The Sarah Connor Chronicles 2.4: Meet Allison

A really tender, wrenching, revealing episode 2.4 of The Sarah Connor Chronicles tonight, as we get to meet the human being who served as the template for Cameron.

Meet Allison, alive in the future in which machines are on the verge of exterminating the human species. She's captured, and questioned.

Meanwhile, back in 2008, Cameron is still not quite herself - again - and this time she recalls Allison being questioned. In fact, she repeats what Allison is saying, as the action cuts back and forth between Cameron in our present and Allison in our future.

And Cameron seems to forget that she's a Terminator. She's showing emotions - much as she did before John saved her in the first episode this season - and she's conspicuously nonviolent.

Both parts are of course played - and very well - by Summer Glau. In our present, Cameron tells her questioner to call "her" - Allison's - mother, who is pregnant with her. Her mother doesn't (yet) know any Allison, but says she likes the name - a nice little time loop, of the future making something happen in the past, which already exists in the future.

In the end, Cameron snaps out of it - regains her "normal" personality and awareness of who she is. But is she really ok? Back in touch with her Terminator self, she says her job is to hunt down John Connor - does that mean the override has been short-circuited again?

We know, sadly, that Cameron is a killer. In the future, she kills her human model, Allison - though I'm hoping that, maybe somehow, Allison survived...

And a fine mixture tonight of heroes and villains - which, as fate would have it, was also the theme of tonight's Heroes...



See also 2.1 Cameron's Back ... 2.2 Firing on All Cylinders ... 2.3 Who, Truly, Is Agent Ellison? ... 2.5: Unpacking the Future ... 2.6: Terminator Mom, Human Daughter, Questions

---

The Plot to Save Socrates

"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book

more about The Plot to Save Socrates...





Read the first chapter of The Plot to Save Socrates .... FREE!

The Sarah Connor Chronicles 2.1: Cameron's Back

We knew, of course, that beautiful Cameron could not have been dead at the end of last season. In the Season Two opener, tonight, we find that she's survived - but not exactly intact.

She's limping, but, worse than that, the good part of her program, the Terminator override in her chips, has been stunned into silence by the exploding car. Which means, Cameron is just another Terminator now, bent on killing John Connor.

Which she almost does, in a gut punching first scene. When John and Sarah finally get the drop on her, after all kinds of other bruising sequences, Cameron pleads with John not to kill her - saying she knows John loves her and she loves John, and she's back to normal.

Was she lying? Well, not about being back to her good self. We see this when she doesn't kill John, and we see that her interior override of the bad Terminator program is back in play.

And the love? Well, whatever Derek Reese may say, I'm thinking Cameron may really be now feeling some love for John, as another result of her recent explosive experiences...

Meanwhile, it's good to see Lena Headey, Summer Glau and Thomas Dekker back in action. And Richard T. Jones as Agent Ellison, too.... I think there's a lot more to why Cromartie left him alive.

See also 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, Questions ... 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

---

The Plot to Save Socrates

"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book

more about The Plot to Save Socrates...





Read the first chapter of The Plot to Save Socrates .... FREE!




Reviews of Sarah Connor Chronicles, Season One: The Sarah Connor Chronicles 1 and 2 ... 3 ... 4. A Robot Primer ... 5 ... 6 ... 7 ... 8-9: Terminate with Puzzles, Surprise, and Soul

The Sarah Connor Chronicles: 3

Episode 3 of The Sarah Connor Chronicles was excellent, and brought back most of the exciting complexity of the pilot.

First, to bring these reviews up to speed - because my intro review was non-spoiler - our trio of heroes used a time machine in the bank to travel to our present. Which opens up all sort of possibilities.

And the trio is Sarah, John, and beautiful Cameron Phillips (yes, homage to James), a new terminator model played fetchingly and cold-bloodedly, sweetly as in innocent and angel of death, as needed, by Summer Glau. Cameron is a fine addition to the Terminator crew, and even brings some continuing lines of humor to the story, as Sarah reminds Cameron in just about every episode to keep her clothes on when at home. (Sarah doesn't John want to get too attracted and who knows what else to Cameron. I say - go for it, John.)

But don't let the humor fool you. Episode 3 and The Sarah Connor Chronicles in general are deadly serious, and grapple with profound moral dilemmas much like Battlestar Galactica - which, come to think of it, bears a kinship to the Terminator universe, if only because of the flesh-and-blood and "toaster" model interplay that characterizes both series, in different ways. (And Bear McCreary also does the superb music for both series.)

The moral issue in tonight's Episode 3 of The Sarah Connor Chronicles is as wrenching as it gets: should Sarah kill a guy who is working on a life-like chess program, which could well be the basis of the killing machines. Of course, one of the conceits of all the Terminator movies is that, however much we humans and good Terminators try to prevent Skynet from arising, something always slips through someone's fingers in the past or present, and Skynet happens anyway. Still, it's fun to play this game, and when you add into the mix that stopping Skynet will likely erase Cameron (Phillips not James) from existence, and we wouldn't really want that - she's much more lovable than Arnold - we get a nice, complex story. (By the way, is it only me, or do you feel like you might be using something connected to Skynet every time you make a call or IM on Skype?)

And there are other dangerous things brewing in this series - including a really bad Terminator (maybe the bad Terminator from T2) who is trying to get some meat on him, and sort of reminds me a little of Darth Vader, another good movie resonance.

The Sarah Connor Chronicles is touching a lot of good bases, juggling a lot of flaming pins, and I'm very much looking forward to more.

See also: The Sarah Connor Chronicles 1 and 2 ... 4: A Robot Primer ... 5 ... 6 ... 7 ... 8-9: Terminate with Puzzles, Surprises, and Soul

---

The Plot to Save Socrates

"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book

more about The Plot to Save Socrates...





Read the first chapter of The Plot to Save Socrates .... FREE!