Rabid - Recap

Clark wakes up in a laboratory with a kryptonite-tinged needle mark on his left arm. A syringe dripping liquid kryptonite on a table nearby. He hears a cell phone ring and checks it for an incoming text message. It’s from Oliver, and says “I lost her.” Clark goes outside and finds himself in a seemingly empty city. He goes to the Daily Planet to find Lois and sees her standing in front of a photocopier. When he calls out her name, she turns and charges at her, her face horribly distorted in an animal-like snarl.

Twelve hours ago

Clark is at the Planet listening to radio news about worldwide crises when Lois comes in and checks her messages. She’s disappointed to see that the Blur hasn’t called her. Clark asks if she’s upset and Lois quickly dismisses any feelings that she has. They hear about a fire and Lois looks for a cup of coffee before she leaves to report on the story. Clark quickly superspeeds away, puts out the fire, and gets her a cup of coffee. He gives her the cup and hastily brushes some soot from his hand before he can see it. They then hear a police news report about a motorcyclist leading the traffic cops on a high-speed chase. Clark superspeeds ahead of the biker and blocks his path with a truck. The man removes his helmet to reveal Oliver, who complains that Clark is ruining his fun and building himself up as a Christ-like savior. Clark apologizes, saying he should have listened to Oliver about Doomsday, and notes that they’re both upset about Jimmy’s resulting death. Clark says he’s trying to make up for his mistake and says that Oliver should too. Oliver accuses Clark of grandizing himself and putting up his symbol all over town, but Clark insists it’s intended as a symbol of hope. As the police arrive, Oliver quickly drives away before they can catch him.

In Lex’s study, Tess is going over the reports of Kandorians appearing around the globe. Her assistant comes in and informs her that the twelve ex-Navy SEALs that they sent to find the Kandorians and bring them back have disappeared. They hear a noise outside and go to investigate. Tess' man takes the lead and finds a badly mauled guard in the hallway. He goes to the window and determines the noise is coming from a branch blowing in the wind. However, when he turns back to Tess, a mutated human leaps through the window and attacks him. Tess runs back to the study and tries to call for help. The mutated humans come after her and she manages to kill them with a sword, but not before they injure her.

Later, Clark gets word that Tess is at the hospital. He and Lois go to see her although Lois isn't convinced that Clark's hunch is correct. He suggests she call the Blur in but she doesn't want to bother him over what might be a false alarm. As they go in, they overheard Dr. Coats, a Disease Control Agency specialist, talking with the local doctor and dismissing Tess' description of "zombies" as a hallucination brought on by a virus. Lois and Clark go into the room and Tess, now mutated herself into a zombie-like creature, attacks her. Clark manages to restrain Tess until Coats can sedate her. Lois tells Clark that she's leaving to write her story and will see him later.

At the Watchtower, Chloe is going over video footage from across the globe when Dr. Hamilton comes in. She quickly turns off the screen but he notices she's up to something. Clark comes in with Tess' blood sample and asks Chloe to examine it. While she runs it through the computer, Chloe taps into the manor security cameras and determines that Tess' attackers are real. Emil believes that the virus causes physical changes and triggers a fight-or-flight reaction leading to hyper-aggression. Clark takes Emil to the hospital at superspeed to talk to Coats. Clark listens in with his superhearing as Coats warns that the virus is airborne. He tells Emil that Tess went to the Daily Planet before she collapsed, and Clark realizes that Lois is there and in danger.

Lois arrives at her office but everyone appears to have vanished. She spots Randall, the city editor, laying at his desk. He leaps at her and she fights him off. Other mutated employees attack and Clark arrives to try and hold them off. They get up the stairs but Lois is injured and Clark carries her up to safety.

Oliver takes the female traffic officer who was chasing him back to his office at LuthorCorp. As they flirt back and forth, she goes through his wallet and finds a photo of Lois. Oliver dismisses her as a long-gone friend. He starts taking amphetamines to keep from crashing and they start to kiss. As the officer strips his clothing off, she discovers that Oliver has a hidden camera in his belt buckle. She thinks that he's trying to film her naked, slaps him, and leaves. Oliver examines the miniature camera and believes that Tess planted it to keep tabs on him.

Emil returns to the Watchtower and Chloe updates him on what little she's discovered. He charts the path of the virus and determines that it's spreading rapidly. It causes the victim to go to sleep so that it can germinate. Chloe identifies the primary enzyme in the virus and Emil recognizes it as the same one he saw in a blood sample taken from Davis Bloome.

Clark gets the injured Lois to Tess' office and treats her wound. She wonders if they're both infected and how long they have, and says that it'd be a good time to tell any secrets that they've been holding back. She goes first and talks about how she's fallen in love with the Blur and wants to help people not just for him, but for herself. Clark wonders if she has a crush but Lois insists that it's love and she doesn't want to lose the kind of connection that she's never had with her other boyfriends. She turns to Clark to see what he has to say, but Oliver bursts in, wielding a shotgun against the mutated humans. He's there to find Tess and learns that she's at the hospital. Clark passes on the information that the virus incubates when the victim is asleep, and that when the sun comes up the entire city will become infected. Clark puts Oliver and Lois in an elevator for safety and tells Oliver to make sure that Lois doesn't fall asleep and transform.

At the Watchtower, Emil devises an antidote but says they need a sample of the enzyme to make it effective. Clark arrives and tells them that he and Davis have the same enzyme in their blood because they're both from Krypton. Using a kryptonite-tinted needle, Emil takes a blood sample from Clark, who passes out from the allergic reaction. Chloe wants to stay with Clark but Emil says that he'll need her help to prepare batches of the antidote and spread it throughout Metropolis.

Oliver watches over Lois, who says that he's fallen on hard time. He looks in the mirrored elevator wall and admits that he's been a miss. He confesses that he's missed being with her, but turns to discover that she's fallen asleep. He tries to wake her up but the virus has run its course. She attacks him, slams him into the wall, and climbs up through the roof hatch before Oliver can do anything.

As Clark wakes up and gets Oliver's text message, Emil and Chloe take a Queen Industries jet and distribute the antidote into the water supply. Chloe warns it won't be enough and Emil uses the jet's distribution system to seed the antidote into the clouds, causing rain. As they work, Emil admits he can understand why Oliver has such faith in her. He wonders how she can betray him and Chloe demands to know what he's talking about. Emil explains that he knows she's been spying on Oliver and the rest of the League. Chloe insists they need her help whether they want it or not and asks Emil to keep her secret. He refuses to say if he will and says she'll just have to trust him.

Clark goes back to the office and finds Lois, transformed and standing at the photocopier. She smashes him through a window into the street. Clark grabs her and holds her as the rain pours down. First Lois and then the rest of the city's population are cured.

Later, Clark goes to see Oliver and finds him drinking in an alleyway. Clark wonders if Oliver is still in any way heroic and Oliver admits that he no longer is. He explains that Clark is right about the guilt and that he's been running away from himself. However, now he's ready to acknowledge who he really is. Oliver thanks Clark, who leaves. Once he's gone, Oliver burns his Green Arrow costume.

Clark goes back to the farm and takes out an old photo of Lana that he keeps in his wallet. He finally puts it away in a scrapbook as Lois arrives. She apologizes and admits that she was impressed with his heroic actions at the office. However, she tempers it by saying he has a long way to go until he's as good as the Blur. As she leaves, she has another memory flash of her experiences in the future and sees herself making love to a man, Chloe dying, and Oliver burying someone.

Dr. Coats goes to a warehouse and meets with... Major Zod. Zod warns that Coats has endangered their secrecy by unleashing the virus. He rips away Coat's Kandorian dog tag but the soldier says that the experiment was worth the risk. He's located a Kryptonian in Metropolis and shows Zod the Blur's symbol. Zod recognizes it as the crest of the House of Jor-El, and believes Jor-El is the Blur. They figure if they can capture Jor-El, they can determine how he keeps his powers and duplicate the effect. Coats explains that they can use the blood sample from the antidote to track the Blur. Zod acknowledges that Coats plan could succeed, but then decapitates him for disobeying orders.

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