Is logical explanation of Smallville's continuity mistakes possible?

[Jennsen]

I'm sure it was discussed multiple times on different threads, but I have no idea where to find all these discussions, so I'm starting this thread in the hopes that some kind soul will help me make sense of Smallville's very convoluted narrative.

Given how many times Smallville ignored or deliberately rewrote its own continuity, is it possible to fanwank plausible explanations for each of its glaring plotholes?

1. According to the episode Eternal and the whole Veritas arc, Lionel always knew who Clark really was. Tess claimed that Lionel had arranged Clark's adoption by the Kents because he knew that Clark was the mythical Traveller. Lionel was obsessed with the Traveller and even murdered the Queens so that he could get his hands on him.

So why did Lionel arrange Clark to be adopted by a family of farmers instead of just taking Clark for himself? He wanted to possess the Traveller, didn't he? Why did he leave for Metropolis, forgetting about Clark for more than a decade? Why didn't he at least place the Kents farm under constant surveillance so that he could monitor every moment of the Traveller's life and observe his alien abilities?


2. According to Eternal, little Doomsday was immediately taken by Lionel's people. Why did Lionel have to plead for the Kents' help to save Lex if his people were all over the field? (They had to be, given how quickly Davis was found.) Couldn't Lionel have contacted them?


3. According to Onyx and Eternal, little Lex spent a lot of time in the Luthor mansion in Smallville. We see him there playing with little Davis very soon after the meteor shower.

Yet in The Pilot Lex claimed that the mansion had been built recently, and Lionel had never even stepped through its front door, and Clark said he remembered how the mansion was being built. Is it possible to logically reconcile this with the information we received in the later seasons?


4. Chloe's mother. The story of her departure that we got in Lineage differs drastically from the flashbacks in Progeny. Is it possible to make a coherent whole out of the two different versions?


5. Questions regardign Tess Mercer's origin. When we saw Pamela in Crush, she claimed to have cared deeply for Lillian Luthor. She was also regretful of her decision to leave Lex behind. Is is possible to reconcile the seemingly kind-hearted, loyal Pamela from Crush with the woman who betrayed her friend Lillian by sleeping with her husband and then got rid of her iown daughter?

We saw how Lionel Luthor treated his former mistress Rachel Dunleavy; he took Lucas from her and sent her to an asylum. He claimed that he did not want Lillian to know of his many infidelities.

Why did Lionel let Pamela stay by his wife's side for many years? Why did he not get rid of her like he got rid of Dunleavy?

Tess was shipped off to the orphanage when she was 5. Where had she lived before that? She seemed to be very attached to Lionel (calling him Daddy, being devastated when he left her) - could she have been living in the mansion with Lionel and Pamela? Why didn't Lex remember her?

Why didn't redeemed!Lionel ever try to contact Tess? He seemed very eager to shield cloned Julian from Lex. Why didn't he care to to the same for his daughter? He had to understand that she was in danger of being sought out and recruited by Lex. (And yes, I know Tess as a character didn't even exist then. But when the writers chose to make her Lionel's illegitimate daughter, they had to understand that their decision would have some impact on Lionel's character, possibly even undermine his 'redemption'.)


6. Oliver claimed in season 9 that his parents died when he was 5 years old. In The Pilot we see Lionel reading a newspaper announcing the dissapearance of the Queens. Lex is 9 years old in The Pliot, which means Oliver is younger than him by 4 years. How can we reconcile this with Reunion where Lex and Oilver seem to be of the same age?



So what do you think? Is it possible at all for Smallville to make sense as a whole? I am very interested in your theories, head-canons, and whatever explanations for the plotholes you can come up with! Let us do the writers' work for them!

[President_Luthor]

... So what do you think? Is it possible at all for Smallville to make sense as a whole? I am very interested in your theories, head-canons, and whatever explanations for the plotholes you can come up with! Let us do the writers' work for them!

10 seasons ... three of which (S8-10) were run by different showrunners than the ones who ran it from S1-7?

I'm going with the premise that anything to do with logically trying to align SV's scattered continuity -- when it existed (a big caveat) -- is a gargantuan feat, next to impossible. You could drive Metropolis' SkyTrain through many of the plot holes they left, which the writers themselves willingly included and left open.

Clark's adoption itself is a convoluted morass of conflicting priorities. The Kents wanted to adopt Clark, but didn't have the legal means to do so. Along comes Lionel, who could have just picked up little Kal-El right there and pulled the considerable strings he had to make it legal for himself. But, he wanted the property of the Rosses' Creamed Corn Factory. Since Pete at the time was still a main character pre-S3, they needed to keep that angle there, both as the reason Lionel would use as leverage in getting the Kents to pressure the Rosses into selling and as a grievance Pete would have against Lex and the Luthors or even the Kents as seasons progressed.

Had Pete been a minor character to begin with and the sale of the Ross factory a non-issue, Lionel could have just said: "I can do this for you and smooth this adoption, but it will cost you a favour I will call upon at a later date", this with the full knowledge he knows who Clark truly is. They might have been able to weave that favour into a Veritas storyline later. The favour would be the shadow haunting the Kents up to and including JK's death. It's still a clumsy way to have Luthor involved in Clark's adoption without the Ross angle, while still tying it to the Veritas conspiracy, but there it is. It makes little sense if Lionel doesn't already know Clark's origins in the pilot.

I think allowing Superman villains or other characters Clark would only know as Superman to appear is the conundrum the writers found themselves stuck with. Once opened, it was impossible to put away again. The premise of the show was Clark "before Superman" ... why would Clark run into people he would know as Clark "after Superman", if that makes any sense.

They tried to retcon such people aka Major Zod wasn't yet "General" Zod, S4 Lois Lane was far removed from the Lois of the comics or movies, pre-Kid Flash, pre-Aquaman, etc. so they weren't ahead of Clark destiny-wise, but then we get people like Martian Manhunter or Booster Gold in later seasons who were essentially the superheroes Clark as Superman would run into. The problem is: Clark wasn't Superman -- yet. Being the Blur, even with the black S-shield, doesn't count in my book.

OMG, all the loopholes with the other characters. Lex supposedly cared about Lucas his half-brother, but not a peep afterwards? Not a word from Gabe Sullivan? Lana's natural father Henry Small? Pete Ross' decline from the first person to learn Clark's secret in S2, followed by a character-gutting hiatus from S3 on, to gum-tastically horrible FOTW in S7?

The loophole that is amnesia is the constant obstacle. Trying to align post-S7 SV events with those from the early seasons would be an exercise in mental gymnastics even a diehard SV fan would find frustrating to do. Blame everything on Veritas, they spiked the water causing people in town and Metropolis to forget things at conveniently critical times?

As for Ollie's rise from minor guest appearance to main character, it's best to just accept it as-is and not try to align ages and history based on that Pilot fan shout-out headline about the Queen disappearance. Pretend it was never front page news.

All bets were off re: meshing continuity series-wide after S7, as the new showrunners made their own mark and had cameo upon cameo of future Leaguers ... and Clark was still the Trench Coat Dude. S8-10 was essentially its own beast, it was more Clark "becoming Superman ... but not yet".

S1-7 had lots of continuity holes, many with no attempts to resolve them. You could try to group them as the H.S. years (S1-4), the Metropolis years (S5-7). The post-Lex or The Blur era could be S8-10. You might be able to plug some continuity holes within each group, if that were possible.

But fixing them S1-10, so that the Pilot through the finale lines up? I don't think it can be done, not without a team (army?) of writers working off the same page -- which I sense wasn't always the case during SV's run.

[DJ Doena]

You can explain some of it away if you accept the following premise:

In 7x18 Apocalypse Brainiac travelled back in time and to Krypton where he attached the Doomsday DNA to Kal's ship.

Which means that the established history changed at that point in the Smallville story.

It's basically an in-universe retcon, similar to what Dawn did to Buffy. Dawn was established as an in-universe retcon. All the characters remember events with her that never actually happened.


A timeline could have looked like this:

Veritas did exist and they looked for the Traveller.
Kal arrived on Earth - alone.
Lionel really was looking for the Traveller in Smallville but in the original timeline he never found him and because he was distracted by Lex' accident, he wasn't clear-headed enough to realize Clark for what he was.
Only later he began to supsect and investigate Clark closer.
In this timeline Davis never existed

Fast forward to Apocalypse

Brainiac travels back and attaches the Doomsday DNA to Kal's ship and thus alters history
Veritas did exist and they looked for the Traveller.
Kal arrived on Earth - with Davis.
Lionel really was looking for the Traveller in Smallville and found naked Davis in the fields.
He suspected him to be the Traveller but then discarded him.
What happened in the later years and how it differed from the original timeline is unknown.

Enter season 8 and Clark's first encounter with Davis.







As to all the problems with the characters ages or why Pamela didn't give her millions she supposedly got from Lillian to her daughter is unclear.

Also, at the end of Turbulence it's established that Tess is 30. 30 in 2009 makes her be born in 1979, which is either the same or even one year before Lex was born (Lex was 9 in 1989).

Oliver on the other hand was originally Lex' age or even a year above him (see Reunion). Oliver's parents died in 1989 (see Pilot). And yet in Echo Oliver claimed that he was five when his parents died.

Chloe told Lana and/or Clark that "she left when I was five" (Lineage) and "she left when I was 12" (Tomb) when her mother left. In Progeny we get an exact date: March 29, 1995.

However, that doesn't make our task any easier, because we don't really know how old Chloe is. In 4x01 Crusade it's established that Chloe lived from 1987-2004. Which means she was either 16 when she died (having her birthday after the start of school year) or 17 (haveing her birthday before August).

Then, only a few episodes later, in 4x08 Spell she suddenly celebrates her 18th(!) birthday. The only way that this is possible would be if she had a birthday in January, making her 17 in January 2004 and 18 in January 2005. The episodes after that didn't look too winter-y to me though.
And let's not forget that her Hex birthday was in episode 8x17.

In march 1995 she would have been 8 (January birthday) or 7, but neither 5 nor 12.


The only possible explanation would be that Moira admitted herself multiple times and stayed away for a long while and ultimately got hospitalized when Chloe was 12. The first time with 5 where her dad tried to make pankcakes, then at 8 when she made Chloe rub her hands raw and ultimately shortly before Gabe and Chleo moved to Smallville in Chloe's 8th grade (Fall 2000 - Summer 2001; Chloe would have been 13-14).

[Jennsen]

I'm going with the premise that anything to do with logically trying to align SV's scattered continuity -- when it existed (a big caveat) -- is a gargantuan feat, next to impossible.

LOL. No argument here. Still, I want to know everyone's wild theories.

Clark's adoption itself is a convoluted morass of conflicting priorities. The Kents wanted to adopt Clark, but didn't have the legal means to do so. Along comes Lionel, who could have just picked up little Kal-El right there and pulled the considerable strings he had to make it legal for himself. But, he wanted the property of the Rosses' Creamed Corn Factory.

He wanted the creamed corn factory so much that he sacrificed the Traveller to get it! It just sounds so ridiculous, but it is what Smallville left us with.

Had Pete been a minor character to begin with and the sale of the Ross factory a non-issue, Lionel could have just said: "I can do this for you and smooth this adoption, but it will cost you a favour I will call upon at a later date", this with the full knowledge he knows who Clark truly is. They might have been able to weave that favour into a Veritas storyline later. The favour would be the shadow haunting the Kents up to and including JK's death. It's still a clumsy way to have Luthor involved in Clark's adoption without the Ross angle, while still tying it to the Veritas conspiracy, but there it is. It makes little sense if Lionel doesn't already know Clark's origins in the pilot.

That would make a little more sense, but... you're right, it's still clumsy. Why would Lionel want favors from some farmers if he could take Clark at any time he wanted? No, I don't believe he would leave the alien boy in anyone else's care willingly. He wanted him so much, he murdered the Queens to get him. He would have no qualms getting rid of the Kents as well.

The problem is: Clark wasn't Superman -- yet. Being the Blur, even with the black S-shield, doesn't count in my book.

Clark constantly runing into people who were far closer to their own superhero destiny than he was undermined his character, in my opinion. I wanted Clark to be the ultimate inspiration for the other heroes, not the other way around!

Lex supposedly cared about Lucas his half-brother, but not a peep afterwards?

Everyone forgot about Lucas, including Clark. There was a conversation between him and Lex in season 4 where Clark actually asked if Lex wanted to have any siblings!

Not a word from Gabe Sullivan? Lana's natural father Henry Small? Pete Ross' decline from the first person to learn Clark's secret in S2, followed by a character-gutting hiatus from S3 on, to gum-tastically horrible FOTW in S7?

And Helen Bryce, the murderous doctor who knows that Clark is not human. That's one hell of a plothole.

You can explain some of it away if you accept the following premise:

In 7x18 Apocalypse Brainiac travelled back in time and to Krypton where he attached the Doomsday DNA to Kal's ship.

Which means that the established history changed at that point in the Smallville story.

It's basically an in-universe retcon, similar to what Dawn did to Buffy. Dawn was established as an in-universe retcon. All the characters remember events with her that never actually happened.

That's actually a really awesome theory.

A timeline could have looked like this:

Veritas did exist and they looked for the Traveller.
Kal arrived on Earth - alone.
Lionel really was looking for the Traveller in Smallville but in the original timeline he never found him and because he was distracted by Lex' accident, he wasn't clear-headed enough to realize Clark for what he was.
Only later he began to supsect and investigate Clark closer.
In this timeline Davis never existed

Fast forward to Apocalypse

Brainiac travels back and attaches the Doomsday DNA to Kal's ship and thus alters history
Veritas did exist and they looked for the Traveller.
Kal arrived on Earth - with Davis.
Lionel really was looking for the Traveller in Smallville and found naked Davis in the fields.
He suspected him to be the Traveller but then discarded him.
What happened in the later years and how it differed from the original timeline is unknown.

Enter season 8 and Clark's first encounter with Davis.

Yes, that works really well. Except for the bit with Lionel; I don't believe it would take him more than a decade to start suspecting that the strange boy that the Kents found in that field might be what he was looking for. No matter how you slice it, Veritas screwed Lionel's character completely. His actions in the earlier season make no sense even with the time-travel/timeline-erasure theory. That's how bad this particular retcon is.

As to all the problems with the characters ages or why Pamela didn't give her millions she supposedly got from Lillian to her daughter is unclear.

My theory: In Crush Pamela claimed that she cared about Lillian deeply. They were clearly friends. And yet Pamela slept with Lillian's husband, knowing very well that his cheating hurt Lillian. So when Lillian on her deathbed decided to leave her money to Pamela, we can assume she was unaware of Pamela's betrayal of her trust. Pamela felt so guilty that she accepted the money she did not deserve that she felt that giving the money to Lillian's son would be in a way like returning them to Lillian herself. After all, Lillian would probably want her son to own her money, not one of Lionel's bastard children.

That still doesn't explain why Pamela never bothered to look for her daughter. It wasn't as if Tess was particularly difficult to find. After all, Lex managed to find both Lucas and Tess.

Also, at the end of Turbulence it's established that Tess is 30. 30 in 2009 makes her be born in 1979, which is either the same or even one year before Lex was born (Lex was 9 in 1989).

That means Tess could have been born before Pamela got employed as Lex's nanny. Although it seems that the fandom's convinced that Tess is younger than Lex; I keep seeing people referring to her as Lex's "little sister".

Oliver on the other hand was originally Lex' age or even a year above him (see Reunion). Oliver's parents died in 1989 (see Pilot). And yet in Echo Oliver claimed that he was five when his parents died.

Oliver had suffered a heavy blow to the head soon before he made that confession. That's my theory, and I'm sticking with it!

The only possible explanation would be that Moira admitted herself multiple times and stayed away for a long while and ultimately got hospitalized when Chloe was 12. The first time with 5 where her dad tried to make pankcakes, then at 8 when she made Chloe rub her hands raw and ultimately shortly before Gabe and Chleo moved to Smallville in Chloe's 8th grade (Fall 2000 - Summer 2001; Chloe would have been 13-14)

I thought it could be something like this... But when Chloe told about her mother's departure in Lineage, it sounded as if that was exactly when Moira had abandoned them permanently... Chloe sounded so completely heart-broken. I wonder, what did Lineage!Chloe mean when she said, "I know exactly where my mother is, she just doesn't want to see me". Did she know that Moira was hospitalized? Did she try to visit only to be rebuffed?



Also, regarding Lionel and Davis. Does anyone actually believe that Lionel Luthor would just throw an actual alien out on the streets? We're supposed to buy that once he realized that Davis wasn't the Traveller, he was no longer of use to Lionel. Still, if Lionel run any experiments on Davis, he had to knwo that Davis was an alien. A real, living, breathing alien. Who would get rid of something like that? Why didn't Lionel sell him to some lab?

[DJ Doena]

Everyone forgot about Lucas, including Clark. There was a conversation between him and Lex in season 4 where Clark actually asked if Lex wanted to have any siblings!

That was a talk regarding Lucy in Lucy. But if you listen closely to the dialgue you can understand why neither Clark nor Lex really considered Lucas:

Clark: Lex. Do you ever miss not having a sibling?
Lex: I used to, until I met you, Clark. You're closer to me than any...blood brother.

We don't know what actually happened after Prodigal but from the on-screen evidence Lucas never had much of a presence in Lex' life. Thus Lucas being Lex' brother is a mere formality (like me having a half-sister living half a country away which I've never met).

So for the sake of this conversation, Lex doesn't really have a sibling beyond the technical formality.



And Helen Bryce, the murderous doctor who knows that Clark is not human. That's one hell of a plothole.

No matter how you slice it, Veritas screwed Lionel's character completely. His actions in the earlier season make no sense even with the time-travel/timeline-erasure theory. That's how bad this particular retcon is.

Yup. And I despise S7 for it. If they had only left it in that season and not dragged that Traveller over to Doomsday as well...

[chumchees]

Clarks blood. It was not labelled, Lex and Lionel both dont know its Clarks. How did Lex know of it, why did he steal, how did he know to steal it. He says to Helen it might help answer some question he has, what the hell does that mean? Lionel must of then got it becasue Lex stole it so he thought it was important. Morgan Edge brings the source in a Smallville moving truck, thats a huge clue it is Clarks. So much evidence of Clarks secret and Lex has know idea he is an alien.

This one bother me the most because it is a good idea, but the origin of the storyline makes no sense.

This show had a lot of good ideas, but they were either handled poorly or the payoff was silly.

[Supsfan]

This show had a lot of good ideas, but they were either handled poorly or the payoff was silly.

The payoffs to me was the show weak point. I can live with bad continuity if each side story was well written within it's own storyline and had a good payoff(even though one storyline might not mesh well with another), but the bad payoff can ruin the best written stories continuity wise.

So much evidence of Clarks secret and Lex has know idea he is an alien.

On a side note about this it always bugged me that no matter how much Lex and Lionel wanted to find out Clark's secret, how neither ever put a camera outside his house, bugged his house and just spied on him. These guys are supposed to be evil geniuses and they can't even figure out that one(something which the reporter at the end of Season 1 had no problem coming up with)?

[President_Luthor]

Clark constantly runing into people who were far closer to their own superhero destiny than he was undermined his character, in my opinion. I wanted Clark to be the ultimate inspiration for the other heroes, not the other way around!

This would be one of my biggest issues with Clark re: the wonky timeline and the treatment of his destiny, especially in the later seasons. He was running into characters aka Hawkman, Stargirl, Dr. Fate, Amanda Waller etc. that he would naturally run into ... as Superman.

People might suggest that the Blur was Clark being some proto-superhero, that he was "practically" Superman. I can't buy into that, it just seemed to be TPTB's way to have Clark be a superhero without actually making him Superman. For the average viewers, SV's Clark did not become Superman until that moment in the finale when we got a (brief) glimpse of his iconic costume. The show ends when Clark becomes Superman. In a sense, this explains why, for me, the SV I knew ended in S7. S8-10 was Clark doing Superman-like things ...except he wasn't Superman yet.

The show was always about Clark and his journey, with Superman being the end game. That's why it's hard to reconcile the haphazard retconning with future friends and enemies of Superman showing up long before they should have. They tried to give us Superman-Lite in S8-10 ... without actually giving us "the" Superman. A SV bait-and-switch: see, guys, you're getting quote-unquote "Superman" now!

To be fair, in the earlier seasons, some of the others -- Kid Flash, Aquaman -- were behind Clark in terms of destiny and it was Clark that steered them on the right path. This was not always the case, as much as we want to believe that he always set an example. He was more human -- flawed -- but perhaps too flawed in the series as a whole.

By S9, the Justice Society, Martian Manhunter were already the heroes of legend, while Clark was still not quite there. I didn't mind other superheroes showing up, and some -- not all -- of the stories were good (a few even contributed to Clark's journey) ... but it's a case where the impression it left me was that Clark was lagging behind, compared to some of the other superheroes.

SV Clark got there eventually, but the presence of all these heroes before he formally became Superman did steal some thunder from him on the show. I don't subscribe to the theory that merely stacking the deck with future Leaguers (or villains), as the series wound down, de facto made him better as a hero. Seeing him with future Leaguers doesn't automatically make him more believable/credible as a superhero IMHO. You'd have to pretend the previous seasons never happened were that the case.

This doesn't mean I didn't want any future superheroes at all. Just used more sparingly. And used well.

It boils down to writing. When it worked, it worked. When it didn't, they were ratings week stunts. It's hard to hide 7 years of destiny meandering, S8-10 tried to resolve this with some success, but I'm left wondering what might have been.

This is where attempts to retcon or explain premature appearances of heroes/villains on SV inevitably meet the same obstacle.

The spotlight that rightfully belonged to Clark, especially when his destiny was at hand S9-10, at times became a shared stage with many heroes -- with a few ahead of him in the destiny race.

And his destiny is Superman, who should be second to none.

[vyperman7]

I will agree that continuity has always been one of the show's biggest problems. However after re-watching S1 recently, it's nice to see continuity in that season. Multiple references to the bridge, Phaelon returning in Zero, Clark saying how careful he'd been since Phaelon in Tempest after the truck blew up, Whitney telling Lana he wouldn't lose the necklace this time when she gave it to him as a going away good luck charm, etc..

But the continuity seemed to get worse with each passing season. By the way OP, that is an awesome point about the Luthor mansion. It didn't exist until around the time of the Pilot, so how would it have been there in Smallville years prior? Also I don't think they meant to imply that Lionel always knew that Clark was the Traveler, just that The Traveler in general was in Smallville.

[jon-el87]

1. According to the episode Eternal and the whole Veritas arc, Lionel always knew who Clark really was. Tess claimed that Lionel had arranged Clark's adoption by the Kents because he knew that Clark was the mythical Traveller. Lionel was obsessed with the Traveller and even murdered the Queens so that he could get his hands on him.

So why did Lionel arrange Clark to be adopted by a family of farmers instead of just taking Clark for himself? He wanted to possess the Traveller, didn't he? Why did he leave for Metropolis, forgetting about Clark for more than a decade? Why didn't he at least place the Kents farm under constant surveillance so that he could monitor every moment of the Traveller's life and observe his alien abilities?

Who says he didn't? It's entirely possible that he placed the Kents under surveillance for a few years. Expecting some reaction from the Kents, if the boy began exibiting superhuman abilities, but nothing ever happened (as the Kents didn't react like he was expecting). Eventually, he just gave up (as there's only so much time and energy you could devote to keeping one family under constant watch 24/7). However, a more simple explaination exists. We know that Jor-El asked J'onn J'onzz to watch over Clark. J'onn is a telepath, able to affect memories. Meaning, it's entire possible (if not probable), that J'onn intercepted Lionel on the way to the Kent farm and erased his memories of the Traveler. Thus protecting Clark.

2. According to Eternal, little Doomsday was immediately taken by Lionel's people. Why did Lionel have to plead for the Kents' help to save Lex if his people were all over the field? (They had to be, given how quickly Davis was found.) Couldn't Lionel have contacted them?

Not if he didn't have a radio with him. Besides, would he really want people asking questions of why Lionel had a black ops team running around Smallville, right after a meteor shower?

3. According to Onyx and Eternal, little Lex spent a lot of time in the Luthor mansion in Smallville. We see him there playing with little Davis very soon after the meteor shower.

Yet in The Pilot Lex claimed that the mansion had been built recently, and Lionel had never even stepped through its front door, and Clark said he remembered how the mansion was being built. Is it possible to logically reconcile this with the information we received in the later seasons?

He never said that. Lex said that Lionel had moved the mansion to Smallville from Scotland, brick by brick. Clark then remarks that he remembers having seen trucks (but, not when). The only claim we have to the mansion not being there pre-October 1989, is a line from Clark. It's entirely possible that Clark was mistaken. He remembered trucks, which he incorrectly thinks were there for the mansion. If his parents had been there, it's entirely possible that they would've corrected him and said that those trucks were for something else. As for Lionel never having stepped through its front door, again entirely possible that Lex was mistaken or (more likely) just joking with a bloke he has just met. A joke that showcases the extravagance of a billionaire like Lionel Luthor: He can move a castle from Scotland to Kansas, with no intent on using it. He did it, simply because he could.

4. Chloe's mother. The story of her departure that we got in Lineage differs drastically from the flashbacks in Progeny. Is it possible to make a coherent whole out of the two different versions?

The scene in "Lineage" took place in 2002, while the flashback in "Progeny" takes place in 1995. She's recollecting something that happened, when she was eight years old (who the hell remembers stuff from that age?). As for the inconsistant age, she misspoke. It happens. It's also possible that Moira did split, when Chloe was five (which would then be the incident she mentions in "Lineage")...then she came back for a while, before leaving again (when she was committed).

5. Questions regardign Tess Mercer's origin. When we saw Pamela in Crush, she claimed to have cared deeply for Lillian Luthor. She was also regretful of her decision to leave Lex behind. Is is possible to reconcile the seemingly kind-hearted, loyal Pamela from Crush with the woman who betrayed her friend Lillian by sleeping with her husband and then got rid of her iown daughter?

We saw how Lionel Luthor treated his former mistress Rachel Dunleavy; he took Lucas from her and sent her to an asylum. He claimed that he did not want Lillian to know of his many infidelities.

Why did Lionel let Pamela stay by his wife's side for many years? Why did he not get rid of her like he got rid of Dunleavy?

Tess was shipped off to the orphanage when she was 5. Where had she lived before that? She seemed to be very attached to Lionel (calling him Daddy, being devastated when he left her) - could she have been living in the mansion with Lionel and Pamela? Why didn't Lex remember her?

Why didn't redeemed!Lionel ever try to contact Tess? He seemed very eager to shield cloned Julian from Lex. Why didn't he care to to the same for his daughter? He had to understand that she was in danger of being sought out and recruited by Lex. (And yes, I know Tess as a character didn't even exist then. But when the writers chose to make her Lionel's illegitimate daughter, they had to understand that their decision would have some impact on Lionel's character, possibly even undermine his 'redemption'.)

There are many details that are unknown, but they don't make for inconsistencies. We only know that Lionel and Pamela slept together once. We don't know if they had a full-blown affair. Pamela could've made a mistake, that she wasn't proud off. It's also not known how long Lionel knew that he was the father. Did Pamela tell him from the start? Or did he not learn it, until maybe the girl was five years old (when he sent her to the orphanage)? Before being sent to the orphanage, she no doubt lived with Pamela.

As for why Lionel never sought her out. He probably figured that she was safer away from him and Lex. Heck, Lionel may not even have known that Lex knew about Tess or where she was.

6. Oliver claimed in season 9 that his parents died when he was 5 years old. In The Pilot we see Lionel reading a newspaper announcing the dissapearance of the Queens. Lex is 9 years old in The Pliot, which means Oliver is younger than him by 4 years. How can we reconcile this with Reunion where Lex and Oilver seem to be of the same age?

Simple: Oliver misspoke. It's not exactly a crime. Real people do it all the time.