#everybody except lana was so unfair to lex

[ruby-took]

Smallville thoughts

I've just rewatched the Season 5 episode "Lockdown", and for the most part, I really like it. The interactions between Lex and Lana especially are great. That said, characters constantly referring to Lex as a villain was really jarring, as was the way Clark was acting.

But the thought I was left with was that the episode seems to want to claim that the only difference between Lex saving Lana by taking a bullet for her, and Clark saving Lana from an explosion, is that Lana doesn't know that Clark saved her, and that just doesn't sit right with me. Because surely, there is a fundamental difference between someone saving you even though he has to put his own life on the line to do so, and someone saving you from something that could never actually harm him.

Sure, someone saving you with no risk to themselves means that they don't want you dead, which isn't nothing, but... Clark called an ambulance for Lex too, despite pretty much hating Lex at this point, so not wanting someone to die isn't some huge statement. But someone saving you when they know doing so could kill them? That carries the implicit message, "Your life is worth more to me than mine," and that's just not the same thing.

Which also once again left me thinking, "Someone explain to me again exactly how Lex is the villain here?"