Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles – Goodbye to All That

By Melissa Voelker

This week’s opening rant is all about product placement.  Normally I have no problem with it, as I understand it is an important part of how TV shows make the money they need to stay in production and on the air.  So when I see characters using specific kinds of computers, or drinking certain sodas, or eating at recognizable restaurants, I just accept it as part of the process.  But when product placement is shoved in my face and down my throat and then twists around in my insides, I stop being so accepting of it.

On this week’s episode of Sarah Connor Chronicles it felt like at least ten minutes of the show was a commercial for the new Dodge pick-up truck.  “Look how much storage it has in the bed, and look at these nifty side storage compartments!  And is that a GPS system that can be easily accessed on the front dash?  My goodness, what a sexy and powerful looking truck that is!”  It was too obvious that Dodge was sponsoring the show, and it was too obvious they wanted to make that truck look as awesome as possible.  I felt like I was watching the very special Dodge Ram hour starring John and Derek, and it was irritating.  And now I’m done ranting and we can move on to the rest of the show.

A T-888 is out to kill Martin Beddell, a future tactician for John Connor.  Unfortunately the cyborg isn’t sure of the exact Martin Beddell he is looking for so he is just out to hunt and kill them all.  When Derek figures this out after the first one is murdered, he decides the rest of them have to be protected.  Luckily John Connor, Boy Detective, is on the case and able to quickly (and conveniently) find the other two Martin Beddells and work out a plan to protect them.  He and Derek are off to military school where the most likely candidate is matriculating, while Sarah and Cameron are off to save the other from a very untimely death.  The boys manage to (effortlessly) infiltrate the military academy, and the girls manage to (almost effortlessly) save their Martin Beddell from the terminator at his door.  Soon it is just a matter of waiting and watching for when the T-888 will strike next.  After giving up on the girls’ Martin, the cyborg goes after the one he is actually out to kill, the Martin who is making friends with John at school.  Derek and John manage to save their Martin to live and fight in the robot wars, and John shows a bit of the future-leader of mankind he is destined to become.  And then he cries.  Hey, he is just a kid and his life does kind of suck, after all.

While the Connors are fighting cyborgs, ex-Agent Ellison is out looking for cyborgs at the request of his new boss.  His detective skills are turning up lots of interesting tidbits of information.  When he goes to the nuclear power plant the Connors saved from a meltdown earlier this season, he finds out it is set to go online with its new fully automated (and probably self-aware) computer system in August of 2009.  Cue the spooky music, as this is when SkyNet brings on Judgment Day.  Coincidence?  Probably not.  The plant manager wants to get some investigating of his own going in regards to the near meltdown, but Catherine Weaver, liquid cyborg, isn’t about to let that happen.  She puts the plant manager out of the picture in the good, old-fashioned, terminator way.

I guess the writers didn’t feel like coming up with anything new or different this week, or maybe they were too busy to put forth any effort, so instead they just took elements from the “Terminator” movies and made an episode out of them.  First the T-888 is trying to kill off important members of Future-John Connor’s army, which is what Blood Rayne (whatever that chick who played the liquid metal cyborg in the third movie’s name is) was basically doing in “Terminator 3″ when she was killing off his future generals.  But not knowing exactly who each future-army member is, the T-888 is going after everyone with the same name, a la “Terminator 1″ when Arnold was knocking off everyone with Sarah Connor’s name.  The number of targets for the T-888 is even three people, the same as in the first film.  Some might call this homage, but I call it lazy.  Especially as the T-888 looks a lot like Arnold did in that first movie, and even talks like him and moves like him.  The other T-888′s that have appeared in the series so far have seemed much more advanced than that original terminator was, so why does this one seem almost exactly the same as the first cyborg?

But the stealing of plot points doesn’t end there!  Oh no, it goes even further.  First John finds out how many Martin Beddells exist that the T-888 is going after by looking them up in – get this! – a phone book!  Just like Arnold did in the first movie when he was hunting Sarah Connors!  What got me about this method was how much it didn’t work in this situation.  Only one of the Martin Beddells was an adult who would have had his name on his home phone service.  The other two were kids, one of whom was way too young to have his own phone service and the other off at military school so he wouldn’t have been listed.  The whole phone book thing threw me off because it was just stupid, and obviously stolen.  Moving on before my head explodes, the writers did not skip out on stealing from the second “Terminator” film.  The end sequence where Derek and John destroy the T-888 by dropping him in tar and then burning him up while they watch reminded me SO MUCH of the end of “Terminator 2″ that I was about to cry with hysterical disbelief.  Really, “Sarah Connor Chronicles” writing team?  You can’t do anything better than copy your source material?  REALLY?

Just about everything about this particular episode felt lazy to me.  It was so easy for the Connor Crew to figure out how many Martin Beddells were in existence and where they were and how to protect them.  It was so easy for John and Derek to infiltrate the military school and stop the T-888.  It was so easy for Sarah and Cameron to basically kidnap a small child and hold him hostage for days in a row.  The kid didn’t even seem to mind.  He didn’t cry or fight them or threaten to run away.  He just chilled in their house and bonded with his captors.

Luckily there were a few snippets of goodness wrapped up in all of the crap.  The scenes with Ellison and Catherine Weaver were great.  The more she appears on screen and reveals her plans, the more I think she is the ultimate cause of Judgment Day and has been all along and will make sure it happens no matter what Sarah and John try to do to stop her.  And I’m beginning to think Ellison is a key part in making it happen as well, which is sad and deliciously intriguing at the same time.  I almost wish they would devote more time each episode to Ellison and Catherine, but then I’m afraid if the show writers did give them more on screen time they would just screw up their storyline, so maybe it is best that they stay on the fringe for the time being.

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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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