RocShemp

I was out when this aired and forgot to leave it taping.

Red Dog

Very entertaining episode.

riley_dude

Michael Rosebaum did a great job. It was interesting to see everyone play a variation of their characters. I hope what Lex finally does will not lead to the death they are talking about.

SuprVgeta

It was a pretty entertaining episode. Anybody else get a kick out of Lex when he first wakes up in the dream and is like "What the Fff?"

Legolas

Nice that Lex was able to walk around on his own only hours after having major surgery that gave him the ability to walk again.

Patman

Didn't the surgeon announce rather boldly that he was going to perform a miracle?

The Valeyard

It's a Christmas miracle!

SuprVgeta

Yeah I thought that the moment he made his arrogant boast right before doing the surgery, i'm like wow... that doctor is a prick.

calhoun07

He will become president, but will suffer from a disease brought on by his years of exposure to Kryptonite, and the disease will cause his touch to kill anything he touches (which is what I understood from the vision he had in the first season. I know he becomes president in the comics, but I am not sure about his Kryptonite sickness in the comics.)

And thinking about this episode, I don't think that it was a dream. I think he actually saw his future, or the future he could have if he made the right decisions.

I thought this episode would be a throwaway episode, but it really got into some good character development.

Bronkster

From the comix - Lex lost his hand due to kryptonite poisoning from wearing a ring made of the stuff, which kept Superman a safe distance at all times. Eventually, the poisoning spread and he was going to die, but he had a clone of himself created, faked his death, had his brain transplanted to the clone, and returned as his own long-lost son, but was eventually found out. Then he becomes president!

Chauzer

lana looked great

GuessWho

WGN cut out 10 minutes in the middle here in Chicago to cover the plane-off-runway story. They come back from the newsguy and Lana was in hospital dying; I have no idea why.

calhoun07

She died with complications that followed giving birth.

GuessWho

Thanks!

mikehunt

because her middle name is Padme

calhoun07

If they only had Lex going, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" after he learned of Lana's death, that would have capped the episode nicely.

Palaver

While I found this be a very good episode, I felt that Lex’s mom really dropped the ball on this one. I was glad to see that they made an effort to put a new spin on the most overused of all Christmas stories (do we really need another Scrooge story?) I was afraid that they were going to leave it rather open ended as to which path Lex chose and was glad to see that they have really cemented Lex’s fate as the true villain of the story.

With that being said, I really feel that the setup was poorly done. I can’t fathom (assuming that all of it really happened and wasn’t a hallucination on Lex’s part) why Lex’s mother would use this last chance of trying to turn her son down the right path, by showing him what would probably the most painful of experiences for anyone to endure. I can appreciate the sentiment that an ordinary life is filled with highs and lows without much sense of empowerment to control the low points. But if you are trying to convince Lex to turn straight, maybe the untimely death of his wife is not the best of choices to show. Perhaps the birth of his firstborn. His wedding. Something. Anything, but the death of his beloved.

I have to admit that if I was given a glimpse to the future, where my influence (in this case impregnation) would be the direct cause of the early death of my spouse, I would more than likely choose a different path as well. I feel like in this case, Lex was in a lose/lose situation. If Lex chose the “good” path, someone he loved would die. In many ways, he chose the more noble path. A path forsaking all the things that were very important to him: Friendship with Clark, respect from Mr. Kent, and marriage to Lana. He is really turning into a truly tragic character.

Patman

Actually, it shows that Lex is an emotional cripple. The damage from his mother's early demise, and Lionel's efforts to shoehorn Lex into being something he resisted in his teen years has turned him into someone who doesn't want to ever be hurt on the inside again, and if that means turning people away, so be it. Lex missed out on the lessons that death is eventual, it will happen, the sooner you learn to deal with it, the better you will appreciate the moments shared between loved ones while they are amongst the living. Death doesn't have to turn someone into a defiant person, hungering for tangibles to replace intangibles.

Palaver

True. But still it would seem that since Lex does have such emotional baggage, it would have been more productive show him some minor painful episodes of his future life rather than something as traumatic as the death of a loved one. This is something that he has already experienced in his life. Lex needed to see that there can be good things in his life if he chooses the right path and the bad things take on a new (positive) perspective when you choose good.

In any case, I was glad to see that this episode didn't turn into a warm hearted, everything turned out good and rosey, Christmas Special. I was glad to see that the writer's decided to give us a very clear cut scene where Lex has chosen to take the dark path. This will, in my opinion, turn out to be the turning point which will forever determine Lex's path from which he will not turn from.

I'm very pleased with the way this season is turning out so far.

Patman

Lex could have quite easily taken his 2 kids and made a life for them, perhaps re-marry, but still remain quite thankful for the kids he had with Lana, and the memories they shared. But Lex's way of coping is similar to the child-like mentality of Anakin Skywalker in terms of motivation to save the one he loves (so that they'll never die, and he won't have to experience losing a loved one ever again - however childlike that worldview is), and then go darkly into that good night when things don't go his way. Also, don't forget, Lex's mom did Lex no favors by making Lex pretty poor and powerless in this alternate future due to Lionel cutting Lex out of the family fortune and access to power. It's that powerlessness that drives Lex over the edge (when he can't get Lionel to loan use of the helicopter to save Lana).

Xander

Pretty good episode. I did like the acting (and Chloe DID look hot) and everything, but at first I thought it was kind of a pointless exercise. We know that Lex is the villain of the piece. But the more I think about it, the more I liked it. I like seeing Lex head down the dark path. It's much better than Anakin's oops-now-I'm-bad turn to the dark side. The actual progression as he makes the choices that send him down that path is very interesting to watch, and Rosenbaum does such a great job with the character.

I do wish they had stuck to Lex's story and left the dumb Santa part out. Also, Senator Jonathan made me a bit. Apparently once he's a senator, he has to wear glasses. Anyway, good story overall. It was very poignant in that last shot of Lex looking out the window and seeing his Mom fade away.

calhoun07

Speaking of glasses, did future Clark have on glasses? I would assume he was Superman by then, and would be wearing glasses.

Patman

But Lex can't extrapolate the glasses with what he knows of Clark now.

calhoun07

Well, that's the debate, isn't it? Did Lex extrapolate that from his own mind, or did he actually get the gift to see his future as it would actually be?

I vote for the latter.

Patman

Lex gets shot, and drifts in and out and has a "what if" that his subconscious generates, and his subconscious uses his mother as his "guide" through this scenario, so all the future scenes are his subconscious extrapolation of what might be if he gave into his desire for Lana, and it goes from there (and his subconscious also plays upon his internal fears to present a scenario that makes his new priorities the accumulation of money and power).