Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles – Alpine Fields

By Melissa Voelker
My rant this week isn’t really so much a rant, as more of a question for the writers.  Why, oh why, if it was possible for you to write episodes that don’t suck, did you wait so long to do so? Why did you spin crap for weeks and weeks while the threat of cancellation hung over your head (which is when you should have been working your butts off to write something worthwhile that would save your show) and now you are writing something that isn’t really crap-like at all?  Now that you’ve lost a good 40% of your viewing audience and are facing Friday Night No-Man’s Land when you return next January, are you suddenly putting forth some effort?  This just doesn’t seem like a well thought-out plan.

Anyway, let us move on to this week’s episode.  Derek Reese is on a mission from Sarah Connor to save a mother and daughter who are being hunted by a T-888.  Through a series of flashbacks we learn that this family, the Fields, once also held a father figure and a nice little cabin in the woods before Sarah and Cameron the Girlbot decided to make a house call.  Seems the Fields are on the Blood List on the Connors’ basement wall and must have some significance in the future, as a terminator is currently out to get them.  Sarah tries to figure out which family member SkyNet is after, while attempting to keep them all alive, though the family seems reluctant to help her with this.  They keep secrets from each other, they keep secrets from her, and it is amazing she is able to help any of them survive the cyborg attack.

Derek also has some flashbacks of his past-future, where he goes on a mission to retrieve the only survivor of a biological warfare attack and meets his lady-love Jesse for the first time.  It turns out the survivor that he has gone to find is the reason the T-888 is after the Fields (in the present), a baby who will one day hold an immunity to the biological weapon SkyNet is trying to use to wipe out humanity. In the past-future Derek manages to retrieve this girl for the good of mankind, and in the present he manages to save her during a birth that kills her mother.

This was a very interesting episode as it was the first time I really felt like Derek was utilized as a full character.  Normally he has the personality of a rock and just tags along on whatever mission Sarah is pulling at the time.  But this week he was left to his own devices for most of the show and was finally able to prove that he is more than just a worker bee.  The flashbacks were particularly interesting, as they showed a new layer to him.  We’ve always known that he mourned the loss of his little brother Kyle, but this episode really seemed to show how deep that loss hurt him.  Toward the end, when he is thanked for saving the life of someone’s sister, you can see the heartbreak in his eyes.  He may have saved someone’s sister, but it was really his brother he wanted to save.  This insight into the workings of his mind helps to explain why, even though he argues with the things Sarah asks him to do most of the time, he still follows along with her orders and participates in her plans and sticks around her house.  He couldn’t save Kyle, but he will save John, Kyle’s son.

Speaking of John, it was (sad but true) very nice to have a whole episode without him.  I honestly didn’t miss his whiny, pouty face for one second this week.  And the small amount of Cameron the Girlbot usage was also refreshing.  It helped Derek come out of his shell, and it seemed to make Sarah a less grating personality as well.  That isn’t to say this was the best episode of a show I have ever seen, but it certainly went a long way toward making it a watchable one.  There was, of course, some time-travel hinkiness that I could have done without.  And the Fields’ willingness to accept Sarah’s crazy story about cyborgs from the future coming to kill them with barely any proof to go on was a little too convenient. But for the most part this episode worked.  If the writers can stick to this formula, I might be willing to give this series another chance.

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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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