![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles 2.11
Let's hear it for the show with one of the best second seasons ever. (Many a show can do a good first season. It's the second one that is the trial.)
As Cameron-centric episodes go, this one wasn't as fast-paced or emotional as Alison from Palmsdale, but it was compelling nonetheless. At first glance, it looks like a standalone, which automatically makes me suspect what Cameron finds out here will prove crucial for the rest of the season. One of the most striking moments, to me, was when Cameron asked our guest star of the week about suicide and the will to live. Not so much for the impact it had on the poor guy but because to me, it connected with the moment shown in the previouslies: Cameron's desperate pleas to John in the season opener. The point here being not really the "I love you and you love me" but that she desperately wanted to live. Not because she needed to complete her mission (old or new) but because she, Cameron, the individual, wanted to live; one of the primary marks of sentience. And an emotion, with few, if any, stronger. The other striking moment comes when Cameron realizes that the other Terminator, Stark, had not intended to kill the 46 people who died, that it had been an accident through his arrival in the wrong time. Because at the start of this show, I don't think Cameron would have cared whether these people died because their death served a purpose or as an accident, one way or the other. Now, she wants reasons for deaths.
She traces a story together, one which, incidentally, opens a whole new can of worms, because if a Terminator by accident arrived decades too early once, why not twice? Why not centuries before? I bet Skynet when inventing time travel had to practice a few times. (Quick DW joke: just think of the Doctor, who still has trouble driving accurately.) If nothing else, it's a gold mine for fanfiction, but I suspect the show will use this again, too.
There is also the aspect of Stark having to replace one of the people whom he accidentally killed, because that touches on one of the central questions of the show: is it possible to change the course of history? Derek, in the episode with the two Fishers, speculates it might be, and that there are already different timelines in existence, but the end of the episode, though ambiguous, seems to me to rather confirm he just enabled something to come true that already did. Then there's the episode with the Martin Bedells, and John saving one Martin Bedell, who will die for him in the future. Would Martin Bedell, who originally hadn't planned on becoming a soldier, have done that for Future!John if present John hadn't saved him? John himself of course only exists because Skynet tried to prevent his birth. Sarah repeatedly tried to take out mini versions of the future Skynet, but the one Dyson gave his life to prevent was replaced by the Turk who has currently become John Henry. Seems to me this show postulates that while you can make individual changes, in the end time will correct itself and simply put another individual/machine in place of the one taken out.
Which brings me to the subplot with John and Riley. With the revelation of last week, Riley's behaviour seems a lot more calculated, though even without that background, it was pretty clear she wanted to make John jealous. I felt just a wee bit smug when John brought up Charlie, because I had compared Sarah/Charlie to John/Riley (from John's pov, without the knowledge that Riley is actually not a civilian but from the future) in earlier reviews. Also, it's good continuity. I do wonder, though, what exactly Jesse and whoever else she's working with thinks they'll accomplish via Riley, because if the point is just to prevent John's close relationship with Cameron, killing Cameron would be a lot easier and less complicated. So I guess there must be something else, and wonder whether Riley, too, is replacing someone or something from another timeline.
As Cameron-centric episodes go, this one wasn't as fast-paced or emotional as Alison from Palmsdale, but it was compelling nonetheless. At first glance, it looks like a standalone, which automatically makes me suspect what Cameron finds out here will prove crucial for the rest of the season. One of the most striking moments, to me, was when Cameron asked our guest star of the week about suicide and the will to live. Not so much for the impact it had on the poor guy but because to me, it connected with the moment shown in the previouslies: Cameron's desperate pleas to John in the season opener. The point here being not really the "I love you and you love me" but that she desperately wanted to live. Not because she needed to complete her mission (old or new) but because she, Cameron, the individual, wanted to live; one of the primary marks of sentience. And an emotion, with few, if any, stronger. The other striking moment comes when Cameron realizes that the other Terminator, Stark, had not intended to kill the 46 people who died, that it had been an accident through his arrival in the wrong time. Because at the start of this show, I don't think Cameron would have cared whether these people died because their death served a purpose or as an accident, one way or the other. Now, she wants reasons for deaths.
She traces a story together, one which, incidentally, opens a whole new can of worms, because if a Terminator by accident arrived decades too early once, why not twice? Why not centuries before? I bet Skynet when inventing time travel had to practice a few times. (Quick DW joke: just think of the Doctor, who still has trouble driving accurately.) If nothing else, it's a gold mine for fanfiction, but I suspect the show will use this again, too.
There is also the aspect of Stark having to replace one of the people whom he accidentally killed, because that touches on one of the central questions of the show: is it possible to change the course of history? Derek, in the episode with the two Fishers, speculates it might be, and that there are already different timelines in existence, but the end of the episode, though ambiguous, seems to me to rather confirm he just enabled something to come true that already did. Then there's the episode with the Martin Bedells, and John saving one Martin Bedell, who will die for him in the future. Would Martin Bedell, who originally hadn't planned on becoming a soldier, have done that for Future!John if present John hadn't saved him? John himself of course only exists because Skynet tried to prevent his birth. Sarah repeatedly tried to take out mini versions of the future Skynet, but the one Dyson gave his life to prevent was replaced by the Turk who has currently become John Henry. Seems to me this show postulates that while you can make individual changes, in the end time will correct itself and simply put another individual/machine in place of the one taken out.
Which brings me to the subplot with John and Riley. With the revelation of last week, Riley's behaviour seems a lot more calculated, though even without that background, it was pretty clear she wanted to make John jealous. I felt just a wee bit smug when John brought up Charlie, because I had compared Sarah/Charlie to John/Riley (from John's pov, without the knowledge that Riley is actually not a civilian but from the future) in earlier reviews. Also, it's good continuity. I do wonder, though, what exactly Jesse and whoever else she's working with thinks they'll accomplish via Riley, because if the point is just to prevent John's close relationship with Cameron, killing Cameron would be a lot easier and less complicated. So I guess there must be something else, and wonder whether Riley, too, is replacing someone or something from another timeline.
no subject
It occurs to me this ties with Cameron's and John's conversation two episodes ago (in the scene when they're waiting for Ellison in front of his house) about machines not being pointlessly cruel.
He didn't care about the other guy at all. Destroying his life was simply the most direct way he could find of accomplishing his objectives.
Yes. It reminded me of a subplot in Babylon 5's fourth season, where at one point two of the regular characters were brainwashed and handed over for capture respectively, and it wasn't about them at all, neither in hate or otherwise; they simply had the misfortune of being used in another cause entirely. And what you suggest is fascinating; I could see that. I mean, I doubt way back when he shot the first Terminator movie, James Cameron thought any deeper than "it makes a good suspense plot" about the rationale of the machines wanting to kill the humans, but this show's writers are so thoughtful that they'd be capable of such a retcon.
Well, but the problem is that John *already* has a close relationship with Cameron. Yes, he's been colder toward her this year, but the fact remains that he risked everybody's life in order to save her in the beginning of the season.
He also kept her amnesia time secret from Sarah and Derek and lied to cover for her well into the season (and after having met Riley); considering that we know Jesse has some surveillance on John (the photos in her room), they might actually know that.
Killing Cameron now, without first finding a good reason for *why* they would be killing her, wouldn't necessarily lessen her influence on him in the future -- it would just turn her into a martyr in his eyes, and give him time to idealize her in his mind, so that when he sees her again in the future, he'd be that much more likely to trust her. Plus, it would almost certainly turn John *against* whatever Jesse and Riley's final cause is.
Okay, point taken. In this case, though, they must be working from the assumption that John - who at some point must find out Riley isn't from current day Los Angeles - will not react too badly to being lied to.
no subject
Oh, of course I'm not suggesting that James Cameron had this idea about the machines from the beginning. But the show already changed some things from the movies, so it wouldn't surprise me if it played with this, as well. Besides, the show is focusing *much* more on the machines than the movies did, in any case. The focus of the movies was on terminators specifically sent to kill Sarah and/or John. And we never really got too much specific information on the version of Skynet that Dyson was building, beyond the fact that it would turn into Skynet in the future. And even if we did learn something about that Skynet, it was destroyed in the movie, so there is no reason to think that a new Skynet developed differently wouldn't have slightly different objectives. So it isn't even necessary to do any retconning from the movies for my theory to be true -- it's just filling in information the original movies didn't go into.
For a few two hour movies, a "kill the enemy" objective for the villains is enough. For an ongoing TV series, it's important to flesh out the villains more fully, or the series would become too repetitive and formulaic. As you yourself mentioned a little while back, having compelling villains (or antagonists) is an important part of a Sci Fi series' draw.
It's just that watching the accident when Stark killed all those people reminded me that, as far as I remember, the latest stated reason for Judgement Day in the series was that Skynet learned that it was going to be shut down, got scared, and killed all those people as a result. It wasn't exactly an accident, but it isn't really described as something Skynet had planned for a long time, either. I can see Skynet panicking (or the machine equivalent of panicking) and lashing out, without really factoring in the possible consequences of its actions. And if that's the case, then it would make sense that now that Skynet's agents from the future are actually able to go back and plan things out more carefully, knowing what followed after the original Judgement Day, they could come up with better ways of achieving whatever it is they want without getting dragged into an unnecessary and resource-consuming war.
And this fits with Catherine Weaver's attitude toward Dr. Sherman and James Ellison much better, I think.
they must be working from the assumption that John - who at some point must find out Riley isn't from current day Los Angeles - will not react too badly to being lied to.
Yeah, I'm wondering about that, too. Jess at least has got to know the future John Connor well enough to know that he might not react well to being lied to. And yet, given that they are clearly not there to kill John (since Riley has had *plenty* of opportunities to do that), I can't think of what else they could be trying to accomplish. Maybe they are trying to set up a situation where Cameron kills Riley (before John realizes that Riley is from the future), to ensure that John would never trust Cameron in the future. Riley seems messed-up and suicidal enough to agree to that, I think, and such a situation could explain why she keeps alternating between being so hot and cold with John.