The Sarah Connor Chronicles 2.08: Mr. Ferguson is ill today

[selenak]

I so love this show, it bears repeating. Its density and layers and characters and visuals and just about everything.

One one level, this episode is about wrapping up a plot thread from s1 - Cromartie - which clears the stage of one adversary to make more room for the s2 one, Catherine Weaver. Considering that T-Catherine herself has an agenda which I suspect not to be completely identical with Skynets, though they overlap - I like londonkds' theory that she's the Saruman to Skynet's Sauron - this is storytelling necessity, but on this particular show, it also manages to be much more than that. It's about stories coming together. Ellison's story intersects with the Connors again, and we get another Wizard of Oz reference as Sarah tells him "this is it, that's what I do, that's all I do - there is nothing more behind the curtain". Sarah is the heroine of her own story, but in Ellison's story she's a cross between Glinda and the wizard while he is Dorothy to her woman behind the curtain. He has tracked her for so long, and it changed him, but he expected some sort of resolution once he found her; he expected to be sent home, perhaps. Though on one level he already knew this was impossible. There is no home left to go to, no state of normalcy to return to. Kansas doesn't exist anymore, or if it does, it's in some alternate future Sarah is trying to create, but not in the present. We'll see where he goes from here; we know, though the characters don't at this stage, that Ellison already knows Sarah's next adversary, who is the true woman behind the curtain, and probably will have vital information to deliver the next time they meet.

Cromartie's end is also another moment in Cameron's story. His "has she chip damage? She has chip damage" earlier was a rare funny moment in this episode, but in truth he and Cameron share more than their mechanic origins; though he never deviated from his "terminate John Connor" mission, he has evolved from the simple killing machine he was at the start, as she did, making strategic decisions not to kill repeatedly, showing some basic curiosity about what motivates humans (see his questioning Sarah why her strategies have changed). When Cameron blasts his face away in the church, removing the human exterior and revealing the machine skull, there is a moment of pure emotion in her face, and it's most definitely not triumph. I'd call recognition coupled with some grief; the way her mouth opens and her eyes widen. We've seen Cameron apply the human concept of grief to the fellow terminators she kills in s1, and this is taking it one step further. In a way, Cromartie was her brother, in addition to being her alter ego; Cameron in the season 2 opener, reverting to her original programming and pursuing the Connors with lethal intent, was lured into a church and trapped by them as well.

("Do you repent?" Ellison asks Cromartie in the church. "All things are possible." Cameron had her resurrection after being trapped and killed because of her connection to John, about which more in a moment. Cromartie gets a grave instead. He doesn't reply to Ellison's question, as opposed to Cameron, who pleaded for her life - and appealed to human emotion while doing so - and permanent death follows.)

I recognized the Mexican song used during Cromartie's last stand; it's used twice in Frida, Julie Taymor's spectacular movie about Frida Kahlo, where it underscores Frida's ongoing encounters with (betrayed) love and death. The choice of a Mexican location allows not only for the Western visual but for all the Day of the Dead visuals. "I don't like skulls" Riley says, and of course skulls are primarily associated with Terminators on this show; that's how Cromartie survived the pilot, as a skull, this is what Cameron reduces him to. A skull is the symbol of death, and a male terminator, whom Cromartie somewhat resembled - I'm assuming that was why they chose the actor to begin with - was Sarah's original nightmare, Death incarnate changing her forever when she wasn't that different from Riley, or her pregnant neigbour. She vanquishes death here via her strategy of trapping Cromartie from three sides in the church, but knows it's a temporary victory at best, and that several years in the making breakdown finally happens. At which point the plot thread of Sarah's enstragement from her son also comes to a (temporary) end as John does what none of the others are able to, step towards her and embrace her. It's paradoxically the most adult thing he does in the episode and yet he looks younger than all through the season at this moment, more like a child than a man as he holds Sarah and doesn't let go.

John's involvement with Riley is on one level teenage selfishness - as everyone, including John, states, he knows it will only make her a walking target, and he knows better. On the other hand, it's the same thing Sarah did when she became involved with Charlie long enough for the relationship to become an engagement, when despite her awareness of the apocalyptic future and Skynets ongoing thing of sending robots after her and her son she allowed herself to consider marriage. The need to have someone in your life who isn't there because he/she is a fellow soldier, and the knowledge that it won't happen in the future because the future is all war, all the time, so it has to be now. This got the woman whom Charlie married after Sarah left him killed, and if Riley herself survives, I suspect her (foster?) parents won't. But the alternative, not to reach out beyond the family circle at all, leaves you with either no sexual relationship at all or with incest.

Which brings me to John and Cameron. "I don't like the way he responds to you." It's fascinating that the show, instead of settling for one interpretation or the other for this relationship, continues to provide at least two. On the one hand plays it very much as a sibling relationship - John doesn't just call Cameron his sister in front of others, he treats her as one most of the time. They keep each other's secrets (John not telling Sarah or Derek about Cameron's amnesiac Allison episode, Cameron not telling about Riley's visits until the break-in), and while he's aware of the sexual implication her sharing a bed with him could have (hence the question whether she's planning on Riley coming back and getting scarred for life by the visual), he shows no sign of being uncomfortable or aroused by her physical proximity. On the other hand, Cameron drops liberal hints that her relationship with Future!John might be non-platonic, which might or might not be true, it's hard to come up with another explanation for her dropping her jacket before entering John's room than that she wanted him to respond to her physically. I'm also reminded of Cameron and John watching the recordings from Vic's chip last season, and Cameron commenting on Vic's human wife responding to him. She could simply have concluded that a physical relationship would remove Riley from John's life, thus removing a security risk. Or it could be part of her trying to figure out who she is. Who knows? "She has chip damage." Or free will, or both.

Lastly: who the hell is Mr. Ferguson? Either I missed something, or this is a pop culture allusion I don't get.

Comments

[wee-warrior.livejournal.com]

Lastly: who the hell is Mr. Ferguson? Either I missed something, or this is a pop culture allusion I don't get.

"Mr. Ferguson is ill today" is Chromartie's first sentence in the Pilot.

(I'm not too happy that they killed him off, but it totally makes sense in terms of storyline, and in a case of excellent timing, Dillahunt's character on Life was referenced in the latest episode, leading me to think he'll turn up on that show again soon.)

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the Mr. Ferguson explanation; I had forgotten, but of course!

[mymatedave.livejournal.com]

Great review, always gives me something to think about.

[seriousfic.livejournal.com]

And now I wonder whether they intend to bring Garrett Dillahunt back as another Terminator, or at least have his Terminator have contingency plans in the event of his death. Which would probably tie into Ellison's storylines... with Cromartie's sparing of Ellison and then Ellison's involvement with Weaver, there's a good chance something more is going on than just the hope that Ellison would lead him to the Connors. Perhaps Ellison will be able to teach a sort of morality to the baby-Skynet?

[selenak.livejournal.com]

I don't think we'll see Garett Dillahunt again, because why would another Terminator take on this very compromised shape instead of a new inconspicious one? And given Sarah destroyed the chip, seeing Cromartie in another shape is out, too. As to whether he had contigency plans, that's another question. Though I didn't get the impression he knew of Weaver (though she most certainly knows of him, given she knows the truth about Ellison's encounter with him in the s1 finale. So possible contingency plans might not involve her at all.

Ellison and baby Skynet: very intriguing possibility, and given the emphasis on him as a man of faith willing to learn... not out of the question.

[seriousfic.livejournal.com]

I don't think we'll see Garett Dillahunt again, because why would another Terminator take on this very compromised shape instead of a new inconspicious one?

I never underestimate the new generation of TV's tendency to reuse guest stars (because they like them) and indulge in continuity porn. In sci-fi alone, Doctor Who brought Rose's mom along on a dangerous anti-Dalek mission and Niki Saunders has a secret twin sister. And in Grey's Anatomy, the ghost of one of the dead cast members is starring in an arc. By comparison, another Garett Dillahunt Terminator would require much less convolutions from the plot.

It may take a while, but he'll be back.