A fabulous Season 2 - I hope not series - finale of The Sarah Connor Chronicles on Fox just concluded, in which we learn -
1. Catherine is a good Terminator - unless what we saw is some kind of ruse. But Catherine saves John (and Sarah and Ellison) with her liquid polymer powers (in a great scene in which she becomes a shield), and tells them she's working against Skynet, and her John Henry is as important to this cause as Sarah's John Connor.
2. John Henry's circuitry is unique - if a relay is swapped out, it will change him, change a small part of his cyber soul. This makes Terminators even more unique than humans - if a small part of our brain is swapped out, would that change our soul, psyche, or whatever it is that makes us who we are? Well, that probably depends upon what part of our brain.
Meanwhile....
Cameron and John have a fine, intense scene, in which, well, John gets about as close as we've seen to sleeping with her...
But Cameron leaves to break Sarah out of prison, in one of the best scenes in the series. Cameron's not "one hundred percent," as she puts it, after getting one of her eyes and who knows what else blown out. This sets her up, not in the best of shape, for a battle with John Henry, that we do not see. He gets the better of her - or, at least, he leaves her body in the room, and he goes into the future, with her chip. (Possibly this wasn't a battle at all - Cameron may have willingly given John Henry her chip, because she knew she was damaged, and a danger to John.) If Catherine is to be believed, John Henry with Cameron's chip in the future is good. At the very least, it gets John to time travel with Catherine to the future...
Where he meets his father, and Derek (before Derek traveled back to our time), and ... Cameron ... whew... (*Note added April 11, 2009: Lucila Mango commented below that it was it not Cameron but Allison Young - I think this is probably right, and creates possibilities for John having a full-fledged physical relationship with her. They could have children, which would make for all sorts of future scenarios.)
And Sarah and Ellison are back in our time ...
The series had a few missteps in the first two seasons, no doubt. Too much meandering with local stories, and not enough development of the major plot threads. But the series has redeemed itself powerfully in the past few episodes, and especially in this finale. I hope we get to see more.
PS - Excellent, memorable FBI interrogator of Sarah - fine performance by Joshua Malina.
6-min podcast review of Sarah Connor Chronicles
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 ... 2.6: Terminator Mom, Human Daughter ... 2.7: The Saving Robbery and Cromartie ... 2.8 Perspectives and Death ... 2.9: An Idiot's Guide to Time Travel in The Sarah Connor Chronicles ... 2.10: Riley Lashes Out at Facebook ... 2.11: Cameron Meets A. E. Housman and Andre Bazin ... 2.12 Sarah Connor Chronicles in Triple Time ... 2.13: Space, Time, and Blogging in The Sarah Connor Chronicles ... 2.18: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and the Life of Riley ... 2.20: Sarah Connor vs. Death in Two Forms ... 2.21: Profound Lessons from a Kidnapping in The Sarah Connor Chronicles
The Plot to Save Socrates
"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News
"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book
Read the first chapter of The Plot to Save Socrates .... FREE!
Enjoy listening to audio books? Get a free audio book copy of The Plot to Save Socrates - or any one of 85,000 other titles - with a 14-day trial membership at Audible.com ...
20 comments:
Too bad that wasn't really Cameron, but Alison (or Allison) Young we saw... seeing as she was getting along with that dog so very fine...
Best episode I've ever, ever, ever seen. ^^
Yep, you're probably right about Allison - unless they figured out a way to make a Terminator dog...
Question - Did Catherine save them or set them up? In that scene after the thing comes through the window we see a liquid terminator crawl across the floor and enter Catherine's leg. Her only reaction is to look down and then started walking.
So either the flying machine was actually part of her and was returning to her, it was a second terminator and entered her either to help or to take over... thoughts?
It seems highly likely that the future JC has arrived in is one in which his older self is NOT the saviour of mankind.
Derek's reaction indicates that not only does he not know young JC, but he does not know ANY JC.
*
JenR -- I think that was just part of Weaver blown off by the explosion.
This episode while being one the best ever, leaves some big questions: First of all if Derek already died in the past, then how can he be alive in the future John goes to? Are there multiple futures? Why? Once you change the past, then Derek should no longer exist even in the future.
anon: John arrived at a time in the future earlier than the time Derek left to go back to our time - that's why he was alive, and that's why he didn't recognize John.
I think that also explains why Derek may not have any knowledge of John at that point in the future - John had not yet become a leader (this in response to Kevin).
But I agree with Kevin that the blast was so strong in Weaver's office, that it blew a part of her Terminator liquidity off.
The liquid terminator crawling on the floor and merging with Weaver was her 'Eel' from the broken water tank. So it was a part of her the entire time.
I have to agree with you Paul, the Sarah Connor Chronicles past few episodes have been great.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed Fox brings this show back next year.
I'm with Kevin on the JC issue, baring in mind that unles JC finds a way to go back in time he would never have been there to become the leader in the first place.
This does raise all sorts of time paradox issues but seems the most likely scenario that is being played through. It allows him to see what the future would be like without his leadership I presume.
Who knows, I just hope we get to find out in a season 3.
The last "anon" beat me to it. The liquid metal terminator that merged with Weaver was the "Eel" from the tank in Weaver's office. It has always been a part of her, but it's weird that she kept it separate...Rather the question is why?
Paul, my theory has been confirmed. Weaver and co. has been working against Skynet. But there is more to be revealed, I am sure. Too me, it all goes back to the submarine "Carter" and the question that the liquid metal answered: "Tell John Connor: 'No'." So, some of the Terminators were asked to Join John's resistance, and they said no.
But what does that make Weaver?
Wheels within wheels...
Cameron didn't give up the chip because she was damanged, she gave up the chip because she answered "yes" to "Will you join us." When Ellison relayed the message, she pretended not to recognize it ("you've said enough"), because she didn't want John to know that the answer, from the future, was in fact 'yes'.
Remember the future sub, where John Connor was asking the terminator the very same question? The terminator said no then.
But maybe Catherine Weaver is in fact the SAME liquid terminator from the future? At any rate, John and Cameron of the future were askign some terminator to join them, and back in 2009 some terminator agreed to join forces.
But, okay, so in the future there's no leader John Connor, since he disappeared. But how does that bring his father back, his father died in 198whatever. Except wait, John Connor never existed to send him back to save past Sarah Connor. Which makes no sense at all, really.
Tim -
I follow your and Kevin's reasoning, but I still prefer my interpretation, because -
1. I like using Occam's Razor in figuring out time travel - meaning, if you can explain events without invoking a paradox, so much the better. It's less paradoxical to assume JC-older has not yet become the leader when JC-younger arrives...
2. And, why assume JC-younger will have much difficulty getting a time bubble back to 2010 or whenever? For all we know, his sojourn in the future will be very short...
Anon - You have a good point that Cameron gave over the chip in response to "join us" ...
But, as I said in #1 above, there's no need to invoke paradox with JC. He's in the future at the end of the episode. All that needs to happen for no paradox to occur is he returns to the past, from any time later, and becomes the JC we know about from T1, T2, TSCC...
@ Mp if the eeel was against Skynet!?
The Future John connor asked the eel if it would join and the eel said no!
So why is the eel helping?
I took the eel to be no more than a bit of comedy, especially with that whole thing about not tapping on the glass. But I suppose it's possible that it is actually a separate smaller terminator. Maybe it was damaged somehow and can only exist inside the tank or in Weaver.
It seems clear that John Connor is at an earlier point in the future before Skynet started dabbling in time travel. The fact that Derek and his father are there would seem to indicate that, since neither came back from the past. And if Allison is alive, that means Cameron doesn't exist yet. Of course, it could just be an altered timeline, but I doubt it. One question: Does John have with him in the future the photo of his mother that he will give his father before sending him back in time?
I don't think there was a fight between Cameron and John Henry. We saw Cameron take out a knife, so it was likely that she was giving him an easy way to remove the chip.
Terminators are digital, rather than analog like us, so it makes sense that a small change in their wiring could change their instruction set. Of course, standard terminators have a chip rather than a basement filled with hardware like John Henry. I'm not clear on what happened to his mind when he unplugged himself from the mainframe, where his brain was. How can he retain anything of his John Henry persona if he left all that hardware behind? There is no John Henry chip.
That weird sex-like scene between John and Cameron would have been even weirder if she had been a male terminator. Can you imagine Schwarzenegger asking John Connor to examine him in that way?
Does anyone think it's possible that, in the future from which Weaver comes, there are _three_ factions?
1. Skynet
2. Humans and terminators against Skynet
3. A third faction, of which Weaver is a member, which recruits terminators from both the humans/terminators and from Skynet ("Will you join us?"), in a battle against Skynet.
If there is no third faction, then why should Weaver ask Cameron to join her? Cameron is _already_ fighting for the human resistance.
ok, 1 it was obvious that the eel was a part of Weaver, and probably left there as a security measure (surveillance). 2 if John skipped ahead of time he was never there to lead the resistance which is why no one knew him. 3 Derrick did die, but that was future Derrick, kid Derrick (shown in season one with kid Kyle) is alive and well and would grow up just as future Derrick did. 4 Future Cameron (or Allison) could be the human or the original Cameron fixed up (note the strange look she gave John). As for time paradoxes look up a little known guy by the name of John Titor, that might help clear all the paradox complaints up.
I think it's likely that John Connor never grew up to see Judgement day, rather he just jumped over it into the future as shown in the finale. So there isn't an "older" version of John Connor alongside him as this is the first time he's existed in that reality. He just gets there knowing all about terminators, Skynet and how they work. Its from this point on that he organises the resistance.
Everyone, This is the last scene fully explained: this show has ended up into being a never ending cycle. The ending of season 2 shows John from the past going into the future before he is even born, thus meaning he will be the savior of the future starting at this point. As you can see Reese is still alive at this time and derek does not even know who he John even is. If you followed along in the movies, reese goes back in time to impregnate Sarah and then dies in the past. so this proves John has not been born yet and will now be the leader of the future....yet this does not make sense because this just leads to a never ending cycle between past and present and trying to give john life in the past. BTW cameron is human at this time (Allison) and derek is still alive because he has not gone into the past yet. Which clears the question to why he is not dead in the future sinse he died in the past.
Damn. Just finished the series on Netflix, and I'm actually pretty bummed out about the cancellation from FOX, and all of these un-tied knots, so to speak.
Would be a shame not to go on with this series in some capacity.
Also... Cameron/Summer Glau is HAWT!!! Haven't had a crush on a TV character in like 10 years or so... well done!!
I'm a late-comer. Just finished the show last night, LOL!
I just wanted to say something about the eel. I thought that the eel was the part of her that would allow her to time-jump. Cameron didn't go through because she didn't have her chip. Cromartie's head went through because the chip was in his head. Maybe the eel was her "key" to be able to time-jump?
Also, what was the deal with the lamp in Jessie's room? They kept going to that lamp, even showing a maid adjust it after Jessie was gone. They gave that lamp a lot of camera time and never told what it was.
Another thing they talked about, but never explained was Myles Dyson's missing son. They said he was missing for 3 months, but never mentioned him again.
Post a Comment