“Half an hour. One bag and the guns. I’ll make pancakes.” Sarah Connor

by Melissa Voelker

Normally when I watch “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” I do it with my MacBook in my lap so that I can write down all of the details of the show as they happen. But this week I decided I would try an experiment. If this show is really any good, I should be able to watch it on Monday night and remember enough on Tuesday morning to do my write up. Luckily this week was what I consider the best episode of the series so far. Gone was the annoying time travel silliness that has plagued the last few shows. Instead we got to focus on the individual characters that populate the show and were given a deeper look into who they are.

First there is Cameron, pet terminatrix who has (theoretically) been programmed by John of the future to protect John of the past. Whether or not the Connor’s fully trust her is yet to be determined, but that doesn’t mean they have any problem using her for missions they can’t handle themselves. She goes undercover as a police officer in order to get into an evidence room and try to steal back the hand of the T-888 that was trying to kill Derek. Though she isn’t able to retrieve the item as instructed, as soon as she returns Sarah sends her out on another undercover excursion, this time to find the Russian who taught The Turk computer how to play chess. He may know where it went after Andy was murdered and The Turk was stolen. She starts taking ballet with the Russian’s sister and soon gains the woman’s friendship and confidence. But that confidence is short lived, as Cameron only wants information about The Turk. Friendship means nothing to her, and that is evident when she lets the Russian and his sister die at the hands of some Russian hit men.

It is easy to forget that Cameron is a terminator, along the same lines as the machines that have been sent back to kill John and Sarah and even Derek. She may have been reprogrammed to fight on John Connor’s side of the war, but that doesn’t change what she is – a killing machine. She may attend high school with other teenagers, and take ballet like a normal girl, but these are just disguises she wears and then discards when they are no longer necessary.

Next comes Agent Ellison, the FBI agent who has been following the Sarah Connor case for years. He has the robot hand that she is looking for, as well as every file and nugget of information he can find on her. After watching tapes of her stay in the looney bin, he decides to look up her old “friend” Dr. Silverman. Since the night Sarah escaped with the aid of two different terminators, he has been hiding out in “retirement.” He seems like he has it pretty together when Ellison first arrives at his cabin, considering all that he has been through, but pretty soon it becomes obvious that Dr. Silverman has gone off the deep end. He drugs the FBI agent, ties him up, and accuses him of being one of the robots from the future. Than he stabs him in the leg to see what kind of insides he has. Ellison is reasonably pissed, especially when, even after it is proven that he is in fact a human being, Dr. Silverman still tries to kill him.

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So far Ellison has been a figure floating around at the edges of the scenes, picking up clues about Sarah and the coming robotocalypse. But until tonight it wasn’t obvious what he believed about the situation. Was he a good guy, a bad guy? Would he believe Sarah’s stories about Judgment Day, would he get in the way of her mission, or would he possibly be another ally in the fight against the machines? Now it is clear that he does believe that the terminators are real and that they are a real threat. But he is also a person who believes in the law and that people who break the law and do bad things should be punished. Hence his being there when Dr. Silverman is locked away in the same looney bin where Sarah Connor served three years of her life. Even though he knows (some of) the truth about the terminators and Sarah Connor and the machine war of the future, Ellison isn’t going to let Dr. Silverman’s actions go unpunished. It is doubtful that he would let Sarah’s indiscretions go unpunished either.

John, ever the pouty Emo kid, tries desperately to connect with his uncle. For a kid who has had too few (or too many) father figures, he still longs for a male influence in his life. Especially after he sneaks a peek at one of the tapes of Sarah while incarcerated and learns that his mother actually signed away her rights to him. This comes as quite a shock, considering how tightly she has held onto him for pretty much his entire life. He tries to chat with Derek about it, though Derek is not the easiest person to have a heart-to-heart with. He mentions the foster families he lived with while Sarah was out of the picture, even the couple that was murdered by the T-1000. The revelations about/for John in this episode aren’t quite as profound as those for Cameron and Agent Ellison. He is still moody and dour, and he still manages to get some whining in at some point. There is a moment even for him, however, when he is talking to Derek and he mentions that he “got his last foster parents killed.” Just like Sarah, he knows that associating with him most often leads to death. Knowing that about himself goes a long way in explaining his constant mopey attitude.

The one character that really doesn’t have a lot of complexity added to her is Sarah. Except for the footage of her signing away her parental rights, nothing new happens to her or is revealed about her. She goes on her missions as usual, she talks to John and Cameron and even Derek as usual. Even when she saves Agent Ellison from certain death, this is normal for her. She is not an unfeeling terminator who can let someone die when it isn’t necessary. She couldn’t kill Andy, even though he was quite possibly the foundation of SkyNet. And she can’t stand by and let Ellison burn to a crisp just because he might be trying to stop her plans to keep the robotocalypse from happening.

One of the most profound moments for a character came at the end of the show and involved Derek Reese. For the majority of the episode he wandered around the Connor’s house, playing with guns and listening to John whine, and demanding that Cameron be gotten rid of. He doesn’t trust her, he can’t trust her, and he doesn’t think Sarah and John should trust her either. This is a man who has grown up during the war with the machines and has watched every person he cared about, especially his brother Kyle, be destroyed by them. No matter how pretty the face or friendly the attitude, he cannot believe in a machine that acts like his friend. Yet at the end of the episode, Derek watches Cameron dancing in her room and the effect this has on him shows very clearly on his face. Here is this cyborg, this robot, performing a beautiful ballet right before his eyes. It is a human thing to do, and filled with human feeling, and it hurts him to see it. Is this a sign that his rock hard feelings of hatred toward the machines could be cracking? I hope we are given the chance to find out, and that Derek’s time on the show will not come to an end before we do.

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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.