Duplicity II

In the previous post, I summarized what I thought were salient points from Smallville: Duplicity but neglected and even forgot what must be regarded as two important plot developments from a "Smallville as soap opera" perspective (a lot does happen in this one episode, even without involving any meteor powers):

Lana tells Clark that she has ex'ed the absent Marine, Whitney (we saw her start to do this when recording a video message in the previous episode);

Lana's Aunt Nell tells Lana that she has become engaged to the annoying new guy, Dean.

Whitney's ex'ing, Nell's engagement, the blind Lionel Luthor's return to Smallville and Pete Ross's inclusion in the Kent family secret are bound to have major implications for future episodes, although Hamilton's convenient death helps to preserve that secret for the immediate future. Clark clearly does not start to think of developing a relationship with Lana and she continues to resent his obvious reticence about she knows not what. Clark has become too used to lying. This used to concern me a bit in Superboy comics: can all this lying be right? In this version of the story, it is the systematic duplicity that turns out to be the fatal weakness that will make Superman and Lex Luthor enemies in later life.