Wow!! This part had no real action in it at all, but was gripping all the same; it packed a powerful punch emotionally. Lois is proving once again why we all like her so much and why she and Clark really are soulmates.
Even though she's extremely angry and feeling very betrayed, her genuine love for Clark is showing through in the way her thoughts are unspooling. She's coming to understand, all on her own, with no help from Clark, exactly what his motivation in this whole thing was. She's right-- he wasn't thinking at all. He immediately stepped in to protect her with no thought whatsoever of what might happen next. And then he felt completely helpless to fix the resulting situation, to resolve it at all.
This is the first step towards forgiveness, and probably the first step in learning to trust him again. I hope she continues along these lines. I think figuring out on her own what his motivation was is more likely to result in her forgiving him, than if she just allowed him to explain.
I thought presence of the annonymous man who sits at Clark's desk was brilliant. Lois is just seething with conflicting emotions and thoughts. She's focused on her anger for the last three days, and now, regardless of how she works to suppress them, other thoughts and memories are surfacing. She's still 99.999998% convinced that Clark is a horrible, betraying liar-- then someone "takes his place". That gives her a jolt, and she can barely handle it. And in typical Lois fashion, she immediately starts to demonstrate to Perry exactly how little she is affected by this, in an effort to convince herself.
The serial killer worries me. Lois is just so likely to put herself right out there in the middle of things to get that story. And she told Superman point-blank to stay away, that she didn't even want him saving her from anything. (Not that he'd listen to that if she was in danger.) Of course, faced with death, one would likely rescind that sort of statement... but Clark's out there, as SJH said earlier, wandering around in the rain in his underwear-- or something. He may not be close by. He may not hear her. <gulp>
More soon?
~Toc
