Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles – Queen’s Gambit

By Melissa Voelker
It is funny how no matter what, things from the past will always come back to bite you in the ass. Even if it seems like they are a good memory, a good lesson, it never seems to turn out that way in the future when they revisit you. Though she knows it is wrong, Sarah left Andy (the creator of an A.I. chess playing robot that she blew up) alive and he has rebuilt his little toy and entered it in a tournament. While she is scoping this tournament out, her ex fiancee is being questioned by Cromartie, now safely in the guise of the D-list actor whose identity he stole.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles - Queen’s Gambit Andy is very happy to see Sarah when she arrives at the tournament. He babbles on and on about how great his new robot is, even though it is not as advanced as The Turk #1. At first it just sounds like random nerd dialogue by a very enthusiastic nerd, but then he mentions that the winner of the tourney gets a military contract. This gets Sarah’s panties in a twist, since it is, after all, kind of her fault he is still around to try for a military contract.

While Sarah is off playing spy, Cromartie questions Dixon, her ex. The terminator does a pretty passable job of appearing like an unemotional and barely human FBI agent. Cameron doesn’t play her part quite so well, unable to fit in with the other high school kids who are mourning for the girl who committed suicide off the school roof. She doesn’t understand the other kid’s mourning rituals, though John attempts to explain. Eventually the teens join up with Sarah at the chess tourney and Sarah fills John in that Andy is, unfortunately, doing really well. And if he wins, there is a good chance Cameron won’t let him live long enough to celebrate.

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As the Connors wait and watch to see what happens next, Dixon and his wife have a lover’s spat. She accuses him of lying to the (fake) FBI agent about not having any involvement or feelings left for Sarah and John, and he admits that he has seen the boy recently. She isn’t ready for this kind of admission and freaks out on him. Luckily the Connors don’t have to freak out, as Andy loses the chess match and the military contract so Cameron doesn’t just jump up to tear his head off. She still feels he may be a threat but Sarah poo-poos this idea. Someone else has it in for the robot designer, however. Sarah goes to talk to him after his defeat and finds him dead. She chases down his assailant and fisticuffs ensue for a short time. Eventually the attacker runs off, only to be caught by the police. Sarah takes a moment to deal with Andy’s sudden, and most likely undeserved, death.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles - Queen’s Gambit The next day John finds the identity of Andy’s killer by hacking into a police website and it turns out he is a resistance fighter from the future. Cameron admits she knows him, and John does as well, as he is one of Future John’s best soldiers. Sarah decides she needs to speak to him, even though he is in lockdown. John and Cameron head off to school where John tries again to teach the terminatrix about grieving, and maybe it is starting to get through. She is called to grief counseling with a school therapist and ends up leaving HIM pretty confused in the end.

Before Sarah can get to Andy’s killer (going by the name of John Doe), her old stalker Agent Ellison questions him. Ellison knows John Doe is connected to all of the murders he has been investigating lately, including the doctors killed by Cromartie and the other resistance fighters who were murdered before the Connor crew could reach them. John Doe isn’t exactly forthcoming with more info, but Agent Ellison wants him released into his custody anyway. He better hurry or he will lose his prize, as yet another killer cyborg has shown up, this one out to kill John Doe.

Sarah finds a way to sneak into the jail where John Doe is still being held. He reveals that he didn’t kill Andy, he just went to find The Turk and instead found the dead creator and no robot. He also tells her he knows there is a terminator hot on his tail and she needs to go before something bad happens. Then he really throws her for a loop when he reveals that his name is Derek Reese, brother of Kyle Reese. This startling development will make it very hard for her to just take off and leave him to his date with a T-888. She picks up the kids from school and they are off to try and save him.

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But they aren’t the only ones after a piece of this newly discovered Reese. Agent Ellison is awaiting his arrival, and the T-888 is still hunting him down. The Connor crew manages to get to Derek first, but just barely. Cameron has to do her thing and fight him off, while Sarah tries to drive them to safety in a stolen prisoner transport vehicle. For the first time the terminatrix does not have the upper hand in a cyborg on cyborg battle, so Sarah steps in to shoot the T-888 up. He fires off a few rounds of his own and manages to hit Derek in the chest. Cam finally takes the bigger robot down and digs his microchip brain out of his head.

Sarah and crew take Derek home, hoping to save his life. It doesn’t look like they will be able to just patch him up as they’ve done to each other in the past as his damage is too extensive. Sarah makes plans to kidnap a doctor from a nearby ER and John wants to know why she is so willing to risk herself to save a guy she doesn’t even know. She tells him that Derek is his uncle, and John takes off to find help. Help, as in mom’s ex Dixon, who happens to be an EMT.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles - Queen’s Gambit Though still built up around what I have come to consider the staples of this series – Cameron fighting an enemy terminator, John pouting, Sarah shooting at something – there was a surprising amount of emotional complexity in this episode. Sarah’s guilt over Andy’s death is very real. She liked the guy, he was funny and cute in his nerdy way, and she didn’t want to see him dead. But death follows Sarah Connor everywhere, and she knows this. So even though she wasn’t the one that put a bullet in his brain, she still feels responsible for it ending up there.

Then when she learns that the latest soldier from the future that is crossing her path is the brother of John’s father, she is overwhelmed. After all of her strict demands that John stay under the radar, that none of them take any kinds of risks, she is willing to throw that all away the second she learns who this man is. She may have had only two days with Kyle Reese, but those were two days that would dictate the direction of the rest of her life. From them she learned about her future, her destiny, and the destiny of the son that Kyle Reese gave her. If there is anything in the world that could break her years of careful hiding and training, it is this new connection to the man that really changed her life.

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About Melissa: By day a mild-mannered tv station receptionist, by night a fighter of crime and corruption in the dirty streets of Spokane, WA . . . or maybe not so much. More like a hyperactive, anal-retentive daytime receptionist and a melodramatic, hyperactive nighttime fangirl who only wishes she could be a fighter of crime and champion of justice (except that would lead to getting my super costume all dirty and I hate doing laundry.) Though my intent has always been to write bestselling novels and live a life of wealth and luxury, putting my talents for snarkiness and word doodling together while letting my geek flag fly suits me just fine – for now.