Last Night's Smallville: Q about Liver Disorders?
 

Spoiler Space...





Okay, now last night we learned that Lionel has a liver problem that is more or less terminal, but couldn't he get it replaced? I mean, with his cash it seems like something that he could push through, and avoid the whole waiting list. Heck, he's so evil, he could snag said liver from his half-son or even Lex, and it wouldn't shock me.

Also, why hasn't the serum (made from Clark's blood) ever been tested on somebody who hasn't died yet. I mean, if it does that much good for a dead guy, you'd think a live subject might have a better shot at sustaining the effect.

Of course, I really doubt that Lionel commited suicide. He still, as of yet, has not made an attempt on Chloe's life, something that's pretty much destined to happen. (I mean I pretty much see her dying at *SOME* point before the series is over, likely in the next-to-last season.) Plus, until Lex fully comes into his evil character, he's a required nasty for the series.

Sky Warrior Bob

It may be too late for a transplant -- if you're in or getting close to the terminal stage of a liver disease, they're not going to waste a perfectly good donor organ on you because odds are pretty high that you're going to cack out on the table. The fact that he's still drinking seems to say to me that he's so far gone at this point that it doesn't matter.

And then too, his papers said "unknown hepatitic somethingorother" -- which in the real world seems to be called "cryptogenic hepatitis", meaning that they don't know where the hell it came from. Maybe in Lionel's case it's less cryptogenic than Kryptogenic, and god only knows what kind of screwy complications might come along with that.

I think Lionel would take the easy way out if A) he already found out somehow about Lex's new plan to destroy him and B) he knew there was no way he'd be able to wriggle his way out of it this time, but since we don't have any evidence to support that, I don't think he really went through with it either. I also agree that Chloe's going to die sometime before the end of the show, and thank god -- can you imagine her operatic whininess when Clark ends up not with Lana but her own cousin?

Lex doesn't seem too far off from full-on satanic majesty at the moment, so I'm not expecting Lionel to hang on for too much longer in any case, suicide or no. Or Pa Kent, for that matter, which reminds me of something Lex said a long time ago about kings mourning when his father dies but friends mourning when Clark's does. They're not shy about telegraphing their moves on this show, are they?

Edited to add: ooo, Jeph Loeb's writing the next episode. Good times ahead!

I just got a disturbing image of Lex talking to his father's dead (but revived) head. With the serum, they can keep Lionel "sorta" alive for as long as they want, and frankly with a dead Lionel's influence, that'd be more than enough to push Lex over the edge.

Although, I predict they'll hold off killing Clark's dad until the premire of next season, this season of course ending on the dead or not cliffhanger.

Sky Warrior Bob
- Of course, they need to bring in some rather strong characters in fast. As there certainly will be a loss of talent w/ these two get nixed.

hmm it all depends
 

Oh... a smallville thread.... Man I have a couple of things to adress...

1) Jonathan kent does not have to die at any point. If you'll remember the comic history, he is still very much alive for quite a long time at least. So I'll grant that smallville is a unique take on the superman story and they don't nesseciruly have to follow that, but they don't have to follow what happened in the movies, either.

2) Next episode, I belive Lex, or someone will start opening the door to Lionel's office just as the trigger is a about to be pulled. Not wanting lex to see him in this "weak" moment, he will quickly put the gun back, lock the case, and act as if nothing was going on. Either that, or the next new episode will open with lionel's funeral... cuase that gun pretty much sealed the deal last night... what with the CRAZY @_@ close up....


3) With Lex's evilness a rising... well... I think lionel needs to die before lex truly turns to the 'dark side'. I always thought that lex was gonna end up killing lionel or betraying somehow, and taking over the luthercorp empire, but we'll have to see. I don't think that lionel will die in this next epsiode though... That would ruin the story-arc of lex helping the FBI take his father down. Anyway, somehow lex has to become evil, and forsake his freindship with clark... I think the writers will still have clark and lex 'Know' each other, but when they become enimies, lex will not know who superman really is, and he will not care about clark kent at all, and clark as well will probably keep his distance from lex, not wanting to be revealed.

4) Does anyone else get the foreshadowing of Clark's Lana/Chole relationship? I.E. Chloe is a reporter like Lois Lane is/will become... Lana Lang looks like Lois Lane (dark hair & eyes, hot stuff etc..) and her name is similar. SO, Lana & Chole represent, together, Clark's eventual romance with Lois Lane.

5) I am so freakin' mad that the whole issue between clark and pete did not get full coverage. The scene from 'veleocity' at the end, was probably the most powerful scene the seris has ever accomplished... and they just dropped the subject. I mean, i get that clark was/is gonna get over pete's actions and attitude (which kinda appaeared and dissapeared randomly) but why not resolve the issue more fully? That scene deserved follow-up. More than deserved.

Actually, in the pre-Crisis Superman storyline, both Pa and Ma Kent bite it pretty early on in Clark's life. For completely stupid reasons, but still, kaput. (Their names also used to be Sarah and Eben, but that's beside the point.) In the classic Campbell-style Hero's Journey, the mentor figure often has to die at some point so that the hero can grow up, learning to act on his own without the mentor's support -- Yoda, Uncle Ben, almost every kung-fu movie ever, etc. I can't think of anyone who's been more of a mentor to Clark than Pa.

I'm sorry, but that's just silly. Maybe if Smallville was written and directed by the Farrelly Brothers, but come on.

I agree, but you also have to consider that they've got a lot of other kettles going at this point, and that Pete is a friggin' boring character. Given the choice between wrapping things up tidily between Pete and Clark or doing more with Lionel's stew of crazy, it's disappointing but completely understandable that the writers would devote more time to the latter. Then too, we don't know yet that that lingering unpleasantness isn't going to pop up again sooner or later -- Pete's interest in politics seems to hint to me that they're going to go with the comic storyline by having him end up being Lex's right-hand man (no pun intended) as Vice President, and he's got to go over to the Luthor side eventually. Maybe the wedge the 2 Pete 2 Furious episode drove between them will be the catalyst.

true, however.
 

I'm not inceribly familar with the super man comics, (and i hope i didn't give off the pretense that I was) only with more recent history, such as superman's death via the doomsday monster, and the ensuing 4 supermen that rose to take his place.. temporarily. In fact, if anyone would care to inform me how the REAL superman actually came back, that'd stop all the nightmares I've been having for the last few years @_@ (j/k) In anycase, I do not know what the reference "pre-crisis" stands for, so specifics on that would be appriciated, if possible.

I'd hate for them to kill the jonathan kent charecter at any point, becuase they are doing such a good job with him ...but it would probably be best to do it at a major turning point... i.e., right before clark's trek to the north, where he establishes his fortress of solitude, or something.

Too true, and in retrospect, the theory was developed in haste in desperation. Although I will personally laugh tremendously if that actually happens. However, smallville has done "silly" before. I just don't know HOW they're gonna get away from killing off lionel luther... the gun was IN his mouth. The music was PLAYING.

But the fact that they dropped the pete and clark conflict in favor of "O NO11!11!! OMG LOL KRYP2NIET-INF3CT3D-BADEI-ATAKS-CLARK-AND-SUCH!1!1!1! OMG WTF LOL FORG3T TEH S2RYLIEN!!!1 KRYP2NIET PEOPLE!1!1!1 WTF LOL W007!!!11 WTF LIEK W3 DIDNT GET ENOUGH OF IT DA FIRST SEASON!!!1 OMG" ...The episode right after 2fast2furious pete was "obsession", another kryptonite infected baddie story arc that lasted ONE episode and that we saw HOW many times in the frist season? It was wholly irrelevant to the storyline. At least Clark's and Pete's relationship could have been better defined, as it needs to be now that the fastnfurious thing happened. Although, you present an interesting plotline that I HOPE they do... the pete as Lex's right hand man. That would be interesting, becuase it has been pete vs lex (subtly) thusfar... when it becomes clark vs lex, with pete in the middle... well, who knows. i hope they make lex the head of luthor corp before the seris end, cuase I want to see superman face his arch rival for once on TV... the New adventures of Superman show did something like that briefly, but it was too lame and too late in that seris to be of any interest.

According to Brian, Pa Kent was having a heart attack at the same time as the Big S's death, and got to visit him in spirit long enough to convince him to come back to Earth. It's incredibly stupid and corny, therefore I believe it to be true. As for "pre-Crisis", weeeell, the short explanation is that in the mid-'80s DC decided all the old storylines and a lot of old characters were too stupid to be tolerated anymore, so they had this big huge crossover epic storyline called Crisis on Infinite Earths, the upshot of which was that all the stupid crap was officially declared to no longer exist and the universe pretty much rebooted itself. I think. If you do a search for the phrase "Crisis on Infinite Earths" you'll probably turn up some better and more detailed explanations than that.

I agree, but again, the state of Pete and Clark's friendship really isn't the most important or the most interesting sub-plot they've got running right now. It'd be nice if they finally freakin' got to the end of Chloe's stupid romantic obsession with Clark and replaced that sub-plot with the Pete/Clark friendship, though, because as dull as Pete is, he's still an improvement over three years of fruitlessly whiny, bitchy behavior. Why Clark can stay angry at Pete for abusing his powers once, but forgive Chloe for spying on him and selling that information to Lionel Luthor, all because he committed the heinous crime of being more interested in another girl, is completely beyond me.

I also agree with you that "Obsession" was pointless, though, even if it hadn't been such a by-the-numbers stalker story. So many plotlines up in the air and they decided to give us the story of yet another blonde girl with an obsessive interest in Clark? 9_9

whew
 

Well thanks for the comic-related explinations... dumb though that was, I'll admit.

The 2nd season comes out on dvd in may, i hear. Is that... not a lie thingy?

One thing I'd just like to add, is that while Smallville is working with the Superman mythos, they're not sticking with it 100% with it. Thus, Pa Kent can die at any time they want, and they could do something outragous as having Ma Kent end up with a younger guy.

Not that will likely happen, but there's nothing stopping the writing team.

So while the comics & movies might suggest some of the things that will happen to Clark, don't count on them.

Sky W. Bob

Oh, I don't believe that Pa's going to die just because he does in the movies or in the comics -- I think he's going to die because it's an important stage in the Hero's Journey, because it seems as though that may be the price he has to pay for taking on some of Jor-El's power to drag Clark back from Metropolis, and because Pa and Lionel's deaths coming so close together would make for some interesting symmetry. But I could be totally butt-wrong, and I kind of hope I am, actually, because it's always more fun when the writers come up with something you'd never have predicted in a million years but still makes sense for the story.