2.01, Vortex

Vortex picks up where Tempest left off; Chloe comes to visit Lana in the hospital where she tells her friend that Clark took off during the dance and that she spent three hours looking for him afterward.  Lana says that they are a cute couple; Chloe tells her that it's not any consolation.

A day or so later, Chloe's touched base with Clark and is with him (and Pete) looking for Jonathan Kent who went missing in the tornados.  She first spots the trailer that is trapping Jonathan and Roger Nixon, but none of them realize that they are under it.  Chloe finds Nixon's empty video camera.  (And, one finds it amusing that Jonathan calls for Chloe, then Pete, and not his own son.)

Cark has them search the maps again, and this time pulls Chloe off to the side to apologize about running off; she tells him that "leaving to save a friend totally gets [him] off the hook."  Chloe then purposes that they stay "really good friends."  Clark digests this, agrees telling her the "last thing [he] wants to do" is screw up their friendship," and goes off to look for his dad on his own. Chloe
stumbles over and leans on a tree which has a picture of an alien and the words 'soul mate' on it, heart broken. Chloe has an emotional moment with Pete where she admits she pulled the friend card only because she didn't want to have him pull it first.  She laments about having her priorities out of order (her failed romance over people in serious danger) and continues the search.

The next day, Chloe is finishing up at the Torch.  She's already received her digital photos of the dance one her computer and is deleting them off her hard drive, though it's obvious in private that Clark breaking his promise really hurt her when she is (at this point) leaving Smallville for good.  The song is Stretch Princess' "Time and Time Again" which fits the relationship of the whole season; and amusingly her last scene of the episode fades into Clark talking with his father about flying.