Smallville: Vortex

"Vortex" is the first episode of the second season of the Smallville TV series. Many personal relationships remain unresolved: too many to list here. Lex has the opportunity to turn evil but doesn't, yet.

How will Nixon, the journalist who knows too much about Clark, be disposed of? Will he be killed by the tornado, as I expected? Too easy. Will Jonathan kill him? Too out of character. Will he sympathize with the Kents after being incarcerated with Jonathan? Too implausible. Will he try to kill Jonathan but be shot just in time by Lex Luthor? Yes. So Lex carries a gun - and has now killed a man. We ought to see more of how he and, presumably, Jonathan square this

with the police.

The underlying tragedy continues to be the Kent's dishonesty. Nixon tells Jonathan that Lex paid him. Lex tells Clark that he did not. Jonathan points out to Clark that one of them must be lying. But Jonathan himself is lying and pressurizing Clark to lie continually to everybody, including Lana, Chloe, Pete and Lex.

Will Clark fly to rescue Lana in the tornado? We do not

see him do it. Even he is confused about what happened. But he felt as if he was flying. Lana, like us, remembers seeing him in her truck but he denies that he was there. Lana as ever senses that Clark is holding something back. Neither she nor Chloe is satisfied with the outcome.

But this is DC Comics fiction. We are free to imagine an "imaginary story" or Elseworld in which Clark, defying Jonathan, confides in the four named friends and they become a team, a superman with backup. Lex would be able to organize secret scientific investigation of Clark's powers and might later become President while still working with the now flying and costumed Clark.