Smallville

[mandragora]

hurts. Just watched Asylum.



Oh Clark, you blew it. You should have told Lex what the missing part of his memory was. Oh, not your secret, maybe, but what Lionel did and why. I can understand why you didn't but, that was probably it. The beginning of the rift.

As for Lex... *wibble* He's doomed because of his sociopathic father. It seems apparent that Lionel is incapable of caring for anyone other than himself. What love he has for Lex is as an adjunct of Lionel, not for Lex in his own right. Poor Lex, he tries so hard to do the right thing and never succeeds. He's not evil but is tragic in the extreme.

However, riveting and painful and good though the episode was, I couldn't help thinking throughout all of the asylum scenes that the production staff clearly have no idea what a mental hospital is actually like, let alone one for the criminally insane. I have visited such places and they're nothing like that and the patients don't behave as they were portrayed in the episode. I know, I know, Smallville, right. Which usually bears no resemblance to reality but the asylum scenes (sans Lex) were sufficiently laughable to distract from the drama. And that was a real pity in an otherwise excellent episode.

Even the Lana bits worked for me, although I thought Martha overplayed her hand somewhat in the 'let's cheer Clark up' campaign.

Comments

[moonlettuce.livejournal.com]

My sofa cushions got hugged more than they've ever been (at least since Tunguska aired).

And the frightening thing. After watching the ep, I'm still, after everything he's done, favouring Lionel over Jonathan as a parent. I look at Bo Kent and all I see is a bigoted hick with no concept of the word loyalty. Yes, Clark, it's okay to use your powers to help people. In fact, you *should* use your powers to help people. Unless it's Lex. In which case you let him fry. Because even though Lex gave them the lease to the damn farm and stopped their arses from being evicted, even thought Lex has proved time and time again he is not his father, Jonathan still refuses to treat him like anything other than the cow shit he scraped off his shoe.

I still have an argument in me that Jonathan is just as much to blame for whichever way Lex turns out as Lionel is.

And I'll get off the soapbox now *grin*

[mandragora1.livejournal.com]

My view is slightly different. I think Jonathan pretty clearly bears some culpability, for precisely the reasons you describe.

But I can't put Jonathan's actions, which are rooted in fear for and love of Clark, and wrong though they are in the same class as Lionel's. Yes, Jonathan isn't the perfect father and he certainly is a hypocrite but he's not a murderer, let alone the murderer of his own parents and, even if he was, Jonathan would never attempt to do to Clark what Lionel did to Lex. Lionel knew that he could have ended up with a son who was a vegetable and he didn't care, because Lex was too big a threat to him. To destroy your own child is about as evil as it gets.

By contrast Jonathan risked his life and health to save his. Those Kryptonian superpowers are going to come back to bite Jonathan. He knows this but didn't even hesitate in accepting them because Clark needed him.

Yes, I loathe the fact that Jonathan's actions contribute to Lex's fall but I can't put them in the same category at Lionel's very deliberate destruction of Lex. So for me Jonathan is partly to blame, but Lionel bears the greater share. The Evil Bastard (no more Magnificent for me after the past couple of episodes).

[moonlettuce.livejournal.com]

Oh, I know it's daft of me to feel that way. I know that Lionel's actions with Lex are worse than Jonathan's with Clark. But I still find myself more willing to argue in Lionel's favour against the things he's done, than I would with Jonathan. I think maybe it's because we're meant to like Jonathan Kent, and we're meant to know that Lionel's the evil son of a bitch.

I watch this, and I watch Lionel put Lex through electro-shock to erase his memory, and part of me thinks, if Lionel really was as bad as they want us to think he would have just killed Lex. It's screwy, but by being that unwilling to kill Lex, to me it shows that Lionel does love his son. Albeit in a sociopathic sort of way.

And then I see Jonathan. Fine, upstanding, moral Jonathan Kent. And all I'm seeing is a hypocritical, prejudiced moron who emotionally manipulates those around him.

Lionel is what he is. Almost like the snake in the garden, charming and seductive, but cross him, or don't do what he wants, and he's deadly.

Jonathan is like a bad apple, all nice and wholesome on the outside, but rotten on the inside.

Maybe part of it is that Jonathan is meant to be raising Superman. This is the guy who fights for truth, justice and lost kittens. At the moment, I'm seeing Clark becoming Superman not because of the values Jonathan instills, but in spite of them.

I can't help but think that with Lionel it's a 'take care of yourself, son, and the gods help those who mess with you', and with Jonathan it's a 'take care of the world, son, because you know you can do a better job'.

Maybe I just have a major case of Luthor-lust, and it's blinding me to everything but teh prettah *grin* I know I'm biased towards Lionel, so I'm going to automatically try to defend against what he does, and jump on Jonathan for the slightest thing.

And is this even making sense, or am I just rambling now? *grin*