Comments are love.

Awww.... Sad and sweet all mixed in together.

the perfect vignette for this time of year when we mourn and remember so achingly those we've loved and will never see again.

carol

A poignant reminder of why earthly immortality is something devoutly *not* to be desired.

I've always rejected the idea that Clark would have a significantly longer lifespan than a human -- after all, Dr. Klein was wrong about other things, including Clark's fertility, so there is no reason to think that this particular theory of his must be true -- but this is a well-written and haunting portrayal of such a future.

Poor Clark. This was his nightmare scenario in "Brutal Youth" and here it has played out to its extreme.

Kathy

In point of fact, we don't know that Klein was wrong about Clark's fertility - the identity and parentage of the baby in the last episode was left deliberately nebulous.

Traditionally in the DCU, Superman is assumed to be virtually immortal, or at least very long lived.

It did remind me of the Ancients, though. Or the First Ones. I guess, Lorien wasn't right after all. Eternal love is not really an illusion. On the other hand, who knows if both Clark *and* Lois had shared a life together for several billion years.

Michael

Well, what I was hoping to hint at with Ariella calling him by his first name instead of 'Grandfather' and Clark seeing Lois's smile in her face was that maybe, just maybe, Lois is still with him.

Dandello - again, sad fic, but with a hint of hope and redemption. I'll be thinking about this fic late at night, I know - won't be able to get it out of my head.

On the screen, yes. But one of the writers came on to IRC after the finale aired, as well as attended various L&C fan gatherings, and told us what the facts were for this particular universe -- the baby was a boy, and he was one of Lois and Clark's biological descendents from the future, thus providing proof that Dr. Klein was wrong about Clark being infertile. It's why Sam, in the finale, said "That's not right" when he studied Dr. Klein's data. All this was going to be revealed in the S5 opening arc, until ABC reneiged on their contract with WB after renewing the show, causing the "To Be Continued" which was originally captioned over the final scene to be removed just before the US air date.

Obviously there's always a case to be made for deleted scenes not being part of official canon, but the show's writers had never intended Dr. Klein to be correct about Clark's fertility.

Kathy

This was an unlikely scenario since they had other lives together and their souls were never apart from one another. When they were time travelers stepped in to get them back on track. Which means Clark would have to die not far from Lois. Not only that, but they made a point of having him lose years by giving Jimmy some of his life force. So this could not have been in their world a logical conclusion. Lois would have had to been reborn somehow. Having said all that, this was a really interesting take on things, very much a nightmare existence for poor Clark. Well done though and very sad. Laura

Well, there is always the possibility that although Clark turned out to be virtually immortal, Lois kept coming back to him.