The pilot episode tells the story of the meteor shower that hit Smallville and changed life in the Kansas town forever. We meet Clark Kent, the young man who as a baby "arrived" in Smallville with the meteor shower. We meet cheerleader Lana Lang, whose parents were killed during the meteor shower. Whitney Fordman, Smallville High's star quarterback and bully... also boyfriend to Lana. Pete Ross. Aspiring reporter Chloe Sullivan. And Lex Luthor, who as a child was balded and is now running his billionaire father's fertilizer plant in Smallville. In the pilot, a victim of a "hazing" 13 years ago emerges from a coma with strange electrical powers and takes revenge on the jocks who hung him up as a "scarecrow" in the homecoming hazing ritual. Clark, weakened by Lois' green meteor necklace, is similarly hung up but Lex rescues him. Clark confronts the electrically charged villain as he prepares to electrocute the homecoming dancers and short circuits him with water, making him forget Clark's superpowers. Meanwhile, Lex is intrigued by Clark when he accidentally runs over Clark who subsequently saves him while Lex is unconscious, and so an unusual friendship begins.

Greg, a nerdish bug collector with a crush on Lana, is involved in an accident that leads to him being bitten by meteor rock-irradiated insects. He soon starts exhibiting the characteristics of bugs, kills his mother, and starts stalking Lana. Greg was an old friend of Clark's, and the boy from Krypton soon realizes that something is amiss. Clark tracks down Greg in their old treehouse, where the bug boy has cocooned Lana in preparation for mating. Greg runs off to a local factory filled with meteor rock, and Clark is dangerously weakened. Fortunately he finds a lead mine car which protects him long enough to fend off Greg, who is crushed and splits into a swarm of small bugs that scurry away. Whitney ends up freeing Lana, who credits him with the rescue and leaving Clark out in the cold again.

A short-tempered and abusive football coach, obsessed with winning, discovers that he has flame powers because of the kryptonite rocks he uses in his sauna. He uses his newfound powers to eliminate anyone who might interfere with his drive to win the championship. Meanwhile Clark wants to be part of the team, and Lana wants to quite being a cheerleader and become a waitress. The school principal and Chloe are both attacked by the coach and barely escaped thanks to Clark. When Clark confronts the coach he gets knocked into the sauna and is radiation-poisoned by the rocks. His father manages to rescue him and the coach literally blows himself up when his powers fail to work against Clark.

Clark starts experiencing "vision problems" which of course mean his "x-ray vision" is starting to develop. Meanwhile, prominent figures such as Lex Luthor are commiting crimes such as bank robbery. It turns out a girl named Tina, who idolizes Lana, had soft bones as a child and was "cured" by kryptonite radiation: she now has the power to alter her physical form (and, conveniently, her voice, hair, and skin) to look like anyone she wants. She inadvertently killed her mother, and now plans to kill Lana and take over her life. Clark, with his x-ray vision, is the only one who can make out Tina no matter what form she takes due to her irradiated bones. He confronts her as she tries to kill Lana, and despite Tina wearing the kryptonite necklace she took from Lana, Clark manages to defeat her.

A jock named Sean inadvertently falls through the ice into a lake with kryptonite at the bottom, and turns into a living heat-absorbing battery. He quickly discovers that his best "fix" comes from absorbing the body heat from people. He tries to hit on Chloe, but she passes. Sean starts moving through his black book of other girls, freezing them solid. Meanwhile, Lex has given Clark tickets for a concert to go with Lana, and even supplies the limo. However, Clark hears about Sean's path of destruction and leaves, just in time to rescue Chloe. He then confronts Sean but gets frozen himself. Fortunately, the process proves less than fatal for the super-powered Clark. As Sean goes for Lana and Clark's parents who are at Lex's manor, Clark intercepts him and throws him into the nearby lake, freezing him solid in the water. At the end Lana resolves to just be friends with Clark.

Harry, Lana's charge at an old folks' home, falls into a pond fill with kryptonite. That, and the electricity from his wheelchair, de-ages Harry, who goes on a killing spree to avenge himself on the children of the jury who put him away decades ago. Meanwhile, a blind woman named Cassandra at the same home has the gift of seeing the future, and gives Clark various cryptic warnings. Clark eventually figures out that his grandfather was one of the jurors, and goes to rescue his mom. Meanwhile, Lex has visited Cassandra and asked her to see his future. Although he's not aware of it, she sees a vision of him in the White House, then surrounded by flowers which turn to corpses while he is bathed in a rain of blood. The shock kills her.

Jodi, a weight-obsessed teen, goes on a crash diet of kryptonite-infected vegetables that eliminate all of her body fat and make her beautiful...and give her a hunger for the body fat of others. Friend Pete asks her out for a date and looks to be her next victim, except Clark figures it out and rescues him, taking Jodi to the hospital. Meanwhile, Lex gets some odd undefined results on his blood workup for a LuthorCorp health test. He also finds out about Chloe's "wall of weirdness" and approaches resident meteor expert Dr. Hamilton as he gets one step closer to the truth about Clark and the green meteor fragments that are scattered throughout Smallville.

Earl Jenkins, former handyman at the Kent's farm, is beset by body-rattling jitters. He claims he was infected with a green mist while working at a secret "Level 3" at the Smallville Luthorcorp fertilizer plant. No one knows anything about it. Earl accidentally kills a man with his powers, then makes his way to Smallville where he is taken into custody. He escapes and takes a school group hostage during a tour of the plant. Lionel Luther flies in and refuses to negotiate, so Lex goes to confront Earl. Earl lets the kids go while keeping Lex. A gas main starts leaking and Lionel orders the plant into shutdown. Clark remains behind and using his x-ray vision finds the hidden Level 3. He, Earl, and Lex (who pleads ignorance) go down there. Earl starts jittering again, almost killing himself and Lex. Clark manages to rescue them both from a falling catwalk and stop the gas leak. Lionel denies everything, and Lex wonders how Clark was strong enough to rescue them both.

Clark visits Metropolis in this episode, and does a secret good deed that may remind people of the first "super" feat that was done by Clark in the Lois & Clark pilot episode. A police detective witnesses this and decides to look into it. He calls Lex and reminds Lex that he knows about his past in order to get him to talk. The detective, Phelan, discovers that Clark had been around many "accident scenes" in recent months, and he decides to look into it. Phelan begins blackmailing Clark to help him in illegally setting up crooks and protecting him from an IA investigation. When Clark balks Phelan frames Jonathan. Clark manages to set up Phelan for the theft of a rare mask at a museum and Phelan is killed in the shootout before he can tell anyone about Clark's secret. Lex is left to wonder at the superspeed image captured on a museum camera.

Lex is being stalked by an invisible entity that threatens him and almost kills bathing Victoria. Suspicion falls on Amy, the daughter of one of the household staff. She is dangerously obsessed with Lex, to the point of having a shrine of him in her room. Lex finds out and insists that the family move out. It turns out that the villain is Amy's non-entity of a brother, who has distilled an invisibility potion from krptyonite-mutated roses. He attacks Lex when the family is turned out, but Clark intervenes and manages to knock him out. Meanwhile, Victoria and Lex are putting together a plan to bring down Lex's father, but Victoria seems to have a scheme on the side that involves a biotech firm, Cadmus Laboratories. And Whitney is growing distant from Lana due to the poor health of his father, which drives Lana over to Clark.

A guy in charge of a rival fertilizer firm to LuthorCorp's talks an EPA investigator into commiting suicide then arrives in Metropolis. He is intent on buying up the Kent farm and using the land to build a rival company to Lex's. After shaking hands with the man, Jonathan Kent inexplicably agrees to sell. Lex offers to have his lawyers help. Meanwhile, Clark befriends a local recluse. It turns out that the recluse and Lex's rival were both salesmen who were caught in a car accident and exposed to kryptonite. They both gained the same power of "persuasion" on anyone they touched, as the recluse graphically demonstrates to Clark by having Chloe kiss him! Lex's rival finally manages to shake hands with Lex, and convince him to try and gun down Clark. Clark manages to knock out Lex and the recluse takes out his former partner, "convincing" him to shoot himself. The recluse decides to go back into the world, but not before telling Clark that he shouldn't hide from his powers either. Fortunately, people under the influence of the persuasion power don't recall what they did, so Lex doesn't know about Clark's superpowers...yet.

Both Clark and a classmate named Eric are struck by lightning when Eric is holding a piece of meteorite rock. The strike takes Clark's powers away and transfers them to Eric. As Eric gets used to his new powers, Clark has to deal with being a normal person for the first time, with all the advantages and disadvantages. Eric's domineering father wants to have him examined in Metropolis - in response, Eric goes on a rampage. Borrowing Lana's meteor-rock necklace, Clark confronts Eric at a power plant and manages to reverse the transfer. Meanwhile, Sir Harry Hardwick (Victoria's father, and rival of Lionel Luthor) and his daughter try to recruit Lex for their business in Metropolis and almost succeed in buying out LuthorCorp, but they find out that they were tricked by Lex.

Chloe is badly hurt when three mysterious thieves rob Lex's manor. Lex hushes up the crime because they stole a computer disk with evidence that he is tapped into his father's computer network. It turns out that the robbers are three former jocks who have figured out a way to make tattoos out of a meteor rock distillation that hyper-accelerates their metabolism, letting them walk through walls. The kryptonite tattoos also affect Clark, weakening him. The tattoos' effects are temporary and the subject gradually becomes immune to the effects, so they need new blood and sign up Whitney. The gang tries to blackmail Lex, but Clark intervenes. Whitney finally realizes the hyper-speed gang life isn't for him and turns to Clark and Lana for help. Clark finds Lex's disk, but the gang try to kill Whitney. The leader's tattoo wears off, and he is crushed beneath a car as Clark super-speeds to Whitney's rescue. The two remaining gang members are hauled off to jail, with Lex threatening them to ensure their silence.

Three years ago, Lex went out with Amanda to Club Zero while her boyfriend Jude Royce was out of town. Jude is playing around behind Amanda's back at the club, and he tries to stab Lex, only to get shot. In the present, Lex is being stalked by Jude as he and Lana tend to the reopening of the Talon. Jude cuts off the hand of the security guard who apparently shot him on Lex's behalf three years ago, poisons the Kents' cows with toxic waste to discredit LuthorCorp, and rigs Lex's car with the music that played the night of the shooting. Jude finally captures Lex and hauls him to the now-condemned Club Zero. Then "Jude" is shot by Amanda's brother, who reveals that Jude did die that night. He found someone who looked just like Jude and paid him to impersonate Jude to "haunt" Lex in revenge for Amanda killing herself. Now he forces Lex to reveal what really happened, which is that Amanda ended up shooting Jude. Clark has put two and two together and arrives in time to secretly keep the brother from killing Lex. In the B plot, Chloe is assigned to interview Clark for a school paper and discovers that the Kents' adoption of him was borderline legal, and she decides to keep the information on file at the newspaper.

Jonathan comes to the rescue of a LuthorCorp employee who is acting insanely and crashes his car. The man is carrying a flower which sprays Jonathan in the face. Jonathan then starts acting wildly uninhibited, tries to shoot his bank loan officer, and lapses into a coma. When Chloe and Lana go out to investigate the crash site, Lana is also spritzed by the flower and starts acting wildly as well. Luthor's pet meteor scientist, Hamilton, is experimenting with meteor-rock radiation and its effects on the Nicodemus flower, which caused a plague of fever, madness, and eventual death in the area 100 years ago, and the LuthorCorp employee stole it. Clark and his friends make the connection, but Pete gets infected as well. Blaming Lex for the loss of his family's creamed corn company at the hands of his father, he tries to shoot Lex just as he finds a cure from an old diary. Clark comes to the rescue, and fortunately no one remembers anything they did while they were delusional. Lex lies to Clark about his involvement with Hamilton and tucks Hamilton safely away where no one can find him while he does further research.

Clark befriends a kindred spirit when his family aids a secretive teen that can read minds. The teen, Ryan, enters the Kents' life in dramatic fashion when Martha accidentally strikes him with her car while he is fleeing from a murderous thief...his stepfather. Clark's parents take Ryan in, but the boy's safety is soon jeopardized by the father's return. The stepfather wants Ryan to continue using his mind-reading powers to help him in his newest scheme - to get hold of Lex's passcode for his finances. Clark manages to rescue Ryan, who promises to keep his secret but warns him about Lex. Meanwhile, Lex has a chance to leave Smallville when his father offers him a job in Metropolis, but their stormy history makes Lex wary of his father's generous impulse.

Tyler takes a fall out a hospital window during a struggle while trying to kill his suffering mother at her request. He apparently dies, but a kryptonite wrist band imbeds itself in his wrist and resurrects him, with a touch that turns people to ash. Tyler comes to Smallville and begins his euthanasia spree, but is spotted by Martha. Clark, who is immune to his power, intervenes and Tyler escapes. On the lam, Tyler targets Whitney's father, who is in the hospital with another heart attack. Clark reveals that Tyler's mother is alive, and Tyler uses his powers on himself when he realizes he based everything he's done on a mistake. Meanwhile, Lionel Luthor sends one of his lackeys, Dominic, to check on Lex, and the guy finds out about Lex's investigations into the Kent family. Jonathan isn't happy when he finds out, and Lex eventually drugs Dominic and returns him to his father, postage due.

After Pete "volunteers" him, Clark runs for class president in another attempt to get a "normal life." However, his running mates are being sent to the hospital one-by-one by a swarm of kryptonite-controlled bees, and Clark suspects his opponent Sasha of being responsible. Clark thwarts several bee attacks on himself, Lana, and Martha Kent, and confronts Sasha. Sasha loses it and the bees attack her, and Clark blows up the hive to stop them. One of the hospitalized candidates wins, and Clark isn't too disappointed. Meanwhile, a woman reporter from Metropolis visits to do a story on Lex. When she writes an unflattering piece he buys her off with the promise of an editorial position. And Lana deals with the impending closure of the Talon with a little underhanded scheming of her own.

Former Smallville High cartoonist Justin loses the use of his hands in a hit and run accident, and develops the ability to move things with his mind. After crippling his unsympathetic doctor he returns to Smallville and hooks back up with his friend Chloe. He reveals his secret to Chloe, and then takes revenge by killing Principal Kwan, who was the driver who hit him. It turns out Kwan's son Danny was the driver. Chloe realizes Justin is responsible, and Clarks comes to her aid, knocking Justin out.

Meanwhile, Lex's former nanny, Pamela, comes back to see how he's doing and to apologize for leaving him after his mother's death, bringing up some old issues for Lex. And Whitney's father passes away.

A gas main explosion gives Lana a concussion and showers her with green rocks: a combination that gives her a "dream" of Chloe being attacked outside the hospital while going to Metropolis. Then she has visions of Chloe being held bound and gagged, through the eyes of her kidnapper. A second vision shows her where Chloe has been buried alive so Clark can rescue her. It turns out she's psychically linked with a deputy at the explosion site who kidnapped Chloe to build his reputation. He plans on killing Lana to eliminate the only witness and cement his career: Clark intervenes and the deputy is subsequently killed in a shootout.

Meanwhile, Lex and reporter Roger Nixon contact a man, Eddie Cole, who was a cropduster who was working during the meteor shower and apparently saw some sort of craft crashing down in a field. This piques Lex's interest and he starts digging up the field and finds meteorite chunks. Hamilton identifies a metallic fragment as a non-Terran alloy.

Lex is hit with a surprise after his father closes the local Smallville plant to force him back to Metropolis, blaming the plant's failure on his management. Meanwhile Clark prepares for his date with Chloe, reporter Roger Nixon gets wind of Clark's alien origins after setting up an explosion, and Whitney joins the Marine Corps. Lex works with the workers to buy the plant and put it under local management, and his father Lionel threatens to sabotage the efforts by buying up their mortgages. It all comes together when Nixon uses the "key" Lex found (in "Obscura") to activate the spaceship just as three tornados hit Smallville. He flees into the storm with Jonathan in pursuit and Martha left to confront the opening spaceship. The tornado hits Lex's manor and traps Lionel under beam, leaving Lex with a life-or-death decision to make. And Clark arrives to see Lana whisked up into the tornado. (to be continued...)

Clark rescues Lana from the eye of the storm by sheltering her with his body after she passes out. Nixon and Jonathan are trapped in a lead-lined church basement, while Lex rescues his father, who is critically injured. Clark returns to discover the spaceship is gone and searches for his father with Lex, who is hiding the truth about his connection with Nixon. While searching for Jonathan, Chloe says they should just be friends, knowing Clark went to rescue Lana. Clark finds the church later but it's filled with green meteor rocks and Nixon leaves one on Clark to take him as proof for his story. When Nixon prepares to kill Jonathan to escape, Lex is forced to shoot and kill him. Lex also orders his father to receive an immediate operation, which ends up blinding him. And out in the fields, the spaceship lies exposed...

Three months and a summer vacation after the end of "Vortex", Clark starts to get a handle on his new power of heat vision but it becomes very clear that he isn't the only one with the ability to heat things up in Smallville. Lex marries the new Smallville High teacher, Desiree Atkins, with Clark as the best man. Desiree soon tries and fails to use her kryptonite-inspired pheromone powers on Clark. When that doesn't work and Clark is suspicious, Desiree controls Lex into turning against Clark and his friends, then frames Clark for setting a fire. She brings Jonathan under her control to kill Lex so she can collect on his will while Clark escapes jail. Clark intervenes just in time and Desiree gets puts away with no one knowing the wiser.

When Dr. Hamilton starts suffering tremors and leaves Lex's employ, he causes a hit-and-run accident which leaves the other driver in the cornfield next to Clark's spaceship . . . which Pete sees when he comes to the rescue. He and Clark take the ship back to his house but when it disappears and he suspects Clark, Clark is forced to reveal the ship is his, news that Pete doesn't take very well. The dying Morton stole the ship and searches for the missing hex-key, taking Pete prisoner. Clark comes to the rescue and Hamilton apparently dies of over-exposure to kryptonite and the two are still best buds.

Meanwhile, Lana has to deal with Nell and her plans to remarry while Lex and Lionel adjust to life together.

Clark has his first run-in with red kryptonite in this exploration of classic Superman mythology. Clark's transformation begins after he gets his high-school ring. Although supposedly discovered with a ruby, it's actually a piece of red-irradiated green meteor rock. Clark's behavior begins altering as he confesses his feelings to Lana and starts to act wildly, buying stuff on the Kents' credit card, picking fights, etc.

Meanwhile, a U.S. Marshal is pursuing a new student, Jessie Brooks, whose father escaped from the witness relocation program for squealing on his company. The company is willing to pay big to get back the info Jessie's father has. Clark befriends Jessie in his new mental state but then turns on Jessie and plans to get the information and cash in. Jonathan and Pete confront him and Pete uses green meteor rock long enough for Jonathan to shatter the ring. Clark is forced to eat crow without confessing everything but Lana isn't having it.

Meanwhile, Lex and his father have some issues to resolve when Lionel starts taking over the manor.

While visiting her parents' grave, Lana is left a poem by a mysterious boy who is knocked out by his father, who keeps him prisoner in the cellar. Clark is less than impressed by the poem and follows Lana to the cemetery where the boy, Byron, shows up again. After returning him the parents claim Byron is dead but he was actually part of an experimental program financed by LuthorCorp that causes him to mutate into a bestial creature in the sunlight. When Byron hears about that he attacks Lionel's helicopter and Clark knocks him down a well out of the sunlight.

Meanwhile Martha signs on as Lionel's personal assistant and Clark and Lana resolve their differences a little after her irritation with him keeping some deep dark secret.

Swimmer Troy goes under during a swim practice and emerges a dead old man. His girlfriend Chrissy has a mysterious past and kissed Troy just before he died. Another boy, Russell, dies of old age as well. It turns out Chrissy is a mutant (but not a krypto-mutant, she's been around since at least 1929) who sucks the age out of others to keep herself young. She's go after the new principal as Chloe figures out what's going on and Clark races to the rescue and Chrissy dissolves of old age without getting her final victim.

Meanwhile, most of the episode deals with various subplots. Lana wonders about a man other than her father who was having an affair with her mother and finds out he may have been her father. A new principal arrives, who was previously in charge of Lex's school, and is suspicious of Lex because of Lionel's machinations and takes it out on Clark before he gets hauled off in the ambulance. And Martha calls her father to provide money when the farm looks like it will go under financially, despite the fact Jonathan and her father have issues and Clark has never met his grandfather. His parents reveal that Clark's superpowers as a child were why they never let him get close or reconciled, and Clark vows to try and find a way to bond with him.

When Rachel Donlevy, a woman claiming to be Clark's biological mother shows up, things starts to heat up. She got some information from Chloe, provoking a fight between the two. The woman also reveals she was involved with Lionel Luthor and the child she gave up, Lucas, is the one she thinks is Clark . . . which would make Lex Clark's half-brother. Plus Lionel Luther owned the adoption agency that the Kents faked Clark's adoption through. We find out that Lionel met with the Kents during the meteor storm and they helped him save young Lex ? in return they asked him to help set up the adoption. But Lionel asked Jonathan to help him convince the Ross's to sell their factory to him and blackmailed him when he refused.

Then Rachel submits a petition to have Clark provide DNA. Clark and Pete team up to get the DNA from the lab in Metropolis and substitute Pets DNA. We find out Rachel had mental problems and she kidnaps Lex to force Lionel to admit Clark is their son. Clark tracks her to her old house and saves an unconscious Lex (again). Lionel claims the real Lucas went to another family and died young . . but secretly has a lock of the boy's hair and an older picture of him.

Meanwhile, Lana meets her supposed biological father, a lawyer named Henry Small who hates the Luthors and hates Lana's coffee place. By the end of the episode he visits anyway and they decide to look further into the situation.

Ryan (from "Stray") returns and is a test subject at the Summerholt Research Facility in Metropolis. A Dr. Garner is experimenting on him to develop his powers. Clark finds out about this and goes to the facility and rescues Ryan, but Garner traces Clark and threatens to bring him and his family under intense scrutiny. Lex checks with his lawyers and gets a restraining order. It turns out that Ryan is dying of a brain tumor and needs the special treatment of Dr Burton who is at that moment on a plane leaving Hub City. Clark runs to catch the plane and gets Ryan's report to Burton. But it turns out Ryan won't make it anyway and he and Clark have one final moment.

Meanwhile, Aunt Nell tells Lana that she has to leave Smallville and move to Metropolis with her fiancee. Lana doesn't want to leave her friends and The Talon behind and arranges to stay in Smallville and live with Chloe and her father.

And Lex wants to expand the plant, but Mayor Tate will only okay Lex's expansion if Lex agrees to support him financially in the next Smallville election. Lex vows he'll fight against Tate no matter how much it costs him and Tate backs down.

Wonder student Ian does the work of two students and we soon find out that he has the ability to clone a copy of himself. First he kills a shop teacher who gives him a bad grade and then starts dating both Chloe and Lana to advance his prospects and when Clark suspects, Ian tries to kill him and Pete while having a perfect alibi. Clark soon figures things out but Lana and Chloe initially dismiss his suspicions as jealousy. When they figure it out Ian(s) capture them both and takes them to a dam to fake a double-suicide. Clark rescues them and one of the Ians dies. Clark, Lana, and Chloe come to some kind of arrangement.

Meanwhile, Jonathan breaks a leg when Martha is at a meeting so she feels guilty but they resolve matters. And Lex displays a hot temper and starts taking anger management classes with an attractive local doctor who met Lex during his rebel stage and they both have issues with their fathers.

Clark falls into an Indian cave near a Lexcorp construction project and meets Kyla and then her grandfather Joseph. The caves hold ancient cave drawings, including a prophecy of Naman, a being who fell from the sky and has great powers. Kyla soon discovers Clark has powers and believes he is Naman, and the two become closer. Meanwhile, a wolf attacks those connected to the construction project. Clark believes Joseph is the "skinwalker" but discovers it is Kyla, who dies after attacking Lionel. Lex, who has seen the drawings and recognizes one as having the hex-key pattern, engineers a buyout from his father to get control of the area.

Meanwhile, Lana gets two bits of news - good or bad, take your pick. She confirms that Henry Small is genetically her father, and that Whitney is MIA.

Whitney Fordman returns from a mission in Indonesia, disrupting Clark and Lana's budding relationship. When Whitney starts acting odd Clark soon figures out that "Whitney" is actually Tina Greer, the super-strong shapeshifter (from last year's "X-Ray"), who faked her death and is back to get Lana again. Tina soon figures that Lana must have feelings for Clark and takes his form. Clark shows up and in a final fight Tina accidentally impales herself. It turns out the real Whitney died in Indonesia.

Meanwhile, Lex's relationship with Dr. Bryce is tested when he gets photos of her meeting his father, and Clark's spaceship activates and neutralizes Lana's kryptonite necklace, saving Clark.

Lex doesn't take it well when he discovers his father has him under electronic surveillance, and is using the info to undercut his business deals. He hires some crooks to bug his father's office but they decide to take Lionel and Martha hostage and break into the Luthercorp vault. But the vault contains green meteor ingots that Lionel has had made, the octagonal key to Clark's spaceship, and a confidential file on Clark. Lionel and (secretly) Lex start negotiating with the crooks when the latter finds out what his father has secretly horded, and the crooks decide to go with Lionel. Meanwhile, Clark leaps across from the Daily Planet building and starts taking out the thieves but is exposed to the kryptonite. Martha locks up the kryptonite and Lionel shoots the head crook, Pine. The Kents manage to destroy the file and Martha secretly pockets the key, leaving the audience to wonder if Lionel knows more than he's saying.

Meanwhile, Lana meets with her biological father Henry's wife who gives her some advice, and the Kents have problems over Martha's job with Lionel. Martha decides to stay with Lionel (with Jonathan's approval) to find out what Lionel knows.

Lionel Luthor is shot in Lex's manor and Jonathan is found with a bottle of booze and the murder weapon, and Lana witnessed him arguing with Lionel. He's not the only suspect, though. Lionel's assistant Dominic claims Lex had motive and opportunity, Lex claims Dominic is responsible, and Chloe suspects Lana's father Henry Small. When Clark starts asking questions someone tries to kill him. It turns out the murderer is . . . Sheriff Ethan, who set up Jonathan and then shot Lionel because Lionel was blackmailing him into digging up blackmail info on Lex's LexCorp board members.

During a rave at the Indian caves (first seen in "Skinwalker"), a student kills himself in a wild stunt and Pete gets zapped by something that makes him go to extremes. There's a pattern of other people dying from such behavior and when Chloe and Clark investigate the cave she gets infected as well. As Lex determines there are alien parasites in the cave and they feed on the adrenaline in their hosts, Chloe and Pete team up and slip a piece of red meteor rock to Clark so he can get in on the rush-fun but he manages to escape its influence. Lana gets the wrong idea when he locks lips with Chloe. Clark rescues his two friends as they drive off a cliff and fortunately Chloe doesn't remember anything about Clark's secret but Lana isn't buying Clark's lack of an explanation.

Lex recovers his long-lost brother Lucas (mentioned in "Lineage") from a situation with Asian criminals and brings him to Smallville as a ploy to buy out his father. Lucas switches sides with Lionel (who set the whole thing up), kicking out Lex who moves in with the Kents. But Lucas has plans of his own and figures out Lionel can see (as does Lex later). Lex figures things out while some of Lucas' gambling "partners" show up to make things rough for him. Lionel taunts Lucas into going after Lex, and Lucas decides to go with homicide and force Lionel to shoot him. It turns out Lionel set up everything to play the two against each other but when Lucas threatens to kill Lex, Lionel gets the gun (with some secret help from Clark) and shoots Lucas . . . but the gun has blanks ? Lex and Lucas teamed up to play Lionel. Lionel gives back Lex control of the company in return for his silence in the matter and Lex keeps Lucas under his protection.

Meanwhile, Clark applies for a job at the Talon but the situation becomes hazy when Lucas butts in as Lana's new partner. He ends up losing the job to go rescue Lionel and Lex, who don't need it anyway - leaving the Clark/Lana relationship up in the air once more.

Martha gets a lungful of green meteor-irradiated spores while burying the ship key in the cellar and goes into a coma along with her newly-revealed unborn child. The DCA show up to search the farm and Clark gets some of the dust when he removes the ship, temporarily stripping him of his strength and later causing him to collapse. Jonathan and a sickly Clark break into the DCA base to steal the key back and Pete draws the military off while they get to the hospital with the ship. Activated, it unleashes a burst of light that cures Martha and Clark, leaving Helen with some questions.

Meanwhile, Dr. Bryce considers accepting a research grant at John Hopkins and Lex asks her to stay and move in with him. Lex gets a copy of Martha's medical files behind Helen's back. And Chloe confesses her true feelings to an unconscious Clark in a letter that Lana sees.

Clark has dreams of flying in the Indian cave ("Skinwalker") and inserting the octagonal key into a hole. As Dr. Walden ("Rush") tries to get a sample, the key summons Clark to the cave and places itself in the hole, activating lights and a beam that hits Clark. Later Clark's heat-vision activates on its own, burning a symbol into the barn a symbol which Clark can translate (as "hope"). A Dr. Swann sees the photo of the barn that Chloe takes and contacts Clark using symbols from the mysterious language. Clark goes to visit him and finds out Swann received a signal on the day of the meteor shower using the same language with a mathematical key. The signal identifies Clark as "Kal-El" from the planet "Krypton" and Swann says Clark must find his destiny. Clark and his adopted parents open the ship with the key and insert the pad Jonathan found and Clark translates it as a message from his father telling him to rule over Earth.

Meanwhile, Walden finds the key left behind by Clark but gets mind-fried when he tries to use it in the cave due to an "information overload", leaving Lex with a few more suspicions. And Lana and Chloe have a fight when Lana snoops on Chloe's computer and finds pictures of Chloe and Clark. Lana starts to move out but they patch things up.