Somebody Else's Nimrod

Ou est les gay superheroes d'antan?

I rewatched "Lineage" on Christmas Eve and was struck by the ways it seems to presage "Shattered." Lionel's cavalier manipulation of Rachel's madness, his willingness to sacrifice a child (Lucas) to preserve his secret, Clark's forced revelation of his powers to Rachel and Martha's relief that everyone will think she's simply insane if she speaks of them, even the haunting image of Lionel staring helplessly through the glass at an ill Lex...there are a lot of connections there.

Since I got the DVDs for Christmas (God bless Mom T.), I also watched "Hourglass" again for the first time in a good long while. After two years, it still holds up damn well, if for nothing else than the sheer overexposed creepiness of Cassandra's vision of Lex's future. This episode is also noticeable for showing us the first real cracks in early, fey Lex's armor--the desperate way he tries to wipe Death off his hands at the end is really memorable. I have to admit, this episode made me nostalgic for the fandom of yesteryear. It feels to me right now as if a great many writers now are caught up in their own AUs, in random futurefics, in elaborate exercises in denial, drawing their inspiration primarily from fanon rather than from the immediate canon we get on a week-to-week basis. I remember so clearly watching Lex scrubbing his hands on his jacket and thinking, "Oh, my God, he was holding his *mom's* hand when she died, too!"--and before I could write anything based on it, seeing the Spike's excellent (and wholly independent) take on the same idea pop up on the list. Rather than annoying me, it thrilled me that someone else was watching so closely, and seeing something like what I was seeing in the tiniest details of the show. I miss that. I hope that the many fics playing off "Shattered" promise something of a return to that for the fandom.