He lets the letter fall from his hands. When he looks up, he sees Jonathan Kent working on the fence. He just about bursts into tears. "Dad! Are you real?" No, you've suffered an alien aneurysm and you're hallucinating. Enjoy it while it lasts, though. Jonathan tells him he never stopped watching out for him. Clark thinks his dad must be disappointed. "I haven't grown into the man you raised me to be." I don't know, you're short-tempered and judgmental, aren't you? "No, you haven't," Pa Kent says. Clark looks sad for a second, then his dad explains: "You are so much more than that." Clark's glad that at least one father is proud of him. Pa Kent keeps working on the fence. Is this a sign of how much Clark's been neglecting the farm? Now even his dead father has to finish his chores. Clark helps Pa Kent with the fence and talks about how he took his anger out on people. "I destroyed an entire building!" Yeah, but nothing came of it. "I know now that I have it within me to kill." Hasn't he almost-killed a lot already? And maybe actually-killed? He's a slow learner. Jonathan calms him with a platitude: "We all face trials, son. The true measure of a man is how he chooses to react in the face of those trials." Clark thinks his dad never had that problem, then Jonathan reminds him of how his own bad temper made his heart explode. "Lionel," Clark remembers. "But you were just trying to protect me." Jonathan says they shouldn't make excuses. "I don't know how I even got to this place," Clark says desperately. Nine years of inconsistent characterization, that's how. Jonathan takes his son by the shoulders and talks about how sacrificing something makes people lose something of themselves. Clark's sacrificed more than anyone else, he says. Clark wishes Pa Kent was still with him, you know, for real, and not just in the delusional little part of his brain. Jonathan says Clark can be the world's greatest hero, but Clark pouts that Jor-El disagrees. "Then prove him wrong," Jonathan says. He gives his son a hug before telling him that Jor-El was right about one thing: "Something dark is coming. You're going to be tested. It's not going to be easy, but I have faith in you." Jonathan gives Clark a crinkly smile and then disappears before Clark can get an answer about just what's coming. Spirits and/or hallucinations are so vague.