Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles – Strange Things Happen at the One Two Point
By Melissa Voelker
This week my rant is all for Fox. Fox, why do you hate your own programming? First you buy shows and announce that you will be their new best friend, and then you start to hurt them. Its like you are the ultimate abusive boyfriend. Take Dollhouse, for instance, Joss Whedon’s new show that all of use Whedonites are salivating over. You bought it, you advertised it, then you decided not only to sit on it until 2009, but you are going to air it on Friday nights. Friday nights are No Man’s Land for TV shows, the equivalent of Where Programming Goes to Die. That was how you killed Firefly, after all, a fact which none of us forgive you for. But while its a terrible thing you are doing to “Dollhouse,” at least that show hasn’t even started yet so it isn’t like you’ve been super nice and supportive of it first. (Really I only think you bought it so no one else could because you don’t want it airing opposite any of your shows. I think you’ve got a deep crazy person hatred for Joss Whedon, but that is another article.)
With Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles you’ve been acting so loving and friendly. You’ve kept it on the air even though its ratings have dropped an insane 40% this season. You’ve continued to put out new promos for new episodes as if it is a prize member of your line-up, even though the writing has been sub-par and everyone knows you love Fringe more. But next year you are moving it to the same horrible night as Dollhouse. A show that is already struggling with ratings will whither and die on Friday night. Everyone knows this, you especially as that is where you have killed things in the past. If you want to kill Sarah Connor, why not just do it the dignified way and cancel it? Why abuse and degrade and destroy it first? Seriously, Fox, why do you hate your own shows so much? 
Anyways, let us move on to this week’s episode, which strangely enough did not suck for once. The Connors get a lead on an AI system that Sarah believes must be the Turk. It came from a company written in blood on her basement wall, after all, so must mean Something. Even after she and Derek steal it and John and Cameron take a look at it and tell her it isn’t the Turk, Sarah continues to believe it is. And even after she and Cameron dress up as rich investors and meet with the father/son team that created their stolen AI and it is further proven that it probably isn’t the computer they are looking for, Sarah can’t let her belief that it is the Turk go. She is seeing ominous symbols and portents EVERYWHERE, and it is becoming apparent to the rest of her gang that she might be losing it.
While Sarah is off playing the undercover game, John is trying to stay away from his gal pal Riley, though he is finding it hard to resist the pull of their wacky friendship. He goes to tell her he can’t be with her anymore, though when it comes time for him to explain why he can’t do it. But maybe that is a good thing, as Riley isn’t exactly what she appears to be. In fact she has some future-tie with Jesse, Derek’s bedroom buddy from the Robot War who has plans on how to “save” older John Connor from himself. She believes he is losing it in the future, especially because of his ties to the Allison/Cameron girlbot, and she is going to save his past to protect him. At first Derek is a little miffed to learn she has some ulterior motives for coming to the past (the silly lug thought she was there for him) but eventually comes around and even reveals the Big Secret that he is John’s uncle.
Agent Ellison has problems of his own to deal with while the Connors are off hunting phantom computers and dealing with lying girlfriends. Seems the AI that Catherine Weaver the liquid cyborg has been working on needs to learn a few lessons about the values of human life. In a strange accident the AI, nicknamed John Henry, kills the counselor that was teaching him how to be a better person. Ellison interrogates John Henry to find out why It committed murder, only to decide that it wasn’t the machine’s fault. It was the people who built the machine’s fault, for not teaching It how to value human life. Weaver takes some pointers from Ellison’s anger, and winds up hooking Cromartie’s not so destroyed cyborg body up to John Henry so now the AI has a real voice.
I was surprised to find this week’s episode was actually almost . . . GOOD. There was no real time travel nonsense to come along and mess things up, which I will always be grateful for. Sarah’s rampant paranoia was an interesting twist to the character, who is normally so on top of her game that everyone just kinda follows her blindly wherever she leads. But this week they weren’t so willing to go along with her theories. John and Cameron both kept insisting that the computer she was after wasn’t the Turk, but she didn’t want to believe them. And when it turned out she had been played by the father/son team that she was sure were going to lead her to SkyNet, it caused her to almost break down. At first she couldn’t even fathom that she had been swindled. She was sure there was a bigger conspiracy going on. Once the truth was revealed, even Sarah could see how her theories were getting the better of her. If she doesn’t do something about her paranoid brain soon, she may lose it before she ever really gets a chance to try and save the future.
The revelation that Riley isn’t just a girl from school who has a thing for whiny boys was also an interesting tidbit this week. It turns out she was brought from the future specifically to befriend and maybe seduce young John Connor, though the reasons why are still a little hazy. My theory is that Jesse and whoever she is working with want to make sure young John doesn’t get too attached to Cameron the girlbot, so they are giving him a human girl to cozy up too. But Riley seems reluctant to fill this role as she begins to actually care for him. And what will it do to him when he finds out that his one and only friend in the world is a plant? He’s already a bit on the edge, could finding out Riley isn’t who she appears to be push him over? Could that actually ruin who he is destined to become? This twist in the Riley storyline actually makes her interesting, and their relationship tolerable, and I’m curious to see how it pans out.
The most interesting twist this week was of course Agent Ellison meeting John Henry for the first time. So far he has been working for Weaver with the notion that she wants to find the cyborgs and figure out how to destroy them. She kind of led him on to believe this, though we’ve all known from the beginning that isn’t what she is up to. But tonight when he met the AI finally I think he started to get a glimpse into what is really going on around him. Especially at the end when he saw Cromartie hooked up to the computer. You could see the moment it dawned on him that maybe he is working for the wrong team, and maybe the part he has to play in the coming Robotocalypse isn’t the one he was expecting.
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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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Didn't realize that Fox is moving TSCC to Friday nights. Maybe the show is on its final legs. I hope they get a chance to finish it before the Terminator 4 comes out. Althought not completely relevant, I like the conversation about how Terminator 4 and TSCC are possibly related.
I disagree with the idea that moving these shows to Friday nights indicates their imminent demise. A lot has changed since Firefly – namely, people have changed their TV watching habits. Watching shows online, on demand, or Netflixing the DVDs has become standard. If a show is worth it, people will find it. I think that these days, networks keep shows on well past when conventional wisdom would've told them otherwise to allow the audience to find it in other ways.