 O 'Toole relished the opportunity that came with Jonathan 's passing , even though she was saddened to see a friend leave the show . Martha taking the senate seat was a chance to explore more adult stories with her character beginning midway through season five , which was important for the actress since Clark was becoming an adult on the show . It also allowed for O 'Toole the chance to depict " strong emotions " over Jonathan 's death . Al Gough feels that Jonathan 's passing allowed for them to explore more of Martha 's smart and strong side , as well as her relationship with Lionel . The idea was to show that there was some form of attraction between Martha and Lionel , but that Martha would never have any romantic relationship with the billionaire , especially after all that he had done to her family . O 'Toole likens Martha 's interest in Lionel with that of watching a dangerous animal : " It 's that attraction you have for a very beautiful , dangerous animal . You know you can 't stop watching it , but at the same time you feel , ' Oh my God , he 's going to kill me . ' " The actress believes that Martha 's ultimate motivation was to get close enough to Lionel to know what he is planning to do to Clark . When it came time for Martha to leave the show , writer Todd Slavkin contends that they wanted to give the character " more of a send @-@ off " than they achieved on film . Slavkin explains that they could not do anything equivalent to what they gave John Schneider , as there were already so many storylines going on by the season six finale that they could not fit anything else in . The writers also realized that they could not kill off the character , and so chose to send her to the US Senate , creating a parallel to Clark where Martha fights injustice on the political stage . 
