he's always had the power of life and death over them; becoming a god just amplified his powers; it did nothing to redress the imbalance.
Becoming a god changed nothing for him. Lex still thinks in the negative. What happened to him wold destroy anyone, and it really broke Lex completely, it split him in two.

reminds me of some of the imagery in Hourglass, only magnified by about a million.

Oh wonderful! I wasn't sure if I was being too heavy-handed with those references...but this whole part kept playing out as Cassandra's vision in my head.
and don't count out a happy ending--really!