What's up with Jordan Cross: After cross country practice, Lana meets Jordan Cross, a new student at Smallville High. When Jordan touches her he has a vision of Lana on a bed, she's old and is dying. When the coach, Mr. Altman comes up and touches him, he has another vision, this time it's the coach, and he's getting hit by a car. Clark finds Jordan after practice as the two talk, Mr. Altman walks into the middle of the road, Clark sees a car coming and is able to save Altman before he's hit. However, instead of gratitude, Altman is furious at Clark, saying that he just wanted to join his daughter.

What's up with Lana: Lana tries to console Altman after cross country practice about his daughter Julia's death. Lana and her friend Megan go to see him in the hospital. She tells Clark that her, Megan and Julia were all good friends in junior high and one night while walking home from hanging out with Megan and herself, Julia was hit by a car. She said she never recovered and was put on life support and that Altman took her off of it and let her die just a month before and that he blames himself for her death. When Lana goes into see a heavily sedated Altman, Megan is already there sobbing and telling an unconscious Altman that it was her fault Julia died, because the three of them had gotten in a fight and Julia stormed off upset. Later, when Lana's at the Talon, she hears muffled yells coming from Adam's room. When she goes to investigate she wakes Adam from a night terror. She asks if he wants to talk, and he says no.

What's up with Clark: Clark finds Jordan maneuvering through school trying not to touch anyone. When Clark grabs him however, Jordan is unable to foresee Clark's death and hurries out of the school. Clark meets Pete and Chloe and they try to tell him about Adam, but he tells them he's finally back to being friends with Lana and doesn't want to know anything about Adam that might disrupt that. Chloe seems satisfied and says she's happy to also be back to being Clark's friend. She later tells him that Jordan was born during the meteor shower and that his mom died after being hit by a meteor during the shower. As he's leaving, Clark sees Adam telling Megan that he needs to walk her home to save her. She runs away yelling for him to leave her alone. Clark takes Jordan aside and tells him he knows about his visions. Jordan tells him that he's never been able to save anyone before that the visions have always come true, with the exception of Clark saving Altman. He also tells Clark that when he touched him, he didn't see an end, that it was as if Clark lived forever. As the two get to Megan's house, they find out she's been abducted.

What's up with Adam: Chloe enters the science lab and sees Adam leaving through a back door. When she walks over to where he was, she finds a used syringe. Lex has decided to do some checking on Adam and finds out that every teacher has the same exact, word for word, description of Adam. After he talks to him he seems skeptical and tells him he's going to keep digging. Chloe and Lex both turn up at Adam's apartment looking for anything unusual. While looking under his bed, Chloe finds and pockets a vile containing an unknown substance. Later, Chloe talks to Lana about the syringe and Lana heads off to confront Adam. He says she doesn't trust him and that if she doesn't want him around he'll leave. As he storms off, he bumps into Jordan.

How it ends: Jordan runs into Lana, and this time when he touches her he sees her burning alive in a house. He's confused that her future changed and tells her they need to find Clark. When he turns around, he's knocked out by a masked assailant who then grabs Lana and hauls her off. When Jordan wakes up, he finds Clark on the farm. He tells him that Lana's future has changed and that Lana is burning in a fire just like Megan and that he also saw a picture of Julia on the wall in his vision. Clark tells him he must have changed things when he saved Altman's life and the two rush off to Altman's house. Altman has the girls tied up in his house. He tells them he blames them for his daughters death as he douses the house in gasoline. He then lights a match and the house begins to go up in flames. Clark and Jordan get to the house and rush in to save the girls. They get Lana and Megan out, but Altman fights them and Clark is barley able to get Jordan out before the house explodes, killing Altman. Jordan isn't breathing, and Clark has to use CPR to resuscitate him. After he's revived, he touches Clark, but sees nothing, his visions are gone.

Lex tells Lana that Adam's on an experimental drug and that it's Lana's call what to do with Adam. Later, when she helps Jordan with some homework, Jordan tells her that he thinks Adam was more than hurt, recounting what he saw when he bumped into Adam in the hall. He tells her he thinks Adam died. That night Clark heads out to the barn to give his dad some food. When he gets there, the table saw is going and Jonathan is on the ground mumbling. Clark holds him in his arms and hears him say "not now" then he tells Clark he loves him and passes out.
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A boy with a scrunchy face can see the moments before someone dies just by touching him or her. Ya house...it's on...FIRE! Anyway, L'il Dead Zone is all depressed about it until he meets Clark, who apparently will never die. Clark helps save a cross-country running coach who was going to try to kill himself, but the coach goes nuts over the death of his daughter and blames Lana and another girl for the accident, leaving Clark to ponder the mysteries of fate and predetermination. L'il Dead Zone is cured of his curse simply by being saved by CPR. CPR: Learn it today. Meanwhile Lex gets curious about Poor Man's Wes Bentley and discovers that, yes, this is a sexy young boy. He warns Lana away from the kid, and then urges her to give the kid a second chance after she suspects he may be a druggie. Also, Bo Duke collapses at the end of the episode, foreshadowing not very good things about his character's future after the run of this show. Dammit, Bo, we warned you about all that dairy!
By: Omar L. Gallaga (TWoP)

Clark discovers that his schoolmate Jordan can foresee the future, but is horrified when Jordan tells him he "sees" Lana dying in a fire in the next few days. Meanwhile, suspicious of his behavior, Chloe investigates Adam's background and discovers some disturbing news. Michael Rosenbaum, Sam Jones III, John Glover, Annette O'Toole and John Schneider also star.

Chloe: Now that we can scratch gossip off our list, what's nest on our agenda?

Chloe: No thanks required. It's kind of fun being Woodward to your Bernstein again.

Lana: Putting up with a few nightmares is a small price to pay.

Chloe: Alright, well cue the spooky music 'cause Jordan was born on the day of the meteor shower.

Adam (to Lex): For what it's worth, we both care about Lana.

Adam (to Lana): The truth is you don't trust me, never have.

Lex (to Chloe): Lock up on your way out.

Jonathan: So jJordan will come home, but not until he's good and ready.

Coach Altman (to Lana & Megan): You're going to pay for what you did to Gloria!

Clark: Come on Jordan, you can't die on me.

Lana: I'm just beginning to wonder who I let in my life.
Lex: You should trust your instincts.
Lana: Thanks Lex.

Jordan (to Lana about Adam): I don't think he was just hurt, I think he died.

Martha: Sweetheart you just have to do the best you can. You can't save everybody.

Jonathan: Not now, not yet! I love you son...
Clark (yelling): Dad! Mom! Mom!

Jordan Cross, the new kid at school, is not just faster than the entire track team. He also sees the way people are going to die when he touches them, which is why his dad has kept him out of school until now. But Jordan wants to give it a shot, and Clark is his assigned mentor. Before the opening credits, Clark has saved Mr. Altman, the track coach, from committing suicide by standing in front of a car (in grief over his daughter’s death), making it the first time a vision of Jordan’s has ever been wrong. And not only that, but when Clark touches him, he doesn’t see his death, but instead a strange vision of a red and yellow cape and an apparently endless life. At the hospital, head cheerleader Megan tells a sedated Coach Altman that she’s sorry she got into an argument with his daughter before she ran away from a party and got hit by a car, and Lana tells Megan she’s sorry she wasn’t able to stop the girl from leaving. When they leave, he wakes up and looks at them as if they have KILL ME stickers on their backs. Sure enough, Jordan’s trying to warn Megan right away that she’s going to die, but nobody believes him—nobody but Clark, that is. So the teen with super-speed and the guy who can outrun the fastest high schoolers Smallville has to offer rush off to save her, right? Wrong. They walk over to Megan’s house so slowly that she’s already been forced off the road and kidnapped and the sheriff’s department has finished investigating the crime scene and is now interviewing her mom. Jordan’s dad shows up to take Jordan home after Sheriff Adams questions him, but he runs off (sure, NOW he runs) and Clark has to go looking for him. Apparently the super-hearing doesn’t apply to the nearby footsteps of a fleeing freshman. (more...)
By Christopher Valin