Smallville 2.14 - Rush

Click here to watch the podcast.

A question to my male readers: Have you ever had a conversation with a girl while she's licking a lollipop? It's happened to me twice in my life, and I found it very arousing. In this scene from "Rush", Clark Kent is visibly nervous while talking to her. If my female readers don't believe me, try it. Ask your school teacher or your church's priest an innocent question, then start to lick while looking in his eyes. Better still, do it with me next time we meet, then I'll know you've been reading my blog.

This is a Back To The Caves episode. The Smallville High students have put on a rave in the Kawatche Caves. Lex Luthor has put a security guard outside the caves, but he hasn't done a good job. On the one hand, the caves are sacred to the Kawatche tribe. On the other hand, there are 500 year old paintings on the walls. Teenagers aren't interested in the preservation of culture, they just want to party. One of the boys, Travis George, climbs a scaffold and jumps to his death between the shocked ravers. It's a case of crowd surfing without the surfing.

What's relevant to our story is that Pete Ross is acting strange the next day. He's riding his bike without a helmet, performing acrobatic stunts outside the Talon. It's not so much that he isn't afraid of death, he wants to die. When Clark challenges him, Pete says, "You're never more alive than in the moment before you die". This is the reason for the episode's title. Something has given Travis and Pete an adrenalin rush.

A strong cup of espresso also gives an adrenalin rush, as the sign outside the Talon proclaims, but Pete has been doing more than drinking espresso.

Inside the Talon, Lana is writing a new sign advertising 2 for 1 chai lattes. That's a good offer, but she should be offering a free lollipop with every cup of coffee. Clark is also deciding to take a risk, inspired by Pete's new attitude. He invites Lana on a date.

Lana's smile says it all. I've never seen her looking so happy.

Clark visits the caves to clean up after the rave, but he's interrupted by Lex Luthor, who tells him that a maintenance team has already been hired to clean the cave. He says that his security guard has been fired, but first he told him that Clark has been visiting the caves every day. The two friends are curious about one another. Lex wants to know why a teenage boy like Clark looks at cave paintings every day. Clark wants to know why a businessman like Lex is spending thousands of dollars on protecting caves that don't bring him a profit.

Lex spots a book in Clark's backpack: "Deciphering the Mysteries of Hieroglyphics" by Dr. Frederick Walden. That's heavy reading for a 15-year-old. Or maybe Clark is already 16. According to Superman lore, his birthday is on 29th February, although the date has never been verified in the series. I assume it's an approximate date guessed by Clark's adoptive parents, because they needed a date to celebrate every year; or every four years.

Lex is spontaneous. He invites Dr. Walden to his mansion and asks him to start work on interpreting the writing on the cave walls. Dr. Walden isn't easily bought. First he rips up a huge cheque offered by Lex, but he changes his mind when he sees photos of the cave paintings. I hope Lex wrote a new cheque, or the doctor would have had to glue the pieces back together.

By this point, Clark is worrying about Pete, so he takes Chloe to the cave to look for clues. She puts her hand in a crevice full of blue slime. After that she begins to act strangely.

Not that I'd call it strange to lick a lollipop while talking to Clark. It's just out of character. She's never this flirtatious. Clark shuffles nervously from foot to foot, then backs out of the room. That's probably the way I'd react as well.

Chloe teams up with Pete, since they now share the same wild spirit. Pete knows a way to make Clark loosen up. He slips a red meteor rock into his shirt pocket. This is the same rock that we saw in the episode "Red", the rock that takes away his inhibitions.

They go back to the farm, and Clark demonstrates his powers to her in the barn: super strength, heat vision and super speed.

By the way, don't you think that Chloe's new streaks make her look hot?

Just look at the way they're going at it on the back seat of Pete's new car. His old car was blown up in last week's episode. He must have good car insurance. My policy doesn't include damage by snipers.

I have a confession to make. I wouldn't need a red meteor rock to make me kiss Chloe.

They drive to the Talon, where they continue kissing. If I counted correctly, there were four scenes with kisses in the episode. It's interesting that Tom Welling has forgotten his kisses with Kristin Kreuk in the previous episodes, but he remembers his kisses with Allison Mack. In the podcast he says that kisses on screen aren't erotic for him as an actor, because he's surrounded by a film crew. But just look at how red his face is in this scene. If he says he's not getting turned on, I don't believe him.

Chloe rips Clark's shirt off. This is even more exciting than licking a lollipop, but it's not something that I would recommend with your school teacher or your priest.

How far is Chloe willing to go? She wants to be seen by Lana.

The red rock falls out of Clark's shirt, and he's back to normal. He pushes Chloe away, adjusts his jeans and puts his jacket on. Clark tries to walk away, but Chloe won't take No for an answer. She grabs Clark and kisses him again, just as Lana walks in. She's heartbroken.

When Clark cools down, he finds out what's causing the change in his friends. His X-Ray vision shows him that there's a large bug crawling in Pete's chest. Chloe has a similar bug.

Dr. Walden also finds a parasite in the caves. Lex has it sent for examination, and he finds that it's like no other creature on Earth. What's even more fascinating is that there's a painting of this parasite on the cave walls. Dr. Walden still hasn't interpreted the writing below the painting, but he guesses that it's a warning about the parasites. Have they been put there to protect something? Future episodes will reveal all.

Once the secrets have been unveiled, Clark takes Chloe and Pete to hospital to have the parasites removed. We don't hear what happens to them. Do the operations leave nasty scars? Are the parasites still alive after being removed? These are some of the many loose ends left in the Smallville TV series.

When the parasites are removed, Pete and Chloe forget everything that happened while they were under their influence. Chloe has forgotten her passionate kisses with Clark, but Lana hasn't forgotten them. "I understand why Chloe was kissing you, but why were you kissing Chloe?". The honest answer would have been, "Don't worry, it was just because I had a red meteor rock in my pocket", but somehow I don't think Lana would have accepted that answer. At the end of the episode Clark tries to apologise to Lana with a beautiful red rose and a pizza. For a moment it looks like she'll forgive him, but then she throws the rose into a waste paper basket. She doesn't throw away the pizza. Nobody would do that!

There's a discrepancy in the story. Principal Reynolds rings the Kents to tell them that Clark has frequently been late for school. This is because he's been visiting the caves before school. But wasn't Principal Reynolds killed in "Redux"? Maybe he survived.

Another discrepancy that Michael Rosenbaum and Tom Welling failed to point out is the Talon sign. At the beginning of the episode it advertises espresso for the morning rush. When Clark goes into the Talon the next day to make out with Chloe, the sign advertises the open Mike night. But when he leaves the Talon a few minutes later, the espresso sign is up again.

There's a car scene that Tom Welling – quite correctly – points out is based on the final scene in "Thelma and Louise". Michael says that he's never seen it. What? Has he been living under a rock for the last 32 years? It's in place 48 in my top films list, and it's also in my 30 films to watch before you die. I hope Michael is reading this post. He needs to watch "Thelma and Louise" now. No excuses! In fact, he needs to watch all 30 of the films. Life is too short to miss good films.

Michael says that he dated Marissa Ribisi 20 years ago, before she went on to marry the singer Beck. They were recently divorced, so he has another chance.

As I've said before, I don't rate individual Smallville episodes, but this is an episode that I greatly enjoyed. I'm disappointed that Michael only gave it half a rose in his rose'n'bomb rating. It deserves more than that.

I'll close this post with another photo of Chloe with her lollipop. This time she's sucking it. This made Clark nervous, but I wonder if this Tom Welling also felt nervous as an actor. He discreetly failed to mention it in the podcast.

	Order from Amazon.com
	Order from Amazon.co.uk
	Order from Amazon.de