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The Sarah Connor Chronicles 2.01 Samson and Delilah
Firstly, given the way the series finale used Johnny Cash for the climax, opening the new season with another stunning musical sequence was inspired. As was making Cameron the Terminator our heroes are running from instead of Cromartie yet again or revealing the new one too early. S1 always kept the balance with Cameron, making her sympathetic without ever letting the viewer forget she's also scary as hell, not human, and her loyalty has question marks, not least because it is due to Future!John reprogramming her. (As far as we know.) Cameron making baby steps towards developments that had nothing to do with her programming - trying to understand human grief, showing what at least resembles grief for her fellow machines, dancing just because, not for a practical reason, and her increasing bond with (present day) John. So is she more than the sum of her programming? At first the s2 season opener seems to say no, showing her reverting to hunter of the Connors without any hesitation or doubt as soon as the explosion had her revert to her original mission. But what happens in the end? I don't think it was that John managed to repair her chip. He cleaned it, yes, but without any tools, and without anything to investigate just what was wrong, there was no way he could have repaired it. I think Cameron did what the Shirley Manson Terminator defined as the criterium of a computer truly worth attention earlier in the episode: she overwrote her own programming. For the first time, she exercised free will, doing something neither because of her SkyNet original programm nor because of the reprogramming by Future!John.
Of course, if this is what happened, it doesn't mean Cameron's loyalties are evermore guaranteed. Free will can change, and the one AI which certainly overwrote its original program and exercised free will was SkyNet. (There was some speculation in the last but one episode last season that Cameron might become the origin of SkyNet, after all.)
Re: Cameron's earlier "you love me, and I love you": this was a trick, and John took it as such; it recalled the Terminator in the series pilot imitating Sarah's voice and telling John "I love you", which immediately told him this wasn't his mother, and also was an echo of John and Cameron watching Vik the Terminator interacting with his human wife, and Cameron commenting on the way Vik manipulated Barbara by telling her he loved her and showing tenderness. This being said, I also think it's true at least as far as John is concerned. Not that he loves Cameron in a romantic sense, but he loves her as family and has for a good while. They've been careful in s1 to show him, as opposed to Sarah, noticing Cameron's curiosity about humanity and attempts at gestures, and in the last two or three eps of the season showcased their increasing closeness and a certain tenderness on his part when he removed her chip. Whether or not Cameron is able to feel at all is something the show wisely doesn't give a definite answer to yet, as it relates to all other Terminators as well. But it's interesting that Derek when giving Charlie (and any viewer who missed the relevant episodes) the briefing on "the Turk" describes this computer as "becoming angry". Anger is certainly an emotion.
("Sorry I pissed you off. The feeling is mutual", says the T-100 played by Shirley Manson at the end of this episode just before she kills. Do you think she's lying?)
To repeat an observation from last season, John who as opposed to Sarah and Derek imprinted on a Terminator saving him instead of killer machines, who is able to feel affection for Terminators: this is why I think the story needed John, not Sarah (or Derek, for that matter) to become the eventual leader of the resistance in the apocalyptic futre. Sarah could keep humanity fighting, but precisely because she has transformed herself into a warrior to save her son, she could never afford to make peace with the machines. Which I think will have to be the end of the story, if movies and tv ever end it, because as has been pointed out, you can't really stop things from being invented, and even if every last AI somehow gets blown up and irrevocably destroyed somehow, with not a single chip remaining, who's to say it won't start all over again a generation later?
I continue to love the Agent Ellison subplot. From his quiet scene with Charlie to his debriefing by his superiors to his encounter with Cromartie, Ellison's quiet dignity in this new world he finds himself in now that he hasn't just accepted Sarah told the truth all those years ago but has encountered the slaughter a Terminator could wreak was just touching and greatly played. We get a sort of answer as to why Cromartie left him alive - at least Ellison thinks it's because Cromartie assumes Ellison will lead him to Sarah, which Ellison refuses to do. On the one hand, go Ellison, on the other, this means we get no Ellison and Sarah scenes soon, which I do want to see. Maybe Ellison and Charlie scenes, though?
All in all, a superb start of the season.
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Great write-up!
it recalled the Terminator in the series pilot imitating Sarah's voice and telling John "I love you"
I didn't know this. I missed several season one episodes; didn't get into SCC until the latter half of last year.
I like what you say about John eventually becoming the leader of the resistance because he has an affinity for the machines (or Cameron at least), and isn't just bent on destroying all of them.
Cameron's "if I go bad again" sounds to me like she might not always be able to override her original programming. Though fear is an emotion too, isn't it? Or maybe that is her programming (to keep John alive) talking.
no subject
Cameron's "if I go bad again" sounds to me like she might not always be able to override her original programming. Though fear is an emotion too, isn't it? Or maybe that is her programming (to keep John alive) talking.
Could be either, or both. As we know from Derek's memories, there were other Terminators whose reprogramming failed, and it was Cameron who told him this, so she has seen it before. If it weren't for Skynet sending other Terminators back, John would be safer without a potential risk like Cameron at his side, and she knows that, but the last year has also shown her that in the current situation, he needs her.
...if I'm right, and she made her first free decision, it must be a completely new experience for her, too, and I imagine a fearful one. When you're following your programming, you don't have a moment of doubt about what is right or wrong.
no subject
I think that you are right that John does love Cameron, but also, I think that that wasn't the reason John decided to turn her back on. I think that the reason John couldn't destroy Cameron has to do with what you say about John being the one person who has been conditioned by his past experiences to be able to see machines as *people* -- as potential allies who are humanity's equals and should be treated as such. (As opposed to being The Enemy to be killed, as Sarah or Derek see them, or even children to be guided and humored, the way Andy Goode described them last season.)
I think that the reason John reacted to strongly to Cameron begging for her life was not because he responded to Cameron telling him she loved him -- he might have responded to that on a purely emotional level, but of course he also knew it was a trick. I think that John realized that the very fact that she was *trying* to trick him that way showed a sense of self-preservation that simple machines should not be able to have. Cameron was desperately trying to find any way at all to trick him into sparing her because she *did not want to die*, the way a living, sentient being would not want to die -- not because her programming told her she needed to finish her mission, but because she did not want the part of her that made *her* unique to disappear. And *that* is what I think convinced John not to kill her -- that evidence that Cameron is not just a machine, but a person that he, John Connor present and future, is ultimately responsible for. When he turned her on, he wasn't talking to her the way one would talk to a machine you know is programmed to protect or kill you -- he was talking to her as one would to a person. He was testing her, seeing if his first impression of her was correct. He was giving her a *choice*. And I think that Cameron not killing him *was* a choice, as you say -- not just part of her programming. At that moment, she *chose* not to kill John, just as John chose not to kill her.
I don't think this means that John will always see her as a person now, and not a machine. And certainly I don't think he will now believe that she can be completely trusted. Her wanting to survive is an important piece of evidence, but it's not the *only* part of being a sentient being that he could make peace with -- Skynet wanted to survive, too, and that led directly to Judgment Day. But I think that's an important first step, and I think it will in large part define John and Cameron's relationship this season.
And as you said, *that* is what will eventually make John uniquely qualified to be the leader in a war against the machines -- because he is the only one so far who will be capable of actually making peace with them.
no subject
Oh, I agree. If he had been convinced that she wasn't sentient or at least capable of making that choice, he would have let Sarah and Derek burn her, love or no love.
I think that John realized that the very fact that she was *trying* to trick him that way showed a sense of self-preservation that simple machines should not be able to have.
Ohhhhh, good point. Come to think of it, none of the other Terminators tried that, we've never seen it at least. They fought till the end, of course, but it was about completing their mission, not about wanting to live.
no subject
That's exactly what I was thinking! Even the supposedly advanced Vic was all about finishing the mission at all costs in his final fight. As far as I know, the only other machine that has even been mentioned so far, let alone actually shown on screen, that has demonstrated a sense of self-preservation beyond simply wanting to accomplish its mission has been Skynet itself.
Although to be fair, I am not sure we've ever had a situation before this in the series where the terminator was immobilized and unable to fight, and yet was able to communicate whether or not it wanted to live, so we don't know if Cameron is *special* in not wanting to die, or if there are other terminators like her out there. Either way, though, I think we can be reasonably certain that this is the first time *John* has been confronted with a terminator not wanting to die. I can see how it would be something that would have a very big effect on him.
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It's a dilemma, isn't it? And I can't imagine how they'll solve it. His instincts, curiosity and now knowledge will make him want to find her and help, but on the other hand, he already figured out what Cromartie wants and would never voluntarily endanger Sarah this way. Plus of course from a Doylist pov there needs to be a justification for the character staying on the show, which won't be there if he just lets it lie. My guess is he'll try his best to stay away but will come across Catherine Weaver (Shirley Manson), whom Sarah doesn't know about, and will conclude that warning her of this new Terminator justifies the risk of contacting her.
no subject
And yes, the Connor family will be occupied setting up new aliases, worrying about Cromartie, hiding guns in the walls of their new house, etc. Makes sense that Ellison (who doesn't have a whole lot to do in the main plot) would be the one to stumble across Weaver. Damn, now I'm irritated I didn't think of it before you.
no subject
Also, in a way, the terminators are the only ones that never let him down. They will either kill him or protect him, and will never stop. Humans are the ones that give up, like Sarah involutary when she was in the mental hospital and John forced into foster care, and volutary (at least at the moment) of signing away her parential rights. To John, it might feel that she failed to protect him while the Terminators that protect him haven't failed/'betrayed' him (until now, which will probably cause some distancing from Cameron this season as well as Sarah) "She saves my life" is his main comment after taking out her chip and then gives the 'choice' of betraying him again. And she doesn't.
And I don't think the chip is completely fix either. I believe that the trailer has something about John trying to ask Cameron to let him fix it, and she 'gets angry', saying 'why do I have to be fix'?