He introduces himself to Coach Lloyd Jenkins, who attributes the team’s success to quarterback Quentin Billup. "That boy’s arm was kissed by the Lord above," the coach says.

Another team star is the running back, a boy named Trevor who the coach calls the "guts" of the offence. As Cade and the coach watch, Quentin and Trevor briefly argue about a missed signal.

Trevor also tells Cade about Lionel. His teammate is in a coma, and the doctor has attributed the cause to an allergic reaction to a bee sting.

What troubles Trevor is that he’s seen Lionel stung by bees before without ill effect.

Another fan intercepts Trevor after practice. Charlene tells the boy to "just slip that right in here," and Trevor puts her lawn chair in her trunk for her.

She reminds him that he needs to focus on the game. She’s the team’s number one fan, and she’s counting on them winning the state championship.

Charlene also wants to know who the man talking to Coach Jenkins was. She seems skeptical about Cade’s cover story of being a recruiter.

Cade slips into Lionel’s hospital room and takes a sample of a strange serum leaking from his tear ducts. As he examines Lionel’s monitor readouts, he’s interrupted by Quentin Billup, who has come to check on his teammate.

Our hero introduces himself. Quentin is briefly suspicious, and then urges Cade to ignore his terrible statistics from the previous year.

As they talk, Quentin stands near Lionel. Cade notices that Lionel’s monitor readings are have gone wild.

After Eddie sends Cade’s sample off for analysis, the two alien hunters toss around a football and some ideas.

Cade thinks the Gua are engaged in a mind control experiment – why use brute force when you can compel obedience? Eddie thinks the idea has possibilities, and that the football team could be a proving ground to see if humans can work as a unit.

Naturally, Cade attends the next practice. He’s not the only scout checking out the team, and Charlene is in her usual seat. She waves at Cade.

Quentin completes a perfect pass to one of his teammates. Then he takes off his helmet and reveals that he did it blindfolded.

Cade asks the coach if Lionel could have collapsed from some kind of drug reaction. The answer is no, and Jenkins is offended by the question – he’s been hearing ever since the team began its unlikely climb to success.

Jenkins is pleased that "Clyde" talked to Trevor, though he’s realistic about his son’s good but unexceptional skills. "I guess every father wishes his son was the best," he comments.

Cade talks to Trevor again after practice. He tells the boy he’s trying to figure out the reason behind the team’s turnaround.

He’s already ruled out steroids – they would have been revealed on Lionel’s hospital chart – but the players act strangely downcast for a winning team. "If you suspect something weird going on," he tells Trevor, "I’d like to hear about it."

There is something weird going on, Trevor replies.

When Trevor is running a play, he knows where the blocks are going to be before they happen. The team is in perfect synchronization, and they don’t even have to look at playbooks any more.

"It’s not natural," Trevor says.

Quentin doesn’t seem to be the cause. The team stunk in the preseason, and Quentin wasn’t much better than they were.

Trevor seems like he’s about to say more, but three fellow teammates walk up and glare and him. "Maybe it’s just our year," he concludes.

As Cade leaves the school, Charlene pulls up, her stereo blaring the incisive lyrics, "Love you! Love you!" She introduces herself as the team’s number one fan.

She asks about "Clyde’s" football background. When Cade tells her he last played ten years ago, she asks if he played with Chuck Nieder, and Cade says he did.

"There’s just something about football that brings me to my knees," she tells him. As she gets back in her car, a bee lands on her arm, and she affectionately blows it off.

Returning to the school, Cade walks up to Quentin with a few more questions. Quentin abruptly turns on him, telling him, "You’re no recruiter. You’re bogus."

The team gathers around Cade and jumps him, giving him a sound beating. "It’s time you left town," Trevor tells him.

Eddie has received the analysis of Cade’s sample. It includes melatin, a protein that is the primary component of bee venom.

By studying up on bees, Eddie has learned several important facts. Bees can communicate over surprisingly large distances, and they work together perfectly with a queen to coordinate their actions.

In a subtle moment of foreshadowing, Eddie comments that if the queen gets wounded or disabled, the male drones turn on her and destroy her.

Cade and Eddie soon theorize that the bee venom is causing the players to communicate with each other like bees. Lionel’s condition may be from an overdose of the venom.

If this is true, Cade knows who the queen bee might be.

He goes to see Trevor, who is apologetic about the beating. The teen didn’t want to hit Cade, but he couldn’t stop himself.

Cade explains about the bee behavior, and asks about Charlene. Trevor tells him that she has a tattoo parlor downtown.

Jenkins comes out of his house and drives Cade away. He’s called California University and learned that Cade is not "Clyde Howell."

In her tattoo parlor, Charlene is giving Quentin a massage. She’s the one who told the boys Cade wasn’t a recruiter.

Quentin is concerned about Trevor’s rebellion against proper team behavior. Charlene assures him that she’ll bring Trevor around.

She won’t tell Quentin how she tells them what to do, though. It’s her "little secret."

As she rubs his arm she injects bee venom from her finger into his Falcons tattoo.

Cade is pulled over by a policeman. The cop is angry because the big-time recruiter hasn’t talked to his son, but Cade quickly calms him down by remembering the boy’s position and assuring the cop that he is carefully considering the second-stringer.

He reaches Charlene’s tattoo parlor. After making sure his gun is ready for action, he enters.

There’s nobody around. Cade explores, examining the tattoo pigments and noting a honeycomb motif on the stair treads.

Charlene comes down the stairs. "You’ve been bad," she says.

She accuses him of stirring up her boys, and tells him that "Chuck Nieder" – the player Cade pretended to know – doesn’t exist.

Charlene is coy, but willing to talk about her power over the team. Cade figures out that the tattoos are involved, and she tells him the venom is in the ink.

She enticingly licks her finger. She advances on Cade, saying that once the experiment with the football team is finished, she can move on to bigger and better teams – like the U.S. Army.

As Cade considers this, she dives forward. A singer pops out from her finger and she stabs him with it.

A few minutes later, she dumps Cade’s twitching body by the side of the road. Cade is in shock, but retains enough strength to call Eddie and supply a few directions.

Eddie rushes to Cade and stabs him with a large needle full of adrenaline, an antihistamine, and some lithium. Cade screams and begins to revive.

The team begins final practice before the big game, but Trevor refuses to leave the locker room. When the coach asks what’s wrong, Trevor tells him, "There’s something really weird going on in this team."

Coach Jenkins is wrapped up in his dreams of a state championship, and dismisses his son’s concerns. He pulls out all the emotional stops in his pep talk, telling Trevor that both the town and Lionel are depending on him.

Cade is determined to stop Charlene, but he needs a weapon that can take down a queen be. Eddie suggests a paralytic compound effective against bees, and they go to the hardware store to get it.

Charlene goes to see Trevor, who is still in the boy’s locker room. She asks him, "Kind of naughty, isn’t it?"

Trevor doesn’t want to play, even though Charlene says he’s "such a . . . big . . . part of the team." She’s determined to make all his troubles go away, though.

Eddie and Cade return from the hardware store with a fire extinguisher full of bee killer and salt – the salt having been put in to disorient Charlene’s Gua physiology. Eddie is itching to pull the trigger, but Cade reminds him they need her alive as evidence.

Charlene kisses Trevor, and injects venom into his neck.

Love slave of the bee woman!

Cade finds Trevor sitting in the locker room. He begins to warn Trevor, but the teen says, "Thought you were dead. Guess I didn’t make my point."

Charlene emerges from the shadows – she has total control over Trevor now. She tells the teen to grab Cade, and he does.

The team gets ready to practice.

Cade tries to talk Trevor out of Charlene’s influence. He tells the boy, "Think for yourself!"

Trevor suddenly lets Cade go. Cade leaps forward and impales Charlene’s abdomen with Eddie’s adrenalin and antihistamine cocktail.

"You’re going to have to do better than that," she gloats, but then she doubles over in pain.

Outside, the team collapses in agony. Charlene flees the locker room.

Cade follows her out of the building, telling Eddie to turn the fire extinguisher on her. Before the erstwhile sidekick can do it, though, a swarm of angry bees appears and envelops her.

Moments later, she dies and dissolves.

The team gets on the bus for the big game. Lionel brings up the rear, having recovered from his coma.

Cade says goodbye to Trevor. "I’m never going to forget what happened here," the boy tells him.

As they drive away from Fairville, Cade and Eddie listen to the game on the radio. The Falcons fumble on the first play.