Evil Acts of Team Kent

Evil acts of Team Kent

*Season one*

Pilot:
- Clark is a jerk. Clark stacks up the jocks trucks out of pettiness. Not so bad really considering Whitney was the bigger jerk in this ep and it's also, you know, pretty funny! :p Worth a mention as a foreshadowing of things to come though perhaps.
- Jonathan is a jerk/judgemental. Jonathan refuses Lex's 'thank you' present and is immediately shown as being prejudice towards the guy, despite having never met him before. And no, a car ACCIDENT that put Lex in more danger than Clark doesn't allow for leeway.

Jitters:
- Clark (and his family) are ungrateful. Lex faces down a gunman and pretty much single-handedly frees a class of hostages. And doesn't even get a thank you. Possibly it happened offscreen, but that is not good enough writers!

Rogue:
- Clark is a jerk. Jonathan is arrested as part of Phelan's evil scheme. Lex accosts Clark outside the Beanery and asks what's going on, clearly not prying just eager to help, and Clark completely shoots him down and yells at him to leave him alone. He brings up Lex's shady past and generally acts like everything is Lex's fault. Again, not SO bad considering Clark is young and scared and being blackmailed, but it does start a precedent of Clark yelling at Lex unnecessarily I think.

Hug:
- Clark takes people for granted. Clark takes fugitive Kyle to Lex's, effectively forcing the older man to harbour a criminal. Not so terrible as Kyle is, of course, innocent, and Lex is more than happy to help. But I include it as a possible beginning of Clark's 'expecting favours from Lex without giving him anything in return' attitude that becomes more prevalent later.

Leech:
- Clark places his secret above others. Lex approaches Clark very calmly and politely at the farm and explains how his findings about the accident on the bridge and Clark's explanation don't quite add up. He says, heartbreakingly, 'you're the closest I've had to a real friend my whole life, you don't have to hide anything from me.' Clark, of course, denies denies denies, and I'm not saying that's wrong here. He hasn't known Lex long, I understand he wouldn't want to bare his soul to the guy yet. But instead of sending the guy away with a simple 'thanks but I don't want to talk about it' or 'I don't like you pushing this Lex, please stop,' he scoffs, literally SCOFFS at Lex's theory about him being hit and ripping the car roof (the entirely TRUE theory I add) and then dares Lex to hit him with a hammer. This is important as being the first time Clark's lies about himself make Lex feel ashamed about his ENTIRELY VALID suspicions. Whether this was intentional guilt tripping or not at this stage is ambiguous.

Zero:
- Clark places his secret above others/is a jerk. Clark is angry at Chloe for researching his adoption agency for her class project. He kinda has reason, as I know the truth about adoption procedures can be touchy subjects for those who are adopted. But his rage is out of proportion to the crime I think as he knows she didn't do it out of malice, suggesting his anger may be fuelled at least in part by fear she will learn his secret, which is a totally unjust reason to be mad at Chloe for since she wasn't intentionally looking.

S01 ep I don't remember:
- Jonathan puts Clark's secret above others/is judgemental. Jonathan is all geared up to finally accept a generous, but not charitable, offer of funding from Lex for the farm. But immediately decides to reject it when he learns Lex is excavating the site where Clark's ship was found (he later finds the octagonal key there). Lex's investigation here can hardly be a personal attack since I'm sure at the time he had nothing to connect the site to Clark with, so I can only assume Jonathan has misinterpreted Lex's act as deliberately intrusive when it's obviously nothing but simple, HONEST, curiosity. This is both unjust to Lex and detrimental to the Kents themselves.

*Season two*

Heat:
No, nothing. It's just that, Clark is BRILLIANT in this episode, isn't he? Really heroic. One of the few times I'm proud of him.

Duplicity:
- Clark places his secret above others. Pete finds Clark's ship and Clark and his dad GO BEHIND THE OTHER GUY'S BACK TO STEAL IT. When Pete confronts Clark with this, Clark tries again to lie. This is negated slightly since Clark does ultimately come clean.

Red:
- Clark is a jerk. RedK!Clark releases hidden desires to play the field (with pretty much all the women involved, ie. goes after Jesse AND Lana while also x-raying Chloe's ass). He also pushes his tendency to bleed Lex for favours to the limit by continually requesting the use of the older man's Porsche.

Ryan:
- Clark takes people for granted. Clark breaks Ryan from Summerholt and takes him straight to Lex without considering how damning that could be for the older man. Again, as with Kyle in Hug, this is not so terrible considering Ryan really was in danger and the act seems to suggest Clark trusts Lex more than anything else. But it is perhaps another foreshadowing/development of the 'expecting Lex to grant favours without question' cycle.

Dichotic:
Confusingly, Lex smashes up a car with a golf club for NO JUSTIFIABLE REASON other than it being 'a bad day,' and Clark simply laughs. Not that I'm coming down hard on Lex or anything, but I would have thought if anything deserved a bit of a talking to about, that did... Though, of course, it was damn fun to watch! :p

Insurgence:
- Jonathan is a jerk. Jonathan rants at Lex outside the LuthorCorp building when he learns Lex has been communicating with the hostage-takers, without bothering to learn that Lex was actually trying to NEGOTIATE with them and that the whole situation was not because of Lex at all, not really.

Rush:
- Clark is a jerk. RedK!Clark accuses Lex of being backstabbing and generally badmouths him to his face. If RedK is supposed to reveal hidden feelings then this is just really jerky! Cos the accusation is entirely unfounded.

Rosetta:
- Clark places his secret above others. Clark downloads the Kryptonian language from the cave and starts doodling it in the Talon. Lex finds the paper and asks Clark about it, theorising it might be extraterrestrial in origin (the LANGUAGE that is, not Clark, as far as Lex seems to be aware, something happened in the caves that may have given Clark knowledge, but he has no reason to suspect this is because Clark is particularly connected to the cave). Again, as in Leech, Clark doesn't simply disagree with Lex, he SCOFFS at the ENTIRELY TRUE theory, making Lex feel stupid as well as ashamed for suggesting it. Honestly, the way he looks, the little smirk, the sarcastic 'you think aliens wrote it?' Just, grrrr - how do you sleep at night Clark?!

*Season three*

Asylum:
- Clark places his secret above others. Do I need to explain? Clark abandons Lex to Belle Reve, and when Lex finally gets out, memory wiped, Clark fails to tell him the truth about why he was committed, hiding not only his secret but also the truth about Lex's grandparents. This is crueller than a deception, because it leaves Lex not only ignorant but under the false belief that his mind is potentially unstable. Oh, and that his father is not an evil, manipulative and dangerous bastard (more than normal that is) who drugged and almost killed his son - something that could even be considered neglect, perhaps? As Clark, and by association Chloe and Pete and the Kents, are leaving Lex under the charge of a man they know is dangerous to/for him.

Velocity:
- Clark is a jerk. Clark badmouths Pete about drag racing without making any visible attempt to understand his friend's actions, despite having himself recently run off to Metropolis and committed worse crimes. He also lies to Lex about the whole thing, despite being more than willing to steal the guy's car! Just for extra icing on the cake.

Memoria:
- Clark places his secret above others/is a jerk. Again, I need to explain? Clark guilt trips Lex for trying to recover HIS OWN DAMN MEMORIES, essentially betrays him to Lionel who stole the memories in the first place, and then blames Lex for the subsequent dip in a kryptonite tank LIONEL tricked him into. And then brings up painful issues of Lionel's hate for Lex for no good reason, just to twist the knife further. This has obviously been discussed many times already, and it CAN be worked around if you're very optimistic and forgiving, but that doesn't stop it being a very large black spot on Team Kent's record.

Talisman:
- Clark places his secret above others. One of the Kawatche tribe takes a Kryptonian weapon from the caves and goes a bit psycho. Lex is looking into it (probably cos he, you know, kinda OWNS the caves and everything therein) and meets up with Clark doing the same in said Kawatche's dorm room. He asks Clark how he's connected to everything, which at this stage can hardly be considered prying considering a psycho is on the loose and all information is important, but Clark lies and says he doesn't know anything he was just looking for help on a school project. Lex sighs sharply into his hand at this, suggesting that by this stage he is less ashamed and more irritated as a result of the now pretty blatant lies, no doubt feeling hurt cos it's obvious Clark isn't trusting him and also resentful that the other man seems to be belittling his intelligence by assuming Lex is stupid enough to keep believing him. This is therefore reaching SERIOUS PSYCHOLOGICAL DAMAGE now, not to mention the physical danger others could be in from Clark's withholding of information, what with a psycho at large and everything!

Forsaken:
- Clark is a jerk/judgemental. Lex is working with the FBI to try and gain incriminating info on his father. Clark happens upon the two parties conversing and assumes the worst, leading to a shouting match where he could almost be said to physically assault Lex by ripping at his shirt to reveal the hidden wire. This is an entire overreaction, since Clark has no evidence whatsoever Lex's involvement with the Feds is to do with his secret, although he could PERHAPS be forgiven A LITTLE considering Pete had been beaten for info on Clark by the Feds this same ep. Since Lex saved Pete from those Feds and Clark knows Lionel is dodgy though, it stills seems unfair of Clark to have jumped so quickly to the conclusion Lex was out to get him. AND he doesn't apologise when he learns the truth either.

*Season four*

Gone:
- Clark is judgemental. Only a small one really. Clark discovers via Lois that General Lane is covering something up about Chloe's 'death.' He drops in on Lex to... um... ask about the exploded safe-house I think... and notices a smoking cigar of the kind General Lane smokes in Lex's ashtray. The narrow-eyed look at Lex that follows certainly looks like suspicion to me, and if this is because he suspects Lex (and, what, General Lane too?) may have had something to do with Chloe's DEATH, then, god, what an unfair, prejudice conclusion to jump to! Of course, to be fair, it might just have been suspicion/confusion about the whole situation and not specifically about Lex or the belief someone was responsible for Chloe 'dying.'

Devoted:
- Clark takes people for granted. After being totally bitchy to Lex over the CoCK, that the older man has dismantled (which may or may not be fair, depending on personal interpretation), Clark turns up at the mansion supposedly to see if Lex was telling the truth and if the investigation is really over. BUT once he's seen the crumpled Porsche and empty room and establish 'K, let's be friends again,' Clark IMMEDIATELY launches into a 'can I ask you a favour' spiel about wanting Lois removed from Smallville High, which really seems a bit of a cheek considering he was trying to shun the other man less than 24 hours previously and sorta smacks of taking advantage now. Plus, can we be entirely sure the favour wasn't the only reason he dropped by in the first place, and not the 'let's be friends thing'? Can we?

Run:
- Clark puts his secret above others. Lex finds a pretty map, I mean manuscript, with Kryptonian symbols on it, that he out right reveals to Clark in the hope they can 'unravel the mystery TOGETHER' (paraphrase, emphasis mine). But, of course, Clark sees the Kryptonian writing and clams up, even though, surely, he could have pointed out the connection the symbols have to the cave etc without getting into his own connection to them, right? Anyway, because the allure of the writing proves stronger than sense, Clark decides to sneak into Lex's house at night and examine it then, instead of simply asking for a look during the day, during one of the 'examining it TOGETHER' moments Lex suggested. But anyway, because SV recruited another junior member of the JLA for this ep to up the ratings, mini-Flash zips in, steals the thing, switches on all the alarms, and Clark is caught red-handed by Lex, who naturally asks what the hell the younger man is doing there in the middle of the night at the scene of a crime. Big surprise, Clark lies. Badly. 'Erm, I couldn't wait to get another look at the page. And, oh, it was like that when I got here...' or something. Discarding how the hell he got in anyway. Seriously, there is NO WAY Clark can't know how pathetic his story sounds, right? And how much Lex cannot believe him. Lex then lectures that 'a true friend would never lie to me,' which is a bit of a guilt trip, fair, but considering it's taken him a whole 3 SEASONS to finally make one, I'M willing to cut him some slack. Besides which, it makes this moment an important one because it tells Clark, quite clearly, that if he keeps up with the lies Lex will no longer consider him a 'true friend,' proving the lying issue one that needs serious and immediate addressing. A fact Clark ignores.

Transference:
- Clark takes people for granted. Another small one. Once Clark is out of prison and Lionel's body (god that sounds wrong!), it is not long before he is asking Lex, as a favour, to free Lionel's innocent cellmate. I actually think this one is a fair favour as the guy in jail DID help Clark a lot, he NEEDS assistance, and Lex really IS the only person Clark can ask with any hope of success. It is therefore fairly SELFLESS. But I include it because it IS still another 'asking Lex a favour, again' example.

Spell:
- Clark takes people for granted. Following on quite nicely from that last favour, in contrast this one REALLY stings. Clark was supposed to meet a guy from Princeton at the farm for an interview. Witchy!Lana shakes things up and causes Princeton guy to walk in on a bewitched Clark who gives a very poor impression. Next morning, Clark, who seems to believe the previous nights events were all his own, drunken fault (despite the fact I figured he couldn't get drunk and would know that himself, but whatever), proceeds to ask a CURRENTLY PIANO PLAYING TILL HE BLEEDS Lex who was also bewitched the night before, if he could speak to the guy at Princeton on his behalf. Now, on top of the fact Clark DOESN'T EVEN LOOK AT LEX and therefore notice the poor guy's distress as he begins his request/demand (telling in itself of an inner arrogance ie. he doesn't need to bother with niceties anymore, he just expects Lex to help no matter what), the request itself is a pretty SELFISH one this time. It's, according to his mindset at the time anyway, HIS OWN FAULT he flunked the interview. Expecting Lex to bail him out, or even hoping Lex might bail him out, seems kinda juvenile, and implies he is shirking or hiding from his own responsibilities. Because it was HIS interview, HIS fault, so surely he should start being a man and either figure a way out of the situation himself, or graciously ADMIT/ACCEPT his failure?

Bound:
- Clark is judgemental/a jerk. I can't even be bothered to rant about this one again, the faults are obvious. Both Clark and Chloe (although mostly Clark), criticise Lex for having ADULT, CONSENTUAL sex. Clark, as in Memoria, enacts a type of betrayal by going to see Lionel again behind his 'friend's' back, and then proceeds to DEMAND that a (repentant) Lex change his ways, because he'd found the older man's murderous father more trustworthy during the course of the ep. Basically, his arguments and opinions are bigoted and badly thought out and unfair to Lex. Nuff said.

Unsafe/Pariah:
- Clark has dubious morals/is a jerk/is judgemental. RedK!Clark whisks Alicia away to get married in Vegas after, what, a day or two or dating? Which makes his comments to Lex in Bound seem pretty hypocritical doesn't it? Since it proves he has essentially the same urges and could therefore have been a little more sympathetic :p Oh, and then he goes right ahead and suspects his ex-wife of murder an episode later, even though she took a bullet for him beforehand. His lack of support then indirectly leads to her death as it means he didn't trust her enough to be there to protect her (or even to believe she was in danger). Poor show Clark. The saving grace here is that Clark is CRIPPLINGLY GUILTY about the whole thing afterwards (and, to an extent, during), and therefore KNOWS and ADMITS he was wrong and handled everything badly. You'd think that would have led to moral and character development, wouldn't you?

Krypto:
- Clark is judgemental. I'm sure there's a moment here where Clark looks suspicious of Lex about the kryptofreak-dogs without just cause... sadly I can't fully remember it. But I include the possibility so others can either refute it or explain in more detail.

Blank:
- Chloe is judgemental. A helpful kryptofreak manages to wipe Clark's memory, causing, among other craziness, Chloe's knowledge of his powers to come to light (at least temporarily). In an effort to get his memory back Clark visits familiar places and friends, including Lex at the mansion. Now, Lex DOES take advantage a little here and pries stuff about the caves from a now unsuspecting Clark, showing to the audience that Lex MAY be a little morally challenge towards Clark these days (although frankly, at this stage and after almost 4 years of non-stop, obvious lies, I don't blame him!). What IS curious, though, is that just as Chloe is leaving after dropping Clark with his sexy, bald friend, she whispers 'Clark be careful' in a manner intended for him to hear, proving HER to be suddenly weary of the Lex, even though she doesn't see his taking advantage or, to my knowledge, have any reason to think Lex is trying to figure out Clark's secret (which, in any case, was NOT what he was doing by taking advantage - he was trying to learn about the caves). Considering Lex SAVED HER LIFE earlier this season, and she DELIBERATELY WENT TO HIM for protection at the end of last season, this sudden distrust seems to come out of the blue and be rather unfair.

Commencement:
- Chloe has dubious morals/puts Clark's secret above others. Small but potentially serious moment. Clark is having fun with his pretty crystal in the caves while Lex and Chloe approach from outside. Not wanting Lex to discover Clark doing alien things (even though she doesn't know they're alien or specifically about Clark and therefore if whatever's happening to Clark even NEEDS hiding or not), Chloe DELIBERATELY SMASHES Lex into the cave wall, knocking him out. This, arguably, has the potential to cause quite serious physical harm, and for no great reason, since I figure her and Clark could have back-pedalled out of what was happening even if Lex did see something - it's not like stuff hasn't happened to Clark in those caves before.