lois.

I just want to say once again that I realize that Clark didn't lie to Lois to be cruel to her, or because he had made a cold mental calculation which suggested to him that he would be safer if he kept Superman away from her. (He did conclude that Lois would be safer if he kept Superman away from her.)

Generally, Clark lied to Lois about himself because he was unable to do anything else at the time when he did it. I understand that. But I can see that his lies are driving Lois crazy now, and that it may make her, totally inadvertently, make someone else realize what she can't see herself - that Clark Kent is Superman.

Ann