The Lessons we learn from pain are the ones that make us the strongest.
It’s the story of Lex that interests me so much. So many issues and situations are regularly simplified to the point of killing any semblance of nuance. Black/White has become the norm for this society to the point that we expect and demand easy, simplified explanations. Us against them has been part of the global mantra for hundreds – if not thousands of years. But in Smalville we’re presented with a “villain” that isn’t dumbed down to a black/white caricature – instead we find an individual who is certainly flawed, but that also possess logic and complexity.
Lex isn’t the archetypical villain. He doesn’t hate good because it’s good and, more importantly, he wasn’t born evil. Here is an individual that comes form a wealthy and powerful family, but who lacks trust and friendship. The pivotal characters in Lex’s life are driven by self-interest and that makes all the difference. Throughout the series Lex isn’t bent on destroying Clark and all that is good, I’d actually argue
that his goals are quite the opposite.
He sees the Kent family as the family that he never had: loving, trusting, affectionate parents who would rather see their son happy rather than powerful; and a son who is given trust and love from friends and family alike.
Lex, on the other hand, never really had any of that. He was betrayed by his wife and his friends. The trust he has from his subordinates goes only as far as Lex is willing to pay them. Lionel, his father, is the personification of Machiavellian justification and ambition who’s goal is to raise Lex to be as ruthless and ambitious as possible. And in spite of this, Lex isn’t born evil nor does he seek out the destruction of all that is good. He seeks out friendship and trust, but is rejected by the good guys.
I’d argue that Lex’s eventual transformation into a villain is as much Lex’s fault as it is Clark’s. Lex is ambitious, something Clark lacks, but ambition can be tempered with trust and friendship. However, Clark tends to view ambition as being inherently bad/evil, therefore he outright rejects trust in Lex. Clark regularly lies to Lex (and does a poor job at that, by the way), and Clark is also extremely hypocritical in what he says and does.
Evil is not born but developed over time. Surely, there will be some point in the near future of the series in which Lex definitively steps into the “dark side”, but the events have already been put in play, but the events are not just of Lex’s own choosing. The defining moments have come and gone in acts such as Clark lying to Lex, betraying trust and not treating Lex on the same level as he does with Lana, Chloe or Pete. It is when those that might save the falling end up pushing them in a little farther that the rift deepens.