It was a difficult scene to grasp. This was Superman. The Man of Steel. Hero to the world. A man capable of doing or surviving just about anything you could imagine, generally without breaking a sweat. I wasn't his biggest fan, but seeing him like this โ weak, pained, brought low โ it affected me more than I would have ever expected. It was wrong. Profoundly wrong. On every level. He was supposed to be flying above us, not trapped down here, barely able to hold his head off the floor. It was disturbing, and, in a way, almost embarrassing, as if I'd intruded on something private, something I wasn't supposed to see.
I love, love, love this. It really gets me, right in the heart.
It's heartbreaking to think anyone else witnessed Clark in the cage - can't properly explain why now, but it just is. And I love that we get this reaction from Tommy.
They helped him find a place to rest, away from the cage and out of sight. It seemed to help. Alan told us later that water is good at deflecting radiation. The wine inside the huge casks he was hiding behind had most likely shielded him from the worst of the Kryptonite's effects.
Very clever!
Once Clark and the girls were clear of the room, Dudley and I set about dismantling the cage. We took it out in pieces and brought them over to the Fortress to keep them out of the wrong hands until we figured out how to dispose of them.
This here reminds me one of the reasons I love this story so much - that it takes care of those pieces that don't quite fit and those behind the scenes things that we're always left wondering about. This bit and the getting of the key. Makes me realize how brilliant you are to have done this. Really, the plotting all throughout - the information network and having the invisible suits - without *everything* in its place, they wouldn't have been able to help. It's just so seamless, fitting in with the series, and that's why it stands out as right up there with CC's
In a Better Place. It just fits.
We never did find out where he'd kept his other clothes.
LOL! And after all that, we still don't find out what happens to the clothes. But that's just one of those mysteries that we're never supposed to find out.
I went back to the sewers, smiling at having done something right.
Maybe I'm just in a sappy mood, but this line made me tear up a little - those happy, proud tears.
Sorry I'm only peeking in occasionally, Paul!
But I do want to keep reminding you how much I love this story (and that it's on my nominations list for several, definitely including Best Overall).
Sara
