one way to make sense of the time travel crap

[rocky_841]

now ive heard from everyone i know that watched this know, how the hell does jorel sent someone back through time. does this mean kryptonians had time travel technology? if they did, why didnt jorel instead of taking someones life instead of clark, simply send clark back through time where he hadnt disobeyed jorel and got shot yet. the fact is anyone who has time travel technology at their disposal has no problems at all, because watever problems they get, they can simply travel back in time and fix the problem b4 it ever started.

now if ur a smallville fan, u know wat we do. we create excuses for the numerous plotholes that the makers leave behind them. its kinda like chloe always covering for clark. we the fans always try to cover up their plotholes. so i tried long and hard to come up with an explanation for the absolutely insane time travel nonsense.

wat if the first timeline didnt really happen? i mean maybe that part was like an imagination that jorel put in clarks mind. kind of like lexs dream in lexmas, except clark dreamed the whole thing in a second while sitting there waiting for lana. its not exactly a dream, its more like an experience that jorel directly inplanted into clark in a very short time, showing what would happen if he tells lana. the experience was so real, clark believes it actually happened, but in reality it was just an illusion created by jorel. now in order for that to be true, jorel needs to be able to predict the future to a certain extent, such as chloes boss firing someone, the wrong number for chinese takout, jonathon being elected, etc. but its certainly a lot less absurd compared to jorel sending clark back in time dont u think? also this will explain why jorel doesnt do it everytime something goes wrong with clark. your thoughts?

[LOONEY]

no cause fate wanted her punk ass tried it twice...then the other bimbo lois' and finally they just gave up and popped Pa'....

[Red Larson]

You raise a very valid point about the stupidity of time travel.

You've got a nice theory there, and it would have been a less ridiculous way for them to give us the first half and take it away again, though I suspect an "it was all a dream" wipeout would not have made most fans any happier about it.

But the theory just doesn't fit this episode. We saw things in the first timeline that Clark didn't know about, like the Lana/Lex confrontation, which he clearly didn't know about until she called him. If it was just a dream that Jor-El implanted, Clark's reaction to Lana's phone call couldn't have been "Where did you go," because he would have already known she went to see Lex.

[PikeyUK]

That falls down on one simple point really, the fact that he had traveled in time in either instance.....

In the first that he put Clark through time to rectify the situation or that Jor-El was able to see the future, thus traveling through it himself.

[rocky_841]

Originally posted by Red Larson

But the theory just doesn't fit this episode. We saw things in the first timeline that Clark didn't know about, like the Lana/Lex confrontation, which he clearly didn't know about until she called him. If it was just a dream that Jor-El implanted, Clark's reaction to Lana's phone call couldn't have been "Where did you go," because he would have already known she went to see Lex.

Thats the reason i said it order for this theory to work, jorel needs to be able to predict the future. i.e. lex/lana confrontation, jonathon getting elected, chloes boss firing someone, the wrong number call, everything, well enough to show clark exactly as they would happen if clark tells lana. of course, jorel being able to see the future would also be absurd, but not nearly as absurd as time travel. plus this theory also fixes the other plothole about why jorel doesnt use time travel to fix every other major problem that clark faces.

[Red Larson]

I think you missed my point.

In timeline 1, we see things happen that Clark doesn't know about. How could Clark not know about them if it was all Clark's dream?

[rocky_841]

the dream was being fed to clark as he was experiencing it. jorel knew all about it beforehand, but not clark. jorel fed it to clark exactly as he would experience it if it were real. for example, the lex/lana confrontation. jorel knew it would happen, (but clark didnt) so in the dream he made it happen and had it affect clark exactly as it would if it were real. the dream went on up until the point where clark touched the crystal, and thats where jorel lets him wake up. that is if this theory were to be true. in this case how would clark know about something that takes place in his dream before it has actually taken place in the dream (i.e. the lex/lana confrontation)? jorel is the director of the dream here, and he knows everything thats going to happen, and he puts clark through them accordingly in the dream. im not sure u understood my original theory, either that or im missing something. :(

[Red Larson]

If Jor-El was delivering a dream sequence to Clark, then when Lana called Clark after her confrontation with Lex, Clark would not have had to ask "Where did you go?"

Because the scene with Lana and Lex takes place, and the viewer knows about it and Clark doesn't, it cannot be Clark's dream.

[UpandAtom]

The same applies to the Lois and Lana meeting. Overall, Jor-El knowing the future is just as absurd as time travel.