(S01E07) When I was in college, I took a science fiction class. In it, we discussed the themes of the first two Terminator movies, such as the religious themes (note the initials of John Connor and the other religious figure with the same initials) and the sources of violence (In the first movie it came in the form of machines. The second backpedaled and blamed minorities for violence). I mention this because given the overt religious theme of tonight's episode, I wonder if Josh Friedman was in the same class. This episode went all "New Testament" on us.
Summer Glau looked mighty fine dressed as a cop like that. Some might not find it sexy, but I couldn't help but be reminded of when female strippers dress as cops. They look a lot like that. At first, I mean. When the clothes are still on. But I digress...
Cameron seems to not be built for subtlety. She's breaking down a lot of doors in the beginning. I think one of the big purposes of this episode is to remind us that she IS a machine, particularly when you saw how differently she and Sarah reacted to endangered human life.
Since when does John WANT to go to school? He's certainly changed.
The Agent Ellison storyline also progressed a lot in this episode. Technically, it was the first meeting between him and Sarah, although they didn't exactly chat over tea.
I like how the episode revisits Sarah's stay in the mental institution that was seen in the beginning of T2. They replicated her cell from that movie pretty well. In the videotape, she even quotes Kyle Reese from T1. I believe Dr. Silberman also quotes the famous line "Come with me if you want to live" from Kyle in T1 and Arnold in T2. The heavy-continuity episodes always seem to play better to me, although I recognize that people who haven't seen the movies might be a little lost.
Summer Glau comes from a ballet background (and she looked mighty fine doing ballet) before she moved into acting, so I'm sure doing this episode was a joy for her. Ironically, she even played a Russian ballet dancer in the episode of Angel she appeared in. Are Russian ballet dancers yet another TV cliche'?
I'm amazed Skynet made a Terminator model in Cameron that has such quiet grace. I think it would be more realistic (in the context of the show) if we heard motors whirring or metal joints creaking.
I liked the line "Do we only have one F.B.I. agent in this town?" No, but we only have one F.B.I. regular in the series. How could he store the Terminator hand in his freezer? If I did that, I'd wander in late at night for a snack and put in it in the microwave thinking it was chicken. Mmmmm. Chicken fingers.
They got a different actor to play Dr. Silberman in the episode. I'm sorry they didn't get Earl Boen himself. He was the only actor other than Arnold to appear in all three Terminator movies. The character did mention in T3 that he went nuts from the events in T2. I guess we got a little taste of that here.
Derek Reese's story continued in the episode as well. When do we get to the part where he learns he's John's uncle?
Tonight was a good episode, almost as good as last week. As mentioned, the continuity-heavy episodes tend to work better for me, particularly since this show is doing them pretty well. Given time, this could be a really good series. Like, Battlestar Galactica good. Sadly...
The season's remaining two episodes will be shown back-to-back next week. I will be doing two separate reviews, one for each hour. The question is: will the show make a second season? I'm hoping it does, but it's science fiction on Fox. Despite heavy Superbowl promotion, my guess is it won't. I can only hope they bring a satisfying ending to the series in the next two episodes. We'll see next week.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
2-25-2008 @ 11:40PM
bruce said...
I was totally lost as to how the fire which crazy Dr. Silberman set was put out by what appeared to be sudden rain. What was up with that? I get that Sarah showed up and saved Ellison and took the hand, but how was the fire put out, where did the rain/water come from? It was rain, right? It sure didn't look like it was about to rain when Ellison showed up. Moreover, rain wouldn't put out an indoor, accellerant-based fire. How did Sarah get Ellison out of there, anyway?
Did anyone notice that the music Cameron was ballet-dancing to at the end of tonight's episode was the same ominous music playing in the basement of the Skynet "prison house" in last week's episode? I wonder if that was intentional? I wonder if it was Cameron who was in the basement (I still contend that Skynet was taking blood from the human captives down in the basement for purposes of creating human flesh, using Cromartie's formula, so that robots could travel through the time machine). Is the basement where Derek knows Cameron from? Was Cameron captured by the resistance and reprogrammed sometime after Derek was freed from that Skynet prison house? Maybe Cameron was the one who actually did the blood-letting from the human captives.
Anywy, I thought this episode was just okay... it seemed very disjointed, nothing really happened, and it also seemed like there were a lot more commercials than usual. I feel like I watched an hour of commercials with maybe 12-15 minutes of TV show mixed in.
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2-26-2008 @ 9:08AM
Alana said...
You know, that's exactly what I thought after watching "The Times They Are A-Changin'." Derek had too severe a reaction upon seeing Cameron for the first time in the tunnels with the resistance. He knew immediately that she was a terminator. I assumed that she was the one in the basement. Maybe the viewer wasn't supposed to assume that, but with them dropping the music hint last night it confirms my suspicions. It also explains why Derek thinks so poorly of her.
2-25-2008 @ 11:42PM
Argus said...
Has it been doing badly ratings-wise? I assumed it had been doing okay. I know that CTV has been promoting the hell out of it. Every commercial break tells us that "closed captioning is sponsored by, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, now online at CTV.ca"
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2-25-2008 @ 11:49PM
Tim said...
Summer Glau's first performance on TV was that episode of Angel you mentioned. That's how she landed the gig on Serenity, Joss liked her. I could watch her dance for hours!
The episode was pretty decent, though not spectacular - something i'm coming to expect from this show. I like the references to the film but this episode seemed like it heard how we enjoyed it in the previous episode and then packed in as many references as they could. It felt a bit bloated to me...save some for the rest of the season!
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2-25-2008 @ 11:52PM
bsgfan2003 said...
I believe it was the same music. Cameron was cold tonight - Burrrr! Contrast that with the beauty of her ballet, very nice.
Most definitely looking forward to the full story on Derek and Cameron. I'm getting the feeling he's not such a swell guy.
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2-25-2008 @ 11:57PM
mayorjimmy said...
We're on the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Cameron. Frankly i think the series is going to scrap the continuity of the 3rd movie. if it does, i don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. after all, when time travel is involved, you can pretty much make up any new storyline you like and just chalk it up to timeline changes. the fact that we haven't had any mention of Kate Brewster, John's future "wife" tells me that they're going to either scrap her and replace her with Cameron, OR..... John is going to meet the girl Cameron is modeled after. Don't forget, John was killed off in the future by Arnold's model so the machines aren't above using emotional attachment to further the odds of mission success.
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2-26-2008 @ 2:45PM
brian said...
I think when they jumped forward in time. It invalidated everything in T3
2-26-2008 @ 12:03AM
BC said...
"Since when does John WANT to go to school? He's certainly changed."
Well, the plot thread that has been lost the past several weeks (and possibly forever, we'll see) as we concentrated on stopping the Turk and the resulting fallout, is the mysterious chick and her creepy dad. I'm guessing John wants to get back on that trail.
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2-26-2008 @ 12:41AM
utalice said...
Does anyone know the name of the song that Cameron was dancing to at the end of the show? It sounded like Chopin, but I'm not sure.
thx!
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2-26-2008 @ 8:36PM
bobby said...
You're right. It is Chopin. Nocturne in C Minor.
2-26-2008 @ 1:13AM
RPore said...
Wait... is Terminator doing poorly in the ratings? I was under the impression it was doing decent enough. I'm enjoying the show for the most part and I would hope that we would be able to see more. At least until the show has run long enough so that Arnold can get a guest spot some day.
This episode was alright. Seeing Summer Glau's beautiful dance with her cold bloodedness was a nice contrast. Curse this episode and it's tease that we would get to see what else happened between Cameron and Derek in the future.
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2-26-2008 @ 1:21AM
YouFaceTheTick said...
the only good episode of the series thus far. interesting, amusing and nicely tied into the other films. It puts the show in context and gives it the history it's been missing.
Loved the look the on Brian Austin Green's face when he first saw the robot dancing...fear, loathing, wonder, awe and confusion all rolled into one.
If they stuck a little more to the movies this would be more like a continuation each week and not a horrid jumble of problems-of-the-week.
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2-26-2008 @ 2:39AM
todd said...
Ok, what's the deal with the "end of the season" coming.
There have only been like 7 episodes or something, right?
The original Star Trek had like 26 and 24 had, well, 24.
Am I right or have there only been like 7 episodes?
(BTW, I took all of two episodes for me to fall for Summer Glau.
Just like a single, the first time I hear it, I can't tell anything,
but if I get a rush the 2nd time I hear it (see her), it (she) rules!)
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2-26-2008 @ 3:06AM
Joey Geraci said...
Strike stuck Sarah Connor Chronicles pretty badly on the episode count.
I am getting to really like this show. I wish they would figure out what they want to do with Cameron, and she has unfortunately been the weakest leak so far (Agent Ellison is the second weakest link, although he was pretty good this episode), but the series is getting better. I really like that they don't feel the need to fill each episode with heart-pounding action.
The rain scene was a little jarring, but I don't think it had anything to do with them escaping.
I certainly hope the series gets renewed, even with the requisite cut budget. Can't Fox, for once, let a drama get a little time to grow?
2-26-2008 @ 2:50AM
Zarquon said...
Sorry for the snark, but how many times does it have to be said that T3 doesn't exist (never has, never will) in the SCC universe. The PTB have said so.
As for the ratings, SCC has been sliding, but so far the weakest has been a 5.3 for "The Turk" whereas last week's ep "Dungeons & Dragon" got a 6.9. This week will be a good test since I think its the first without Prison Break as a lead in. To compare, the best Firefly ever did was a 4.0 (not a reflection of its quality, for those unfamiliar) and Prison Break usually gets ~8.
So I think we have reason to hope, but with Fox you never know.
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2-26-2008 @ 1:59PM
Simon Wakefield said...
Your viewing figures confuse me as the ratings i have seen have been (Monday Slot only)
Ep2 - 10.07mill
Ep3 - 8.65mill
Ep4 - 8.84mill
Ep5 - 8.34mill
Ep6 - 8.09mill
It had built on Prison Breaks viewers each week, Prison Break which has been doing around 7.5mill
Interesting while it built on Prison Breaks lead in, this week with moment of truth as a lead in which had a million more viewers than Prison Break the figures were
Ep7 - 7.12mill
Almost a million down on last week, Maybe its just that Moment of Truth Viewers arent people who would watch Terminator while Prison Breaks were more likely to hang around and maybe moment of truth scared viewers away from the network and they never looked back but who knows
2-26-2008 @ 5:10PM
Zarquon said...
They confuse me too... I got them from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminator:_The_Sarah_Connor_Chronicles , your numbers are there too, along with a whole bunch of others. too many...
2-26-2008 @ 6:12AM
Dave said...
How is it that T2 even exists in the Terminator SCC universe, when there has been no acknowledgement of the special metal that can walk through walls and turn into other people etc.?
Just refresh my memory too - how did T2 blame minorities for violence?
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2-26-2008 @ 6:59AM
D-Bo said...
They acknowledged it in this episode when the doctor spoke of the "one with the face of mercury".
I hope this gets picked up. They way I figure it is Fox still owes me a season of 24 so until then let me watch this...
2-26-2008 @ 9:51AM
ProgGrrl said...
While I don't spend that much time picking apart the continuity issues, one assumes that we are not gonna see that "mercury" terminator model on the TV show. The FX budget (and time requirement) for those sorts of CGI effects is not gonna happen in today's TV production.
Maybe someday... :-(