If Lois & Clark has an overall message, it is that true love overcomes all trials and if you do the moral and just thing, it will all work out in the end. That's a well-worn message and could even be called wishful thinking, but at least it's positive and reinforces ethical behavior. In a family-oriented show, that's important. And certainly it's a better message than the one this particular episode seems to push, which is that if you're vindictive enough and unscrupulous enough, you'll fall backwards into everything you want.
If it isn't dissatisfying enough that this episode - Lex Luthor's final appearance in the series - ends with Luthor having defeated Superman, demonstrated that he is the one Lois was really in love with all along, killed the clone who had the integrity to help Clark, and escaped justice for his crimes, Luthor isn't even at all clever about how he accomplishes these things. Half of his victories come to him through contrivance, and the other half he wins with either "I have a bomb" or "I have a really big gun." By all rights, Clark should have had Luthor put away by the time the opening credits roll.
All of that might be forgivable if there were some theme or insight at work, but there isn't. The episode comes off as a Lex Luthor wish fulfillment fantasy; the first time I watched it I thought it would end with Luthor waking up to find himself still in prison.
Yet, as with "Double Jeopardy", there is a saving grace here. The Lois clone successfully transitions from villain to ally, becoming a character who is both compelling and sympathetic in the discovery of her own ephemeral lifespan and in her developing friendship with Clark. That also makes it the more frustrating that the episode goes with the old "heroic death" cop-out to dispose of her, but it also means that the clone's parting kiss as she goes to find Luthor's hideout is a sublime moment not repeated in any other episode.
If it isn't dissatisfying enough that this episode - Lex Luthor's final appearance in the series - ends with Luthor having defeated Superman, demonstrated that he is the one Lois was really in love with all along, killed the clone who had the integrity to help Clark, and escaped justice for his crimes, Luthor isn't even at all clever about how he accomplishes these things. Half of his victories come to him through contrivance, and the other half he wins with either "I have a bomb" or "I have a really big gun." By all rights, Clark should have had Luthor put away by the time the opening credits roll.
All of that might be forgivable if there were some theme or insight at work, but there isn't. The episode comes off as a Lex Luthor wish fulfillment fantasy; the first time I watched it I thought it would end with Luthor waking up to find himself still in prison.
Yet, as with "Double Jeopardy", there is a saving grace here. The Lois clone successfully transitions from villain to ally, becoming a character who is both compelling and sympathetic in the discovery of her own ephemeral lifespan and in her developing friendship with Clark. That also makes it the more frustrating that the episode goes with the old "heroic death" cop-out to dispose of her, but it also means that the clone's parting kiss as she goes to find Luthor's hideout is a sublime moment not repeated in any other episode.
