1) Well, there was that bit where she was working with the Excrucians to manipulate us into destroying the concept of comic books. And "villain" fits the metaphor I was using better than "dupe". Besides, if "villain" is perhaps unduely harsh, "dupe" gives her too much credit. She knew what she was doing was wrong. Otherwise she wouldn't have gotten so defensive when I brought up Clark...

2) Largely because she didn't. At that point, while we were certainly aware of the possibility that she was working for the Excrucians, we were also considering the possibility that she wasn't. More to the point, we had no good ideas as to how to figure it out. Even with our suspicions, she still had a 50-50 shot that her plan would succeed. Or, at least, she would have if she hadn't admitted her villainy and stalked off in a huff. I guess it's true what they say. You can take the girl out of the comic book universe, but you can't take the comic book universe out of the girl.