Tess Mercer/Lana Lang Friendship Meme (Smallville)
My favorite friendship for Tess Mercer:
Lana Lang.
Lana & Tess’s dynamic was touching and powerful. I was not expecting to respond to their scenes so strongly. An unlikely friendship indeed.
Lana, for any jealousy she might’ve had towards this striking woman to whom her husband had left his entire empire and who was now also occupying in his house, she never stooped to name-calling. While Lois called Tess ‘Lex’s 3pm booty call’ upon first meeting her, Lana respected Tess for the worthy opponent that she was.
Not knowing initially whether Tess was a bad guy or rather a loyal Lex supporter who had simply been mislead, Lana handled her first interactions with Tess with a soft brutality, yet with dignity.
Tess, feeling a little unsure, a little worried, and a little bit guilty when she first sees Lana - Lana, on-the-other-hand feels very sure of herself …. and maybe just a little bit jealous. That first conversation in Lex’s great room is also, in my mind, Lana speaking indirectly to Lex [through Tess’s eyes]. Lana wants Lex to know that she knows everything that he and Tess have been up to. She also wants him to know that she will remove his protective queen from the preverbal chess board and succeed in stopping him. It was a revealing, tension-filled scene.
I love the one jealous line that slips out of Lana’s mouth, “What Lex saw was a person he couldn’t control.” In other words, ‘unlike how he controls you’. Tess immediately replies with, “Really? Remind me to send my condolences about the miscarriage.” In other words, ‘Lex confided in me about things he didn’t confide in you’. That was AWESOME!
I love how Tess tries to explain that she understands the terrible decisions Lex made, but that he always loved Lana. And I LOVE how sympathetic Lana is as she rips the carpet out from under Tess, showing her the camera Lex has implanted in her brain. Lana sees that Tess is destroyed by what she’s showing her and she feels terribly for her.
I don’t think anyone else could’ve convinced Tess of Lex’s betrayal apart from Lana. I think this truth had to come from Lana in order for Tess to fully believe it. However once Lana steals Lex’s research and takes the supersuit for herself, Tess wonders if Lana concocted the entire thing just to have the supersuit for herself. Tess starts spiraling out of control and it’s Lana who keeps Tess from losing it completely. “You’re an amazing person, Tess, but every second that you’re consumed by hate is another second Lex is still in control of you. Don’t be a victim anymore.”
The grace of Lana to not simply shatter Tess’s life and then run off into the sunset, speaks volumes to me. I admired Lana and I think Tess did too. I think Tess felt that if Lana could be shattered by Lex and come through it to the other side, then so could she. In my fanon world of Offscreenville, Tess and Lana still keep in touch and now have fully developed friendship.
And power to them!