Detailed Description:

By Nadine

Chloe Sullivan (Allison Mack) and Pete Ross (Sam Jones III) drive up to the caves, where hundreds of cars are parked, because of the rave that's taking place in there. As Pete walks up to them, he feels the need to tell call Clark Kent (Tom Welling) and tell him about them. He explains to Chloe that he thinks Kyla (see episode "Skinwalkers") really got to him and that's why he's obsessed with the caves. Chloe stops him from calling, saying that she thinks "the caves will survive a little Moby". They enter the cave where the party is going strong. Pete tries sees a couple in a passionate kiss, and tries to get them to move away from the walls. He is not successful. He explains to Chloe that the paintings are sacred and need to be preserved. Chloe tries and gets the couple away from the wall.
Then, this nerdy-looking kid called Travis walks right up to Chloe and kisses her. He says he's always wanted to do that. When she tells him she thinks he's wasted, he denies it and says he's just high on life. He then starts climbing up the ladder in the cave, and all the kids start cheering him on as he climbs higher and higher. Pete is shocked and leans against the wall as he watches the scene anxiously. Then, suddenly, Travis shouts "I'm invincible" and jumps down, killing himself. At that exact moment, Pete screams when he gets bitten by something on his neck. Suddenly, while everyone else is shocked by Travis' fall, Pete is the only one that starts getting into the music and smiling. As he walks away dancing, we see that there's a whole in the wall with something hiding there.
As Clark is on the Smallville High Street, he suddenly hears people gasping, as Pete drives up on a motorbike on the pavement, and pulls right up to Clark. Clark is freaked out that Pete would be doing this without a helmet. He asks Pete if he is ok after what happened to Travis, and that he's there for Pete if he wants to talk. Pete gets agitated and says he doesn't want to talk, he just wants to live dangerously and take risks. He gives Clark advice and tells him to take risks and tell Lana lang (Kristin Kreuk) how he feels about her. When Clark mentions that Lana is not sure about her feelings for Whitney Fordman (Eric Johnson), Pete tells Clark to advise her to forget about the past and look to the future.
Clark goes to The Talon and finds Lana upset about Travis. She was told by the counselor at school to live life, "carpe diem". He realizes that it's the same advice as Pete had given him, and he asks Lana out on a date. She is very surprised and accepts. He is even more surprised by her easy acceptance, and she tells him that all he had to do was ask. The date is set for the following day.
Clark goes down to the caves to look at the damage from the rave. Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum) walks in, and is surprised to always see Clark there. He wonders if Clark is keeping secrets from him. Clark smiles and tells him not to worry, it's for a term paper. When Clark asks Lex what his interest is, Lex says he likes a good mystery, and this one promises to be very interesting. Lex says that, following the rave, he has tightened security, but that he has given orders to let Clark in.
Chloe meets Lana at The Talon, asking Lana if she is avoiding her. Chloe asks her if she is upset about Travis, and offers to listen if Lana wants to talk. Lana is very vague, so Chloe tries to change the mood and offers to go shopping. Lana says she can't, and reluctantly admits that she has a date with Clark. Chloe is surprised and obviously upset, she said she thought that Clark and Lana have given up on trying to date. Lana offers to cancel if it upsets Chloe, but Chloe tries to hide her emotions and says it's fine, Lana should go for it. "Don't let me be the excuse", says Chloe.
Martha (Annette O'Toole) and Jonathan Kent (John Schneider) are looking over brochures for financing for college. They ask Clark if he is actually planning on going to college, since they received a call from the principal, stating that Clark is late very often. Jonathan gets strict and says that he doesn't want Clark in the caves anymore and that he must concentrate on his school work. Clark pleads with him for one exception, and when he tells his parents he has a date with Lana, Martha convinces her husband to let him go.
Professor Walden (Rob LaBelle) is called in by Lex. The professor states that he refuses to take on any new projects and that Lex will just have to wait if he wants his foremost opinion. Lex arrogantly claims that he knows he can get anything he wants immediately for the right price, and offers the professor a check. Walden tears the check up. Lex then shows him photos of the drawings in the caves, and the professor is immediately impressed, and accepts to delay his trip to Chili.
Clark is looking for Pete. Chloe thinks that maybe Pete is feeling guilty for Travis' accident and that would explain his new attitude. She tells Clark about Travis' autopsy that showed a puncture wound at the back of his neck and his adrenaline glands were bigger than usual. Also, the police found two other students dead that night with the same wounds. She's wondering if there's a new drug on the market and if Pete is affected by this too.
Clark finally finds Pete on the Smallville High Street, he is standing on a truck. He shouts at Clark, and then jumps onto the street in front of an bus. Clark uses his superspeed to save him and push him away from the bus. Pete loved the adrenaline rush and wants to do it again. Clark refuses, and Pete threatens to tell everyone Clark's secret if Clark doesn't agree to do it again. Clark refuses, and Pete runs around pointing at Clark and shouting "He's an alien".
Clark and Chloe take a walk through the caves, hoping to find Pete. They separate to cover more ground. Chloe finds the dent in the wall and is about to look inside, when Professor Walden shows up and asks her what she is doing here. She turns around and is about to answer nicely, but she gets bitten and suddenly her attitude changes. She becomes aggressive and yet seductive. She tells Walden to back off. Clark returns, and recognizes Walden from the books he has written. Walden is not in a mood to chat and wants them to leave. At that moment, Lex shows up. Walden confronts Lex and tells him he wants no one in the caves if he is to accept Lex's offer. Lex agrees, and apologizes to Clark for no longer being able to let him in. Chloe continues to act strangely. She starts climbing on the walls and being rude to Walden.
Pete barges in to Clark's barn and demands to know why Jonathan called his mother looking for Pete. Clark uses his x-ray vision on Pete, and realizes that there is a parasite inside Pete's stomach. He tells Pete that he needs to go to hospital. Pete is outraged that Clark would use his vision on him. Suddenly, Pete pulls out a lead box, and opens it in front of Clark, it contains meteor rocks. Clark becomes weak, and falls to the ground. Pete orders Clark to stay away from him, and runs out.
The research teams are all over the caves. Professor Walden calls Lex to show him the parasite that he found in the wall, they have captured it and put it in a jar. He shows Lex the scriptures on the wall. He also tells Lex that the gooey nest that the parasite lived in has been sent to Metropolis for analysis.
When Clark walks into The Torch's office, Chloe is standing there passionately kissing some guy. Clark is shocked. Chloe pushes the boy away, telling him she is no longer interested. She is looking extremely seductive and starts flirting Clark with a lollipop in her mouth. She asks Clark why he didn't have the guts to tell her about his date with Lana. Clark is confused, but still focuses on helping Pete. He asks Chloe to try and get close to Pete and see if he has the puncture wound on his neck.
Clark comes early to The Talon to call off his date with Lana. He explains that Pete is sick and that he needs to find him and take him to the hospital. Lana is immediately concerned, and completely understands why he would call the date off. She smiles and says that she has waited so long, she can wait another day. At that moment, Pete shows up, and he doesn't look sick at all. Lana then immediately gets upset. She asks Clark why he lied about taking Pete to the hospital. Before Clark can answer, Pete tells he she should know better than trust Clark. She walks away, very upset. Chloe shows up with really cool looking black highlights in her hair. Pete smiles at Clark and tells him he understands how Clark works, "Green means stop, red means go" (referring to the color of the rocks). At that point, he slips a red rock into Clark's shirt pocket. Clark's eyes turn red, and immediately, his attitude changes.
Pete, Chloe and Clark head to his barn, all three of them high. Pete wants to take the car and try to jump the gorge. Clark agrees, and Chloe is surprised. Pete asks Clark "Do you wanna tell her or should I". Pete takes a bat and hits Clark with all his strength. Clark, of course, doesn't feel a thing. Chloe is shocked and extremely impressed. She asks a couple of questions and then wants to test him. She stands on a high ledge in the barn, and starts walking on it, asking Clark if he would catch her if she fells. Clark is looking extremely relaxed and confident of his abilities. Chloe falls and Clark uses his superspeed to run to under where she's falling and catch her. Lex shows up and no one is happy to see him. Lex can immediately sense that something is wrong. Clark says he's too busy to talk. Chloe walks up to Lex seductively, and tells the boys that, for such a rich boy, he should be able to afford the best toupé! Clark tells Lex that he will go into the caves if he wants to and that Lex can't stop him. He warns Lex to stay away. Lex responds that he's all for Clark standing up for himself, but that he shouldn't cross the line. They ignore him and walk away.
Pete is racing his car towards the gorge, and Chloe moves to the back seat with Clark and they start kissing passionately. She asks Pete for one quick stop at The Talon. Clark and Chloe continue kissing in The Talon and pretend to play strip poker with non-existent cards. She strips his shirt of. The shirt falls to the ground and the rock falls out of the pocket. Suddenly, Clark gets back to normal and pushes Chloe away, wanting to stop. She gets upset that he's only using her and only wants her for her research skills. He x-ray's her and sees the parasite inside her stomach. He tells her about it, but she says that she loves this new feeling and wants to live life. As she kisses him once more, Lana walks in and sees them. She starts crying. Chloe makes it worse by taunting her and telling her that Clark told her everything. Lana runs off crying.
As they leave The Talon, Pete realizes that Clark is no longer affected by the rock. Pete gets upset and punches Clark to the ground, with a piece of green rock hidden in his palm. Clark gets knocked out. Lana walks out of The Talon, sees Clark out on the floor, and takes a bucket from the flowers sold outside and pours the water over Clark. He wakes up and asks her where Pete is. She walks off saying she doesn't care.
Pete, with Chloe in the car, is racing towards the gorge. They see Clark standing by the edge, wanting to stop them. They don't care. Pete backs up again to pick up speed, and starts racing towards the gorge. The car starts falling into the gorge, but Clark is at the bottom, and catches the car and stops them. He takes them to hospital.
Chloe wakes up after surgery, the parasite was removed. She only remembers Professor Walden walking into the cave. She doesn't know anything that happened. She asks Clark what she missed, but he tells her that nothing exciting happened. Lana shows up with flowers, Clark tries to apologize, but Lana tells him coldly that she's here to see her roommate who was sick. Chloe asks how the date and Lana replies that Clark managed to screw it up all on his own. Chloe asks what happened, and Lana tells her that she caught him making out with somebody else. When Chloe asks whom, Lana says "I don't know, I didn't recognize her".
Pete apologizes to the Kents. They understand and are glad that he is ok. Jonathan assures Pete that he is still a member of this family. Back in the caves, Walden calls Lex and tells him that the parasite's physiology is like nothing on this earth. He is eager to get back to work. Lex requests again that Clark should be let in the caves, and Walden is curious. Lex feels that Clark is knows more than he is letting on.
Clark shows up at The Talon with a red rose for Lana. Clark tells her he's just friends with Chloe. Lana says she understands why Chloe was kissing him, because she was sick and under the influence of the parasite, but Lana can't understand why Clark was kissing her back. He gives no answer and leaves the rose there. She throws the rose away in the trash can.

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Notes:

Working title of the episode was "Adrenaline".

Note the use of title ("Rush") within the show - Peter mentions it the first pre-credits sequence and the Talon's marquee has it too.

We get another mention of Principal Reynolds (Richard Gant) from "Redux" - so when do we get to see him on-camera again? (Ironically, he guest-starred in this week's episode of "Charmed" the week this episode originally aired - maybe he was too busy.)

John Glover doesn't appear in this episode.

So why doesn't Clark x-ray Chloe as soon as she starts sucking on lollipops and kissing random passing boys in the newspaper office? Even if he doesn't tell her about it, at least he'd know and could act accordingly.

Pete has a blue sports car now? Where does he get all these cars? He just had one blown up a on-screen week ago in "Suspect" - being an insurance adjustor in Smallville must be a very well-paying job! (and when evil Clark, Pete, and Chloe drive it down the road later, it's missing its front license plate...)

Lex had security guards guarding the caves? Why weren't they able to stop that rave from happening? (Lex does say he fired the guard working that night - but why would a guard be that careless in the first place? Particularly with a Luthor for a boss? Would you want to piss off Lex, even if some ravers paid you some bucks to look the other way? :) )

When Clark finally catches Pete's car, how does he finally get them to the hospital? Pete would still have his piece of meteor rock.

When Lana catches Clark and Chloe kissing in the Talon, Clark is obviously pulling away. But later Lana accuses Clark of kissing back. If she had caught them earlier when Clark had his shirt off then she'd have a case but from her perspective she is making things up (or I guess maybe her emotions are causing her to exaggerate?) (a couple of viewers noted that the waitress saw them kissing, and may have told Lana)

Why doesn't Clark get weakened by the green meteor rock before Pete hits him with it? It's just in Pete's hand and pretty close to Clark - not like it's in lead or anything.

Seems like the car coming to a dead halt after going off a cliff and coming to a dead stop 50'+ down would be pretty much fatal to Pete and Chloe, even with the 3'-6' of kinda-sorta absorption Clark would get. They seem to be wearing seat belts, but being rush-addicted and all you wouldn't think they would be - the parasites seem fully capable of overriding their hosts' self-preservation habits.

Lana says she "knows what happened to Chloe". Really? Setting aside the fact that the discovery of such a parasite would draw huge scientific and possible CDC (Center for Disease Control - although its apparently called the Disease Control Agency in a later episode) attention, is Lana really able to so readily dismiss the fact that Clark might not have been influenced in some manner, even if there was no obvious source of infection? He was unconscious (and she wasn't aware that Pete knocked him out) when she dumped him with water from a flower vase. For that matter, would Pete be so casually released from the hospital?

Chloe says that at the rave Pete tried to save Travis. When did he do that? He just kinda leaned up against the cave wall and called out but didn't actually do anything while Travis did his death-dive.
When Pete and Chloe go off the cliff into the canyon, you can see big beautiful mountains in the background. In Kansas.

A moment after Pete lectures the couple that was making to not lean on the wall with the pictographs, Pete himself sits against the wall before getting bit by the parasite.

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