"Witness" is not the only episode to be altered from its original concept. "Dichotic" began, in its early stages, as a story about a news reporter who had the ability—thanks to kryptonite—to split himself in half. The reporter would create the news at the same time that he was filming it. Ken Biller and Mark Verheiden discussed a teaser that involved the reporter pushing someone out of a window and as the body plummeted to the ground the audience saw the same person reporting the news as it happened. The main story would focus on the reporter attempting to assassinate Lex Luthor, but it eventually evolved into what Biller refers to as "a metaphor on trying to super-achieve at high school". In the revamped version, a high school student uses his ability to duplicate himself so that he can take classes in high school and at the community college at the same time, in an effort to win a LuthorCorp scholarship and go to the university of his dreams. With Jonathan Taylor Thomas playing the over-achieving student, the character of Ian Randall was also used to stir up the Lana-Clark-Chloe triangle. Beeman explains that a problem exists in developing new storylines involving the characters: "We want the characters we're familiar with, and on the other , you have to search for ways to change them up." Even the ending was altered during filming, as both copies of Ian were to fall over the edge of a bridge; then, as the two Ians fall they touch each other's fingers slowly fusing together before hitting the ground. The team was so impressed with Thomas's performance they opted to keep the character alive.