Confessions Unbound

I only saw parts of "Lara" since I was watching Ugly Betty (no, not out of spite). But a couple of things struck me in the scenes I saw and it's probably a good thing that I didn't see the full eppy. Spoilers within. 
 

Abbreviated reactions: Cure was great. Action was so-so. I loved the tense Clex scenes, where Lex not only helps Clark but is in control (Cure) and, since he sees himself as a hero, he sort of foreshadows his and Clark's dual solitude (Action); Dean Cain/Dr. Knox is awesome (Cure); Lois and Grant's flirting is quite entertaining (Action); I'm thrilled Chloe is still Clark's official sidekick (Action); I'm intrigued by Lex's continued attempts to expose Clark's superhuman nature, only to find himself derailed again (gives the homicidal Warrior Angel fan his collection in the hopes of getting him to confess and identify Clark as a superhero but the young man decidedly keeps quiet, Action); and Lionel is back, calling Lana on her crap (Action)!

1. Why did Lana pay someone to hack into Lex's security system? (Cure) The reason she'll confess to -- Leverage and control. She wants information on Lex's dealings to expose him. She may even say she's giving Lex a taste of his own medicine. Added to that, she gets a little control finally. From Sneeze and Wither to Promise, she implied she felt a loss of control about how she lived in the house and how she married Lex. Now, she may relish knowing she has some control within Lex's environment the way he previously had with her. If the "Wrath" description is any indication, she wants to use whatever she learns to publicly expose what he's done.

The reason she may not readily confess to -- Obsessive fascination. I agree with those who say her expression is not one of hate per se, and that is due to Kristin's interpretation of the character in that moment. Although the cameras have a timed rotation, Lana evidently manipulates the controls by using up/down buttons to zoom in/out and change frames. If she has some control over what she wants to see and she's only interested in uncovering his wicked deeds, then wouldn't the writers, director and editors want the computer screen to be the last frame? Why end on her looking at Lex's face? This may only be a means to an end, but the more she watches him, the more he remains in her life.

2. Lex's knowledge of Lana's hijinks (Cure, Action). If Lex is fully truthful in his conversation with Clark at the hospital in Cure, he may not know Lana's methods although aware of her intent. In Action, Lois tips him off about the land that someone with L.L. initials purchased near Reeves Dam. Intentional or not, it's convenient for Lana because Lex continues to get heat by default for all the crap she pulls. Yet, one would think that after realizing Lana knew current information about his dealings with Knox in Cure, he'd sic someone on her to undercover how she's acquiring information. He's been back to his brainy self since Bizarro and even if he doesn't yet know that she's having him watched, after evaluating all that she's done to him and to his father, he might already be putting all the pieces together. We'll have to wait/see. He and Lionel are gathering enough counter-leverage to consume her if they'd like, but will they use it?

My analytical fervor for Smallville has evaporated thanks to Al and Miles' handling of L/L. But so far I've watched the first three eps of the season. I'm just taking things week-by-week. At the rate things are going, I don't think I'll be missing very much if I do choose to miss an eppy.

Now, Fierce! What a bad episode. Oh so bad. Bad. I ended up flipping between channels and I still caught a good bit of it. It proved to be as textually disappointing as it sounded in spoilers and it felt choppy. All of Lex's scenes (even with Lana) were the only substantive parts. I unexpectedly missed Lionel and Lois tonight.

1. Clana. I don't think I saw all of their scenes, but Clana wasn't nauseating. They seemed kind of pointless, underwhelming, and worn-out. If I was a Clana fan, then maybe I would be thrilled, but how weird Clana are.  And boring!  Did Clark even ask any questions? He just seemed to happy she was there, any old explanation she gave was fine. However, there was foreshadowing about the breaking of their illusions, delivered by Lex and even Lana herself.  I think Labyrinth Lana is the Lana we'll be seeing with Clark for much of the season.

2. Season mood. I've said before that S7's start feels like the beginning of S5, especially from Lex's end -- he finds Lana first, he watches her cavort with Clark and blatantly treat him like dirt, he gets fixated on Kryptonians, and he becomes interested in a spaceship.  Believe me, Lex is still Lex. He's just more subtle than we hoped for S7 Lex, but the Lex in "Fierce" is smart, perceptive and intent.

3. Lex/Lana. Strangely enough, I'm growing to accept Lex and Lana's current antagonistic chemistry given the context of their recent interactions. Their antagonistic chemistry may actually meet their romantic/sexual/kissing chemistry if well-written. But given all of Al and Miles annoying interviews it doesn't appear that L/L will ever have any interaction other than antagonistic. They'll unlikely even tread a combative sexual relationship that some are hoping for after their Shanghai rendez vous. It will be interesting, but I don't see the EPs going in that direction, especially since losing Lana's love is apparently partly responsible for Lex's dark course ::head aches::

My review for "Freak" is finally up at Confessions. At the moment, I'm really busy with some other writing projects, but I really enjoyed this episode more than I anticipated. Major props to Mr. Rosenbaum for delivering his vision so precisely. As usual, the original draft of my review was rather lengthy and required shaving. Below the cut are three short paragraphs that I had to delete, but needed to save somewhere.

My review for Rage is up at Confessions. This is the unrefined, unedited version of a section discussing Lex, Oliver, and Clark's exchanges.

Now, Lex and Lana. Lex and Lana's personalities fascinate me, especially as they are both evolving into darker people. However, they bring their flaws and dysfunction into their relationships. The emotionality and desperation to hold on to each other in Vessel indicated a potential co-dependence between them. I could be wrong, but this chatty discussion was omitted from Vessel's review at Confessions for it's length and premature context.

Recently a fellow L/Ler, Avalee, prompted me, by way of discussion on DTS, to revisit the Zeus/Hera parallels I've seen in Lex/Lana. Here's a comparative essay that was posted at Confessions on March 10, 2006. This was written before Hypnotic or Fragile aired so it reflects L/L's pre-romantic period. However, certain elements of Lex and Lana's relationship remain constant. Except for a few revised sentences, the original main text remains, and a new conclusion has been added to reflect early S6 developments.

My hands are full lately, revising and editing my novella as well as doing some editing work, but I've taken some time to reorganize a few things.

Confessions of an L/Ler will:

1. Continue to carry weekly and monthly reviews. 
2. Continue to feature L/L trivia, character and relationship analyses.

Confessions Unbound will:

1. Continue to hold unrefined, unedited paragraphs deleted from Confession's reviews. 
2. Continue to feature updates on my non-SV writing projects. Note that these posts will be immediately friends-locked. 
3. Have essays which are retrospectives on various episodes and L/L scenes. The ability to place such long pieces "behind the cut" is the main reason why I'm posting these essays here.

The journals will continue to work in tandem, with Confessions of an L/Ler remaining the main journal.

I think L/Lers are still basking in the glow of Wither so I trust I'm not too late with this offering of deleted, unedited material from the latest installment of Confessions of an L/Ler.  An edited-in clarification was made on Oct. 16.

So we have Sneeze. Not a great episode. Not a bad one. I see it more as a transitional episode. However, it didn't have the potency of Vengeance, which was also transitional. Still there were some really good stuff in there and I have already updated Confessions of an L/Ler with all of my thoughts on Lex and Lana's interactions.   These are random unedited, unrevised paragraphs that couldn't fit into the Sneeze Confessions.

I was just looking at the 11 p.m. repeat of E! News and they usually do these daily polls. I was barely paying attention when the results for Oct 1's poll came up. The poll was "Which is your favorite TV love triangle?"

Hi guys!  I'm making the rounds on the boards.  This weekend I'll be working on making changes to Confessions of an L/Ler and I'm fielding blurbs or "confessions" from L/Lers to feature on the blog.  

I saw Vengeance for the first time on July 21 and it was really good episode. As I watched, a particular character flaw of Chloe's re-emerged, but my comments couldn't fit in my Vengeance review, which was recently posted at Confessions. Be warned, I'm not a full-fledged Chloe-fan. Sometimes I like her. Sometimes I don't. 

Some time ago an L/Ler at DTS brought over the results to an L/L compatibility test she did while playing around with a love calculator. It was meant to be fun and the results were surely fun to read. The love calculator is a game that tries to predict compatibility by using the first and last names of two people. Recently, while taking breaks from my writing, I revisited the love calculator thing and came up with some interesting, sometimes amusing, results.

Initially meant for my writing and for L/L fic writers, the profile is for all L/Lers. As I was compiling Lana's character profile, I was allowed to really appreciate her strengths, even though they are hard to see sometimes. She's still got some growing up to do, but there's a lot more to her than meets the eye. All the writers have to do is mine what's already there. Here's my (raw) take on Lana's personality as posted on Confessions (July 12, 2006).

I wrote these character profiles for myself and for fan-fic writers, but it's really for any L/Ler. Making up Lex's character profile was almost as complicated as Lex is. He's such a wonderfully written and portrayed character, I hoped to look at his traits objectively. This is my (raw) overview of Lex's more noticeable character traits, as posted on Confessions (July 12, 2006).

The geek that I am, shortly after Fade aired I coincidentally began reading articles from the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, and while reading one article, I immediately thought of Clana and L/L. My application of what they said was omitted from my Fade review on Confessions.

Cleaning out my folders again and I happened upon this comment I made early S4:

Welcome to "Spoken For", the geeky lj side-kick of "Confessions of an L/Ler". I hesitated working on the journal because I initially thought it a bit excessive to have two L/L journals, but I decided that I should least tap into the L/L community on lj. Don't ask me to explain the name, "Spoken For" because it has no real meaning behind it. But what it will do is archive unedited deleted portions of the rambles, reviews and essays I make on "Confessions" and give notices on "Confessions" updates. Although "Confessions" will remain my L/L center, I'll come here to play as often as I can.

J