Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles: The Mousetrap

By Melissa Voelker

Before I recap last night’s episode, I have to get something off my chest.  Last season, though I had a problem with the constant time-travel hooey that seemed to occur in just about every episode, I found this show to be relatively watchable. Sarah was an overprotective badass who was willing to do whatever it took to keep her son safe.  If that meant commanding Cameron the girl-bot to watch John’s every step or packing up and leaving town at the moment she smelled trouble, then that is what Sarah would do.  But this season, I feel like the writers have gotten incredibly lazy with their plotlines and their character development.  All of a sudden John is off by himself about 70% of the time.  He’s going to school alone, he is going to the mall alone, he is spending time with his new girlfriend alone.  Sarah doesn’t seem to be all that concerned about something happening to him when he is out of her sight because she is busy doing other stuff.   This is supposed to be the hardcore mother of the future who dedicated her life to raising the ultimate warrior for humanity.  And now she is just going through these motions and making all kinds of very obvious mistakes.  It seems to me like someone, somewhere, is sleeping on the job.  Just because the show got a free pass to a second season because of the writer’s strike doesn’t mean the creators of the show shouldn’t still be trying to come up with the best episodes they can.

Okay, I’m off my soapbox now and we can move on.  Tonight, Cromartie kidnaps Charley Dixon’s wife and Charley begs Sarah for help.  Sarah tells Cameron to watch over John and then packs up some guns and ammo and jumps in the Jeep with Derek to go save the day.  They both figure Charley’s wife is already dead, but through several very convenient happenings they find her alive and well, though she has been strapped to a bomb.  Of course they know that this is a trap set by the terminator to get to John, but Sarah thinks she has eluded it by not bringing John with her.  Unfortunately Cromartie is several steps ahead of the humans, and taps into Sarah’s phone to find out John’s actual location.  By the time the Connor Crew figures this out it could be too late.  They end up a little blown up, Charlie’s wife ends up more than a little injured, and off everyone goes to try and save John.

He is, of course, oblivious to the threat on his life.  After ditching Cameron at the computer store, John has taken off to spend the afternoon with new gal-pal Riley.  When he gets a frantic call from a voice that sounds like his mother (but is really Cromartie doing impressions) he ditches his buddy and takes off to where he thinks Sarah told him to meet her.  Luckily he spots Cromartie before the cyborg gets too close and chasing ensues.  John manages to avoid being shot but doesn’t avoid falling into the ocean with the heavy metal murderer close on his tail.  Cromartie sinks and John doesn’t and manages to live another day.  When he meets back up with his actual mother later, he finds out that Charley’s wife did not make it like the rest of them always manage to do.

While the Connors are dealing with their life-threatening plot of the week, ex-Agent Ellison is mulling over a very intriguing offer from Catherine Weaver aka Liquidy Cyborg chick.  She has called him to invite him to lunch, and then presents a file with pictures of terminator bits and pieces left over from a plane crash.  She yaks at him about “reverse engineering” and her late husband and some other stuff, though how much of it can really be true when we know she is a robot herself?  At first Ellison seems hesitant to listen to Ms. Weaver, but once she mentions finding another terminator he seems to lose his uncertainty.

I was glad to see that there was no silly time-traveling going on this week, but that didn’t end up making for a better episode.  I’m having too much trouble with the way the characters are behaving to enjoy watching their adventures.  Sarah has become too lax in protecting John.  She said she recognized Cromartie’s trap as a trap, but then didn’t stop to think about what kind of trap it might be.  Leaving John alone (or basically alone since it was so easy for him to skip out of Cameron’s line of sight) instead of taking him with her or asking Derek to watch him seemed pretty dumb to me the second she did it.  And Derek also recognized the trap for what it was, but he too jumped on the “Save Charley’s Wife” bandwagon.  Up until now I’ve had less trouble with Derek’s character than most of the others because he has been so consistently paranoid, defensive, aggressive, and smart, which is how I would expect a soldier from the future robot war to behave.  Now all of the sudden he is acting like a puppy that can’t function unless someone (namely Sarah) tells him what to do.  Where has the super warrior team that used to be Sarah and Derek gone?  At least Cameron’s slacker behavior can be explained.  The girl-bot is obviously still broken somewhere, and hasn’t been acting right since John put her chip back in.

My boyfriend made a rather clever observation while watching with me last night, which concerns John and his current behavior.  This season he morphed from a whiny but basically on-the-ball teenager to a pushy, obstinate brat.  He has been running around doing whatever he wants, hiding from his protectors and hanging out with whomever he wants.  What my boyfriend pointed out is that maybe because the future is set and future-John exists in it, present-John knows he can’t die no matter what Cromartie or anyone else does, so why should he care?  Even though none of the other characters ever mention the fact that they can’t really change the future, perhaps John actually knows this deep down.  And maybe that is part of the reason he has turned into such a little butthead this year.

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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.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles - The Complete First Season (DVD) (Widescreen) (w/Exclusive Steelbook Packaging)

The Terminator

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles - The Complete Second Season

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles - The Complete Second Season [Blu-ray]

Terminator Salvation (Director's Cut) [Blu-ray]