Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles: Automatic for the People

Tagged with: sarah connor chronicles terminator

By Melissa Voelker

After somewhat recovering from last week’s chase-fest, the Connor Crew has gotten basically back on their feet and is ready to go on trying to save the world. Sarah has gotten them a new house/base of operations, Cameron no longer needs to staple her face wounds shut, and John is going back to school like a good teenager. But things aren’t great in the Land of Oz, as evidenced when a bloody stranger comes bursting into Sarah’s new house and leaves a cryptic message before dying on her floor. Realizing he was (yet another) resistance fighter sent from the future, Sarah and Derek decide they have to stop the heinous scheme the dead dude was sputtering on about. So off they go with Cameron in tow to a nuclear power plant, which will one day be of some importance to the resistance movement.

While Sarah and the gang are infiltrating the ranks of nuclear power plant employees, Agent Ellison is paying a visit to Dixon and his wife. He wants them to get out of town as soon as possible before Cromartie tries to use them against the Connors. Of course Dixon has to explain everything that has been happening to the little woman first, and she is none too pleased with him. Also dealing with female trouble is John, who has gained a persistent new friend named Riley. He tries to shrug off her friendly overtures, wanting to sit around and skip classes and mope, but she doesn’t let him. Eventually he gives in and takes her for lunch and then back to his house to hang out. When Sarah returns from the day’s mission to find that John brought a friend home she isn’t exactly thrilled. But for the second time John puts his foot down and won’t give in to his mother’s demands. Riley stays, John gloats/mopes, and Sarah can’t seem to decide what to do.

Luckily there is still an evil plan to thwart. By clever deduction, Sarah and crew figure out that SkyNet wants to destroy the power plant so the future resistance can’t use it. Once they have figured this out, it is just a matter of stopping the cyborg imposter who has snuck into the control room from flipping the switch and causing a total meltdown. Though it gets sticky for a bit, with people dying and Cameron freezing up and Sarah running through a room full of radiation, eventually they manage to pull off their big save. Or do they? It seems there was more to this heinous plot then they were aware of. Later Sarah finds a whole list of places and names written in blood by the dead resistance guy that fell through her window earlier, and the managers of the power plant announce that because of the tragic “accident” at the facility they will now be going to a totally automated system. An automated system with ties to the mysterious Shirley Manson-liquidy cyborg.

This episode left me even more frustrated than last week’s premiere. I was hoping to have some time off from the crazy ridiculous time-traveling nonsense, but it was not too be. Yet another resistance fighter popped into the show with a dire warning about something SkyNet was trying to ruin in the future. And once again everyone in the Connor Crew jumped up to take SkyNet on as if anything they do can really change the future. Why has it still not occurred to any of them that if they stop Judgment Day from happening then John Connor, who Sarah is hell bent on saving, WILL NEVER EXIST? I could actually go on and on and on about the time traveling thing, because it really does piss me off quite a lot and I feel like the writers of the show are treating their viewers like idiots by expecting us to believe in all of their nonsense, but I won’t because I don’t want to sound like a total raging psycho. I’m just tired of it, and think the show could be a lot better if they stopped relying on it so much.

One of the biggest issues I had with this particular episode, however, had to do with John. Last week he showed his spine for the first time in the series. By standing up to his mother and uncle and repairing Cameron he was making a stand. It was the first time he ever looked like he could one day be the great resistance leader he is destined to become, and I was kinda proud of the kid. Restarting the girl-bot was a pretty stupid move, but he pulled it off and stood his ground and that was cool. But this week when he decided to stand his ground it was over something that bothered me. John Connor lives in a world where his life is constantly being threatened. His house has blown up, been invaded, and has had bleeding gunshot victims falling through windows and bursting in through the door. It is not a safe place for any normal person to be hanging out in, yet he brings his new friend Riley there without even seeming to consider her safety. At any moment a raging cyborg with a machine gun could have burst in and started shooting the place up and Riley may well have been made into Swiss cheese. Yet he brings her in, feeds her, lets her look around, and even lets her stay the night. I can’t get behind his big adult stand to have his own life when he does it by endangering someone else. That just makes him seem like an ass.

As I wrap up for this week, I want to make a comment on something that I did find pretty intriguing. The nuclear power plant that Sarah and company goes to save is an important base of power for the resistance in the future, AFTER they get control of it away from SkyNet. When Sarah and the others stop the plan to have the plant suffer a meltdown, they think they are stopping SkyNet from destroying its possibility of helping the humans in the future. But after they have supposedly saved the day, it turns out the plant is being transferred over to full automation using a computer system devised by the woman who now possesses the Turk. To me, this looks like the initial take over by SkyNet, who will then hold the plant until the resistance captures it back under the leadership of future-John Connor. So far, I don’t think Shirley Manson-liquidy cyborg is trying to CHANGE the future. I think she is just a key element in making the future happen. Who is to say that what she plans to do with the Turk isn’t what has always caused Judgment Day and the Robotocalypse?

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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.