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'Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles' delves into the history books with Cameron
It may seem a little incongruous to have a Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles episode start at a New Year's Eve speakeasy party with a bunch of flappers, but that's exactly what we were treated to tonight. It all seemed so great and special, right up until a fire began and everyone started running for the exit. That sort of thing puts a damper on parties, even New Year's Eve ones.
Back in the present (the party was in 1920), Cameron headed out and met up with a nice wheelchair bound fellow who let her into the employee entrance of a library. And, if her sneaking out to go to a library wasn't weird enough, she sat and chatted with her friend about her life (but only in relatively oblique terms).
I guess Cameron has been studying up on her history and literary, she certainly got to do more of that studying tonight, and it even proved relevant. She ventured into the "California Room" of the library and encountered a picture taken just after the speakeasy fire, a picture which prominently figured a T-888.
I tell you, Skynet must have an unlimited supply of metal to send back in time, Cameron was all curious about what the T-888 was doing there, personally, I just figured that he was there to take out John's great-grandfather. I wouldn't have looked into it any further. That definitely would have been a mistake on my part.
You know what's great about not needing to sleep and having a friend who works in a library/hall of records-type place during the night? You get to break in and piece together insane amount of information. Our T-888 apparently went by the name "Myron Stark" and he was buds with Rudolph Valentino. Well, maybe "buds" isn't quite right, they just met once and as Cameron noted examining an old newspaper photo, Stark wasn't so much concerned with Valentino, he was interested in another guy in the picture, Rupert Chandler. Cameron then was able to piece together some old radio reports and newsreel footage to determine who Chandler was and what Stark was doing.
In brief – Stark had robbed banks in order to be able to buy up land and build houses. Chandler was a business competitor whose left-hand man, Fred Jeffers, disappeared mysteriously (well, mysterious to those who don't know about Terminators).
Yeah, clearly this was an episode where they were just setting the pieces in motion for bigger and better things in the future (I hope). Another piece set in motion – Cameron teaching her wheelchair-bound friend to fire a gun. I get the need to have all of the information we learned tonight come out at some point, and the mystery was all vaguely interesting, but was it necessary to pile it all into a single episode?
To finish the story, Stark appeared from the future at the speakeasy, and the sparks from his arrival resulted in the fire which killed Chandler's boy. That loss made Chandler not want to build on a plot of land that his boy, a budding architect, was going to put a tower on. Stark robbed the banks and entered the real estate business in order to drive Chandler under and build the tower – he needed it for some unknown reason and hadn't intended to appear in the past quite when he did. Cameron ventured to the tower at the end of the episode and figured out that Stark was planning to kill the Governor (sadly this did not mean an appearance by the Governator) there on December 31, 2010. Cameron found Stark in a wall in the tower and ended that dream.
As for Cameron's wheelchair bound friend – apparently his bone cancer is back. Cameron told him as much, but did it Terminator-style, he wasn't impressed with her brute force delivery. Cameron clearly hasn't mastered bedside manner yet.
While I wasn't a big fan of the main portion of the episode, I didn't at all like the minor story, which dealt with Riley. She continues to be less and less stable. She woke John out of a perfectly good sleep tonight so that he could pick her up at some house party in Van Nuys. Now, while I'm not a "house party" person in general, the fact that this house party was being run by a high schooler who could send his mom out for beer and then back to her room once she got it kind of made it sound more interesting.
Riley, of course, had just been faking wanting to be picked up, she just wanted to hang out with John at the party. How did she show that once John arrived? She flirted with the guy whose house it was, duh. Isn't that what you would have done? It's certainly what Riley told John teenage girls do.
I can't wait until John, Derek, Sarah, and Cameron work out that Riley is playing John. She annoys me and seeing her try to go toe-to-toe with Cameron would please me immensely.
Some other thoughts and a question:
- Cameron's library friend expressed the following sentiment on seeing the film archives in the building – "pure humanity on film, none of that computer generated digital crap they do today." Get it do you?
- My question of the week – I think we should all just string Riley up by her toes, who is with me?
The TV and Film Guy's Reviews – we don't go in for those sorts of mind games.
'My question of the week – I think we should all just string Riley up by her toes, who is with me?' The actress Leven Rambin is extremly annoying... But Summer Glau is awesome!
MDD | Dec 1, 2008 11:43:19 PM | #Too much time has been invested in Riley by the writers. She most assuredly figures prominently into the future of the narrative at some point. It's already known she understands what's going on. On the other hand, John doesn't know she does.
More loose ends ( I'm still saying we'll all be left hanging when it's cancelled ) like why was it important to kill the governor. Josh Lasser pointed out the oddest one to date. How does a young son order his mother out on a beer run prior to being disciplined by him? Must be related to our story somehow.
Up until now, no one can say that any episode of the series has been filler material. Last night's was close. I'm labeling it "disjointed" for now. John blows off his mothers concerns, doesn't care that Cameron isn't on guard duty, turns in, and goes off into the night to see a girl he was admonished about. Cameron was off doing her own thing once again without reporting to the humans. She unilaterally alters PRE-Judgement Day history with no concern whatsoever. At the end, Cameron deduces what John had been doing that evening and confronts him like a girlfriend forlorned (Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned??).
The germans would rule the world right now if the french resistance operated like this.
WebTools | Dec 2, 2008 12:35:13 AM | #I was holding my breath for a digital version of Arnold. But it wasn't meant to be.
Bryan | Dec 2, 2008 1:32:11 AM | #Get trained in Microsoft Excel from the leaders, visit
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I agree that it was yet again a "meh" episope but at least it was a somewhat interesting variant on the terminator of the week theme.
My assumption Riley got John to the party to show him that not all boys are under mom's thumb. If that's not what they were going for them I have no clue.
My favourite part of the night was the very end. We get most of the ep showing Cameron appearing to have an actual friendship with someone... who, when she discovers he's been replaced, simply re-evaluates the situation and "infiltrates". Now that's proper terminator behavior. None of this namby-pamby doe eyes crap for me thanks.
Now if they could just get the hell over the 3 Dots crap, find the Turk, blow the hell out of it and that freaky Scottish T1000.
M.
My wife thinks Riley invited John to the party at Jesse's behest, in order to start forming a fighter from a largely passive figure. The more proactive he is, the less he needs Cameron.
Essentially, there's a long con going on where Riley preps John for the fight to come without Cameron's influence while Jesse finds a way to get close enough to suicide bomb them both (thus the stitches in her side, she was literally sent back with a bomb in here.)
Least those are our thoughts now.
Ryan | Dec 2, 2008 6:49:11 AM | #Writers, get your proverbial junk together! Let me get this straight...Riley is supposed to somehow woo John away from siding with a machine (Cameron) in the future, right?
Do ya think it's kind of stupid, then, to enact a long-con on him, get him to totally mistrust humans, and cry about the fact that he limits his human contact. If that isn't an obvious self-fulfilling prophecy, I don't know what is!
Brian of the North | Dec 2, 2008 7:12:26 AM | #Am I the only who notice the terminators use 3 points to calculate the dates? infom cameron should have told sarah
Jp313131 | Dec 2, 2008 8:44:10 AM | #I think the "three dots" was the triangulation bit too. I was kinda ticked that here was Cameron actually having a human-type relationship (and character development), then completely pushing it aside at the end of the episode. I know she is a robot, but (per the pilot) she was supposed to be a new type of terminator. I watched the last three episodes back to back and now I want to see Riley get killed off. I think it works better when she doesn't know. It was the only "normal" relationship that John was having, then BANG, she's from the future too.
shum | Dec 2, 2008 9:04:33 AM | #Riley did say that she likes "shiny things". Does she mean Terminators, or is she just a total nutjob?
Tim | Dec 2, 2008 9:34:02 AM | #I kinda liked this episode, but only because I'm a history buff and also a student of cinematography, so I appreciated the ways in which the director utilized different filming methods for the different time periods depicted. I agree that some things don't jibe with certain parts of previous episodes (and I've started to dislike Riley mightily, as well). Still, I like that Cameron is unapologetic (beyond her stock "I'm sorry" phrase when her AI tells her she needs to say it) in her bluntness. True, it makes her look downright demonic when dealing with certain characters, but at least she's not half-crazed like Sarah, whiny and self-centered like John, or about to take a dive off the Hollywood sign like Riley. So in terms of technique, I thought the episode was outstanding; plot-wise, I'll agree it was merely meh.
Kara Mel Apples | Dec 2, 2008 10:15:00 AM | #So does Shailendra Singh have anything better to do than to go around to forums and post spam? Sheesh?
Anyway, I liked this episode a lot. It was a character-building episode of a type you don't see often. It was virtually a standalone, with little reference to the ongoing arc (indeed anyone who missed last week's revelation re: Riley would be none the wiser). I liked the implication that Cameron is lonely -- it ties in well with her supposedly being a "different" terminator; it really hit home at the end when she decided to try and launch a new friendship. The historical sequences were well done. I don't find Riley annoying at all; I wish I knew someone like her when I was in high school. The fact she's more than just a kooky blonde has made her more interesting, though she appears to have forgotten her encounter with a terminator in Mexico. Oh well.
I don't have high hopes for this show surviving past this season, but so far they're doing some really interesting things with it, and it's got my interest. And I'm very impressed with how literary this show has gotten this season, from the Biblical analogies, to Go appearing the other week, to some of the cultural references this week. I'm with this show for the duration.
Alex | Dec 2, 2008 12:23:18 PM | #i enjoyed last night eppy. i always enjoy seeing more cameron and her dialogue is just so spot-on funny! i also liked the kid in the library, very likeable. i know it was brutal how cameron told him about his cancer, but it may have helped him get it early. i hope we get to see him again!
when i saw cameron triangulate the stars (to calculate the date), i was also thinking oh maybe this is some connection to the three dots. and yes, she could have pointed that out to sarah, but maybe she doesn't care about the three dots.
loved how cameron found the terminator in the wall. i was also waiting for the GOVERNATOR to appear!LOL....
Josh, about your Q: yes, there is just something "off" about Riley. and yeah "little miss i like shiny things" is definitely NOT likeable. and i'm not sure whether we're gonna like her more or less when we finally do learn her whole story. i can't wait til they find out that she's not who she says she is.
and Ryan, a bomb INSIDE jesse, now that's an interesting thought. yeah they showed us those scars for some reason....
The "let's do the time warp, again" gig is starting to look like a writer's crutch.
It could easily weaken the show, if, the writers and FOX overlook the logical history of events and began to disregard whether or not a "chicken" element or an "egg" element in the storyline came first as long as the special effects and fights still generate "It was so cool when..." type comments on the fan blogs.
Then, the overall storyline becomes susceptible to being spun into a "chicken omelet" via an over-used "time machine blender."
If the audience gets bored with the time machine gimmick solving too many issues or logic glitches, interest in the show could wane rapidly.
Stooping to "who's-with-who sideshows" won't help much even if the underdeveloped characters are...("2001 Space Odyssey" drumroll)..."From The Future!"...("2001 Space Odyssey" ta-da).
The loss of die-hard Terminator fans, turned off by the "who's-with-who sideshows," could become more irreparable to viewership than another lame season of "Clana" (Clark & Lana) saturated relationship issues is to "Smallville" and trigger a "quick exit" series finale to TSCC.
If it does deteriorate to the weepy, Clana-style relationship angle - obviously used to gain sponsors by featuring a different "my love life sucks" CD each episode - maybe the writers and FOX will just abruptly "terminate" TSCC by having John Conner re-write Skynet as a Windows Vista application thereby irreparably crashing the "metal" forever into immobilized, legacy hardware without any "green" or cost-effective recycling solutions.
Of course, this type of ending should be primarily antipicated as a final scenario in a Mad Magazine satire.
After all, it is the to-be-expected equivalent of the fate of "Steve Awesome" ending up obsolete and sitting in a military surplus storefront window at the end of the vintage, hard-copy, Mad Magazine satire "Six Million Dollars, Man" written on behalf of "The Six Million Dollar Man" TV series.
Underwhelmed | Dec 2, 2008 1:50:52 PM | #Count me in with the few who actually did enjoy this episode. Cameron's interaction with the librarian was interesting. And as a history buff it was fun seeing them put the pieces together. I say "them" because he helped a lot even though he had no real reason to do so.
As for Riley, the more I see her the more I can't stand her. And now that we know she came back with Jesse (and I'm also not that fond of Jesse, by the way) I watched her in a different way this time. And the jerk throwing the house party has to be somehow significant, but at this point I can't figure out how. Any humans who come after John for revenge don't stand a chance, so it can't be that.
Melody | Dec 2, 2008 3:19:12 PM | #It was so cool when ...
I liked this episode. But then I also liked 2001: A Space Odyssey. I guess I wasn't as underwhelmed as some other bloggers were.
Siansonea | Dec 2, 2008 3:46:02 PM | #On the positive side, I liked the old style film clips and the 20s setting. I'm a Summer Glau fan, but despite being about the only regular really in the episode (less than a minute of Sarah, not much John, no Derek, Ellison, Weaver) she really didn't do much apart from play detective. The relationship with the librarian was oddly uninteresting. She claimed him as a friend, but we didn't really see her act in much of a different way than she does with Sarah. Her donut bribe to the girl at the end shows how little the relationship really mattered, although maybe her words of warning to the guy to get his cancer checked were a sort of terminator concern?
What was that T888 doing there? Why kill that governor? Will we find out more or was it just a McGuffin to have some sort of mission for him?
The weakest episode of the season so far. I love the show, but surely it has zero chance of being renewed.
Did anyone else wonder what happened to the boy at the end--did he do something to his self once he found out the cancer may be back?? Just wondering--he kinda grew on me as the show progressed--kinda neat seeing Cameron socializing with someone!!
Michele | Dec 2, 2008 4:40:15 PM | #According to TV Guide, SCC surged 26% in the ratings last night. Maybe there is hope for a renewal, yet...
promogrrl | Dec 2, 2008 4:52:10 PM | #re the ratings surge: because now DWTS (danc with the stars) is done!!
Cameron seems to have an easier time, each time she takes out a T-888. Is she a badass or...there isn't enough money to produce some real action scenes like in season 1?
Monty | Dec 2, 2008 7:00:18 PM | #I prefer the "Cameron is a badass" scenario. Better fantasies that way. :P
Thorny | Dec 2, 2008 8:27:57 PM | #It was a decent episode. Interesting. A nice diversion. Definitely a Cameron episode. I think I kind of prefer the main plot episodes myself though.
Dan | Dec 2, 2008 11:38:53 PM | #Gah...my DVR didnt record it! Thanks for the recap...sounds to me I didnt miss much.
Danielle | Dec 3, 2008 6:48:35 AM | #I think future John is so attached to Cameron because everyone else he was close to has died by then. Like Riley, he doesn't like to get attached to people. She seems like she has some kind of attachment disorder, probably from losing her parents on Judgment Day. I don't know that Riley can change that just by getting him laid. In 20 years she could be dead, too.
What I got from the history stuff is the T-888 accidentally showed up 90 years too early and killed the guy that built the tower where he was supposed to kill the guy while he gave a speech. I assume that looking up his target's ancestors and offing one of them would have changed history too much and jeopardized Skynet's existence or he could have just skipped building the tower himself and done that.
starkiller | Dec 3, 2008 7:49:36 AM | #
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