"TERMINATOR: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" Season 2 Thread - Page 13

Re: "TERMINATOR: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" Season 2 Thread

Even though it was probably the least action-packed and least eventful episode of the season, and perhaps the series, I really liked it. It was nice to see Richard Schiff again, and it was nice to see the series delve into some more complex scifi ideas. The movies never had to deal with multiple timelines, since the future beings came in pairs sent back at roughly the same time. The show is jam-packed with humans and terminators sent from the future, so the issue arose.

And the ending, with the shrink's name and the three dots from her dream, was definitely the eeriest note the show had got out on. "Because that's what we do. When we see something that's in pain or in trouble, or whatever, we try and help it." John is decent, and doesn't like to see suffering. Like his mother at the bowling alley, he chose to do what was morally right instead of what was intellectually right. There's also the fact that Ellison has been pretty straight with the Connors so far. You're more willing to give a stand-up guy the benefit of the doubt. He hadn't deceived John before, so John was predisposed to believe that he wouldn't betray them now. I don't think it can be overstated how important this episode was for fleshing out Derek's character. Ever since he was introduced, he's been advocating the hardline stance. His dislike and distrust of Cameron has given us all a take-no-prisoners opinion of him. Yet caught between the word of his lover and the objective facts as he saw them, his instinct was to be as just as possible. The ironic thing is, the events of the interrogation may have set up the events that created Jesse's timeline. We already knew the future is definitely being changed, or Judgement Day would have occurred in 1994. Characters sent back at after certain key events would logically be from different timelines. However, all we have to go on is what Jesse told Derek and what Derek inferred from Charles' taunting. I don't trust Jesse, and therefore find what she tells us suspect. Back to the Future operates from a completely different conceptualization of time travel. If the BTTF rules applied, Derek should have gradually phased into the most current timeline, which would presumably included the interrogation memories. After chopping at young Charles's fingertips, the scars should have faced onto the fingertips of the elder Charles. The show's conceptualization of time is not reflexive; were Judgment Day averted, the reckage of the terminators (and presumably Cameron) would remain -- despite the fact that circumstances that created will no longer occur. This also neatly prevents paradox.

I plan to walk though the other comments later, but I'm exhausted so I'm headed off.

Re: "TERMINATOR: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" Season 2 Thread

Very creepy. And it's not a reboot, because Cromartie IS dead, even though his vessel isn't. I find Garbagebot fascinating; she genuinely seems to want to teach Babylon the things that she, as a terminator, lacks. Could John Henry be the template for Cameron in the future? Building a humane A.I. to counter the brutal A.I. seems like a more sophisticated and future-proof solution to the problem than holding back progress indefinitely. I neither like her nor trust her. Everything in this episode throws everything from the previous episode into doubt. We can't even be sure she is from a different timeline than Derek. Telling her that he's the nephew of mankind's savior was a big mistake in my book, confirmed by her own unwillingness to out Riley as her agent. He's proving to be a unique character, though, demonstrated by his line of questioning to the A.I. His faith is providing essential to verbally sparring with Garbagebot — who in turn demonstrated surprising humility by admitting that ethics were out of her area of competence We only know that that's what Jesse has told him. For all we know, Cameron is filling some capacity essential to John Connor's agenda but counter to Jesse's personal agenda. It's already been strongly implied that Cameron's "talks" with future John had a sexual element to them, and Cameron is from the same timeline (or earlier) that Derek is. My reaction was just the opposite. I've never bought that she would stalk John into a friendship, and I've never bought their exchanges. It always felt very manufactured for me. Until this episode, I thought that manufacturing was a Fox note to have a young love interest on the show.
Now all of my problems with Riley makes sense: she stalked John into a friendship because it was her mission. Her exchanges with John felt manufactured because, to a degree, they were manufactured — by someone with a limited grasp of the early-21^st century teenage vernacular.
By contrast, the scene in the dressingroom and the breakdown in the kitchen felt very real to me. So Riley being a plant actually improves my feelings for the character. Instead of being this irritating dangling thread connected to nothing else, she ties directly into the mythology of the series.

The show that gets live viewing for me, "Chuck", started out great and has stayed remarkably consistent. But it doesn't grow or expand its ambitions. Starting with the first season finale, this show has grown by leaps and bounds week after week and really found a voice of its own. Were it not for the fact that I watch "Chuck" with family, I'd be hard-pressed at this point to choose one over the other.