Character: Lana Elizabeth Lang   ·   Show: Smallville   ·   Personality Type: Ally   ·   Type Equivalents: Type 6, Loyal Skeptic with a 5 wing, Investigator (Enneagram), Healer (Keirsey), INFP (Myers-Briggs).

Character View
"I am loyal." ("You've been abandoned and betrayed so many times how could you know that I wouldn't be next. Well, I'm not. I'm here", 5.22 Vessel).

Defining Moments
Her parents' deaths in the 1989 meteor shower (Pilot), the discovery of Clark Kent's super-human nature (Promise), and her marriage to Lex Luthor (Promise-Phantom).

Psychosis
Paranoia, Passive-aggressive tendencies

Traits Showing Desire to Find Safety and Allies
• Aloof and cautious. Lana can be chronically hesitant. She anxiously presents a 2nd business proposal (Kinetic), initially hesitates taking the advice to "embrace living" (Rush), questions integrating into her biological father's family (Insurgence), hesitates during kickboxing training (Precipice), concerned over alienating Chloe Sullivan when she begins dating Clark (Calling), questions her judgment about Adam Knight (Hereafter, Resurrection); queries her relationship with Clark (Legacy, Hypnotic), vacillates about her academic progress (Talisman, Forever, Thirst), and questions her relationship with Lex (Wither, Hydro).

• Builds partnerships. She often forms alliances where she embraces "us-against-them" rhetoric (Recruit, Mortal, Vessel).

• Cause-fighter, helpful. She believes helping gives her purpose and has involved in the lives of Chloe Sullivan (Rogue, Tomb); Byron Moore (Nocturne); the Kawatche Indians (Skinwalker); Perry White (Perry); Sarah Conroy (Slumber); Seth Nelson (Magnetic); Lex (Shattered, Memoria); Clark Kent (Whisper); Adam (Delete, Hereafter); Ryan James (Ryan); Lois Lane (Gone); Evan (Ageless); Victor Stone (Cyborg); illegal immigrants (Subterranean); and persons suffering from meteor infection (Cure).

• Desires consensus and predictability. She also expresses a need for predictability or desires participation in decision-making with her aunt, Nell Potter (Ryan); Whitney (Cool); Clark (Visage, Phoenix, Tomb, Cyborg); and Lex (Zero, Heat, Onyx, Vessel, Sneeze, Fallout).

• Investigative. Once in crisis, her need to find out why things happen to her propels her to ally with those who share her views or those who are resourceful as she did with Lex and his investigation of the mysterious space ship that landed in Arrival (Splinter, Hypnotic, Oracle) and Zod's disc (Arrow, Fallout, Static). At times she ventures out on her own, as she did when she suspected Clark was meteor infected (Freak) and when she sought to avenge Lex's manipulation of her body during their marriage (Cure-Wrath).

• Scans environment for problems. She often attempts to restore any loss of control as she does with Zod after he impales her hand to a wall (Zod) or when punishes Lionel for his manipulation (Nemesis, Kara). Apparently believing that knowledge will make her feel safe, Lana's reclamation of safety also demands full disclosure as seen in her interactions with Nell (Redux), Whitney (Metamorphosis), Clark (Red, Lockdown, Hypnotic, Sneeze, among others) and Lex (Hidden, Splinter, Wither, Rage plus others). However, in her efforts to restore safety, she can be selfish (reacting to Clark and Chloe's closeness, Crush, Fever, Hydro), doubtful (Jason, Recruit), and easily manipulated (finding out about Lex's predicament, Oracle).

Traits Showing Fear of Being Helpless and Abandoned
• Claims she is always loyal and honest. Lana's search for predictability and full disclosure makes her unpredictable and dishonest. In crises, she can become accusatory, defensive, deceptive, and retractable. Notice her paranoia and emotional shifts with Bad!Clark (Red), inconsistent Clark (Perry, Lockdown), intrusive Lex (Spell, Recruit), "Alexander" (Onyx), super-powered Lex (Vessel), the "Next Lex Girl" label (Wither), Lex's lies of omission (Fallout), her rediscovery of Clark's love and secret (Promise, Prototype, Phantom), and her confrontations with Lex over his duplicity (Nemesis, Phantom, Kara, Fierce, Wrath). To justify her fears or avoid being taken advantage of, she will reciprocate trust and honesty only when it is given.

• Co-dependent. Lewis and Laura Lang's sudden deaths apparently created Lana's fear of unexpected danger and external threats. She seeks to recapture safety she had with her them in the Pilot, Craving, Rogue, Kinetic, and Void. In connection, she has a pattern of entering into co-dependent relationships where she constantly seeks verbal reassurances of love with Whitney Fordman (Cool, Kinetic, Obscura, Crush), Clark (Exile, Accelerate, Vengeance, Cyborg, Trespass, Phantom), Jason Teague (Façade, Unsafe), and Lex (Fragile, Fallout, Static). Her desire to feel loved and needed also fuels flirtations with Ian Randall (Dichotic), Seth (Magnetic), and Adam (Asylum-Hereafter).

• Quiet ambition, competitiveness, and vision. As a child, she successfully competes in equestrian events (Metamorphosis, Ryan). She later restores and protects the Talon (Zero, Drone, Prodigal, Talisman, Façade). In fact, she desires self-reliance (Hothead, Drone, Arrival, Rage) and, once encouraged, pursues her goals (art school, Covenant, Crusade). She experiences moments of insight, despite inexperience and confessed she knows people perceive her as "driven and self-absorbed" (Truth). She also sees through Lex's "cupid period" in S1 (Craving, Cool, Rogue), questions Clark's supernatural abilities (Vortex, Duplicity, Hidden), and detects the boys' separate evasive tactics (Resurrection, Splinter, Reckoning, Vessel, Sneeze, Rage).

Under Stress
• Negative: Accusatory. Stress can turn her natural and healthy skepticism into paranoia. Always seeking to justify her anxiety, she may quickly draw or verbalize conclusions as she does with Lex about his apparent abandonment (Drone), his injection in her relationships (Spell, Recruit, Hidden), his alleged manipulation of her body in faking a pregnancy (Nemesis, Phantom), and his machinations in her life (Fierce). Early S7, she becomes obsessed with Lex's dealings (Cure, Wrath). Clark is also on the receiving end of her accusations about his delayed disclosure (Lockdown, Oracle, Sneeze, Fallout).

• Negative: Projection of unease. She has projected her fears onto Lex about Clark (Legacy, Wither), onto Chloe about her separation anxiety (Talisman), and onto Clark about her moral discrepancies (Wrath).

• Negative: Phobic by avoiding discomfort or danger. She admits to defensive reading (Cool); confides in Chloe about her biological father before talking to him (Lineage); accepts the victim role when blamed for her father's marital woes (Witness); relies on Lex when unsure about Clark and Adam (Perry, Legacy, Obsession); turns to Clark over her tattoo, Isobel, and Jason (Sacred); avoids addressing the Isobel/Gertrude connection with Jason (Krypto); hides her research partnership with Lex (Splinter, Lockdown); cautious about awakened desires and feelings (Fragile, Mercy); initially lies about dating Lex (Fade); reverses her involvement in the project researching Zod's black box (Fallout); attempts to break up with Lex ont their wedding day by a letter (Promise); attempts to flee the Luthors (Phantom); and breaks up with Clark by video (Artic).

• Negative: Counter-phobic by lying, avenging, questioning motives or rejecting intrusion. Over the last seven seasons, Lana has become more counterphobic than phobic, but evidence of her counterphobic reactions began as early as S1. She lies about Whitney's whereabouts (Metamorphosis); reacts to Nell's inability to confide in her, namely Nell (X-Ray, Redux); confronts Clark about his secret in S2 (Vortex, Duplicity, Red); questions Lex's interest in her (Nicodemus, Resurrection, Talisman, Spell, Commencement, Hidden, Splinter, Wither); declines joining Nell's move to Metropolis when she isn't part of the decision-making process (Ryan); she confronts Agent Frank Loder about planting bugs in the Talon (deleted scene, Memoria); she stages a break-in to obstruct the crystal search (Lucy); she lies about giving Clark the crystal (Commencement); warns Chloe about interfering (Fragile); she chides Clark over his intrusiveness (Oracle) and plans for Lex (Vessel, Sneeze); she confronts Lex about surveillance cameras in her room (Sneeze), his sincerity (Wither), his avoidance of disclosure about their black box research (Fallout), his disapproval of her involvement in the halfway house (Rage), and his apparent deceit about their baby (Nemesis, Phantom, Wrath); she blackmails Lex's researcher (Arrow); and she seeks to avenge herself with the Luthor men (Kara, Cure, Action, Wrath).

• Positive: Trusting others in the midst of crisis. Lana sometimes finds it difficult to end relationships, even during emotional and ethical angst. Examples of her loyalty include alliances with Whitney (Kinetic, Crush, Heat, Visage), Henry Small (Insurgence, Skinwalker), Jason (Run, Transference, Bound, Sacred, Lucy, Recruit), Clark (Exile, Slumber, Whisper, Shattered, Ageless, Hidden, Reckoning, Vengeance, Cyborg, Promise onward), and even Lex (Kinetic, Zero, Nocturne, Prodigal, Whisper, Perry, Shattered, Memoria, Splinter, Lockdown, Reckoning, Tomb, Cyborg, Vessel-Freak).

Photo credit: LexandLana.net
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