>>212784158I fully understand the sentiment and even think the CONCEPT of Jonathan sacrificing himself to keep Clark's identity secret is fairly inspired.
It's just the execution that was terrible. Sucking him up into a tornado right in front of the whole town because he got trapped while saving the dog, in a situation where Clark doesn't actually have to do anything too insane to save him? Awful.
Something better would've been a callback to Jonathan's childhood story by the area getting hit with a stormsurge or something. Jonathan ends up stranded on a rooftop after helping some people to safety while Clark is on a much taller point with a bunch of others. Maybe even a news chopper overhead. Something where he'd have to do something obviously superhuman and guaranteed to be exposed to save Jonathan.
Under those circumstances Jonathan doing the whole 'stop my invincible son' is less ridiculous.