Still in the zone, Lex and Lana visit the Kents for their annual Christmas party, and in this alternate reality Jonathan became a great state senator, although I am not sure where it says in the state government handbook that being elected to state office requires you to start shopping for your eye glasses at Lens Crafters: Bono Edition. At least they weren't tinted. It appears that everybody loves Lex, and he even wins a humanitarian award because of his good deeds with exposing his old company. Jonathan calls him the finest man he knows, but there has to be a catch to all of this, right? It can't be THAT perfect, can it?

Outside on the porch, Lex sees his mom again, and once again she tells him that all of this could be his if he makes the right choices. At this point, I really start to wonder what happened to make Lex choose the life we know makes him less happy? With a final plea to follow his heart and not his mind, his mother leaves, and Clark runs into Lex talking to himself. Considering how Lex and Clark were on the outs, especially when it came to Lana, with Clark doing everything in his power to keep her away from Lex, it's amazing the two of them are even friends. When Lex asks what happened, Clark simply says that he became the person that Lana could love. He also said that he might not have been ready to give her everything that Lex was able to, and maybe he would never be able to. On that note, there was no ring on Clark's finger so the Chloe and Clark marriage I had thought was a reality when they were shopping for a tree together may simply be friends with benefits. I'm actually surprised they didn't bring Pete into this episode to fall in love with Lois or something the way things were going.

Lex is having some day while his operation is going on, could things get any better? How about a new baby? Lana has gone into labor, and is rushed to the hospital where she delivers her second child. Unfortunately, it looks like Miss Lang didn't have great birthing hips, and she starts to hemorrhage, and not just that we had to sew your vagina back together type of stuff, it looks like something happened, and Lana will have to have surgery, but they will need an airlift. If only there was somebody with unlimited means and a spare helicopter around transport her to safety! That person used to be Lex, but now it is Lionel, and when Lex pleads to Lionel for the life of his wife, Lionel rejects him. Lex continues, saying he should think of his own flesh and blood, his grandchildren. Lionel retorts with the "how can I have grandchildren? I don't have a son?” Well, other than adoption, you could have had a daughter we don't know about, but we won't split hairs. The important thing is that Lionel denies Lex the help to save his wife.

Without the airlift, Lana is at the mercy of the local doctors. Considering the people at the hospital are now veterans of two meteor showers, you would think that they have some experience with trauma and such, but sometimes things happen, and that includes Lana's death. While Lex is in tears, his mother appears to him once more. He asks her why she showed him this. How he could live in a world where the only people that he ever loved, his mother, his brother, and Lana, were all dead? Well, you have two children, and the admiration of everybody you know, and you did get to experience true love. It may have been a fleeting moment in time, but he was able to feel a happiness that some people never reach in their lives.

By this time, whatever was happening to Lex in the hospital was finished. The surgery was over, it was successful, and his father was there to visit him. After what he experienced in his little out of body escapade and the visions of Christmas future, you could tell that hating his father for gambling on his life was not the only thing on his mind. Lana's happiness was more important than his own, and if Lana lived to be happy with another person, it would better than her dying and being happy with him. He knows what he must do.

Chloe also had a big decision on her hands. Clark was able to help out, but even he had to go back eventually, leaving Chloe with many presents to deliver. Perhaps feeling that he was given a second chance, mall Santa came to the Daily Planet and told Chloe that he wanted to help. Clark had told her about this guy, and she had trouble believing it, but she could use all the help she could get. Besides, it looks like she would be missing Christmas anyway. This whole time I was thinking that this mall Santa was just a drunk, it turns out the mall Santa was the actual Santa. Laying a finger aside of his nose, and giving a nod, well, delivered doesn't rhyme with nose, but that's what happened to everything. Chloe had turned around to give him a map of where he should, and when she turned around, the gifts, and Santa, were gone. All that, and nobody had to air any grievances!

Posted by J-Unit on December 19, 2005 10:33 AM