"Paul Levinson's It's Real Life is a page-turning exploration into that multiverse known as rock and roll. But it is much more than a marvelous adventure narrated by a master storyteller...it is also an exquisite meditation on the very nature of alternate history." -- Jack Dann, The Fiction Writer's Guide to Alternate History

Thursday, October 23, 2008

The Sarah Connor Chronicles 2.6: Terminator Mom, Human Daughter, Questions

This week's episode gave most of the goods on Catherine Weaver - she's a Terminator, as we know, who apparently killed the human Catherine Weaver and took her place, and killed her husband as well. She did not kill her little daughter, whom Catherine is now trying to raise.

But it's not easy. The little girl realizes her new liquid mother is not affectionate. Catherine - seeing a child psychiatrist (Dr. Sherman, played by Dorian Harewood - always good to see him on the screen) - tries to improve her motherly performance, by summoning or feigning a little more affection for her daughter.

But this raises a question: Why did Catherine the Terminator spare the human Catherine's daughter? Among the possibilities -

1. Skynet wants to learn more about human beings - how to better mess with our minds, and therefore ultimately how to kill us more effectively. And studying a child growing up helps them learn more about us.

2. Some specific and special role is planned by Skynet for Catherine's daughter in the future - or, Catherine's daughter will play some sort of role helpful to Skynet.

3. Catherine is not just a stone-cold killer, and, like Cameron, may have some threads of human emotion entwined in her circuitry somewhere...

Which of the three makes the most sense to you?

Meanwhile, while all of this - including John and Sarah's visits to Dr. Sherman, because his name is on the Terminator target list - is going on, Derek hooks back up with Jesse, who has come back from the future. I don't know, I'm glad to see he's found a little happiness, but nothing good is likely to come of that...

See also 2.1 Cameron's Back ... 2.2 Firing on All Cylinders ... 2.3 Who, Truly, Is Agent Ellison? ... 2.4: Meet Allison ... 2.5: Unpacking the Future






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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello dude, good review. :)

Paul Levinson said...

Hey - thank you - welcome to Infinite Regress!

Anonymous said...

I think the reason she kept the daughter alive was because it would be easier for people (co-workers, etc) to reduce suspicon. If your whole family dies and then you go straight back into work the next day without a slither of sadness, people would get suspicious. They'd probably suggest she get a councillor or something. Keeping the daughter alive also makes her seem more human, no one will suspect her this way. Basically, it reduces suspicion if the child is kept alive.

Paul Levinson said...

Makes sense - I agree with your reasoning.

Nick! said...

You know, it's funny... it hadn't occurred to me to really question Savannah's inclusion - it just seemed to be another in the pile-up of mysteries around Weaver that I couldn't care enough about because of Manson's shaky performance.

Interestingly, this episode marked quite a change from the previous ones in the season, in relation to Weaver. I suspect that it's because of that side-effect of the US TV process - the point when audience reaction and seeing the finished result catches up to the episodes currently being filmed, and in turn colours them.

It's the "Observer Effect" in action, and a peculiar kind of narrative time-travel/distortion, but in this case, it means that suddenly Manson picks a way of performing the role, and actually sticks with it throughout the episode.

I thought that Weaver's part of this episode, and the well played interactions between the sympathetic psychiatrist and the other characters, were really well handled.

Sadly, the terminator-on-terminator action was handled badly, which is a shame, because normally that's the thing that they get so right in this show!

I've been away, Paul - sorry! It's a combination of not being up to date on the shows you cover, and not being in the US so having little to add to the political posts - though I do find them interesting!

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