OK so have I got this right?

[clarkbunny]

From what I understand of the episode

Lionel had been receiving mysterious letters for some weeks/months

These letters were either
1. As Lionel told Clark, threatening to harm/kidnap Clark
or
2. Threatening to expose Lionel's Veritas murders unless he handed Clark aka 'the traveller' over to Patricia

As a result of the last letter he decided to lock Clark up to give Patricia the impression when she came that he was going to hand him over to her when she brought the incriminating evidence. Thus allowing him to steal the evidence from Patricia while Clark would think he'd been kidnapped by the Government and would never know Lionel was responsible.

So basically Lionel used Clark as a pawn/bait in trying to cover up his previous underhand deeds. But his plan backfired on him due to the rogue employee torturing Clark which made him look much worse when he was exposed as the mastermind behind Clark's kidnapping and he didn't count on Chloe & Lana finding him out and using Kara to stage a rescue attempt thus exposing him to Clark.

I think Lionel lied to Clark at the end about trying to protect him due to the threatening letters 'cos he couldn't tell Clark that he had used him as a pawn to protect his shady past.
Not after Clark had been kidnapped, stunned with electro kryptonite guns and held hostage and tortured in a kryptonite cell for several hours.

Whether he came clean or lied he managed to lose Clark's trust by doing that and rightly so. From Clark's point of view how can he trust someone who is prepared to do that to him? He has good reason to question Lionel's motives.

I do wonder if there is more to those letters though and whether Patricia told Clark the whole truth??

[CrimsonFacade]

Lionel showed Clark the letters so I don't think there was anything about the murders in the letters.

I think there's more to the whole thing. It looks like next week may hold some answers.

[Dor el]

I don't think Lionel was lying about the letters. He did lie, however, about the cage. He told Pierce that he built the cage to hold him [Clark] not as a torture chamber for Pierce's amusement. Then later, he told Clark that he [Lionel] built the cage for the other travelers who were violent. Funny how he started building the facility about the time he found out all about Clark's secret. Lionel is up to something and the letters, only hastened his plan.

[clarkbunny]

Lionel showed Clark the letters so I don't think there was anything about the murders in the letters.

I think there's more to the whole thing. It looks like next week may hold some answers.

Lionel showed Clark the letters - all the letters were in one envelope but Clark didn't actually read them. Lionel still had them in his hand at the end of the scene.

The letters must have been from Patricia 'cos Lionel mentioned something about her writing them when they met at the beginning. If they weren't from her then why did he call her to make a deal when he read the last letter? The deal they made seemed to centre around Patricia getting the traveller in exchange for handing over the incriminating evidence on Lionel so I imagine that must have been what was in the letters.

Lionel seemed genuinely fearful of Clark's reaction before Clark arrived so he did kind of spin the truth when he told Clark what happened - he said he had imprisoned Clark for his own safety as people were trying to capture/hurt him when it was actually so he could complete the deal with Patricia.

Hopefully next week will shed some more light on things as if the letters were really threatening to hurt/kidnap Clark i'm not sure how that would be possible as Patricia didn't know he was 'the traveller' also no-one else could have written the letters but Patricia as only her and Lionel know about Project Veritas.

[kraami]

Well what i think we are seeing is the bad lionel versuses the good lionel. The things lionel did were before the transference episode which changed lionel for good. remember that lionel wanted him returned to the farm after patricia was in europe. Lionel is protecting clark from something that is coming and patricia who didnt know anything of clark except someone is the last son of krypton and the traveler. that she was going to expose lionel may have been a threat to clark and to what is coming. patricia being someone who has her finger on the trigger of a gun but is totally unaware of it.