Today's Earworm- Infa-Red, PlaceboAfter reading a whole lotta debate on the interwebs about Superman Returns, can I state for some people who missed it, Lois Lane *does* know who Jason's father is, she does remember sleeping with Supes, and *she does remember who Clark Kent is*. Mmkay?
It might seem a stretch, but bear with me here. It works in a universe where Supe's super-rohypnol wears off after a period of time, especially when Lois starts putting things together about the time period Superman II takes place in. She's not supposed to be an idiot. She might not remember everything, but she'd haved pieced together enough.
She ignores Clark at the office, much as how you'd ignore an ex. Things are predictably awkward. She can't ignore Superman (as in the plane).
She gets very little screen time with Clark so the audience isn't given much information to work with, but it's there if you look. She unloads on Clark in the taxi scene about him taking off on her. She doesn't want to work with Clark.
Just before she flies with Superman, she mentions that Clark told her that Supes didn't say goodbye because it hurt too much, she feels it's a load of crap. It might look like she doesn't know Clark = Supes, but look closer. I think she knows, but she realises that Supes probably still thinks she's mindwiped. She's giving him a shot at explaining himself. He blows it by pretending he doesn't know Clark (I'll have to see if in the original 2 films its established that he does know who Clark is, as one of his 'pals'. I think that it is). She plays along ("so, same old Clark!").
She's playing along with the whole 'secret identity' mess because she has a vested interest in keeping his identity secret, and also she might be waiting to see if he explains himself. She's testing him, to see if she can trust him.
Also, this is a big can of worms to open with her fiance nearby. She has no time during the course of the movie to bail him up and get the truth out of him.
There's a couple more hints that I can think off the top of my head. There's the glasses thing where she drops her bag, and brusqely hands Clark back his glasses without even looking at him. She knew what she was going to see. Also when her fiance connects the dots between Clark and Superman's return, who is it that deflects this line of inquiry? Lois.
There's a final subtle hint from Lex. "Superman can tell when people lie. Especially women." Lex is always wrong about Superman. Supes sure as hell didn't know she was lying about Jason's parentage, or that she didn't remember. It's a throwaway line, but considering the cuts to this movie, that line was there for a reason.
I know that all of that seems a stretch, but its a small one. I don't have any problem with the timing of the pregnancy. She's a busy woman, she might not have realised she'd missed her period for a couple of months. Things had ended abruptly with Superman, and then she took up with her fiance, possibly partially as a rebound. He might even have been lurking around the Daily Planet before Clark was, Lois only 'noticed' him when she was emotionally needy. Doesn't matter if she remembered or not at this point, she probably felt lonely regardless.
At the end of the movie, how could Lois not be incredibly, *blazing fire of a million suns* angry with Supes for knocking her up, if she had no pre-knowledge of their tryst? And if she remembers that, she'd have pieced together the stuff about Clark too.
I like the idea of Supes trying to relieve her of the pain of the breakup in SII, but in reality not handling it too well himself, and then leaving to try to find the truth of himself in the ashes of Krypton. Sure beats that stuff he was doing in the sequels where he kisses Lois to restore her memory when *he* needs some love, then promptly roofies her again to erase her memory. *That's* some high
Superdickery.
