Clark sees himself standing by his father's freshly dug grave, some five years ago. He watches as his past self sprinkles a handful of icy soil on top of Jonathan's coffin. "If you're trying to save me somehow, why show me this?" "Because this was a defining moment for you," Brainiac says. "Perhaps the defining moment." He says it's the day Clark started to blame himself. Didn't he start blaming himself in the series premiere? Clark says he's the one who decided to change fate, and his father died as a result. Didn't Jonathan just come back a couple of episodes ago to absolve him of this? "Son, it was my own anger that did me in! Anger and decades of a totally cow-based diet!" Brainiac transports him to the night that Jonathan and Lionel Luthor had their tussle in the barn. Jonathan tosses Lionel across a workbench. Clark takes a step toward them, but Brainiac holds him back. "You can't change his fate," he says. "He was just protecting me," Clark protests. Brainiac: "And that was his choice. Whether it happens this day or any other day, Jonathan set his own destiny into motion. You know that. You just won't let yourself believe it." Clark watches helplessly as his father staggers away from the aftermath of the fight. Brainiac wants Clark to forgive himself. Clark thinks his father didn't have any choice but to protect him. "We always have a choice," Brainy says. "He chose to be your protector, just as you've chosen to be the Earth's protector." He goes on to say that nobody forced Clark to do it, that he embraced it. I think there are a lot of seasons of this show that sort of contradict that, but whatever. "We all choose our own fate," Brainiac tells him. He takes Clark by the shoulders and suddenly they're standing in Oliver's apartment.

Or maybe it's his office. It's pretty dark, so it's hard to tell. Easier to see is Oliver's family crest, displayed in glowing stained glass on one wall, which is green and has arrows on it. Again, how did his revelation come as a surprise to anyone? Oliver pours himself a drink and sits down to watch people on TV complain about the Green Arrow. "This isn't a memory," Clark astutely observes. Oh, there's that gigantic vase of lemons and limes from last week; we're in his office, then. Clark doesn't know why he should feel guilty over this. "Oliver made his own decision to come out to the public," he snits. "He didn't think what it would mean to the rest of us." On the TV, a blonde reporter who reminds me a bit of Ann Coulter challenges Oliver to face the public. Oliver buzzes his assistant, asking for calls. Plenty from CNN, the BBC and Dr. Phil, but none from the one person Oliver's been waiting to hear from. Chloe? No, it's Clark that Oliver's been waiting for. He crumples visibly when his assistant says "Mr. Kent" hasn't called. Clark looks sad and lets out a small sigh. "He's always so Oliver, I didn't know that he needed me." "But he does," Brainiac says. Clark gets defensive: "Well, I don't know how not returning his calls amounts to some 'darkness within me.'" Brainiac seems a little surprised that Clark doesn't see the problem. "The darkness is the past," he says. "And you hold onto it, and you dwell. You punish yourself and everyone around you for past mistakes." Clark thinks they don't have the privilege of mistakes. Brainiac urges Clark to help Oliver, to stop punishing him with his silence and his distance and his full, pouty lips. Or something like that. "Let it go," Brainiac says. Clark frowns. A flash of light brings us back to the reunion.