ISFJ 2w1 Characters
Lana Lang, played by Kristin Kreuk in Smallville, is one of the most complex characters in the Superman universe. Often remembered as Clark Kent’s first love, Lana embodies the ISFJ 2w1 personality type, balancing warmth, loyalty, and selflessness with a strong moral streak. This personality analysis explores how Lana’s ISFJ and Enneagram traits shape her story across the seasons, from her innocent, caring beginnings to her eventual descent into bitterness, vengeance, and self-righteousness.
Introverted Sensing
Lana defines everything through her deep sense of sentimentality and attachment to her own subjective experiences and the past. In the first season, she is constantly referencing how much she hates being defined as the “girl who lost her parents” in the meteor shower, and lamenting that she did not get more time to spend with them. She never got to know them, so she values everything in her life that reminds her of them—visiting their grave and telling them all her secrets, preserving the Talon because of her memories there with them (this is where they fell in love!). She wears a necklace made from the meteorite that killed her parents, until Clark Kent gently coaxes her to move past it.
Her own experiences with people override what other people tell her about them. She doesn’t believe Whitney Fordman would hurt Clark and defends him whenever Clark raises a moral objection to his behavior; when she loves Lex Luthor, he can do no wrong in her eyes. This shows how Si-doms interpret reality through their own lens, rather than being objective about it or allowing outside information to “taint” their views.
Because she takes people on a surface level, Lana reacts to Clark based on his inconsistent behavior rather than speculating about his reasons for being that way. He stood her up, he lies to her, he keeps secrets from her; why should she give him more chances? But she also loves him, so she can’t give him up entirely, and remains infatuated on and off with him for almost a decade before her infection with kryptonite forces them apart. She struggles to let go of the past and move on from it, as shown with her intense attachment to her parents, then to Clark, and even with her vengeance against Lex.
After she fakes her own death and embezzles money from the Luthors, Lana uses it to launch Isis, a foundation to help meteor freaks who have been victimized by Lex. She wants to do something tangible to help him, just as she filled her younger years with hands-on activities (wanting to get involved in charitable organizations when dating Lex; before that, volunteering at senior homes, cheerleading, taking up odd jobs, running The Talon, going to Paris and falling in love with Jason).
Extraverted Feeling
Lana in the first few seasons is very empathetic, considerate of other people and their feelings, and makes decisions with others’ needs in mind. She wants to break up with Whitney, but can’t find it in her heart to do so when she learns about his dad being sick and then Whitney shares all of his future hopes with her before he goes off into the military. She tactfully tries to find the right words to let people down and deal with the meteor freaks who continue to harass her. She tries to pick her moments carefully to let people down, and doesn’t want to alienate Chloe Sullivan by dating Clark behind her back.
She gives up cheerleading because the team are cheating, but also because she doesn’t know who she is, separate from her relationships and can’t be sure she isn’t just walking in her mother’s footsteps. Lana goes to Paris for the same reason, to get away from everything that is familiar and “find herself.”
Her go-to is the emotional aspect of things; when Chloe has The Torch taken away from her by the principle, Lana first offers to help her out by talking to the principle, and then when the principle turns it over to her, writes a fiery editorial she knows the principle will hate so much, he gives the newspaper back to Chloe! When trying to convince Lex to leave The Talon open, she talks about it in sentimental terms and pleads with him not to shut it down, then is shocked when he says she has to do better, and give him a business proposal. That he won’t keep it open just because she has feelings about the business.
Lana processes her emotions on the spot and is confrontational about them; she can easily verbalize what’s wrong and how she feels, and wants others to be totally “open and honest” with her in return. But she also has a hard time not changing to reflect whomever she is with, and not hiding the darker parts of herself from others out of fear of rejection or judgment. Hanging around Lex teaches her to be ruthless, manipulative, and vindictive, and then as she spirals into a dark place in season six and seven, Lana justifies her actions as being for the moral good, because Lex was “hurting people” (not just her, but others) and for the greater good of humanity, he must be punished. She frames her desire for revenge as being in the greater good for everyone else, which shows how she defines her thinking by the broader social impact.
Introverted Thinking
When Lex challenges her to find a reason to keep The Talon open, Lana steps back, evaluates it from a fresh perspective, and re-imagines it as a coffee shop and center for youth activities, small bands, etc. Later, when he makes selling it a contingent of her going to Paris (he doesn’t want it, and she won’t be there), Lana chooses to let it go even though it pains her and to sever ties with her past. She can be objective when she wants to be.
In season seven, Lana starts bypassing her humanity and her feelings and rationalizing away her destructive behavior. She has “reasons” and justifications for everything she does to the Luthors, and they sound logical and convincing, but lack her usual moral scruples. Lex says she embezzled money from him; she calls it part of the “divorce settlement,” and argues that she’s doing greater good with it, so it’s fine. She has Lionel kidnapped and tortured in the woods for months. When juiced up on Clark’s powers, she goes after Lex and argues that Clark should have killed him a long time ago “for the greater good.”
Lana is intellectually curious and wants to know how things work, what attacked her, what the meaning is of the spaceship, and figures out how to set up and hack into systems with a little practice. She starts spying on Lex and using that information to fuel her schemes. She also is detached enough to realize eventually that Clark can’t love this part of herself, and so she conceals it from him.
Extraverted Intuition
Her re-imagining of a movie theater into a coffee shop shows how Si/Ne works; it takes what exists and changes it into a different version of itself. Lana does this with people as well, as she looks for the good in them. She is open to exploring different versions of herself, into having new experiences and going fresh places, as she collects information about who she is, what her values are, and what she wants for her future.
But Lana is not as suspicious of others’ motives early on as she needs to be, and is taken in several times by meteor freaks who lie to her and then take advantage of her kindness. She is oblivious to Lex manipulating her, and has no idea that he faked her pregnancy until a doctor confronts her with the truth and accuses her of doing it to land a rich husband.
The Enneagram 2
Lana’s arc is about her continual need to grow closer to everyone in her life. From the first episode, she displays a lot of 2 traits in her quest for love, approval, and importance in the lives of others.
Lana does housework for Chloe and her father after they let her move in until Chloe reassures her she does not need to do any of those things to be wanted. She is always volunteering to “help” people (from tutoring other students in math to working at a retirement home), a tendency as an adult, she channels into a foundation to help meteor freaks. She goes all out for whoever she is around; offering to be there for her friends in whatever way they need, from physical care to listening to their problems and being with them through tough times. She will show up at funerals and bring food, take care of animals, stay late to help them with their homework. It’s her deep caring about most people that draws meteor freaks to her.
She’s reluctant to dump Whitney when he goes off to war, because of concern for his feelings, despite her growing affection for Clark. When he resurfaces, having lost his memory, she acts as if their breakup never happened, because it’s important to her to ‘soften’ the eventual blow.
Lana is all about “trust” which to her means “no secrets” (“I just want to be close to you!”). 2s want to be intimate with others and have no secrets, because that achieves closeness in their minds. Lana wants no barriers between her and her loved ones; no secrets, no lies, because a 2 wants emotional intimacy more than anything. She gravitates toward those who are receptive toward her, but feels frustrated by Clark, who, as a skeptical and distrusting 6, sends her mixed signals. Lana keeps hanging onto him until his refusal to be emotionally honest with her when it counts destroys their relationship. She moves on with Lex, before she finds out his secret and rebuilds the trust with Clark, before they break up for the last time.
Lana is searching for someone to respond to her, yet, each of them disappoints her; Whitney won’t tell her about his dad, Clark won’t tell her about his secret, Jason can’t tell her the truth about his mother, and Lex won’t tell her about his intentions. In her mind, a relationship requires honesty, because that opens the door for her to help the other person; she can’t attend to their needs unless she knows what they are. In each of her relationships, she gives herself wholeheartedly, with the hope and expectation of love.
She is protective over whichever man she is dating, and stands up for him against others who attack him (she gets angry at Clark when she feels he has wronged Jason, at Lex when he turns against Clark, and against Clark for daring to malign Lex). Lana believes part of love is being protective of your loved one. Lana decides with her heart, not her head, and loves unreservedly when it feels safe. Whoever has her love is her world entire. She finds herself through adapting to their needs.
But like all 2s, Lana also has a dark side in her attempts to force intimacy and by withholding love when she doesn’t get it. She begs, pleads with, and hounds Clark to tell her ‘what’s really going on,’ and gives him an ultimatum: either he tells her the truth or they are done. Later, she keeps secrets from him when she becomes involved in underhanded business dealings to take down Lex.
The 1 Wing
Lana holds almost impossible standards for others early on in the series; she chastises Whitney for standing by his friends when they cheated on a test and quits the cheerleading team as a result (she doesn’t want to cheer for people who do bad things and pretend it’s all fine). She angrily tells off Clark whenever she doesn’t like what he has to say, or she calls him out on his selfish behavior when under the influence of Red K (she doesn’t know why he’s acting like a jerk, but she won’t put up with it).
She feels frustrated with people being dishonest with her, keeping things from her, and thinking she will ignore their behavior. Lana wants a PERFECT relationship of total honesty and mutual acceptance, but she can’t achieve that when others are refusing to share all of themselves. She at first holds herself to very high standards, but they start to slip when later in the series, she becomes furious with Lex and justifies all of her immoral actions as being morally appropriate, because he is evil.
In season seven, while seeing herself as holding the moral high ground, Lana steals several million dollars from Lex’s accounts, fakes her death and frames him for it, and sets up the Isis Foundation as a front to take down the Luthors. She installs cameras in their home, goes after their business associates, steals their files, and blackmails their employees. Lana pays someone to kidnap and torture Lionel. After an explosion traps Lex in a mine, she leaves him there to die. Although Lex releases her from their marriage, and doesn’t prosecute her for embezzling millions from him, Lana still goes after him, full of wrath and even tries to kill him.
When Clark calls her on her behavior, Lana tells him she is protecting them, doing this for them and their love! That the “right thing to do” is to make Lex suffer and to prevent him from hurting people. She frames her actions as being for Clark’s sake and denies her own anger and motives of wanting revenge. Enneagram 1s struggle to see themselves as anything other than virtuous, moral, and good, which can make them hypocritical in denying that their motives are anything but pure.
The Tragedy of Lana Lang
Lana is a tough character to write about, because she was one of my favorite characters for the first four seasons and then… the writers really did her dirty. They took the sweet, compassionate Lana and turned her into a wrathful, bitter woman whose need to punish others ultimately undoes her relationship with Clark. Kristen Kreuk did a wonderful job of portraying her, even if she didn’t care for where Lana “went” as a character. She also suffered from constantly having her character arcs revolve around male love interests and responding to them, instead of becoming her own separate entity. Oh well. It was the early 2000s.
