By Melissa Voelker
This week my opening rant will be about the insanely stupid narration that opens the series this year. Just because you find a guy with a moderately grave sounding voice doesn’t mean you should have him spouting out background info for the show every week. Especially when it sounds so incredibly corny. It makes my teeth cringe to listen to, and I’m sure doesn’t make this show seem very credible to those that haven’t seen it before or feel that sci-fi type shows aren’t credible anyway. Maybe the writers want to make sure any newbie to the series will understand what is going on (because they’ve been living under a rock for the last 20-something years) but this is not the way to catch them up. Now that I’m done with my rant, let us move on to the actual episode this week.
Cameron the girl-bot is broken. Very broken, from the looks of it. After blanking out in the grocery store and suffering the beginnings of some very strange flashbacks, she is picked up by the police and taken down to jail. Here she suffers more flashbacks, of a girl with her face but the ability to emote who is being chased through the future by terminators. Could it be that Cameron the girl-bot was actually based on a real person? As she makes friends with another girl in the lock-up who is probably up to no good, Cameron falls further into believing that she is this person from the future-past, named Allison Young. While John searches for her (like a puppy he has lost and is afraid his mother will punish him about) she struggles through Allison’s memories, going so far as to even call Allison’s mother. This doesn’t bring her much closer to figuring out who she really is, but finishing with Allison’s flashbacks does. By the end of the episode she seems to be back to her old self . . . or is she really back to her old, OLD self? As in the scary killer robot out to kill John Connor self?
While Cameron is having her identity crisis, Agent Ellison has pretty much worked through his own identity crisis. After taking another meeting with the intriguing Catherine Weaver, and running a background check on her like any self-respecting soon-to-be-ex FBI Agent would do, he has decided to take her job offer. Now they are in the terminator hunting business together.
There was some other stuff in this episode with Sarah hanging out in the hospital with the pregnant neighbor who rented them their house, but it was kind of pointless and boring. I’m sure the writers were trying to sell some emotional side of Sarah by having her muse about when she gave birth to John in the jungle and how she wished his father was there and blah blah blah, but it seemed rather strained to me. Like it was filler added to make up an hour episode and wasn’t really all that necessary. The stuff with Cameron reliving the last days of Allison Young was interesting enough to carry most of the episode, and the rest would have been fine with just the Catherine Weaver/Agent Ellison storyline. There was no sign of Derek at all this week and I didn’t miss him until the end when I realized he had never made an appearance. I probably could have sat through the entire show and not missed Sarah either.
The insight into Cameron’s background, showcasing how she came to exist and also her connection to John Connor (which turned out to be much deeper than expected) was a lot more exciting then I expected. I tend to be of two minds on Cameron, not sure from one minute or episode to the next if she is a character I can like and believe in. But with this episode a whole new dimension to the girl-bot was revealed and it was fascinating. To think she came from a real human being who had some kind of link to John (that I’m thinking was way more than just soldier to General since he reprogrammed her cyborg duplicate) threw a nice little wrench into the works. I’m curious to see how things play out now that Cameron remembers so much of her, and Allison Young’s, past.
The storyline with Catherine Weaver is fast becoming my favorite part of the show. First there was the big reveal that she is in fact a liquidy-cyborg a la Robert Patrick from Terminator 2. Then it turns out she is using her influence as the head of some mysterious technology program to start taking over key points in the Skynet/Human Resistance war of the future. Tonight it is also revealed that not only did she supposedly have a husband, and can theoretically emote like a human being, but she somehow has a daughter, too. Is this a human child that she has acquired somehow, or have the terminators started making child-size cyborgs? Very captivating premise. I’m hoping the Catherine Weaver plotline will continue to be expanded upon, and I desperately hope that it doesn’t turn out as ridiculous as all of the time travel has (though it was absent this week and I was very grateful for that.)
Cameron’s back-story was very interesting, and I’m in love with Catherine Weaver. But I’m finding myself very bored and irritated by Sarah Connor. It seems like they can’t decide what to do with her, unless they have a reason for her to be breaking into a top-secret facility or shooting at something. When she isn’t battling some horrible future robot monster it is like she doesn’t serve any purpose. She just mopes through scenes spouting inane dialogue and looking lost. I suppose that could be what the show creators are going for – trying to show how Sarah only functions in Battle Mode now. But even if it is done on purpose, it is still irritating. It makes me not like Sarah Connor, and I WANT to like her.
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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.
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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. 
I love that they’re giving Cameron/Allison such a complex backstory. Not the least of which because it gives Summer Glau the chance to really show her range as an actor. The flashback interrogation where she was playing both parts just floored me. I guess now we know where she got those believable crying skills she used back in the season premiere.
I actually liked the quiet storyline between Sarah, Casey, and Trevor. It showed that Sarah hasn’t entirely shut down her emotions for anyone outside her little family unit. I think a lot of her discomfort around ordinary people is the knowledge that she is putting them in danger just by associating with them. She has almost destroyed Charlie twice now, first staying with him long enough to be tracked down by the terminators, and just last week by getting his wife killed. She doesn’t like the thought of messing up more people’s futures, but she does want the innocent people around her to be able to live their lives and be happy.
I agree with Robin…Summer Glau is an amazing actor!!! I've seen her in other series and she always becomes my favourite character, especially in Terminator.