Summary
Lana decides to enroll at Metropolis University at the last minute and is forced to join a sorority to find housing at such a late date. However, the house leader Buffy Sanders and her new sorority sisters offer her more than a place to crash after they turn her into a vampire and instruct her to kill Clark. Chloe applies for an internship at the Daily Planet, but the newspaper's formidable editor may be more than she can handle. Milton Fine finally reveals his evil side and superhuman powers when he kills Lex's bodyguard.
Recap
→ see also Category:Screencaps from episode 5x05
Chloe interviews for a job at the Daily Planet.
Chloe is at the Daily Planet headquarters in Metropolis interviewing for a job with the new editor-in-chief, Pauline Kahn. Ms. Kahn is unimpressed with the column Chloe wrote in high school and tells her that Lionel's arm-twisting is the only reason she ever got the opportunity. She dismisses Chloe, but Chloe tells her that she doesn't expect special treatment and is willing to work her way up to the top. Pauline Kahn tells her that she will consider hiring her if she produces a good story.
Chloe sets to work and starts her report on the Tri-Psi sorority. At their sorority house, a pizza boy arrives and the girls invite him into the hot tub. During the make-out session, the girls suddenly start biting him, he begins to scream and the water turns blood red.
Clark goes to visit Lana at her theater and then steps into her apartment to find her packing. She tells him that she's applied for late acceptance to Met U, but there is no longer any housing available, so she is considering a sorority. Clark is disappointed and suggests her go to CKU with him, but she assures him that nothing will change between them.
Lex asks Fine about his research.
Clark is in Professor Milton Fine's history course. After the lecture, Professor Fine is approached by Lex Luthor. Lex accuses him of researching certain LuthorCorp projects that have yet to gain public knowledge. He asks him if Clark Kent is providing the information, but Fine denies Clark's involvement. Lex reminds Fine that he has great influence in the CKU review board.
Buffy and the Tri-Psi girls.
The Tri-Psi sorority head, Buffy Sanders introduces her group as the prettiest and most exclusive sorority. Lana is one of the pledges and is surprised to find out that she is the only one that has been picked to join. They tell her that there is one more initiation ritual, and it is revealed that the entire sorority are vampires. They bite Lana and she becomes part of the sisterhood.
Fine goes to the Mansion and tells Lex that he doesn't have to investigate his past, because he will provide him with anything he wants to know. He gives Lex a file on himself and tells Lex that he knows he is using funding from the University to conduct LuthorCorp experiments. Lex seems to back off, but when Fine leaves, Lex sends a guard to follow him.
Clark notices Lana's odd behavior after joining the sorority.
Chloe's roommate Karen is dismantling her mini version of the Wall of Weird when she arrives home. She is angry about the wall, and even angrier that Lana Lang is asleep in Chloe's bed. Karen storms away and Chloe tries to revive Lana. She is groggy and lethargic, and Chloe thinks she is hungover from the pledge party. Clark arrives and Chloe leaves her in his care. He asks if she's feeling ok and she says she's fine and starts making out with him. Clark is surprised and confused by her aggressive advances and she gets annoyed by his reluctance and leaves.
The guard finds Professor Fine at Warehouse 15. When he approaches and says he shouldn't be touching what isn't his, but Fine claims otherwise. He extends a metal projectile from his hand, kills the guard, and goes back to examining the Black Ship.
Clark and Chloe investigate the sorority.
Chloe's investigation continues and she reports that Lana and her new friends have fun throwing each other off the house's balcony and getting drunk. Clark is worried about Lana's strange behavior and Chloe tells him that she's been investigating the sorority and has uncovered some strange details. None of the sisters ever leave the sorority, and it is the most exclusive one on campus. She makes a plan to infiltrate their Halloween party and brings Clark along. They split up to locate Lana. Clark ducks into a bedroom where Buffy catches him rummaging. She orders him to leave, but she is distracted by someone at her door. When she turns back to Clark, he is gone.
Fine tells Clark to ask Lex how to cure Chloe.
Chloe finds Lana dancing and making out with other boys and pulls her to the side. She asks her about how she's been acting and Lana bites her. Chloe calls Clark for help and he uses his super-hearing to find her. He arrives to catch Chloe just as she passes out, astonished to see Lana standing over her with a mouth full of bloody, pointed teeth. Clark takes Chloe to the hospital where the doctor reports that she has a rare strain of the rabies virus which is preventing her red blood cells from regenerating. They can treat her but they don't know the cure. Professor Fine arrives at the hospital, claiming to be visiting a sick colleague. He asks about Chloe's condition and Clark admits that he thinks she was attacked by a vampire. Fine looks at Chloe's chart and tells him to ask Lex about Project 1138.
Back at the Tri-Psi sorority, the other girls are mad at Lana for leaving a victim alive. They tell her that Clark was snooping around and she has to clean up her mess by bringing him back so they can finish him off, or Lana will be the one they feed off instead.
Lana feeds off of Clark.
Clark goes to the Luthor Mansion and demands that Lex tell him about the Project. Lex leads Clark into the library carrying a metal briefcase. He explains that six years ago, Buffy Sanders was trapped outside Smallville in a cave but was rescued by LuthorCorp. The cave was found to contain meteor rock-infected stalactites that had mutated the vampire bats living there. A LuthorCorp worker was also bitten and developed vampire-like symptoms like strength, fangs, and light sensitivity, but they were able to cure him. He opens the case to reveal vials of the serum, kept active by a large fragment of meteor rock. Clark starts to feel ill and backs away just as an overhead window breaks. Lana appears and jumps to the floor. She knocks Lex out and attacks Clark. Clark is weakened by the kryptonite and Lana bites him. After sucking his blood, she is able to shoot heat from her eyes. Clark is able to grab one of the syringes with the antidote in it before Lana takes him back to the sorority house.
The girls lay him on the hearth of the fireplace and prepare to feed on him. Lana doesn't want to kill him and suggests they just turn him into a vampire as well. The girls explain there is no room for him in a sorority. Buffy doesn't care what Lana wants and when Lana stands in her way, she knocks her to the floor. Buffy then tries to kill Lana, but she uses her heat vision to vaporize Buffy and the other vampires run away in fear. Lana prepares to turn Clark into a vampire but he is able to stab her heart with the antidote and restore her to normal.
Lana tells Clark that she doesn't remember much.
Clark and Lana are walking along campus when he tentatively asks how much she remembered. She admits that it's all a little fuzzy, but she remembers biting him and says she felt his love for her and his strength. She says she misses being with him.
Clark goes to the Luthor Mansion to thank Lex for saving the girls' lives. Lex gets Clark to admit that Professor Fine is the one who told him about Project 1138 and tells him that Fine is obtaining highly classified documents. He warns Clark to stay away from Fine.
Chloe gets a job at the Daily Planet.
Chloe's report concludes with the knowledge that all the girls were cured, including herself. Her roommate transferred, so Lana was able to move in with her. She gives the article to Pauline Kahn, but Kahn claims that they don't print tabloid stories. Chloe counters with the research she did for the article including interviews, CDC reports, and eyewitness accounts. Kahn changes her mind, says that Chloe has potential, and agrees to hire her. Chloe is thrilled to start her dream career in the basement of the Daily Planet.
Main Cast
- Tom Welling as Clark Kent
- Kristin Kreuk as Lana Lang
- Michael Rosenbaum as Lex Luthor
- Erica Durance as Lois Lane (credit only)
- Allison Mack as Chloe Sullivan
- John Glover as Lionel Luthor (credit only)
- Annette O'Toole as Martha Kent (credit only)
- John Schneider as Jonathan Kent (credit only)
Recurring Roles
- Professor Milton Fine - James Marsters
Guest Cast
- Pauline Kahn - Carrie Fisher
- Buffy Sanders - Brooke Nevin
- Karen - Luciana Carro
- Courtney - Angelika Baran
- Sorority Girl - Erica Cerra
- Ramirez - Kaare Anderson
- Delivery Boy - Sebastian Gacki
- Bitterman - Richard Kahan
- Doctor - Colin Lawrence
- Frat Cowboy - Cory Monteith
- Unknown - Keira Kabatow
Featured Music
- "Wikked Lil' Grrrls" - Esthero
- "Guiltless" - Martin Grech
- "Bela Lugosi's Dead" - Bauhaus
- "Girls Attractive" - Diamond Nights
- "Abandoned" - The Swear
- "Set The Grass On Fire" - Elysian Fields
Title
- Thirst means to feel dry, parched or have a strong desire for something.
- The title refers to the Tri-Psi sorority's vampiric attributes, caused by exposure to mutated vampire bats.
- Thirst could also refer to Chloe's strong desire for a Daily Planet internship, which she finally landed in this episode, and Clark's yearning for a 'normal' relationship with Lana.
Notes
- Antagonist: Buffy Sanders
- Clark uses the following abilities in this episode: super speed (off-screen) and super hearing.
- This episodes marks the first time that Lana has used heat vision.
- Lois Lane, Lionel Luthor, Martha Kent and Jonathan Kent don't appear in this episode. Also this is the first episode where only the half of the cast appears.
- Clark spends a lot of this episode wearing his Zorro costume (minus the cape), one of the only times he wears black (before Season 9) when he is not Kal-El. While in the costume, he comments that he likes the cape but finds the mask uncomfortable, a reference to his future costume as Superman.
- In the UK, depending on the time of day this episode is broadcast, you either see Lana bite Clark's neck (at the later hour) or the scene is cut just as she is moving down to bite him.
- The name Pauline Kahn is most likely derived from Paul Levitz and Jeannette Kahn, two high-ranking executives of DC Comics. Smallville is, of course, based on characters appearing in DC Comics.
- Milton Fine gave a good description of the future Lex Luthor during his lecture, calling him a "dangerous, unstable, megalomaniac" who will indeed want to take over and destroy the world.
- Chloe dictates the entire story, even though there are several scenes that she couldn't have known about because she wasn't there, like the conversation between Prof. Fine and Lex on the mansion. [This is pointed out by Al and Miles on the DVD commentaries for this episode]
- The vampire powers demonstrated include super strength and a rapid healing factor.[1] These abilities could be passed to others by the sharing of blood. They are vulnerable to heat vision.
- The episode ends with Chloe saying that the Daily Planet is the paper for the record of future superheroes, foreshadowing Clark's future ties with the paper. She then uses the "up, up and away" tagline. With the silhouette of Superman in the globe of the Daily Planet.
- Clark wears a hat for the first time in the entire series in this episode.
Trivia
- When Lana takes Clark as hostage, Bela Lugosi's Dead is played. In fact, Bela Lugosi was an actor of Dracula (1931) of whom it is said believed he was Dracula himself.
- Both Alfred Gough and Miles Millar stated in the DVD commentary that this was perhaps the worst episode that they ever made, blaming it on both irrational thinking and a need to have a drastically low cost episode.
- This is Smallville's first Halloween-themed episode.
- Colin Lawrence, the doctor in this episode, previously appeared on Smallville as Agent Stocker in Gone and will reappear in Turbulence as Captain Nichols.
- When Oliver willingly impersonates Clark's future attire in Identity, he tells Clark he should try it (wearing a cape) sometime, but Clark says "Not in this lifetime." However, in this episode, he says that he kind of likes wearing one.
- When Milton Fine references Project 1138, it is most likely a reference to George Lucas, who's first film was entitled THX 1138.
Continuity
- Jack Jennings is mentioned at the beginning of the episode when Pauline asked someone for a piece on Senator Jennings. He appears in the next episode, Exposed.
- Angelika Baran (Courtney) also played Erika Fox in Season One episode Tempest.
Spoilers
- Lana acquires heat vision powers next in Season Seven's Wrath.
Allusions
- The character of Buffy Sanders is a reference to Buffy Summers from the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer .
- After reading Chloe's article, Pauline Kahn mentions to her that the Daily Planet isn't interested in stories about "slaying Buffy the Vampire."
- Writer Steven S. DeKnight also produced, directed and wrote for some episodes of Buffy and Angel.
- Buffy has a similar themed episode to Smallville's Labyrinth, Normal Again, in which the title character was drugged into believing that she was in a mental institution for dreaming up her life as the Slayer. The main difference is that Clark believed that he was in a mental institution at all times, while Buffy merely suffered flashes back and forth between the real world and the hallucination, whereas the main similarity was that they both were superpowered heroes, and a main character around their friends, in a perfect world.
- Clark dresses as the main character from the many movie and television adaptions of Zorro.
- Project 1138 is a reference to George Lucas' film THX 1138, probably included to coincide with Carrie Fisher's guest-star stint. Fisher played Lucas' heroine Princess Leia in the Star Wars films.
- Professor Milton Fine says, "There's no such thing as vampires." Ironically James Marsters, who plays Fine on the show, is perhaps best known for his role as the vampire Spike on Buffy and the spin-off series Angel .
- Lana's costume resembles Catwoman, a longtime enemy of Batman.
- Chloe's costume resembles Jeanette from Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines.
- Professor Fine's visit scene to Clark and Chloe in the hospital is similar to Professor Van Helsing meets Jonathan Harker when Lucy is bitten in Dracula.
- When Chloe is seen typing/narrating on her laptop, it is a reference to Sex and the City.
- When Chloe finds Lana laying in her dormroom after her initiation, a poster can be seen on Chloe's wall saying: "Attack of the 50 ft. Women". This is a reference to Wonder Woman's long time enemy Giganta. [1], a women capable of changing her size.
Quotes
- Chloe: (to Clark over phone) Well, I'm pulling up some information for a story I'm working on and I think there's a lot more going on at that sorority than just pedicures and pillow fights. I think you better get over he-- (papers fly as Clark appears next to her.)
- Clark: Hey.
- Chloe: (gasps) Clark!
- Clark: What did you get?
- Chloe: Besides a heart attack?
- Clark: I hate costumes.
- Lana: I'm sorry it has to be this way, Clark. But we don't always get to choose who we are. Sometimes our destiny leads us to places that we don't want to go, and there's nothing we can do about it.
- Buffy: Nice work!
References
- ↑ The bite is only because Clark was under the effects of green kryptonite.
External links
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