If you didn't get the story by now, Clark blames himself for his father's death. Clark asked Jor-el to help him save Lana, but his father died instead. Again, there is no way to tell that Jonathan would have lived a long and prosperous life if Clark hadn't chosen to save Lana, but he doesn't think of it that way. He not only blames himself, but can barely even think about the whole situation without frustration. Clark has always had trouble finding people to confide in, and he therefore had a very strong bond with Jonathan and Martha, choosing to live as their son instead of choosing the destiny his Krypton father, Jor-el had chosen for him, and it wasn't easy. I can't say no to those free watered down Kamikaze shots the Saddle Ranch; there is no way I would have turned world domination if my disembodied alien father had been pitching it to me.

Martha has been trying to get past Jonathan's loss. Clark decided to take the rest of the semester off which will mean she won't have to worry about what's going on around the farm, but there are a lot of things that sill remind her of her husband. There are so many memories that are hard to get rid of, and she decides that she will take his clothes to a homeless shelter in Metropolis. The governor's office has contacted her about Jonathan's Senate seat, so she is going to have to drive down there anyway.

Now I know that homeless shelters wouldn't make sense in a nice part of town, but couldn't this mission have found a slightly better neighborhood to help the homeless? I am not saying that it needs to be in a building with a doorman, but it would have been nice if they people trying to help the shelter didn't leave in fear of getting mugged, which is exactly what happened to Martha as she was donating some clothes. This also brings up a question about the muggers. What kind of person who makes a living stealing items thinks that they are going to find lots of good stuff worth stealing around a homeless shelter? I guess there is some sort of booming industry for five year-old basketball camp t-shirts and muffin stumps in Metropolis that haven't showed up anywhere else.

OK, so like I said, Martha was mugged, and these guys were particularly mean. The only thing she had on her was Jonathan's old watch, one of the last material things he had that connected the two of them. After taking it from her and slapping her around until she was unconscious, they decided they didn't want to leave a witness and were about to slit her throat until somebody came to save her. It's not Clark, and it's not even a man; it is some girl in what looks to be a modified Zorro costume, and she really hates these two guys. In fact, our hero recognizes one of them by a tattoo on his neck, but when his partner threatens to hurt Martha, the new girl rescues her and the guys escape. But hey, she's new at this, so we'll cut her some slack.

One of the reasons Martha had that valuable watch on was because Clark refused to take it. Yes, it had too much to do with the memory of his father. I'm not saying that Kent is being a little bit of a baby, but has he looked around some of his friends lately? Let's see. Lana - both parents dead. Chloe - mother crazy. Lex - mother dead. Lois - mother dead. If anything, Clark is just joining the club of lost parents, and even for the less cynical among us, you would hope that he realizes that there are people around him who have been through the same thing, and their experiences may not make what he is feeling go away, but they might be able to help him through it. Lana tells him as much when she goes to visit him. She has given up on Clark opening up to her, but she still wants to help him get through this difficult time.

Before Lana has much time to convince Clark to let her stay and help, Martha comes back, and as soon as Clark sees what happened to her, he rushes off to Metropolis to find out what's going on. As we all know, the police aren't going to be of any help. Therefore, he goes to Chloe, the only person in Metropolis who seems to be any good at solving crimes. Chloe is actually sort of excited to hear that the vigilante rescued his mom. People have heard about her rescuing crime victims within the "Suicide Slums" district of Metropolis, but nobody has actually seen her face. Chloe can't wait to put all of this on the front page, which bothers Clark because he wants answers, not a headline.

Posted by J-Unit on February 6, 2006 11:44 PM