'Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles' builds a better mousetrap
I wasn't exactly hankering for a Charley Dixon-centric episode on Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, but I guess we were due for one. At the end of last week, Ellison sent Charley and his wife out of town, which we all knew wouldn't last, so it probably is better that they did this episode now rather than waiting a few weeks and trying to convince us that Charley was gone for good.
Tonight's episode started off with Charley and the missus in the middle of nowhere getting gas, you may recall that Ellison suggested they go far away in the last episode Charley was just there, getting gas, cleaning the windshield, and trying to get his wife not to be angry. Cromartie pulled up, hopped into the driver's seat of Charley's car while the man was getting a soda and drove off with Charley's wife, Michelle. Poor lady, getting kidnapped by a Terminator is never a good thing.
Back in Connor-land, John learned about the death of George Lazlo (the guy whose look Cromartie stole). That possibly important bit of information was quickly overshadowed by Cameron figuring out the rate the house was settling at and that they'd have to repaint the place next summer. Sure, that was almost as important as what came next -- Charley making the all-important phone call to inform Sarah that his wife was kidnapped. Charley actually spoke to John first, but didn't want to dish the dirt to him, and when Sarah got on the phone she didn't want John to figure out what was going on either.
That's one of those things I don't understand about the show -- if John is going to lead the resistance one day, surely at some point he should be fully informed about what's going on around him. As Derek hopped into the car with Sarah to go rescue Michelle, he pointed out that what they were doing was a mistake, that Cromartie had grabbed Charley's wife in order to get to John. Even if that was the case, shouldn't John know what was going on? Wouldn't he have been better served by being informed than by being kept in the dark? Instead, John was sent to get computers with Cameron, whom he promptly ditched to go hang out with Riley.
As Derek, Sarah, and Charley were contemplating how to find Michelle, she managed to get to her cell phone and give Chuck a call with her location. Now I assumed (and you probably did too), that Cromartie allowed her to get to the phone to make the call. Apparently Sarah, Derek, and Charley weren't quite that swift (or at least didn't discuss it). They were certainly expecting Cromartie to be ready for them when they arrived at Michelle's location, but there was no mention of Cromartie allowing her to make the phone call.
Cromartie certainly was ready for them. Once her phone call was made, Cromartie duct-taped Michelle's mouth and sat her chair on four mousetraps. It was apparently a little homemade booby trap designed to make her (and anyone nearby) go boom should she be removed from the chair.
It didn't take anytime at all for Sarah and company to recognize the mousetrap bomb once they saw it, which meant that there had to be a second part to Cromartie's plan. Charley went back to the car to get a bag so Sarah could disable the bomb and found that their car had been tampered with. Learning that little tidbit, along with seeing Michelle still alive instead of terminated, clued Sarah in to Cromartie's actual plan. The mousetrap bomb was not a bomb -- it was just some molding clay. The point of the whole thing was, she assumed, to get John to come get them.
As Sarah was working that out and calling John to tell him to be careful and stay away, Derek was exploring their environs and noticed some cell surveillance equipment and an actual bomb on a cell tower just outside. No sooner did Derek figure out what was happening and rush everyone out of the place than the bomb went off and the nearby cell tower was destroyed. Sarah couldn't make anymore calls to John and Cromartie (who had tapped the first call) had John's phone number and the date code they'd been using to confirm their identities to one another. Cromartie instantly dialed John, pretended to be Sarah, and told John to wait for her (which would actually be him).
The expanded Scooby Gang hijacked a van that just happened to be traversing a dirt road in the middle of nowhere and sped off to save young John. Michelle was moderately injured when the cell tower crashed into the shack they were in, and Charley was terribly worried about what the jostling on the van was doing to her. Sarah actually stopped the car when Charley asked her to and I was shocked -- shocked I tell you -- by that. On the one hand her son and future leader of the resistance is about to end up in the hands of a Terminator, and on the other hand some lady she doesn't care for is about to die. She opted to save the lady even though it might end the world, and the lady ended up dying anyway.
Luckily for Sarah, John spotted Cromartie at the pier before Cromartie got to him, and Cameron had learned from Riley about where John was headed too. A short little foot chase scene ensued, and John jumped into the ocean to try to escape. Apparently Terminators aren't swimmers and when Cromartie jumped in after John the metal man sunk to the bottom with nothing but John's jacket in his hand.
John emerged from the water to see Cameron and they both hooked up with Sarah. One has to assume that Sarah informed John about what she'd been up to during the day, because John went and comforted Charley outside an emergency room. At Michelle's funeral, Charley, in front of Ellison, dropped the bible the FBI Agent had given him onto the casket. Apparently Charley will not be finding solace in God anytime soon.
As the real story was unfolding, our liquid metal buddy gave Ellison a call and invited him to lunch, saying she knew the truth about the George Lazlo shootout. Curiosity piqued, he attended the meeting and was further tantalized with more Terminator stories. Weaver asked Ellison to help her find another Terminator, and while we didn't see what he answered, I have to assume he agreed.
Questions and thoughts:
- I can't decide about Sarah, maybe you can help -- is she too weak and emotional? I assume she stopped the van because she loves Charley and didn't want him to hate her by causing Michelle's death, but weighing that against the end of the world... I don't know that I would have made the same choice she did.
- But, my real question this week - how far do you think Weaver will be able to lead Ellison down the primrose path? How far is he going to go before he realizes that he's making a mistake?
The TV and Film Guy's Reviews - just about the best mousetrap there is.
Well, I thought the show was pretty lame tonight. I mean are they really dumb enough to go rushing to the rescue of Michelle knowing it's a setup? Come on. We deserve better writing than that. And the little chase scene with Cromarte and John...been there, done that. So now we know, to escape a Terminator only requires scuba gear!
This was a weak episode, I agree. I mean, are Terminators of not-Cromartie's design not programmed to know the basic laws of physics? Heavy metal sinks, duh. Also, I sure would like to know what they're putting in these vehicles for fuel, because I really don't think even a Terminator could have driven from where he was in the desert all the way to the Santa Monica Pier in what seemed to be a relatively-short time. Especially not during a busy part of the day. Like 24, the writers seem to conveniently forget that most of that part of California is a parking lot with exit ramps (except for maybe at four in the morning). I realize, as I've said in other places, that the writers are locked in to a 44-46 minute time frame for each episode, but let's be a little bit realistic, hm? Until they develop Terminators that can fly (and why, now that I think on it, haven't they?), they're stuck with the same laws of physics and traffic patterns as we humans. Sucks, but there it is.
As for Riley, at least we didn't get any insipid vegetable/fruit combo platter comments this week. The dress she tried on, though...hmm, I'm suddenly reminded of that line in the movie Carrie, where the eponymous character's mother refers to breasts as "dirty pillows." Riley's pillows were definitely not dirty. Pervert moment over, back to the show...
Really, though, if this kind of crap is what Sarah and John Connor had to do in the movies, we'd all be ash being flicked off the end of God's cigarette by now. Oy vey. Hopefully next week's episode is better.
Oh, and Big Sister Watchdog Cam is even creepier than I-am-a-cyborg-who-can-smoosh-you-into-compost-with-my-pinkie Cam. Shudder.
Revenant: they DO have Terminators that can fly, or at least machines that can: you see them every single time they flash forward to the future. I'm pretty sure, at least according to the movie canon, that the time traveling can only work for something covered in skin, which is why the terminators can go through but they can't send an army of metal robots back. I'd imagine a flying terminator wouldn't be easy to cover with skin, so that's probably why they don't try to send them back.
i knew this wasn't gonna be the best epi from the preview last week. too much time spent on charley and his wife...i mean, who cares? it's a bad sign when you don't even care if she dies or not...and then when she died, it was like at least she is out of the way now! get on with better plotlines puleeeez....
that being said, i still luv this show :)
sorry for the double post but i also meant to say that when sarah stopped the car, i think it was a temporary moment of resignation, but yes very un-sarah-connor-like....
I think Ellison knows she is a Terminator. He watched her "not drink" and played it cool. I think he'll go along for a while but knows this isn't kosher. I wonder what HER motives are though since she's not focusing on finding John
I agree about Ellison. I also saw him notice Weaver not actually taking a sip. I don't know why he would go along with it, but it was obvious that he made a note of that.
I FF'd Michelle's dying scene that's how little I cared.
I was also taken aback by Sarah's stopping the car. That goes against everything we know about her and made no sense.
I thought it was the best episode so far, actually. I loved the Cromartie heaviness of it. I think Dillahunt is great. There was a real sense of menace that I hadn't felt with this show in a long time. I thought the Beast Wizard stuff was hilarious, and I loved that Cromartie went into the water without hesitation. All he has to do is kill John. It doesn't matter if he ends up at the bottom of the ocean or not....as long as he takes John with him (and he can always just walk out...as we saw).
The Dixon storyline...not bad, but I did want them to hurry up and get to the good stuff. The cool desert cinematography made up for a lot.
I look forward to this show every week. It's throwback television for me, like The Six Million Dollar Man, or something. ComPLETEly implausible, but so much fun.
I loved the repaint line. Summer Glau delivered it with that "Cameron" deadpan and I laughed out loud.
John: How does this affect the safety of one John Connor?
Cameron: It doesn't, but next summer we're going to have to repaint.
I agree this Sarah is not Linda Hamilton, she would have killed them both. I couldn't believe she stopped the car. (why is a car in the middle of no where anyway) I thought we were suppose to see some growth from John this year? Being a brat doesn't qualify.