#CLOIS MADNESSSSS

[jonroxton]

Clois in the ep. Infamous (sm) , do you understand cloùs conversation in the barn?

it’s the climax of the episode where everything comes to a head. it’s glorious, very fast and very complex (by sv standards, maintext and subtext working over time in all these lines). and we have (literally) no time to digest any of it. not you, or me, and definitely not lois or clark. there was supposed to be a kiss, but! things! are! happening! so!

lois is about to get arrested (as she do) and she says: "without my lawyer, you're not gonna hear me so much as hiccup."

(i HAVE to start with this line bc it leads perfectly into the barn scene also. this? line???? i love it. if you get arrested, don't talk, kids! lois comes off as badass and extremely competent here and I LIKE THE LITTLE THINGS OK)

clark saves her, swooping in after her. this episode is very old school clois, with a great external threat upending their lives. their dialogue runs quickly, adding urgency. we get a lot of gems in this back and forth that first All Plot, beginning right away, but like all great scenes, it becomes about their struggle within it. how they cope with it, how they interact against such forces. scenes like these reveal character, and that’s lois as a loyal hype man a little in love, and clark as, you know, clark, always worried about destroying everything. against any other character, this scene would’ve gone a different way. but lois is all FIGHT ME COME ON, but that’s a little further down this post. 

SO. they swoosh in, back lit, hella romantic. but, you know, ppl r trying to Get Them.

"Nice interception, but you shouldn't be here. All the bloodhounds in the state will be sniffing you out."

prob the best thing about lois-knows what-if episodes is that she never quite gets over her awe in clark, but she does have a nose for reasoning things out. she compliments him AND warns him at the same time.

2. "It's okay. I know this sounds crazy, but in a few moments this will all be over."

THIS is why you barely have friends, clark. this is not an explanation! its just how he has been conditioned to answer, to protect his secret. but my brother in christ, this is lois lane.

3. "Okay, try me. My shock threshold is pretty high right now."

SEEEEeeeeee.

it’s funny that clark goes to his old ways irt explaining, when in this episode he has dumped it all on her. his kryptonian heritage and his powers and that the ppl closest to her already know. PLUS wanting HER to be the one to tell the world carries its own sub textual meaning (trust in her as a person, trust in her as a journalist, her integrity, her ability). there was a lot going on this episode, and lois is ready for more. or rather, she’s unfazed by the continuing madness.

4. “ lois, i have a ring that allows me to go to any moment in time.”

ngl, i’m proud of clark right here. it comes from two places, the old school clark, who knows he won’t have to face the consequences of actually telling the truth about all the weird shit constantly happening, and this clark that totally trusts lois and knows she can handle it. again, things are fast, and clark more easily leans into the absurdity of the truth bc lois has proven all episode she has a knack for it.

5. “i’m gonna go back to when linda lake ever wrote that article”

this little moment within the moment is truly glorious. because clark has walked away from her here, to get the ring, leaving lois speechless. which is rare and a sure sign of the apocalypse. but we get this moment of lois drinking in the new information and adjusting her understanding to just... keep going. to deduce what that actually means and why clark would do it at all. because she quickly understands and WANTS to do something about it. you can seeeeee it in her face even before she opens her arms to start a fight right then and there lol.

6. “the world isn’t ready to accept someone like me.”

man, clark has like no esteem. he has no high self-esteem, no low esteem. just like no esteem at all.

7. (ARMS WIDE) lois responds “then stay and fight back.”

bc BC even with the out of reversing time and fixing it all, lois’s first instinct is to challenge the challengers. it’s glorious GLORIOUS. even her attitude spikes.

8. “give people a chance to see who you really are.”

BC SHE KNOWS HIM AND KNOWS THAT PPL WOULD LOVE THAT PERSON SHE KNOWS. BC SHE LOVES HIM TOO. 

9. “lois, my whole life i’ve seemed different...”

here’s where the dialogue goes into overdrive, where no one is saying exactly what they want to say, but enough is conveyed to warrant a goddamn kiss, *ERICA DAMN YOU! it turns this great climactic moment into something very intimate. it’s confessionals without knowing you’re making a confession. and there’s no time at all to go through any of it!

10. “some people spend their entire lives looking for a way to stand out. to be a person that anybody would call special. when you first told me who you were, my thought was, ‘anyone but clark.’ and not because of the alien thing. i’ve known enough guys to know that you can be born on terra firma and be light years from normal.”

SHE DOESN’T EVEN CONSIDER AT ALL THAT HE’S AN ALIEN. SHE DOESN’T CARE. it’s not a factor into her vision of him. it’s not what informs her decisions about him. like! CLARK’S GREATEST FEAR! completely done away with. not a factor here! so what’s special is not what makes one different, or alien, or superpowered, but what binds one person to another. what makes one person special to another.

11. “lois, you don’t have to explain. i get it.”

DO YOU CLARK? DO YOuuuuu? it’s around right here that clark realizes what he’s losing in a lois that knows.

12. “no, you don’t. how can someone with x-ray vision be so blind? “

BC SHE’S NOT TALKING ABOUT WHAT HE IS. WHERE HE’S FROM. BUT WHAT HE DOES. HIS ACTIONS. WHO HE IS. that’s what she’s talking about, that’s what she loves about him. and it’s reflective of her type lol and those types have tells. BUT Buuuuuuuuuut something is different here.

13. “i’ve been down the hero road before. and every time i made a giant u-turn. but this. this was different.”

tell me you love clark kent without telling me you’re in love with clark kent.

14. “and this time it will be different, lois. when i do this no one’s going to remember who i am.”

 and then everyone will be safe. i want to remind everyone that every single time clark has told someone his secret they’ve either died or been severely hurt and brutalized. he has a legitimate fear. lois was about to be arrested for it. he’s protecting her and protecting the world and all that good stuff, but it’s at the expense of this stunning trust he has with lois that’s just beginning, that’s JUST started to morph into something. BUT THERE’S NO TIME. there’s just no way to explain to lois (and he wouldn’t anyway lol) how everything that’s happening is his greatest fear, how he’s dreaded this, how it’s coming true, how he can lose HER if it keeps going.

15. “and when you hit your reset button, you’re not gonna tell me your secret are you?”

“i’m sorry.”

THIS IS A VERY IMPORTANT MOMENT HERE BC CLARK HAS HAD THIS SCENE PLAY OUT ONE WAY OR ANOTHER A MILLION TIMES BEFORE. A MILLION TIMES HE HAS APOLOGIZED TO HIS FRIENDS WITHOUT EVER FULLY EXPLAINING, COMING OFF AS UNTHINKING AND UNCARING AND EVEN CALLOUS. BUT HE REALLY IS TRYING TO PROTECT HER AND HIS FRIENDS AND HE TRULY IS SORRY. 

and something miraculous happens. something beautiful.

16. “it’s okay. why should i think i’m special? clark. i understand.”

lois is hurt, but she’s also empathetic to clark. and she lets him know. this has been lois’s way since always, she’s always been able to wave off clark weirdness. but this time she has background, this time she has a stake in it, this time she has fully experienced being on the other side of it, part of this other clark’s life. and she GETS IT. he’s hurting her by doing this, it’s hurting her visibly, but she fully gets why clark is doing this and she doesn’t try to stop him or demand more of him.

this is why clark is a little shook here. he can’t explain bc RUNNNNING OUTTT OFFF TIME, but he tries to. 

17. “lois, you don’t understand. it’s because you are special. i have to go.”

HE JUST WANTS TO PROTECT HER AND BE IN A WORLD WHERE U KNOW PEOPLE WITH GUNS WON’T COME AFTER HER JUST BECAUSE SHE’S HIS FRIEND. 

*so per some interview somewhere with an executive producer, they revealed there was a kiss in this scene, but when it came time to shoot it erica thought the kiss was unnecessary because of lois’s resilience and trust in herself and her connection with clark. and she was right. 

a kiss would’ve just made the romance of it all concrete, made all the subtext maintext secure. but what we got made the scene all the more complex on both sides. you get to chew a lot on what the characters mean with what little words and time they get, and that subtext is that they WANT to stay together, they WANT to be able to live in this world where they both know and she’s his confidante and things are good and they COULD FIGHT. it does make it a stronger scene.