Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Lois & Clark Madam X Episode Discussion Thread

This was a pretty good season opener.

For once, we got to see Lois have to save Superman when she had to remove the Kryptonite bullet. If Lois saving Superman had been something that they’d done frequently, I don’t think it would have worked. He is, after all, the superhero, and I think it would have been a bad idea to have more episodes where she’d saved him from something. However, I think the way that they handled Lois saving Superman here worked really well.

Last season, we saw Dean Cain playing a dual role in “Vatman,” so I was glad that they gave Teri Hatcher a chance to do the same thing in this episode. I always enjoy seeing actors get to play two different roles on the same show because it gives them a chance to stretch their acting talents. In my opinion, Teri Hatcher did a good job playing Lois’ double.

Arianna Carlin was a pretty good villain to use for the season premiere. She was a good way to link Lex Luthor to the story without actually using Lex. It would have been nice had we seen her take a second shot at revenge against Lois and Superman at some point.

I like that they hinted at Lex’s eventual reappearance instead of immediately bringing him back. Since he is Superman’s most famous enemy, I’m sure some longtime Superman fans might have been upset over the thought of Lex already being dead at the end of the first season, so this episode did a good job at showing us that Lex would still be around even if he wasn’t a series regular.

I had a few problems with this episode.

Firstly, Superman's quick recovery time after being shot with Kryptonite just didn't work for me. The first time (GGGoH) it took him days to recover and he hadn't touched it. The third-ish (Third being Mrs. Cox in the dry run, and second being Trask at the end of GGGoH) time Clark was exposed to Kryptonite in the Kryptonite cage where he spent overnight, he wasn't able to fly up and catch the falling Luthor (although, I do accredit Madame X, for my belief - for the longest time - that he made the decision NOT to catch Luthor even though he could). But here he was SHOT with a Kryptonite bullet (great idea, BTW), but then his recovery time was like in the comics, almost non-existent.

Secondly, the whole end chase scene was just awful. AWFUL! A) if you're framing someone for murder (i.e. Lois Lane) why in the world would you walk around in plain view of a bunch of people with her double??? B) I'm sorry, the whole Madame X running :rolleyes: (jogging more like it) to the runaway vehicle with Lois's double, felt off, fake. I love the actress who played her, but I'm sorry, they needed to do another take. That was just AWFUL. C) stealing the tanker? Really? Do you think you're going to get away doing that? Really? Can you find a vehicle that will race away any slower? Please.

Other than that, I liked the episode. I liked the subliminal messaging thing, where she made Metropolis hate Superman (like the plot, not that they hated Superman), but I'm surprised that Perry didn't figure it out sooner. I loved the scenes at the farm with Clark and his folks. I liked the idea of Lex being married before and not having told Lois. I like that she was as twisted and screwed up as Lex (question is was she that was before she met him or because she met him?) I liked that she tried to frame Lois with a double.

Although, technically, the engagement ring SHOULD have belonged to Lois. She may have given it back to Luthor's estate, but she was engaged to Luthor, when he "died". Okay, true, she had said "no" at the alter, but still why prosecute her for that? It made no sense to me. Nor could I see Clark falling for Lois going insane enough to blame Superman. True, Superman did break her heart after she broke Clark's so, it IS possible that she felt some resentment towards Superman for not saving the jerk that was her fiance, but how could he believe that of Superman's strongest supporter? Oh, right, he's Clark. How in the world could anyone ever love him? :rolleyes: And Well, she's Lois, nobody can do anger like she can.

For my thoughts on the resurrection of Lex, you'll have to read Another Dimension, Another Time, Another Lois .

I agree. I enjoyed the idea of Kryptonite making him too weak to use his powers for a long period of time like what we saw in season one. It made Kryptonite seem more dangerous than what we saw here.

One other thing that I forgot to mention earlier is that this episode marks the first appearance of Justin Whalin as Jimmy Olsen. I liked both portrayals of Jimmy on this show, but I liked Justin Whalin just a little bit more.

I totally agree with the above posters. Clark actually having kryptonite in his body? Yeah, why weren't his powers knocked out for a longer time?

OK, getting back to fics based on "Madame Ex" - I know I've seen Arianna Carlin used as a villain in multiple fics, and it's hard to remember them all. So once again I went to the database.

Wendy Richards explored what might have happened after the events of BATP/HoL in her excellent fic, The Healing Time . As she points out, Lois had a lot to deal with, considering her fiance turned out to be a crook and killed himself right in front of her. Wendy also has another fic based on a whole 'nother part of this episode, the Lois double, in her If Living Is Without You .

Yvonne Connell wrote Trust Me, I'm a Reporter . What if Clark hadn't been well enough to fly away after Arianna shot him? What if Lois had rescued him and driven him away to a safe place? What would happen then?

Nan Smith sets up a situation where Lois figured out Clark's identity in A Night At The Office and Strange Relationships . The fic that relates to "Madame Ex" is the third in this series, Best Laid Plans . As always with Nan-fic, it's compulsively readable and fun!

I have to second the idea that Superman's quick recovery time just did not work.

I also have to say I found it really odd that Lois did not know what an acrostic was. It would have been a lot better if she said "Oh you mean they wrote, Stop, the other way, yeah, that took a lot of talent."

I remember something else that was odd from the episode. When they break into Carlin's office to steal the records the lock the temp in a room and apparently leave here there. I am not sure how Lois and Clark avoided having to face any charges related to that.

I'm sure that Lois really did know what an acrostic was, but it was a way for the scriptwriters to get it across to the audience. But Lois... 3-time Kerth Winner... best reporter at the Daily Planet.. not knowing what an acrostic is? Yep, that fails the smell test.

How was Jimmy able to find Luthor's wedding announcement in the Planet's Archives, if the building was destroyed during HoL? Aren't Archives usually located "in the basement" near where the printing department would have been?

Or did Stern buy mircofiche copies of the previous editions of the DP to replace the burned out paper Archives?

Even though this is the episode where people make fun of Lois for not being able to retrieve her computer faxes and email, I doubting the archives would have all been computerized by this point.

Any thoughts?

Carlin shot a plastic surgeon. NOBODY does that.

I think Stern buying a microfilm copy of the archives is most likely. The other possibility is that they had two copies of the archives, one kept in the basement, and a back-up copy kept at a remote location. However that sounds a bit excessive, so I would guess the first explanation more likely.