Even as a child, I fascinated myself with the story of A Christmas Carol. There were so many possibilities about what could happen, but my favorite was "what if Scrooge would have stayed Scrooge." What if, after visiting his future, he thought "eh," and remained the miserable bastard that he was. Well, Lex is faced with that future tonight, and I guess we'll have to watch the show to see what he decides, but I think we all know that he'll remain a bastard what he'll decide.On with the show!

The race for senator between Lex and Johnathan is really starting to heat up, so Lex, falling into the old Luthor habits, hired a man to either dig up or create dirt on Johnathan. The man would only meet Lex in a sketchy part of town though, and on his way out Lex was shot. He fell into a coma, where he was greeted by his pregnant wife, Lana Luthor. His mother, his ghostly guide, explained that this is the life he could have. After his initial shock of having no money and/or power, he found that this is the happiest he'd ever been. Loving wife, friends and family, a humanitarian award from Senator Kent. Everything was perfect for Lex.

Lana gave birth to their second child and lost an enormous amount of blood, though. Lex contacted the one person who would be able to help Lana, his father. Lionel wanted nothing to do with Lex after he had shunned him seven years earlier. Lex was told to get back to his "happy ending" and had to go, to watch the love of his life die. Not realizing the love that he still had, Lex became furious at his mother for showing him this pain. When he awoke in the real world, he rededicated himself to destroying Johnathan's campaign so he could become Senator and have the power to save all those around him.

I think it's kind of rare that holiday episodes work with shows; they always seem to feel like they're "shoe-horned" in. This, however, was damn near perfect. No other time of the year brings out those feelings of hope and joy like Christmas time, and they played up Lex's drive to find those. This crucial turning point in his life was the best fit for this story. It is an absolute shame that, because he's on The WB, Michael Rosenbaum will never get the recognition that he so rightly deserves. His performace tonight, playing both extremes of Lex's psyche, was every bit as worthy of any award that's been handed out for a television role in the past five years. I hope someone with some clout reads this blog and takes notice. Michael Rosenbaum deserves an Emmy.