Ep 2.01 - Vortex

[Tabbymarie]

In the aftermath of the tornado, Lex does his best to make sure his life is saved, and Jonathan and Roger Nixon (Tom O'Brien) are buried alive.

Part two of two. John Glover formally joins the regular cast with this episode.

[vyperman7]

One of my favorite episodes of all time. This goes on my top ten list without a doubt. Arrival and Exile are my two favorite premieres, but Vortex was an amazing episode as well. The tornado sequence was just so awesome, and the final scene with the ship and Cold Play's "In My Place" playing in the background gives me chills each time I see it. I just can't get enough of this one. I also love the scene where Lex shoots Nixon. The look on his face standing there over the body is just pure evil Lex. Love it. I also love Nixon's quote "Clark is the answer that the world has been waiting for."

Although, this was the only episode that ever made me dislike Chloe. She has always been my favorite female character on the show.

But the scene where she tells Clark that she wants to be friends, and then gets pissed at him for agreeing just bugs the crap out of me. I know why she did it. She obviously wanted Clark to show that he wanted her. But mind reading is not one of Clark's powers. I mean, the guy is pretty dense. It was her idea, and ultimately her fault.

[jdot]

Chloe had a major attack of the stupids in that scene. The worst part is that she couldn't tell that Clark was actually disappointed. He's very good at agreeing with other people and not asking for things he wants, and she of all people should have known that by then.

[OutlawAngel]

Yeah I was pretty mad at Chloe there. I think the only reason Clark did agree was becasue Chloe acted out that she wanted out of the relationship so well. The was Clark answered her it was clear that he was dissapointed. Plus did she have to pull that while Jonathan was missing? Obviously Clark wasnt really worrid at that moment about anything but finding his dad and Chloe got upset because she broke up the relationship between her and her boyfriend. What was she expecting of him?

I couldnt help but get a 'Night of the Living Tornado' reminder from the begining of this episode with Schneider running around away from a tornado.

Though Jonathan showed how much of a...err....donkey he was in this episode. Lex saves Jonathan's life and by the enxt episode it was back to the platitudes. That kinda told me if Jonathan wasnt ever gonna accept Lex after the man had just saved his life then Jonathan would never accept Lex.

[red-K glory]

this episode is a great introduction to season 2! it was cool how Jonathan and Nixon were stuck with each other and Jonathan messes up Nixon's tape of Clark. and when Lex shot Nixon at the end was crazy! I especially like the ending when the space ship is shown in the corn field.

[brainiacowen]

"It felt like I was flying..."

One of the best Smallville moments EVER! This episode was perfect minus the whole Chloe not reading Clark's face thing...

Oh, and Lex kills his first person...AH!

[k18]

I loved the Jonathan vs. Nixon battle at the end. Their fight was awesome. It was great seeing a good old fashion mortal vs. mortal fight for once.

I didn't like Chloe's expression when Clark agreed they should be just friends. Come on, she was the one who said it first. If Clark had said no and he wants to be more than friends, then the power of the relationship shifts to Chloe. It would be a power struggle between the two then. If she wanted to be more than friends, then why not just say so? I never got her.

[ckfan]

One of the best of the whole series, in my opinion.

The conversations between Nixon and Jonathan in the tomb were some of the most meaningful in the whole series, I think. Summed up why Jonathan and Martha were so important to Clark's development and why they needed to be so protective.

Nixon was a great villain!

Also, there were dynamics going on in a lot of the relationships - Jonathan and Lex, Clark and Chloe, Clark and his Dad, even Lana and Martha.

Clark's line "It felt like I was flying," was one of the best line deliveries of TW in the whole series. I really felt his frustration about not being able to tell Lana what happened, and his feelings of both fear and fascination in the realization that he is capable of flying.

[vyperman7]

That is what I am talking about ckfan!

This episode is underrated in my opinion. I think that Rogue and Vortex are two of the best CK episodes out there.

[OutlawAngel]

Vortex is one of my favorite episodes of the series. I liked it because there was no freak of the week or nothign supernatural. This was a real life sittuation that many people go through of course take out Nixon trying to expose Clark as an alien

And Clark was powerless to stop the tornado. He could save Lana from it but he couldnt stop it.

It made the show more real.

And I seriously though Jonathan was gonna kill Nixon when they landed in that tomb. He had a seriously angry and almost psycho look. If I had been Nixon I would of thought he was about to kill me too.

And then at the end when Nixon was aobut to kill Jonathan I was wondering how in the world he was gonna get out of that situation. I never expected Lex to shoot him.

After that though I did lose a lil repsect for Bo with the way he treated Lex. For goodness sakes Lx saved his life and that still wasnt enough for Bo?

[vyperman7]

While I do agree with you about JK being a bit ungrateful, the characters can only behave the way that they are written. Back in the earlier seasons the only way to hint at Lex's evil side was to have JK re-inforcing that Lex could not be trusted. They had to find someway to make the audience think about Lex's future.

This episode also had Chloe acting weird as well. This was the only episode I disliked Chloe. "I think it would be a good idea, if we just stayed really good friends. Anything else, just gets too complicated." Then five minutes later, she is crying because Clark agreed. It was her freakin idea. You could see Clark was dissapointed too, but he wanted to go along with what he thought Chloe wanted.

Clark can do a lot of things, but he can't read minds Chloe. It was your fault. :mad:

But in Chloe's defense, Clark always has been kind of dense. :D

I know I posted about this already, but it just needs to be mentioned again. I just can't get over Chloe in this episode.

[UpandAtom]

Originally posted by brainiacowen
"It felt like I was flying..."

One of the best Smallville moments EVER!

Yeah that scene was great. It was too bad that it didn't go anywhere from there.

[Innuendo]

So... I was thinking back at this episode and there was a minor detail that I can't remember.

You all know that CK went after Lana in the twister. But we also saw the ship.

So my question is this: Where was it actually headed? Was it on a mission? Was it supposed to get caught in the twister so that Clark would find it later?

[Keldaz]

^ i think the ship was supposed to save and protect Clark. And later clark was to find it and take it back.

so it went after clark becouse he needed help kinda. I think.

[frackgyrll]

im just glad that chloe told clark to stay friends. i mean, im not really thrilled about it but she's smart & she knows that clark still has feelings for lana & it's not fair to her. :D

[maryjanewatson]

Originally posted by vyperman7


This episode also had Chloe acting weird as well. This was the only episode I disliked Chloe. "I think it would be a good idea, if we just stayed really good friends. Anything else, just gets too complicated." Then five minutes later, she is crying because Clark agreed. It was her freakin idea. You could see Clark was dissapointed too, but he wanted to go along with what he thought Chloe wanted.

Clark can do a lot of things, but he can't read minds Chloe. It was your fault. :mad:

THANKYOU! I thought the same thing! She freaking brought it up, then 5 seconds later she is crying about it and makes it sound as if it was clarks idea.

also, her getting mad about clark going and saving peoples lives? what is that? sure she could be mad at him when he first left, but after finding out that he was out saving people, she should have been more understanding.

ugh, I HATE CHLOE. she is so freaking annoying and stupid!!!

[makaveli80]

she was upset because she realized he went to save lana, meaning that he was still in love with lana. his love for lana was stronger than his love for chloe and that was why she didn't want to continue the relationship. but yeah, she should have been honest about her feelings for clark but I suppose she was afraid of being rejected in favour of Lana down the road....

btw, how does a vortex knock out the key of an alien aircraft...the craft hurtled through space at millions of miles an hour and the key never came out...but this little tornado was able to dislodge it?

[maryjanewatson]

Just because clark went to save lana does not mean he is still in love with her! i mean, he is, but that had nothing to do with him saving her! heck, Clark did the same thing for chloe! He left his date/non-date with lana to go save chloe in "cool". Saving is just in Clarks nature, it's what he does. chloe shouldn't have been mad at him for going and saving lana, when he did the same thing to save her.

[Hurricain]

I always thought the reason Chloe said that was because she knew Clark had feelings for Lana still. She wanted Clark to fight for her. Who wants to be in a relationship with someone that is in love with someone else?

I just think Chloe wanted Clark, but not if he was still in Love with Lana.

[tallville]

This is one of my favorites from season two. I loved how it looked inside of the tornado. I was on the edge of my seat for the first 5 minutes of the episode and it was a great start to the season.

[Detorio]

Great introduction to Season 2 IMO, i enjoyed this episode. It set a tone of what was to come in Season 2. Though i expected more from Chloe, and when i say more i expected Chloe to fight for Clark and instead she done the complete opposite. The whole ep i was yearning to watch Clark and Chloe confront eachother about the last time they saw eachother and about their future. Instead she decides they should be friends and well Clark accepts but then she cries to herself about his answer. It's almost as she felt it was Clark's fault that he wanted to be friends. She put the cards on the table and he rightfully accepted. I thought that was really wacked. But i like how Lana was saved and how she wanted answers and i like how Jonathon fought of that Roger Nixon. Lex comes in and does the rest. Good, solid episode.

[Luthorism]

this is a great episode where chloe lost her chance forever..

She's quite idiot on this one!..I felt sorry for her.

[Bizzaro1975]

Why did the space ship get activated? And why did it go into the tornado? Im just wondering where they were going with that story line. Also hwy did the ship get disabled so easily in a lightening and the disk came out. Surely the ship had faced something more than that getting to eart. Since it seems harder to just destro i doubt even after all these years its worn out or damaged from the initial crash.
anyway just wondering.

[kyl-el]

The last couple minutes of this episode is so great because not only do we get to hear from Clark that he felt like he was flying, but Lana confronts him in the loft about what really happened. She tells him that "you can't hide out here forever",which is kewl because it has dual meaning; he can't hide from her forever and he also can't hide from his destiy forever (even though he has no clue about that yet...). That coupled with "in my place" by coldplay and the serene view of the corn field is such a perfect beginning to this season. And then they show you the lost spaceship that you probably forgot about, just to shock you before the credits. I love it.

[iluvsmallville1010]

The corn field part gave me the chills. Don't ask me why.

[clarkbunny]

There is a commentary with Tom Welling in a later season, Clark & Lana have another fight 'cos Clark can't tell Lana the truth and Lana ends up riding away from him angry. Tom says he thinks Clark is 'stupid, stupid, stupid' for letting Lana go.

I think the same thing in this episode about Chloe dumping Clark. If she had just kept her damn mouth shut her and Clark would still be together to this day as Clark would have realised how deeply he cared for & loved Chloe. People blaming Clark for being dumb are totally wrong.

In his defense:
Clark only just realised that he had feelings for Chloe and he had been hesitant to start anything with her because he didn't want to ruin their friendship. When Chloe said she just wanted to be friends, Clark was clearly disappointed but he didn't want to show it. He had been cautious entering the relationship as he didn't want to ruin their friendship and now Chloe was saying she just wanted to be friends he decided to respect her wishes despite his own feelings on the matter because he really cared about their friendship.

Chloe only suggested being friends because she was hoping for Clark to fight for her and convince her to stay with him. She missed the point that they had only been going out a short while and it had taken a lot for Clark to ask her out in the first place. Clark was still trying to figure out his feelings for her, it was too soon for her to expect him to convince her to stay in the relationship.

In my opinion Chloe shot herself in the foot. She had Clark right where she wanted him and she blew it. Clark had opened himself to the deeper feelings he had for Chloe and was ready to explore a relationship with her. Her dumping him made him put those feelings to the back of his mind as he thought Chloe just wanted to be friends. He was then able to go back to his Lana fixation and Chloe hasn't had a look in since.

Hopefully the writers will let them get together before the series ends though as I really think they should be together, much more than Clana. Their relationship has strengthened throughout the episodes with Clark helping Chloe with her mum and meteor power and Chloe helping Clark when he was on silver krptonite and just being there for him in general. Clark has spent more time with Chloe and known her for a lot longer than Lana, and he trusts her - they deserve to be together.

[ClareKent]

The only season premiere that has nothing to dp with alien stuffs beyond the ship, I love it, a beautiful episode and a great begining for the second season :)

[highdro_pharmer]

Just watched this ep again on a whim... it's amazing that Lex admits to Clark that he hesitated before saving Lionel in the twister... that type of an admission and putting that much faith in a friend leads me to believe that Lex wasn't just using Clark to find out the truth about his abilities, but that he truly viewed Clark as a brother if only he would have been just as honest with Lex. It's Lex's obsessive quest for the truth and Clark's dishonesty that ultimately drive a wedge between them. A Classic Ep.

[Misstaken]

Good season premiere overall.

Lionel blind? Wow, great stuff =). The Jonathan and Nixon scenes were well done, Jonathan was really sweet when he talked about Clark. You could tell he loved his son more than anything.


The only thing that makes me want to hate this episode is the fact that Lana's quest for the truth starts here....... and only ends 104 episodes later in Promise.

[Chloe_is_my_Hero]

Anybody else ever notice that when Clark is frantically seaching for JK in the barn and Lex walks in, he looks in a tool box?? That cracks me up. I guess Tom got carried away. Hey dad, you in the tool box??!! lol.

[ginnyfan]

^LOL!!!

This really paid off on the promise of Tempest. After I saw "Tempest" I was on the edge of my seat about how Clark would save Lana and would she know. So the tornado effect was just fantastic.

I noticed that Lana is to the tornado incident as Lex is to the car crash. Re-watching this episode really made me happy that they flashed back to the tornado in the Season 6 episode "Promise."

Also this episode killed my Chlark high fast. I agree with earlier posts. I understand why Chloe did what she did but it's frustrating. Clark was so disappointed. And THEN she's passive aggressive about it the whole rest of the season.

The Jonathan/Lex/Lionel relationship is a powder keg this whole season. I love the way they start off Lex/Jonathan in this episode. It's the most hopeful I've ever been about their relationship. Well... except for the episode where Whitney plays football with the Sharks.

I love how action packed it is without using any of the formula from Season 1. I love how fast paced it is. I love the continued character development. This is a fantastic pay off from the Nixon story arc which began mid Season 1. Great start for Season 2.

[Flowergirl123]

This was a good episode. I watched it yesterday and it made me feel like I was nine again. Because that's how old I was when I first saw it.

[davidbrenton]

This episode also had Chloe acting weird as well. This was the only episode I disliked Chloe. "I think it would be a good idea, if we just stayed really good friends. Anything else, just gets too complicated." Then five minutes later, she is crying because Clark agreed. It was her freakin idea. You could see Clark was dissapointed too, but he wanted to go along with what he thought Chloe wanted.

Clark can do a lot of things, but he can't read minds Chloe. It was your fault. :mad:

But in Chloe's defense, Clark always has been kind of dense. :D

I know I posted about this already, but it just needs to be mentioned again. I just can't get over Chloe in this episode.

Wow. A lot of people were hard on Chloe in this episode. I was sure this episode was the one that made everyone fall in love with her. Come on. She was way to afraid of being hurt by him to tell him the truth, and besides, she already knew his answer in his behavior with how he is toward Lana. She protected herself despite her feelings, and didn't call him out on something that was entirely obvious he wasn't into.

I don't see the error of her ways, especially by openly crying about it. I thought that was understandle.

----- Added 3 Minutes later -----

OMG. On the pictures, did you guys catch the "Bride" homage to Tempest/Vortex? Chloe deletes the pictures of her computer of Clark smiling brightly holding Chloe's arm EXACTLY how he did in Bride. Also, Bride had the nod to "Tempest" as well with Clark giving her the flower.

--I think that's why Clark smiled so wierd in Bride...it was to capture the same effect as in Tempest. (Unlikely, but possible).

----- Added 7 Minutes later -----

I don't like how Lana was all "You can't hide out here forever" and trying to get into his business. Just thank him if it was him, and thank him if it wasn't. Move on lady.

[Clark/Lois-fan]

What a GREAT start to S2.

I LOVED this episode and the last scene in the field, the sun is shining & Coldplay- In My Place, is playing in the background. AMAZING

When Clark told Jonathan that he felt like he was flying- it gace me chills.

[simplemath]

This is the beginning of Lana questioning clark's secret

[Supsfan]

I don't like how Lana was all "You can't hide out here forever" and trying to get into his business. Just thank him if it was him, and thank him if it wasn't. Move on lady.

Yeah I am going through all seasons rewatching every episode. This is the first time you can see "I need to know your secret" Lana. In the first season she was sweet and smiled alot and minded her business.

[Night_Hawk90]

Yeah I am going through all seasons rewatching every episode. This is the first time you can see "I need to know your secret" Lana. In the first season she was sweet and smiled alot and minded her business.

well seeing as how she saw clark "floating" in the twister with it hardly affecting him, i can understand her intrique and interest, i see no harm in what lana is doing.

[Supsfan]

well seeing as how she saw clark "floating" in the twister with it hardly affecting him, i can understand her intrique and interest, i see no harm in what lana is doing.

It started a bad trend though, they should have just knocked her out unconscious. I would say though that "I need to know your secret" Lana started getting repeatative around mid season 3 but you can pinpoint the first time we see that character to this episode

[Lex Dance]

^^^^^ I think Lana's need to know is a pivotal part of the Smallville story - I think it has to be in any Superman show with characters close to Clark Kent's heart (see Lex, Chloe, Jimmy - but strangely not Lois, which I think is kind of cool and in keeping with classic Lois Lane). However, what I found annoying about Lana's character over the years was that she felt she had a God-given right to be told Clark's secret.

[Supsfan]

I think Lana's need to know is a pivotal part of the Smallville story.

I think that as well, problem is after awhile that story got repetative and annoying

[Nimkong]

This episode would have been better but it was such a big let down compared to the finale.But it had a good plot and lex was pretty tight.He had to make a choice between the big secret or his only friendship

[Munnag]

7 Points

It was a very good start for Season2, Nixon is finally gone and Lex has really done his best to save his friendship, I thought Lex going to let his father die and he will be an evil from this season.... Was even expecting Lex friendship with Clark was officially over, Looks like all the things have settled down other than Lana starts suspecting that Clark hiding things from her... and Poor Chloe, i really feel bad for her again!!

Apart from all these..i have waited the entire episode to see where the damn space ship fall down.... let see who is going to find it now!!!