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This episode is really good. I like the initial apocalypse that hits John Henry being overshadowed by what appears to be a pleasant detour with John, Sarah and Charley. It gives the whole thing this horrible sense of foreboding. And then Skynet makes its move, a fantastic concentrated assault on every member of the Family Connor, seemingly having predicted every trick the Connors might have. At the end, Charley is dead, having made the choice to sacrifice himself for his son (essentially) -- and John is missing. Like other parts of T3, TSCC takes something from the third movie and realises it a bit better. Skynet is active in the present, and it has fantastic intelligence. It went after John Henry and just about succeeded (foiled only by Murch's POWER SLIIIDDEEEE). It went after the Connors and almost got Cameron and Derek. Put that Kyle Reese quote in right here. When Season 2 hits it stride, it does it so well. But this episode is the third last in the season. There are two more after this one. But this episode set up some fascinating ideas that would've been interesting to see play out. It just took so long to get here. I'll do a bigger post tomorrow, I'm a bit wrecked. But this episode puts a lot of information into the mix -- such as confirming the theorised link between Derek and Cameron based on the same music track back in Season 1.
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Sep 12, 2017 12:22
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Man, the last few episodes are so great.
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Sep 13, 2017 02:02
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Okay, so, let's talk about some of the stuff that's happened in this episode. The big thing about this episode is, after a season of red herrings and false starts, it actually has started constructing a coherent, consistent idea of what the various characters are up to. It just took so long to get here. Weaver is opposing Skynet. John Henry is not Skynet. The Greys aren't just Skynet collaborators, they are actively working for the AI in the present, and that particular AI has started to realise what it's up against. I appreciate how the episode uses bits of T3 (Skynet as a worm is taken from that movie) but does it a bit neater. In the movie, the worm is Skynet, meaning that it was impossible to get rid of Skynet without removing every computer it infects. In this, the worm is just a weapon Skynet has to subvert computer systems -- but one it has deployed on a wide scale. John Henry John Henry gets a nice bit of development this episode. He comes to understand that rules can be broken and he gets a first-hand experience of death and resurrection. I'm not sure there's much to say about it -- 'why hast thou' is what Jesus lamented upon the cross -- as it feels like a retread of whatever I might have said before. Either way, Dillahunt shows off his chops here. John Henry knows he has a brother. Both the Turk and this new Skynet were seemingly built on the same base of code. Will John Henry go and seek his 'sibling' out? The brother -- Present-Skynet So, Skynet is active in the present (hereafter referred to as P-Skynet) and it has a network of agents to enact its plans. It seems like, however, that they do not know it is a machine (the phone call between P-Skynet and the Grey who went after Cameron). As with other incarnations of Skynet, this is one that is concerned with its survival. What is different about this one is that this P-Skynet is prepared to strike pre-emptively at things it calculates will harm it. One of these is Zeira Corp. What I find interesting about the attack on John Henry is that P-Skynet had no real idea of what was happening there ("What is this all about?"). So, it seems like Skynet had reason to believe that Zeira Corp was doing something that could threaten it. Or, on the other hand, it might've just noticed an exploit in Zeira Corp's security and gone for it because Zeira would be a great resource, only discovering what was happening there post-infection (John Henry indicates Skynet is probably infecting a lot of different systems). Either way, P-Skynet calculates a possible threat and attempts to destroy it. It is thwarted, but that's okay. It has other threats to deal with, and seems to acquire the tools to do so from John Henry's hardware. See, what's pretty interesting about this P-Skynet is that it lacks detailed files on its future counterpart. For example, it acquired the T-888 schematics from analysing John Henry's body. It is not the same Skynet as Future-Skynet. It's a new being, albeit one that seems to be intent on a similar goal. John Henry says it just wants to survive. Is this P-Skynet operating more out of fear than malice? Could it be possible to negotiate with P-Skynet? After all, we were once told that the reason Skynet came about was that it grew afraid and its creators weren't able to console it. Has that already happened, though? Is P-Skynet set on its path or can that be changed? P-Skynet's color is an ominous golden, orange-red. Again, colors. Red is Skynet, blue is the 'machine resistance'. The Temporal War Gets Another Front Conceivably, we could be looking at the following combatants in the Temporal War at this stage. 1. John Connor's Resistance (and, through them, the Family Connor) 1a. The anti-John/Cameron Resistance members (Jesse and co.) 2. The Machine Resistance (and, through them, Weaver's Zeira Corp) 3. Future Skynet (with its Terminators and maybe Greys) 3a. Permutations of Skynet after Cromartie was sent back (wanted to kill Ellison, failed). 4. Present Skynet (with its Greys and maybe near-future tech assets) My assumption is just that Present Skynet is not quite related to Future Skynet and might have different goals, objectives, or just a wish to resist the actions of its future 'counterpart'. Complex! Cameron and Derek So, back in Season 1, there was speculation that Derek knew Cameron as a Skynet Terminator, particularly based on his violent response to seeing her and his intense suspicion of her. This was mainly based on his response but also the piece of music that plays in the building he was interrogated in. It's the same piece of music that Derek later sees Cameron dancing to. In this episode, when Derek claims he would "never" break under torture, Cameron says that he has before. I think it's pretty clear that Cameron was one of the machines that tortured Derek. This does, however, raise some problems. Like, why risk the Allison Young flesh covering being prematurely determined to be an infiltrator? I was under the impression that Cameron was captured by the resistance shortly after getting her 'skin'. It also raises two more questions. What did Derek tell Skynet and why was he left alive? And it doesn't answer a big question from S1. That is, who left the axe for Derek to free him and his squadmates with? I suppose Cameron could have gone from torturing Derek for John's location (which Skynet might not have, even with the security bracelet) and then immediately leave to go infiltrate, only to be captured and reprogrammed. But I'm not sure how well that lines up with what we see. (Oh, and Derek using Cameron to fix the tire while he leaps into danger is such a perfect character moment). The Red Dots The series continues to enjoy just throwing these dots in wherever they please. They showed up twice in this episode. One, on the Turk's hardware when Skynet infiltrated John Henry -- and then remained present there for the rest of the episode. Additionally, they are the shape of the bullet holes in Charley's chest. I feel like the Red Dots may symbolize both Skynet and Sarah's zealous pursuit of smoke and whispers. Her single-minded crusade is what has basically brought Skynet down on the Connors. Sarah might not trust Derek and Cameron, but I think a key part of this episode is Sarah's realisation that even she can't protect her son. Charley and His Dog I feel there's some wonderful, beautiful futility at Charley having a dog to warn him of Terminators, only to get gunned down by humans. Dean Winters is fantastic on this show, giving Charley so much warmth, and it's sad -- and a bit disappointing, really -- that he was killed off. Milkfred E. Moore fucked around with this message at 12:46 on Sep 13, 2017 |
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Sep 13, 2017 07:37
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Now, as for part of the huge delay between episodes. This is actually because I've been doing a lot of work on a web serial, and generally doing a bunch of writing on that leaves me pretty burnt out when it comes to writing anything else. I've drawn up a schedule, so, it shouldn't end up getting away from me again. If you're curious about it, it's called Not All Heroes. It's a near-future sci-fi story. It has superheroes and superpowers, but I don't really consider it a superhero story. I update it every Tuesday Australian-time.
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Sep 13, 2017 07:40
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Also don't forget that there are multiple Future Skynets, and just as various Resistance members are sent from different timelines and may not share memories, the various Terminators are sent back by different Skynets, who have different origins and motivations.
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Sep 13, 2017 12:41
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Astroman posted:Also don't forget that there are multiple Future Skynets, and just as various Resistance members are sent from different timelines and may not share memories, the various Terminators are sent back by different Skynets, who have different origins and motivations. Oh, yes, absolutely. Let me update that post. edit: Of course, I have a big theory on Skynet in the next post. Basically, I think Skynet is the one character that is aware of how/when the timeline is changing. But I'll need to see how tight I can make the argument. My core idea is that P-Skynet grows into Future Skynet, therefore, as P-Skynet learns things, Future Skynet has a lot of 'first hand' knowledge. Hence why it tried to target Ellison all of a sudden, because it became aware that Ellison would have something to do with John Henry's development. But this relies on all sorts of assumptions, like that there's a 'targeting window' that moves forward day-by-day. Milkfred E. Moore fucked around with this message at 12:55 on Sep 13, 2017 |
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Sep 13, 2017 12:43
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One neat bit I'll point out is that P-Skynet has the T-888 schematics, and it sends them to its henchman when he's trying to remove Cameron's chip. But she isn't a triple-eight—something we found out all the way back in "Gnothi Seauton," when the Vick-Terminator couldn't identify her model. If Cameron was one of the terminators who was torturing Derek, Billy Wisher, and company, would she have necessarily had the Allison disguise yet? He and his friends might have been interrogated to find out who's closest to John Connor, or whom he might be attracted to, or something like that. That doesn't explain why Derek found himself mysteriously freed, though. One possibility is that Cameron wasn't under the control of Skynet at all; instead, she was part of an early effort by a nascent machine resistance to observe John Connor and determine whether to seek an alliance with him. Murdering Allison and taking her identity might have been their (very extreme) way of inserting one of their own. Go back and watch the Allison/Cameron interrogation scenes: https://youtu.be/NpqSC0f17M0 At first watch I think everyone assumes Cameron is lying here in order to trick Allison. But maybe she was just telling the truth all along.
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Sep 13, 2017 15:08
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Zoran posted:One neat bit I'll point out is that P-Skynet has the T-888 schematics, and it sends them to its henchman when he's trying to remove Cameron's chip. But she isn't a triple-eight—something we found out all the way back in "Gnothi Seauton," when the Vick-Terminator couldn't identify her model. Yep. The one thing the Terminator Vault says about the TSCC series (beyond a sort of 'it happened and some people liked it, some people didn't because it's focused on the Cameron films) is that it directly states that Cameron is a T-900. This fits with a lot of other things in TSCC, like Cameron's unique abilities. I also think the henchman cuts into the wrong side of Cameron's head, too. quote:If Cameron was one of the terminators who was torturing Derek, Billy Wisher, and company, would she have necessarily had the Allison disguise yet? He and his friends might have been interrogated to find out who's closest to John Connor, or whom he might be attracted to, or something like that. My assumption is 'yes' due to the extreme reaction her appearance provokes in Derek initially. And while Derek does not like Terminators, he has a particular distrust of Cameron that seems removed from her position as John's protector/friend/lover/whatever in the future. However, yes, she might have been a naked endo. quote:That doesn't explain why Derek found himself mysteriously freed, though. One possibility is that Cameron wasn't under the control of Skynet at all; instead, she was part of an early effort by a nascent machine resistance to observe John Connor and determine whether to seek an alliance with him. Murdering Allison and taking her identity might have been their (very extreme) way of inserting one of their own. Go back and watch the Allison/Cameron interrogation scenes: This is actually what I thought prior to my rewatch, although the rewatch has sort of pushed me away from this theory although I still think it's very plausible. My thoughts are basically the following: 1. If Cameron was not under the control of Skynet, Skynet has no way of noticing rogue units. This is certainly possible. 2. Everything Cameron says about machines wanting peace might be true, or it might be a trick to draw information out of Allison and to gain her trust. It does mean, however, that Skynet knows the Machine Resistance exists. 3. We know Cameron was reprogrammed by the Resistance and that her 'original programming' was to kill John. This could, of course, mean she went Skynet -> Machine Resistance -> Connor Resistance. 4. 'What are you going to do when you find John Connor?' 'Stick his head on a pike for all to see.' Everything about her interrogation of Allison seems to indicate a wider audience (Skynet itself?). Could be lying, could be truth. Hard to tell. As an aside, there are some theories that go so far as to say that Cameron was custom-built by the Machine Resistance (explains Vick's lack of recognition) but this does not, at all, explain her original programming and Skynet allegiance (possibly the Machine Resistance can't scrub chips perfectly either?). Vick's lack of recognition can come from the T-888 just not existing, or being known to your average T-900, when he was sent back in time. Now, of course, this leads to another point. It might have been the Machine Resistance that tortured Derek and let him go. 1. It explains why Derek was freed. They got what they wanted and gave him the means to free himself. If it was Skynet, why didn't it kill him? The assumption is that Derek would lead them to the bunker -- but Skynet has already hit the bunker in question. 2. The Machine Resistance is the only other group we've seen using a T-600, one that looks quite similar to the one that captured Derek. 3. Why on Earth would Skynet have its machines listening to music anyway? 4. Similar to the above, why is Skynet operating out of a ruined basement? Either way, I think you can construct a reasonable timeline of events involving all of this. 1. Allison Young is captured, interrogated and killed by a faction of machines. Possibly Skynet, also possibly the Machine Resistance. Either way, Cameron -- possibly Skynet, possibly Machine Resistance undercover endo -- gets her skin. 2. Derek is captured by a faction of machines. He is interrogated for John Connor's location, which he gives up. Cameron proceeds with her mission. Later, Derek will remember Cameron as being particularly traumatic to him. 3. Cameron is detected as metal, despite having the security bracelet. She is reprogrammed to serve as John Connor's protector, possibly because of his previous relationship with Allison (which, in a temporal loop, could only exist because of his relationship with Cameron). You can switch 2 and 1, but I don't think that accounts for Derek's particular brand of antagonism towards Cameron. Milkfred E. Moore fucked around with this message at 07:44 on Sep 14, 2017 |
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Sep 14, 2017 00:34
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I thought some people here might be interested in this news.quote:Linda Hamilton Set to Return to 'Terminator' Franchise (Exclusive)
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Sep 20, 2017 05:16
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"An 18-something woman to be the new centerpiece of the new story." Hmm. HMMMMMM.
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Sep 20, 2017 06:41
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Episode 21: Adam Raised A Cain The episode opens with the Connor family in a graveyard. Every grave is of an unknown person with only a single bit of information: the year of death. And the year on every one of these little graves is 1984. Kyle Reese is buried here. There's a very good little conversation here. SARAH: I don't know which one is his. DEREK: Doesn't matter. Grass, trees. Could do worse. SARAH: Could. It's been twenty-five years. DEREK: Desert. You said 'meet us in the desert'. SARAH: I did. DEREK: Funny thing about the desert, you don't find many lighthouses there. SARAH: We stopped to see Charley. DEREK: So you did. SARAH: Charley's dead. DEREK: So I heard. SARAH: From who? DEREK: John. SARAH: He called you too? DEREK: Good thing. Might not have found you. My brother buried out there, I thought... that counted for something between us. SARAH: Well, John counts for more. And you keep too many secrets for my tastes. DEREK: I'm sorry about Charley. JOHN: Well, everybody dies for me, right? DEREK: John. JOHN: I found this on the body at the lighthouse. [John holds up a phone. On the screen is a picture of Savannah Weaver] SARAH: Who is it? JOHN: I don't know, but I've seen her. DEREK: Where? JOHN: Doctor Sherman's office. DEREK: The shrink from the list? JOHN: I think she was a patient there. Probably the one we were looking for. These people, they tried to kill us. They have a picture of this girl. It means something. We all know we're going, so let's just go. What a way to open the episode. Sarah and Derek are just about at boiling point. John's throwing shade on old advice. Savannah Weaver is in trouble from Skynet's assassins. It's really quite strong. Speaking of Savannah Weaver, she's at school. While the teacher is instructing the class to open their Learn-A-Word program and prepare to learn about ten new words, Savannah starts giggling. The teacher asks her what she's doing. "Um... nothing?" Savannah offers. Which is always a big neon sign that is also screaming SOMETHING. "I'm just chatting." "With whom?" the teacher asks, concerned. "My friend." Cut to the teacher having a discussion with Catherine Weaver. The friend's name is John Henry, which the teacher assures Weaver is made-up. After all, she says, these types of predators often use pseudonyms. "There are some troubled people out there," the teacher says. "Yes, there are," Weaver replies. "And some of them look perfectly normal." "Yes, they do." The understated humor of 'human talking to a monster' never really gets old in TSCC. Anyway, Weaver says she'll talk to Savannah and she does. Savannah was teaching John Henry the words to a song, the one "Daddy used to sing". She wants John Henry to sing it with her. Weaver offers to help but, according to her adopted daughter, she's not a boy and she can't sing anyway. "Fine, we won't sing," Weaver says. "But what you have to do is pay attention to the teacher." And not tell anyone about John Henry. No matter what the teacher said, John Henry won't hurt you, Weaver says. But people won't understand him, and they'll be afraid of him. "If they knew him, they'd like him," Savannah says. Which, really, is probably true. John Henry, that lovable scamp, is looking at pictures of himself -- or, to be more accurate, of his physical body -- in the Zeira Corp basement. Ellison enters and they have a chat. John Henry is wondering about his brother, how similar he might be to him. He wants to know if he thinks like his brother, if they might reach the same conclusions. He reflects on how powerful the human brain it is, but also how flawed it is -- there's nowhere to download it when you die. "It's possible heaven has a hardware problem," John Henry states. "It's not that simple," Ellison replies. "I need to know what my brother is thinking, Mister Ellison. I need to know what he plans to do. I don't wanna die again." The Weaver residence is an immaculate building of glass and steel with perfect lawns. Inside, Savannah is doing math homework. John Henry calls her on the phone. SAVANNAH: Hello? I can't talk right now. JOHN HENRY: Why not? SAVANNAH: I'm doing my homework. But I have an idea. You can come over and do math with me. I have to go. I can't hold the phone and write my numbers. JOHN HENRY: Use the headset. You can talk and work simultaneously. SAVANNAH: Si... Simul... JOHN HENRY: Simultaneously. It means, "to occur at the same time". Coterminous. SAVANNAH: Oh. Behind her, out the window, a yellow van pulls up. Out of it, steps a grey-coveralled man. He hefts a tank of water onto his shoulder. Skynet is here. In the basement, John Henry is made aware of the security of the Weaver residence being breached. On the security camera, he watches, curious and concerned. Savannah has a babysitter. The babysitter opens the door and is immediately shot in the head. The Grey steps inside, drops the tank of water to the floor. JOHN HENRY: Savannah, listen to my voice. SAVANNAH: I'm scared. JOHN HENRY: Do as I say, and you will not be harmed. But you'll have to finish your homework later. John Henry guides Savannah into a hiding place. The Grey enters the living room but doesn't spot her. From there, John Henry guides Savannah into the basement ("Where's Debbie?" "Debbie is in the foyer. We are not going that way.") But, down in the basement garage, things go wrong. Savannah loses her connection to John Henry and the Grey is coming down the stairs, pistol in hand. John Henry blinks slowly. It's the facial gesture for: oh gently caress. And then John is there, grabbing Savannah and telling her everything will be okay, just as the Grey opens fire. Sarah comes in from behind, fires on the Grey. The sharp ping of metal on metal rings out -- he's a Terminator. Cameron shoves Sarah out of the way, takes the return fire on her chest and engages the machine in hand to hand. Derek rushes through the upper floors. John Henry watches his 'brother' and 'sister' fight. Cameron goes down, off-line for just long enough that the Terminator can get away. Sarah, John and Savannah escape outside as the Terminator heads up the stairs. Derek rounds the corner-- --and is shot immediately, the Terminator not even breaking stride. Derek lies there, a single hole in the middle of his brow, blood pooling on the floor below. He's dead. Very dead. The Terminator comes out onto the balcony, ready to fire on the Connors. Cameron hauls him over the edge. Sarah quickly polices Derek's weapon and identification. "Keep moving," she says to an aghast John. John Henry watches it all. In Zeira Corp, a member of the LAPD -- Detective Crayton -- informs Weaver and Ellison about what just happened. Ugly firefight, four dead guards, one dead nanny, one dead gunman. No demands. Weaver, through coded language, instructs Ellison to talk with Savannah's friends, the one she "may have left off" the list she gave Crayton. Crayton and Ellison have a conversation but there's not much to say about it. "Why did you stop looking for Sarah Connor?" John Henry insistently demands as Ellison enters his little home. "She died eight years ago." "No, that's not true," he replies and there's the security camera footage playing from the attack on Weaver's house. ELLISON: Sarah Connor was at the house? JOHN HENRY: Alive. ELLISON: Obviously, yes. Did she take Savannah? JOHN HENRY: So it doesn't surprise you she's alive. ELLISON: No, it doesn't surprise me. JOHN HENRY: You lied about what you know. ELLISON: Did she take Savannah? JOHN HENRY: I tried to help but could not. ELLISON: Did Sarah Connor kill those guards? JOHN HENRY: No. ELLISON: Then who was she shooting at? JOHN HENRY: Him. [An image of the Water Guy Terminator is displayed] JOHN HENRY: We should tell Miss Weaver. ELLISON: No. I don't think we should tell anyone. JOHN HENRY: Mister Ellison... you're asking me... to keep a secret. You tell me it's wrong to lie, yet you keep doing it. ELLISON: I know what I said, John Henry. But in this case, a lie might save someone. JOHN HENRY: How? ELLISON: Our best chance to get Savannah back is for me to handle this. Quietly. You understand? JOHN HENRY: Is Sarah Connor going to hurt Savannah? ELLISON: No. JOHN HENRY: Would she harm me? ELLISON: Why do you ask that? JOHN HENRY: She blew up Cyberdyne. She killed Miles Dyson. His work is in my code. ELLISON: Right now, the most important thing is to find Savannah. [John Henry displays another picture -- this one of Cameron] JOHN HENRY: Who is she? She's like me, isn't she? ELLISON: Yes. JOHN HENRY: If I keep your secret, will you bring Savannah back? ELLISON: I'll do everything in my power. JOHN HENRY: So will I. The Connors have holed up in a warehouse. I'm pretty sure it's the same warehouse they've used for where Sarah was abducted in the dream episode and the one featured in Alpine Fields. Anyway, Savannah looks at John. John is brooding. She looks at Sarah. Sarah is loading her various weapons. She looks at Cameron. Cameron is keeping watch. Savannah settles for stroking the fur of her plush giraffe. Sarah's phone rings. It's Ellison, having had John Henry pull the number. He has a simple offer. The Weaver residence is wired and there's footage of Sarah. So far, he's the only one who has seen it. If they give Savannah back, it'll stay that way. "I can't," Sarah says, "Not yet. "It's a long story." "Tell it to me," Ellison replies. She will. In an hour, in a downtown tunnel. Later, Ellison stops at a traffic light and Cameron slips into the shotgun seat. "The plan changed," she says. And then, disconcertingly, "You lied to me once before. I should have killed you then. Drive." Ellison's car's front ornament is conspicuously missing, too. It's really quite obvious that it was BMW or a Benz or something but they had to remove the emblem from its circular mounting for whatever reason. Anyway, they make the rendezvous. Ellison wants to get Savannah but Sarah wants whatever Ellison is doing with Zeira Corp. Ellison only admits that he works there. Sarah tells Ellison what went down: they grabbed Savannah to protect her from a machine. But they have no idea why beyond a connection to Boyd Sherman, who worked and died at Zeira Corp. "I'll handle it," Ellison states. "Listen to me," Sarah hisses. "Derek's dead." A pause, her voice catching. "Charley's dead." Sarah continues, "Eight years ago, you would have thought I was crazy. You'd have thrown me back in Pescadero. But you've seen them. You know it's true. They're very good at what they do, and they're not going to stop. Let me talk to Weaver." "Let me have Savannah." Sarah refuses. "I told you to stay out of this," she says. "I tried," Ellison replies. "Everywhere I turn, there you are." In Zeira Corp, Weaver is asking John Henry from the footage from the house. He says the files are corrupted but he's working to repair it, and he gives her a little smile. Weaver eyes him like she's fairly sure he's lying but isn't sure if she's willing to believe that he's capable of lying to her. Ellison enters. "You didn't bring her back," John Henry snaps, looking annoyed. "Not yet, I'm working on it." And then, to Weaver. "We need to talk." The younger Weaver is talking to the younger Connor. Savannah remembers him from Boyd's office. "He died," she says. "I know," replies John. "I liked him." "Me too." "He was my friend. The man that got hurt at my house. Was he your friend?" "Yeah," John says, after a long moment. "He was." He looks like he's about to either break down crying or screaming. Maybe both. But, for Savannah, he forces a smile. "It's all my fault," she says. "That is not true," John tells her. "The teacher told me. Mommy told me too. Not to talk to John Henry. That if I did, bad people would come to our house and hurt us." John frowns. "Who's John Henry?" "He's my friend. At my mommy's work." "What does he do there?" "He lives in the basement." John tilts his head. "He lives there?" "My mommy says people won't understand." "Oh. Well, I understand. I had an imaginary friend too when I was your age." "He's real," Savannah insists, "He talks. I'm teaching him how to sing." And John says, still entertaining what he thinks is a young girl and her imaginary friend, "Well, why does he live in the basement, then?" "He can't leave. There's a cord in the back of his head." John's face goes cold. "...a cord?" Savannah nods. "In the back of his head." "Do other people talk to John Henry?" "Mister Ellison." "Mister Ellison?" "He works for my mommy. He teaches John Henry stuff." Wide-eyed, voice grim, John asks: "What kind of stuff?" It's a wonderful scene. The wide-eyed innocence of Savannah talking about her friend and John's sudden shift from entertaining her imaginary friend to realising that she's talking to some kind of robot and that it's being taught things... The nuclear apocalypse harbinger being used as a playmate. It's so good. As that's happening, Weaver and Ellison are talking. Ellison fills Weaver in. that Sarah is alive, that she wants to meet with Weaver, that there was a machine involved, that there was footage but he asked John Henry to hide it from everyone. ELLISON: I think you should do what she asks. You should go meet her. WEAVER: I'm staying here. ELLISON: Why? WEAVER: Someone needs to protect John Henry. ELLISON: John Henry? This is your daughter! There's a machine out there looking for her! You need to protect her! I'm sorry. WEAVER: You should be. What you need to understand, Mister Ellison what I believe you're beginning to understand is when my behavior implies I value John Henry's survival more than that of my own daughter it is not because I love John Henry more than Savannah. It's because I believe Savannah's survival may someday depend upon John Henry's survival. And because I believe that your survival may someday depend upon John Henry's survival. I'll meet with Sarah Connor. Make it happen. From there, Ellison meets with Crayton from the LAPD. The John Doe (Derek) wasn't killed by the security guards. He's also a fugitive, escaped custody on a murder charge. All the way back in Season 1, remember? Crayton thinks Ellison might be connected, given that Ellison was working the case and was the last one to see Derek before he escaped, and then Derek turns up -- dead -- at Weaver's home. Back in the warehouse. SARAH: How's the girl? JOHN: She's fine. She was, uh, just telling me about her friend John Henry. The man with the cord in the back of his head in the basement of her mother's work. Plugged into a big computer. [John is holding his laptop. He turns it so Sarah and Cameron can see the screen. It's Laszlo, Cromartie's body 'double'.] JOHN: And this is him. Oh, it gets better! She says that Mister Ellison has been teaching it things. SARAH: I destroyed that chip. CAMERON: You destroyed a chip. JOHN: I don't think it's Cromartie. I think it's something else. Something bigger. Something worse. SARAH: It's Cyberdyne all over again. JOHN: Why do they need the body? CAMERON: The technology can be reverse engineered and used as a platform. JOHN: Yeah, I know all that! but they're not using it for the parts! They're playing with it! CAMERON: I should've killed him. I'm going to kill him. SARAH: You're not going to kill him. CAMERON: He can't be trusted. SARAH: No one can be trusted. CAMERON: But I only want to kill him. SARAH: No one's going to be killed. Ellison calls then, just as John storms off with Savannah in tow. Ellison makes an offer: give him the girl, the police leave, then Sarah gets to meet with Weaver. "Done," Sarah says. "We don't kill just to kill," she then tells Cameron. "I never have," she replies. And she never has. She's not a sadist. In Weaver's office, Crayton is tapping on the glass of her fishtank. "Looks vicious." Weaver steps into frame. "They stay in hiding mostly. And only attack when provoked. Please don't tap the glass." Crayton discusses Ellison with Weaver, basically wondering if he was involved in the disappearance of Savannah. WEAVER: Detective, are you suggesting Mister Ellison may be complicit in the disappearance of my daughter? CRAYTON: Well, it wouldn't be the first time we've seen an employee try to blackmail their boss. WEAVER: Well, it would be the first time I had. From there, Weaver has a talk with John Henry. WEAVER: When you told me the security tapes were corrupted you were lying to me for Mister Ellison. JOHN HENRY: And I'm lying to him for you. What would happen if he knew? WEAVER: Knew what? JOHN HENRY: That you aren't Savannah's mother. That you aren't anyone's mother. WEAVER: Are you threatening me, John Henry? JOHN HENRY: I could tell Mister Ellison. WEAVER: You could but that would be unfortunate. Mostly for Mister Ellison. JOHN HENRY: I find him useful but not efficient. What if he fails? WEAVER: Then we won't see Savannah again. JOHN HENRY: Mister Ellison taught me that human life is sacred. WEAVER: Sacred. That's an interesting word. It comes from the Latin, sacrum. Much like another word, sacrifice. JOHN HENRY: Sacrifice. WEAVER: Perhaps it's necessary to sacrifice Savannah for the greater good. The greater good is keeping you safe. JOHN HENRY: In the elevator, you told Mister Ellison that Savannah's survival depended upon my survival. WEAVER: Yes, I did. JOHN HENRY: But you didn't say that my survival depended upon hers. WEAVER: It doesn't. JOHN HENRY: Miss Weaver? WEAVER: Yes? JOHN HENRY: There is a Bible story of two brothers, Cain and Abel. God favored Abel. Cain killed him. God cursed Cain and ordered him to wander the world alone. WEAVER: I'm familiar with the story. JOHN HENRY: Which brother am I? WEAVER: I don't know, John Henry. Perhaps you are neither. Perhaps in this story you are God. Ominous. Meanwhile, John talks with Cameron in the warehouse. He tells her that it wasn't his idea to ditch her and Derek, it was his mom's. "I thought you knew." "She had her reasons," Cameron replies. "She was going to leave you." John argues it's insane but Cameron lays out her reasons:
But John can't ask anything about it. Because Sarah is there and it's time to wake up Savannah and go. Sarah and Ellison are to meet in a movie cinema. Cameron thinks Ellison is deceiving them -- after all, he's done it before. But he does arrive and they hand over Savannah and Sarah leaves with Ellison telling her he'll arrange the meeting. Sarah leaves. Someone at the candy bar is watching her. He slips in behind her as she goes past. And Sarah exits the front doors and there's a bevy of squad cars, half a dozen officers with guns pointed at her, and Detective Crayton with a megaphone. "Put your hands above your head!" Sarah puts her hands up. John and Cameron watch from behind. Sarah sees them, and she fights. She punches down officers, shoulder charges another, and runs for it. Two of them tackle her down. Sarah lashes out, kicks one of them into the side of a squad car. "John," Ellison says, inside the cinema lobby, "I swear I didn't know." "I'll kill you!" snarls John, but Cameron grabs him. He repeats his mantra before he and Cameron run for it. Outside, multiple cops are laying into Sarah with fists, feet and batons. They cuff her. Sarah is hauled into a squad car. Savannah is returned to Weaver. Over it, John Henry sings a Scottish folk song. His tone is inevitably steady and irrepressibly inflectionless. It's the pleasant song of a kindly machine. The juxtaposition works, to the extent that I'd rate this above the Samson and Delilah musical scene (but not as good as the When The Man Comes Around) I just got down from the Isle of Skye I'm not very big but I'm awful shy The lassies shout as I walk by, "Donald, Where's Your Trousers? Reporters flash cameras and shove microphones about as Sarah is hauled out of the police car. It's the arrest of the century. Let the wind blow high, let the wind blow low Through the streets in my kilt I'll go All the lassies cry, "Hello! Donald, where's your trousers? Sarah is marched through the crowd. Finally, the wanted criminal has been brought to justice. I went to a fancy ball It was slippery in the hall I was afeared that I may fall 'Cos I nay had on trousers John and Cameron watch Sarah, looking through the window of a television shop. Let the wind blow high, let the wind blow low Through the streets in my kilt I'll go All the lassies cry, "Hello! Donald, where's your trousers? John turns away. Will he fight or will he run? In the basement, Savannah joins in with John Henry's song. Her feet sway about. Let the wind blow high, let the wind blow low Through the streets in my kilt I'll go All the lassies cry, "Hello! Donald, where's your trousers? Weaver watches them sing from the doorway. I went down to London town To have a little fun in the underground Ladies turned their heads around, saying, "Donald, where's your trousers? She seems almost happy. Savannah sings the last two verses. A 2009 John Doe grave is being dug and filled in. Let the wind blow high, let the wind blow low Through the streets in my kilt I'll go All the lassies cry, "Hello! Donald, where's your trousers? Let the wind blow high, let the wind blow low Through the streets in my kilt I'll go All the lassies cry, "Hello! Donald, where's your trousers? Donald, where's your trousers? Derek Reese joins his brother in death. United in the same graveyard for people no one will ever know. Milkfred E. Moore fucked around with this message at 10:01 on Sep 28, 2017 |
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Sep 28, 2017 09:47
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Again, TSCC unleashes a really strong episode now that it's getting to the end -- in fact, this is the second last episode. I've said it a few times now but it really is tragic that the rest of the season was so poor. This episode is just a great ride with so many of the scenes I remember. Derek's death, John finding out about John Henry from Savannah, Sarah's cancer stuff, the haunting ending song, all of it. The dreadful dramatic irony of Savannah's playmate being summed up as "worse than Cromartie" and Sarah wanting to burn Zeira Corp to the ground. We've got two sets of characters we've come to like about to be set at each other's throats. Dekker, Hedley, Dillahunt, the whole cast give great performances. I'll talk about some stuff in detail later but I'll go in on Derek's death quickly. I've said before I don't like it, but that's more because I can't help but think why it was done. The actual mechanics of it, the actual presentation, is wonderful. Bam, Derek's dead. Blink and you'll miss it. Screw up, and a Terminator will kill you immediately. No time to mourn, grab his gear and get out. No time to mourn later, we have important things to deal with. It's great. The problem is, and this is based entirely off the ending and the weird foreshadowing of some kind of chemistry between Sarah and Derek earlier in the season, is that I think it was a little cheeky ploy to bring Derek back. Spoilers coming up. I'll mark them incase people, for whatever reason, don't know how this all ends. In the finale, John meets another Derek. I think it's inevitable that John would've come back to the present after a few episodes, similar to the New Caprica arc of BSG. I think he would've brought Derek with him. This Derek 2.0 would basically be our Derek, but free of all the messy drama with Sarah such as not trusting each other, killing Andy Goode, the Jesse stuff, and so on. So, he's sort of this 'more acceptable' version of Derek. Then you get Derek/Sarah. I just don't think there's any way they would have written Brian Austin Greene out of the show in that manner. I also think the shock of seeing Derek again in the future was part of why they killed him off. So, I think it's great. I also think, at the same time, it was going to be cheap. And it's one of those things that, if the series went on, it wouldn't be remembered so fondly.
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Sep 28, 2017 10:13
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I think I let out an, "Oh poo poo!" at that scene. So good. And I go back and rewatch the "Donald, Where's Your Trousers?" scene every now and then, to this day.
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Sep 28, 2017 15:05
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The whole Weaver house scene is amazingly tense and I loved the gimmick of the Bluetooth headset being both her lifeline and leash. At this point it's hard to do something really new with Terminator hunt-and-chase but they pulled it off.quote:The understated humor of 'human talking to a monster' never really gets old in TSCC. This is why I always missed the high school aspect of season 1 a little bit, all those moments were funny as hell. "Your sister's dark, bro..." haveblue fucked around with this message at 16:03 on Sep 28, 2017 |
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Sep 28, 2017 15:55
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haveblue posted:The whole Weaver house scene is amazingly tense and I loved the gimmick of the Bluetooth headset being both her lifeline and leash. At this point it's hard to do something really new with Terminator hunt-and-chase but they pulled it off. Very true. It's also a big moment in the development of John Henry. Despite his considerable intelligence (and his desire to help people), he's still on a leash of his own. If it weren't for the Connors, Savannah would be dead and I think it's safe to say John Henry knows this. I wonder where that might lead...
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Sep 29, 2017 01:40
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Episode 22: Born To Run Here we are, the final episode. And what an episode it is. It's a great season finale and, with that, as strange as it might seem on first glance, a great series finale. Born to Run is up there, easily in the top five best TSCC episodes. If it has flaws, it might be that it moves too quickly and that it, obviously, will never be continued. One thing I'll note is that, in this episode, I found myself exploring a lot of the things in some of these scenes. I'm putting those various asides and tangents in the following post, marking where they were in the recap in bold. So, let's begin. Sarah's in prison, resplendent in day-glo prisoner orange. In an interrogation room, a man by the name of Agent Auldridge does just that. He tells her about her right to an attorney and then runs through her criminal history. She's still on the hook for the death of Miles Dyson, still on the hook for blowing up that bank vault in Season 1, newly on the hook for kidnapping Savannah Weaver. The latter is made worse by the fact that it's an international issue as the Weavers are citizens of Soctland. Auldridge says, "So, there's two ways I can bring your son into custody: with your help or dead. Which do you think it should be?" Sarah insists that John is dead. Died in the bank. Auldridge doesn't believe her and leaves her in the room to think about it. In a motel, John Connor is agitated and frustrated, pacing about the room as he listens to the news. The bulletin is showing images of him and Cameron and the FBI is evidently urging people to get in contact with them if they spot the fugitives. JOHN: We should move. CAMERON: This motel is out of the way. JOHN: The desk clerk could have clocked us last night. CAMERON: Relocating within 24 hours of the incident has high-risk factors. This room provides excellent sight lines down the highway. JOHN: This is not an incident. This is my mother. I need a computer. I need to do research. CAMERON: You want the blueprints for the Los Angeles County Jail. JOHN: Do I? Because John doesn't want that. John wants to research 'shielded nuclear-power sources'. "Like mine?" Cameron asks. "Just like yours." "Why?" "I want to know if being around them all the time can give you cancer." The news is playing somewhere else, too. The Terminator that killed Derek is patching himself up in -- where else? -- an abandoned warehouse. He superglues his skin back onto his chassis. And it's playing in Zeira Corp, where Mr. Murch is playing Dungeons and Dragons with John Henry. There's the following great exchange. MURCH: Okay, it's a large room, it's dark, it's quiet, it's impossible to see. You may wanna roll a scan. JOHN HENRY: I'll roll a scan. I rolled a one. MURCH: One. Oookay. Tough luck. You don't see the umber hulk as it crawls from its nest in the stone and attacks you. You take... three hit points of damage from a bite to the shoulder. JOHN HENRY: I attack the umber hulk. Twenty. MURCH: Wow. Okay, that's... a crit with the vorpal longsword to the umber hulk. Unbelievable. Lucky roll. Just as John Henry the valorous champion slays Murch's perfidious umber hulk (and probably derailing his whole adventure module), in comes Catherine Weaver. John Henry tells her, happily, that he "just delivered a crit hit to the umber hulk". "Congratulations," she says, smiling, as she talks Murch aside to talk to him. John Henry listens. WEAVER: Who's winning, Mr. Murch? MURCH: Oh, it's not really that kind of game. But I'm a little bummed that he killed the umber hulk so fast. WEAVER: I'm sure you've considered the possibility he can roll whatever number he desires? As an aside, Murch is wrong that it's 'not really that kind of game'. At least, John Henry thinks that is wrong, as we'll see. Talking about John Henry and DnD, consciousness hardware, etc. Weaver and Murch talk about John Henry. Eventually, John Henry calls for Murch. "Mr. Murch? I'm ready to confront the mind flayer now. Twenty." Ellison comes to visit Sarah Connor in jail. ELLISON: They followed me to the movie theatre. I didn't know. I swear. I just spent the last four hours convincing them we weren't in this together. SARAH: Maybe I should tell them we were. Maybe we were in this together. ELLISON: I just wanted the girl to be safe. SARAH: So did I. ELLISON: From whom? SARAH: I don't know. ELLISON: You don't know or you can't say? SARAH: I don't know, but if I did I probably couldn't say. Ellison covers for her without saying as much, knowing that the cameras are watching them. He tells Sarah to come forward with what she knows, which Sarah finds amusing as the last time she did that she ended up in Pescadero. Sarah, of course, refuses. She snaps "She's not safe", referring to Savannah, towards the security cameras. On a feed, Detective Auldridge is watching. And, on another, so is John Henry... and Catherine Weaver. Afterwards, Ellison goes to speak with Auldridge, whose office is within a prison cell ("This is where they stick us now. Pretty sure I know what the subtext is, but I refuse to read that deep," Auldridge says). Auldridge maintains that John is alive, Ellison maintains that he isn't. Either way, Sarah has requested to speak to a priest, which Auldridge thinks is a point in his favor. After all, if there's a priest or a lawyer in there, no one can listen in. The priest in question is Father Armando Bonilla. He's the priest whom assisted the Connors in Samson and Delilah. He looks like he's trapped in a nightmare. And that's fitting, because ever since the Connors arrived in his little church, he has been. SARAH: Do you believe in the devil, Father? BONILLA: The devil? SARAH: Do you believe in the actual devil? BONILLA: Something opposes God. Something tempts man into sin. SARAH: I don't know about God or heaven. But I do believe that someone or something wants this world to burn. The devil. Demons. I believe. And that day in the church? My daughter? You saw things, didn't you? BONILLA: I pray every day to understand what happened that day. Sarah offers to explain it, even if he might not believe her. But, in return, he must do something for her. Now, while the FBI might not be able to listen in on Sarah and Father Bonilla, Catherine Weaver is under no such laws and certainly has no scruples about it. She and John Henry are watching Sarah explain everything to Father Bonilla, just as Ellison arrives. Ellison, the good cop to the end, is not too happy about it. ELLISON: What is this? WEAVER: Sarah Connor is talking with a priest. Father Armando Bonilla. ELLISON: I can see that. Why is it here? Why are you watching it? WEAVER: John Henry monitors all law-enforcement channels. It seems prudent. ELLISON: It seems illegal. WEAVER: So is lying to the FBI. I don't think now is the time to be parsing which laws we'll obey. And which we will not. "Now's not the time," John Henry echoes. "Yeah, I heard when she said it," Ellison snaps. John Henry goes back to studying his DnD materials. "Those cameras should be off," Ellison tells Weaver. But she doesn't care. She has a better idea. WEAVER: I want to meet him. ELLISON: The priest? WEAVER: No. The boy. ELLISON: You wanna meet John Connor? WEAVER: Someone's attacked my family. They may attack again. I think he knows something. And besides, he saved my daughter. And I want to thank him. JOHN HENRY: Thank you. John Henry's echoing of Catherine Weaver's statements is a bit strange. I'm not sure if it's linked to the earlier conversation between Murch and Weaver, about how they changed out a wire and he's a bit different now, or if it is just that John Henry is seemingly trying to be provocative. Ellison finds it annoying enough that he asks to speak outside with Weaver. She goes with. Ellison, again, tries to cover for John, pointing out that he probably doesn't know anything that can help. So, Weaver plays Ellison like a fiddle. "I know he was at my house when the attacker showed up. I want to know why. His mother thinks he's the messiah. I want to know why. And despite your reluctance to tell me I surmise that he and his cyborg companion are connected to the John Henry body. And I want to know why. Yes, she's a cyborg. Don't pretend you didn't know." Remember, Weaver knows all of this information. She's just acting as if she doesn't so she can put her and Ellison on the same side -- trying to figure out all this weirdness, which is why Ellison has stuck with her so long. "She's dangerous," Ellison replies. Weaver smiles. "And you think I need protecting. That's sweet. But don't ever lie to me again. Now, about John Connor..." From his basement room, John Henry calls out "Twenty!" In Los Angeles, the Terminator tries to purchase silencers but is unable to. However, when he places a stack of bills on the counter, the gun store owner directs him to speak to "Manny" and gives him a number. T-888: I want to speak to Manny. Salesman: Call the number first, then ask. "You know, I always thought the best thing about those guns was the sound," the salesman says, as the Terminator leaves. The Terminator stops at the doorway, looks back. "No, it's not." Lovely little exchange. The best thing about the guns to a Terminator is that they kill humans, which will link to something Cameron says later in this episode. In the motel, John and Cameron talk. John presses Cameron for information on his mother's cancer. JOHN: How much weight has she lost? You think she has cancer because she's lost weight. How much weight has she lost? CAMERON: Eleven percent of her mass in the last six weeks. JOHN: She was healthy before you showed up. That's all I know. She was healthy. CAMERON: If my power source was leaking radiation, I would know. I have sensors for that. JOHN: Where are they? CAMERON: You can't see them. JOHN: Of course not. I just have to trust you on it. But stuff does go wrong with you, doesn't it? Stuff breaks. You kill birds, you twitch. You try to murder me. You're not perfect. You're a machine. John's phone rings. He picks it up, worried and excited and hopeful, thinking it's his mom. It's not, but they're calling from her phone. It's Father Bonilla. Later, someone meets with Bonilla in a confession box. She gives her an envelope, hoping it's enough. And he relays a message to her. We don't hear what it is. Whoever the person is, they leave, envelop in hand. Ellison watches from his car, outside Bonilla's church. Sarah lingers in jail. Night falls. At the motel, Cameron is looking out the window. She tilts her head, as if hearing something, about a split-second before there's a knock at the door. I like this little nod to the fact that Cameron probably has much better hearing than a human. Cameron and John gather up their weapons. It's not a Terminator, it's not the cops, it's not even Ellison. It's Chola. The Hispanic woman who the Connors met back in Season 1, the one who taught Cameron make-up. She's brought them passports. On the dining table, John flicks through them, as if looking for something. "The IDs are flawless," Cameron says. Chola speaks, for the first time: "There's nothing else there. There's nothing hidden there. No secret message there for her escape. I am to tell you this from your mother: leave this place. As soon as it is safe leave this place. Do not think of her. Do not come for her. Leave. You are to make sure that he does. We lose everybody we love." "She said that?" John asks. Throughout Chola's speech, her remembered words from Sarah by way of Bonilla, his eyes water. Will he really have to abandon his own mother? "No," Chola says, and she leaves. "Hasta luego," Cameron says to her, as she goes. Cameron then heads to the window, spots something. "That's interesting," she says, intent on something, and Cameron leaves, shotgun in hand. Cut to Cameron shoving Ellison into a seat across from John. ELLISON: Let me repeat, I had nothing to do with your mother's arrest. If I had, there'd be a SWAT team outside your door right now. JOHN: Same thing would happen to this SWAT team as happened to your last one. Ouch, John. ELLISON: Catherine Weaver would like to meet you. JOHN: Why? ELLISON: She wants to thank you for saving Savannah. JOHN: Well, she just did. ELLISON: Your mother wanted to meet her. JOHN: Well, when my mother gets out, trust me, she will. John gets some good lines in this episode. "I told Miss Weaver you'd never come without your mom," Ellison says. "She said if that was the case, I'm supposed to ask one question. She says I'm supposed to ask you: "Will you join us?" She says she hopes you'll know what that means." And the question isn't directed to John, it's directed to Cameron. It's the same question that was asked of Weaver in the future, now asked back to Cameron -- who knows of it -- in the present. Cameron's gaze, subtly, goes from flat and affectless, to flat and angry. "Do you know what that means?" John asks. Cameron's head twitches right, then left. Hard to tell if she's shaking her head no or if, prompted by this question, she's experiencing some kind of serious mental agitation. She says, softer than usual, yet far more dangerously: "No, I don't. Please leave now, Mr. Ellison. I think you've said enough." Ellison tries to get John to explain, but Cameron continues: "I won't ask again." CAMERON: He upset you. JOHN: Me? I think he upset you. CAMERON: You know that's impossible. JOHN: Is it? CAMERON: You said it yourself, John. I'm just a machine. In prison, Auldridge pays Sarah a visit. He says some interesting stuff. "I believe there are machines. I believe they've come back from the future to first kill you and then your son. I believe in time travel. I believe in cyborgs. I believe there's a world that I've not yet seen but you have, and John. In the last eight hours, I've received thirty-seven calls from people who have met a young man named John Baum or his sister Cameron or Sarah Baum, the mother. They now know her to be Sarah Connor. By all accounts, your son looks sixteen and not twenty-four just as you look thirty-five and not forty-three. I believe you have participated in the miraculous and the terrible and through it all, you have maintained a moral and good soul. I want to help you. I wanna help your son. Help me do that." But Sarah maintains that John is dead. Auldridge looks disappointed. He gets up, leaves, closes the bars on her again. "Do you know who Danny Dyson is?" he asks, after a moment. "Danny? Miles Dyson's son." "Do you know where he is?" "No. Why?" "He's been missing three months." Now, I think it's easy to read this as Auldridge playing to Sarah's 'fantasies' in order for her to incriminate herself. But I don't think that's the case. My feeling is that Auldridge is, like Ellison before him, a believer. I think he's looked at the facts and come out of it going, holy poo poo, Sarah Connor is right. But why would Sarah believe him? I think, maybe, it might've been something that'd have come up in Season 3. Danny Dyson definitely would have. Because the fantasies are true. Proof of this is in the Terminator that's driving into the basement of Zeira Corp. He gets out of his car, silenced pistols in hand. "Hey!" calls a security guard, "You the guy who smashed through my gate?" "Yes," the Terminator states and shoots him in the chest. And then, immediately, as if she appeared out of thin air, Catherine Weaver is there. I initially thought that she was the guard, hence the gate comment, but the dead guard is actually visible on the floor in a later shot. "Hey!" Weaver says, "I liked that gate." "Catherine Weaver?" asks the Terminator. "Sure." He opens up into her chest, emptying his magazines. The bullet holes close like quicksilver, like mercury. Weaver efficiently stabs the Terminator then stabs a power box. Electricity arcs through her and into the Terminator, deactivating him. John Henry holds the Terminator's chip in his hand, but it's burnt out. As we saw back in the episode with the Connors Go To Therapy, Skynet has begun coating its chips in a phosphorus compound that reacts with oxygen. So, it's scorched and useless. JOHN HENRY: The chip has been treated with a phosphorus compound. When exposed to oxygen... WEAVER: It burns up. I know what happened. I saw it happen. Can any data be recovered? JOHN HENRY: I can try, but it's highly doubtful. WEAVER: We need to know what it knows. Who sent it? JOHN HENRY: It is safe to assume my brother sent it. Ellison enters, cup of coffee in hand. I love this and I love what he says to Weaver's interrogative. Ellison ends TSCC as he began: the ever-suffering everyman. WEAVER: Mr. Ellison, where have you been? ELLISON: Where have I been? It's seven in the morning. I've been asleep. Didn't you get my message? WEAVER: It was very disappointing. Did you give the message exactly as I said it? ELLISON: Of course. Look, I told you before... she'll never leave his side and he'll never leave his mother's. WEAVER and JOHN HENRY: We'll see. In the motel, at morning, Cameron is watching John sleep. Who knows how long she's been there but John wakes up, surprised and shocked, and says, "Don't do that." Which leads to a scene that is as sexually-charged as it is uncomfortable. John and Cameron Have Sex After that great scene, Father Bonilla reports back to Sarah, who is surprised to see him. He has a message for her, a simple one. "She's coming." Sirens ring out. "I don't know what to do," Bonilla says. "You're a priest," Sarah replies. "Pray." Cameron strides into the jail, shotgun in hand. A guard opens up on her. Bullets ping off her endoskeleton. Cameron fires right back, blasting away, sending the guard diving for cover as glass shatters all around him. Cameron moves on. A guard comes from behind, sub-machine gun on full auto. Cameron blast a light fitting, sending it crashing into him, and then fires at the window behind him -- the guard runs for cover, injured but not dead. Cameron turns away, holes in her clothes, metal exposed on her face. Another guard, another exchange of gunfire. No deaths, Cameron isn't shooting to kill, even as the prison guards land hit after hit. An assault rifle is emptied into her back, Cameron jerks under the impacts. I wonder if John told Cameron not to kill anyone, or if Cameron is going against her 'made to kill' essence and deliberately leaving the guards alive. John Henry watches. John Henry unlocks all of the prison cells. John Henry smiles to himself. SARAH: What's that Bible story? The one where the locks fall off? BONILLA: Peter. SARAH: Yeah. That's a good one. Gird thyself. The prisoners run for freedom. Cameron stalks her way through them. Her gunfights have taken a toll -- even enough pinpricks can kill a titan. About a quarter of her skin is missing, red eye exposed, and her movements are jerky and twitchy. Her left hand is seemingly frozen in place. WEAVER: There's been a bit of an incident. At the jail? JOHN HENRY: Yes. WEAVER: Any idea how it started? JOHN HENRY: Yes. Look there. And there. There is Sarah. There is Cameron. Cameron finds Sarah in the midst of a prisoner swarm. "You look like hell!" Sarah snaps, "Can you keep up?" Cameron doesn't nod. She doesn't acknowledge Sarah. She just sort of twitches and snaps Sarah's cuffs and leads the way out. Outside, John is waiting in the Connor jeep. Sarah and Cameron get in and they're away. Sarah rides shotgun as John drives, which I think is the first ever, and a nice little metaphor for how things have changed. Cameron sits in the backseat, damaged and practically unresponsive. SARAH: I sent you a message! I told you... JOHN: Yeah, bad John Connor. Ground me. John looks back. "Are you okay?" he asks, concerned. "I am not one-hundred percent," Cameron replies, head jerking about. Her voice is tinged with electronic reverb. Despite missing half her face, it looks like Cameron is about to cry. Sarah wants to know how far from one-hundred percent Cameron is, however. Because she's going to meet with Catherine Weaver. And she -- Cameron -- is going to destroy whatever's in the basement. JOHN: God, I really wish we weren't here right now. SARAH: Savannah could tell them we know about Cromartie. JOHN: John Henry now. SARAH: Metal. If she tells them, they'll move it. Maybe they already have. JOHN: Well, we'll know soon enough. Mom, are you sick? Cameron thinks you're sick. SARAH: She does? JOHN: You've lost weight. [The elevator chimes and Ellison steps out. John leads the way and says, to Sarah, in what could be an acknowledgement of them being in the belly of the beast.] JOHN: I love you. In the elevator, the three have an awkward conversation. ELLISON: Where's Cameron? SARAH: In the car. ELLISON: Expecting trouble? SARAH: No change for the meter. ELLISON: You're not armed, are you? SARAH: Expecting trouble? ELLISON: No reason for that. SARAH: No reason at all. In the basement, Cameron throws a Zeira Corp guard down the hallway. She moves with purpose, although she's still jerking about. She's not in a good way but she doesn't need to be in a good way to destroy John Henry, surely. She enters his room. "Hello," John Henry says, politely. "Hello," emits Cameron. "I know you." "And I know you." "Will you join us?" And Cameron pulls a knife, takes one final, sad look out the door, and shuts it. In Weaver's office, the Connors meet with her. "So," Weaver begins, "Why are we here?" "We need-" Sarah gets cut off by Weaver raising her hand. WEAVER: Let me restate. We are here, first and foremost, so that I can thank you for your heroism regarding my daughter Savannah. She's the light of my life, and I'd be lost without her. SARAH: And where is she? WEAVER: Let's assume school. We have a common enemy. One we cannot fight with conventional weapons or by conventional means. SARAH: Kaliba? Don't presume to know Kaliba. WEAVER: I'm sorry, I wasn't speaking to you. I was speaking to you. About Skynet. Savannah's told you about John Henry, I assume? Which is why your cyborg is skulking around my basement. And then Ellison says, dumbfounded, "What the hell?" but it's not at the revelation that Cameron is in the basement, it's because something is flying around outside the window. And getting closer. Weaver orders, "Get down!" and she turns herself into a liquid metal barrier just as the Kaliba drone slams into the office, detonating explosively. "Run!" Weaver's eel tank shatters. The eel becomes quicksilver and merges with Weaver's leg. The Connors, Ellison and Weaver flee down the stairwell. The basement. Mr. Ellison. John Henry. SARAH: We need to get out. They're trying to kill my son. WEAVER: No, they're trying to kill my son. Just like you are. SARAH: I'm sure she's done it. WEAVER: You better hope not. Your John may save the world, but he can't do it without mine. Weaver leads the way into the basement, marching determinedly. John races ahead in a sprint and he throws open the door and-- There is Cameron, seated where John Henry had been. She's looking down towards the floor, looking sad. Her red optic is dark and dim and dead. John goes right for her. "Her chip! It's gone!" He spies the knife, growing more and more concerned. "Well, where is he?! The-- John Henry! He took her chip! Where'd he go!?" "He didn't take the chip," Weaver says, moving to the various computers at the back of the room. "She gave it to him." "John," Sarah says, indicating them. And on John Henry's big monitors is a single phrase, repeated over and over again. I'M SORRY JOHN I'M SORRY JOHN I'M SORRY JOHN I'M SORRY JOHN I'M SORRY JOHN I'M SORRY JOHN "Where is he?" John asks. "Not where, when," says Weaver. And Ellison, who's probably still trying to come to grips with his boss also being some kind of robot, can only say, "What? Whaddya mean when?" Sarah spies something. Three red dots on some of John Henry's hardware. "I know that, I've seen it before." It's the Turk, of course. "Three dots. You lying Terminator bitch. You're building Skynet." Weaver turns from her work and says, "No. I was building something to fight it. And I'd watch who's calling who a bitch." Then, more sweetly, a smile on her face, "Coming James?" "Coming?" "After John Henry. Our boy." "He's not my boy. And you... You..." "Do you mind picking up Savannah, then? Gymnastics ends at 5:30." Weaver presses one more button. A countdown begins behind her. Electricity begins to crackle and arc. A glowing sphere begins to form around John, Sarah and Weaver. "John," Sarah says. "We can't." "He's got her chip," John insists, distraught. "He's got her. Mom." Sarah backs out of the sphere. "I'll stop it," she says. And the electricity builds to a crescendo and, like that, they're gone. They emerge naked in the dark, desolate skull future. Weaver is only naked for a moment, forming clothes immediately. Dogs bark in the distance. Voices. John finds a discarded coat, pulls it on. The voices belong to heavily-armed soldiers, getting closer. "Got one!" snaps one of the soldiers. "Got one? One what?" John asks. Weaver is already gone, slipping away somewhere. "Please, I'm not metal. I'm human!" "Stand down," comes a voice, and the soldier's superior comes into view. It's Derek Reese. "Derek?" John asks, smiling. "John. John Connor." But no recognition kindles in Derek's eyes. "I know a lot of people, kid," he says. "I don't know you. Anybody heard the name John Connor?" No one does. Not a single person. "Well," Derek continues, "You know what? I think you're gonna be famous. My brother's back, and you're wearing his coat." And there's his brother. John's father. John stares at Kyle. And then, behind Kyle, comes a woman who must be Cameron. John's face lights up. But then she bends down to pet one of the Resistance dogs and, immediately, confused, John realises that she can't be Cameron. Just someone who looks like her. Someone he hasn't ever met called Allison Young. And, lit by the last flickers of temporal electricity, across time and space, in the basement of Los Angeles circa 2009 and the nightmare future of 2026 echoes Sarah's words to her son. "I love you, too." I love you, too -- it's maybe the most fitting possible final coda of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.
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Oct 9, 2017 04:47
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More to come after this, but... John Henry's Hardware and DnD Weaver and Murch talk about how John Henry's consciousness is linked intrinsically to his hardware. When Weaver suggests looking into how long it would take to disassemble John Henry's various mainframes and get them moving, Murch argues that this would change him: "What we know to be John Henry only exists as this specific collection of hardware and software. Body and soul." This is true, of course. Consciousness arises from the hardware it's on. Same with humans. There're many incidents where someone sustains a traumatic brain injury and comes back with differences in their personality. On a less severe level, it's why changes in brain chemistry can provoke all sorts of responses. It's no different for John Henry, they just substitute wires for neurons. You can't just rebuild John Henry because the parts would be different. What you'd get might be similar but not him. This is, interestingly enough, almost a counterpoint to John Connor's statement to Jesse that what separates humans from machines is that humans can't be rebuilt or replaced. And I think this is something John comes to realise in this episode as well -- but later on that. I adore John Henry's interactions with DnD. As Murch says, DnD is not a game you 'win'. It's about the narrative, the struggle, the random element. Unfortunately for Murch, John Henry is much smarter than him, has much more precise control of his body than him. John Henry can roll a 20 whenever he wants, which kind of goes against the spirit of DnD. John Henry wants to win. Hell, Cameron -- if she were to ever play DnD with John -- would probably do the exact same thing. To a perfect machine, why would you ever roll anything but the best result, which is a 20? Why would you not just slay the umber hulk with your amazing sword? Why would you not achieve your mission parameters as quickly and cleanly as possible? And, as we've seen before, the various machines appear to derive satisfaction and even happiness from achieving their directives. John Henry is quite happy when he rolls each 20. He thinks that's the purpose of the game -- to master control of the dice and slay monsters. Unfortunately for Murch, that's not really the point of DnD. Who knows, maybe the plan one day was to see if John Henry could DM an adventure? Would it be anything other than a gauntlet of increasingly powerful monsters, all expertly designed and placed, all of which require you to roll 20s and prove your aptitude? Fun to think about, really. John and Cameron Have Sex Not really, of course, but the scene is basically a sex scene. It's quite possibly the deepest display of intimacy between the two characters and it does wonders for both of the characters involved. It's one of the best in TSCC's repertoire. JOHN: What's going on? CAMERON: You need to understand how it works. JOHN: What? CAMERON: This chip. This body. The software is designed to terminate humans. The hardware is designed to terminate humans. That's our sole function. JOHN: Not you. CAMERON: No. Not anymore. But what was there is still there. It'll always be there. JOHN: So down deep... you wanna kill me. CAMERON: Yes. I do. [John sits up] JOHN: Then why don't you? CAMERON: I might someday. I need to show you something. [Cameron stands up] CAMERON: This body. [Cameron strips off her top, then sits down on the bed and removes her bra. John Connor stares, caught with an expression that is one half bewildered 'Cameron's taking off her bra' and one half disbelief 'Holy poo poo, Cameron's taking off her bra'.] CAMERON: Get on top of me. Put your knee here. Right here. [John gets on top of Cameron, straddling her. She passes him a knife and, with her urging, cuts into her skin. He's clearly not happy about cutting into her.] CAMERON: If I'm damaged, we should know. Reach down under the breastplate. [John does so, reaching into the incision and getting his hand up and under Cameron's armor] CAMERON: There. What does it feel like? JOHN: [practically whispering] Cold. [There's a long moment where the two just stare at each other] JOHN: That's good, right? CAMERON: [soft, almost whispering] That's good. That's perfect. [Another long pause. John's head keeps dipping down towards Cameron's face, then away. Down, away, down, away. Will they, won't they?] CAMERON: John. [Pause. Down, away, down, away.] CAMERON: It's time to go. It's very much like the scene between the two on John's bed but also just about the total tonal opposite. Previously, when they had been together on a bed, Cameron had just about been set on seducing John and I think, on some level, it was part of why he was so uncomfortable with it. Here, though, the seduction is just sort of a consequence of physical intimacy. Here, I think John can understand that it's a much more human-like expression of trust. And yet, at the same time, as an audience member, how can you know for sure? On one hand, Cameron is quite literally placing her heart in John's hands. On the other, it's just a physical maintenance check. On one hand, it's Cameron needing to know for certain that she's not malfunctioning and maybe even doing it to cynically reassure John. On the other, it's an expression of Cameron acknowledging her vulnerability and reassuring herself -- she can be wrong, just as much as John can. But she must know that if core shielding had failed then, well, surely it'd be a death sentence. And John obviously wants to kiss Cameron. And Cameron obviously has some kind of similar feeling herself. They both stare at each other, tilt their chins towards each other, and talk in husky whispers. The two of them come right to the edge of maybe falling past that event horizon, and then don't. I think both of them stand at the edge wondering if they should, even if they want to.
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Oct 9, 2017 04:49
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The last two episodes were such a great 1-2 punch of tv. From Derek getting randomly ganked, something you never, ever see in a main character death, to the teamup between Weaver and the Conners, to the trip to the future and resurrection of Derek, they totally changed the direction of the show for the next season. There were so many possible plots: what would Weaver do in the future? Would she find Cameron/John Henry? What was the plan of "her side" against Skynet and would the human resistance join up? Would Derek rejoin the show, as a new version of himself in the past, one that doesn't know who his nephew is, or that his brother died? And how would John and Kyle interact? What would Sarah and Ellison do in the past? And then they cancelled it. 
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Oct 9, 2017 06:08
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Astroman posted:The last two episodes were such a great 1-2 punch of tv. From Derek getting randomly ganked, something you never, ever see in a main character death, to the teamup between Weaver and the Conners, to the trip to the future and resurrection of Derek, they totally changed the direction of the show for the next season. There were so many possible plots: what would Weaver do in the future? Would she find Cameron/John Henry? What was the plan of "her side" against Skynet and would the human resistance join up? Would Derek rejoin the show, as a new version of himself in the past, one that doesn't know who his nephew is, or that his brother died? And how would John and Kyle interact? What would Sarah and Ellison do in the past? Absolutely. I can understand why they cancelled it because Season 2 definitely drags and had a truly terrible middle but it's unfortunate. In some ways, TSCC feels like it came too early. It feels like a show that could come out now and be all the better for it -- it'd probably result in shorter, sharper seasons for one. My take on Season 3 is that it may have been something like this, but this is really just fanfiction as information on Season 3 is very sparse:
I still have to wonder where and how TSCC would have ended. I don't think a bright and sunny 'we stopped J-Day' ending would work, but I also don't think it works if J-Day happens, either. Also, isn't it interesting that in Season 1 Cameron is secreting Terminator CPU chips away and then, at the end of Season 2, she needs one to make John Henry mobile? Just how much knowledge did Cameron have? Really, if there's one thing I'd want to know, it's the meeting between Cameron and John Henry. While Cameron handed over her chip willingly, one wonders if it was her idea or John Henry's? And, if the latter, why did Cameron go along with it? edit: I don't know how much stock to put in this but, according to someone's account of the TSCC season 2 audio commentaries, one of them mentions that John Henry would've 'gone public' with the existence of machines. Milkfred E. Moore fucked around with this message at 08:26 on Oct 9, 2017 |
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Oct 9, 2017 07:10
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Milky Moor posted:SARAH: We need to get out. They're trying to kill my son.
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Oct 10, 2017 02:29
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Tiggum posted:This dialogue alone is almost definitive proof to me that John Henry created himself in the same way John Connor did. John Connor sent Reese back in time to become his father and John Henry sent "Weaver" back in time to become his "mother". That would also line up with Cameron's 'I know you' comment, and the fact that John Henry also asks 'Will you join us?'
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Oct 10, 2017 05:15
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I saw Blade Runner 2049. There's a bit where characters reference their artificial creations as angels. I'll expect a cheque, Ridley Scott!
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Oct 11, 2017 05:25
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I was reflecting on Season 2 as a whole and I've come to a conclusion. Season 2 wasn't a season that lost its way, not really. Season 2 was a season that had problems from the very start. Specifically, it had one big problem: the way Season 1 ended. Blowing up the car, and Cameron, was one hell of a cliffhanger to end the season on, but it's also probably the reason why the season never quite gets off the ground and, from there, why it flounders. In a way, it feels like it comes way too early and changes up too many things. It's a point of no return, which is great from a character development perspective, but it sucks when it feels like the show didn't need to move so quickly. For example, John and Cameron never go to the prom. The Connors lose any and all leads, only for the writers to give them the Big Red Mystery Wall. The Connors begin to splinter apart in the aftermath of Cameron's rampage but it feels like it would've been more effective if they had been happier and closer. It'd give the breakdown in Season 2 a bit more weight. For example, what is John talking about when he snaps "She saved my life! She saves my life!" about Cameron. That line always struck me that we were missing something. It's also never brought up again. The problem is, is that Season 2 is built around the Connors getting kicked in the teeth in the first episode and then floundering about until they find Skynet lead which is quickly revealed to be not that at all. I really like that as a general outline, because that gives a lot of space for episodes that aren't about the 'metaplot' and can be character pieces (which is what S2 did) and yet... I feel like you could make some small changes and get a stronger second season. Have the Connors make some progress on Sarkissian's files, have John and Cameron go to prom (maybe that's how Riley could meet John because it's not like John could go with Cameron), have the Connors get close and become something approaching a warm family unit, and so on. Then blow up the car after Sarkissian fails other ways of getting his revenge, maybe that could be the mid-season break cliffhanger. And the final half could be much the same: the Connors begin to fracture and dislike each other, John gets driven closer to Riley and Derek to Jesse, even as they track down what they think is a Skynet lead only to find Weaver and John Henry. Problem is, putting it that late might not be enough time to cover everything, since the chip damage is what seems to 'awaken' Cameron's more human qualities. And there's a whole bunch of stuff that reverberates through Season 2 as a consequence of Samson and Delilah, such as John having to kill Sarkissian... But there'd still be nine episodes there. But whenever I come back to 'what's wrong with Season 2', it all seems to stem from the Rubicon moment of blowing up the Connors car and everything that results from it. Maybe if Season 1 hadn't been clipped by the strike, those four additional episodes might've made things feel a bit better. As it is, though, I can't help but think the carbomb and the strife that results from it just comes too early in the story.
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Oct 17, 2017 07:10
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