![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakAt one point in last night's episode of The Sarah Connor Chronicles Derek said something that reminded me the writers have given themselves an out regarding the Terminator movie franchise, which in turn reminded me I saw the trailer for Terminator 4: Salvation recently without having any urge to watch the film. The Sarah Connor Chronicles are my One True Continuity for that 'verse, oh yes. And I'm so glad that due to the something Derek's statement reminded me of they don't have to follow whatever the movie people are pulling next, because the tv show's characters and questions are so much more more intriguing. Oh show, I do love you dearly.
This episode made me happy from the teaser onwards, because Cameron's scene with the bird is a fantastic allusion and twist to the grand climax of my favourite Sci Fi movie of all time, Blade Runner. Which is fitting in so many ways. Blade Runner is the obvious inspiration for a lot of robot/human stories that followed, including both the Terminator and the reminagined BSG franchise; and Cameron in this episode does something similar to Roy Batty's final decision in Blade Runner... or does she? If you haven't seen Blade Runner (and why not? It's out on dvd, in several versions!), the scene I'm referring to has an android named Roy Batty, played by Rutger Hauer, reversing expectations as he saves the human (well... but let's not get into THAT debate) who hunted him, and whom he hunted in turn, give him an ad-libbed speech which has since become one of the most quoted, and dies after releasing the dove he was holding (obvious symbolism is obvious, yes, but never mind, it WORKS). Which flies up in the sky, in the one scene where said sky isn't covered with clouds and it's not raining. Roy Batty is a combat model, and a ruthlessly efficient one; he's also programmed to shut down after a very short life (four years) so he won't reach real sentience or self-determiation. Which obviously did not work. All the replicants in the film are sentient (and trying to stay alive), but Batty's last decision - sparing Deckard instead of killing him - also proves they can go beyond simple self preservation as an imperative and make free choices based on their own ethics.
Now, Cameron and the dove have a different ending. It dies; maybe because it earlier hit the glass, or maybe she squeezed too hard. It doesn't escape, it falls. Did she want it to live or die? Either way, it's not something covered in her programming. Later in the episode, Cameron does not kill Riley, when in months past this would not, as she tells John, have been a decision to make, it would simply have been a matter of following her programming. She doesn't kill Riley, maybe because John wants Riley to live, or maybe because she is willing to wait and see whether the Riley problem will solve itself, or maybe she just doesn't want to kill Riley. Either way, it's a decision that requires sentience and the exercise of judgment. (Like the bird, Riley still dies, but I'll get to that in a moment.)
Nothing is unambiguous about Cameron's actions in this episode, and I loved that. Asking John to repair her arm isn't just about being repaired; as John points out later, she could have done it herself. It's about John repairing her (and she also makes him complicit to another secret, by showing him she keeps parts of the Terminators they have killed instead of burning them); like her "I love you and you love me" in the season opener, it's manipulative and is not. There is a purpose to it, and it's not repair - closeness, probably; but she's not lying, either. The bird did die against her wish, she does not want to kill without meaning to, and she does want John to fix her arm. And then the gesture in the end. On one level, it's the ultimate gesture of trust; here's a way he can kill her. On another - does he knew she didn't lie to him? Maybe nothing will happen when he ever presses that button. She tells him she cannot self destruct as well. He doesn't know, but then he didn't know when he gave her the gun in the season opener, either. He accepts it as a gamble of trust, and their inability to kill each other.
Meanwhile, Riley figures out what some reviewers, including yours truly, have speculated on a while ago: Jesse's goal was to provoke Cameron into killing Riley as the one thing guaranteed to make John Connor turn against Cameron (and any other possible mechanical confidant). I had expected Riley to be either aware of this or to remain ignorant. That she realised, and confronted Jesse with it, was unexpected, and surprised me. Riley is one of the most tragic characters on this show. Early in the episode, she and John have an exchange which in a way sums up what both she and Jesse are unable to do. Referring to Riley's suicide attempt, John says "it's past", and Riley protests: "So I should just forget about it?" "No," John replies, "I didn't say forget about it. But I'm saying it's past." Sarah, and even Derek, are characters who have been through hell as well, and they will never forget it, but they keep adapting to the world as they find it to be. Riley might have travelled to "paradise" - a past that isn't yet apocalyptic - but she keeps living in hell, both because of Jesse's orders and because she chooses to obey them. When John asks her to tell him the truth near the end, she can't do it, and it would have saved her life. Instead, she returns to Jesse, and thus to her death. As for Jesse, she's in a circle; she might have brought Riley to change the John Connor she knows, and been willing to sacrifice Riley for that aim, putting everything in position to achieve this aim, but in the end she ended up literally ending Riley's life, and though she'll probably try to at least frame Cameron for it, I'm willing to bet the entire Riley gamble backfires massively for Jesse, and not just in the sense that she's about to be found out. Because guess whom John is going to trust now? By her actions Jesse probably created her own John Connor, the one who doesn't trust anyone but Cameron in the future.
Mind you: Derek asking about Judgment Day and the dates for same is a reminder of his belief that they have already created different timelines. He's probably right. The pilot episode by moving Sarah and John several years ahead created a different timeline to Terminator 3 and the future Cameron was familiar with when she came to the past, the one where Sarah died of cancer. Derek and Jesse might already be from different futures than each other. And I wouldn't be surprised if Catherine Weaver was also from a different one. This of course begs the question of how Sarah & Co. will ever know whether they can change the future enough to avoid Judgment Day - there are no more reliable witnesses from the future. "Future John doesn't live here," Cameron says to John, "you do."
(And on that note: the thought struck me that John-Cameron-Future!John somewhat resembles that classic triangle Clark Kent - Lois Lane - Superman.)
I'm unable to make any predictions for the big plots right now, but I'm pretty sure that the Connors will move again by the end of this season, given all the attention they just received thanks to Jesse. If the show gets cancelled (insert "Noooooooo!" here), that's an ending I can live with, everyone on the road. As long as everyone includes Cameron, because that Roy Batty allusion and talk of self destruction makes me somewhat nervous on her behalf...
This episode made me happy from the teaser onwards, because Cameron's scene with the bird is a fantastic allusion and twist to the grand climax of my favourite Sci Fi movie of all time, Blade Runner. Which is fitting in so many ways. Blade Runner is the obvious inspiration for a lot of robot/human stories that followed, including both the Terminator and the reminagined BSG franchise; and Cameron in this episode does something similar to Roy Batty's final decision in Blade Runner... or does she? If you haven't seen Blade Runner (and why not? It's out on dvd, in several versions!), the scene I'm referring to has an android named Roy Batty, played by Rutger Hauer, reversing expectations as he saves the human (well... but let's not get into THAT debate) who hunted him, and whom he hunted in turn, give him an ad-libbed speech which has since become one of the most quoted, and dies after releasing the dove he was holding (obvious symbolism is obvious, yes, but never mind, it WORKS). Which flies up in the sky, in the one scene where said sky isn't covered with clouds and it's not raining. Roy Batty is a combat model, and a ruthlessly efficient one; he's also programmed to shut down after a very short life (four years) so he won't reach real sentience or self-determiation. Which obviously did not work. All the replicants in the film are sentient (and trying to stay alive), but Batty's last decision - sparing Deckard instead of killing him - also proves they can go beyond simple self preservation as an imperative and make free choices based on their own ethics.
Now, Cameron and the dove have a different ending. It dies; maybe because it earlier hit the glass, or maybe she squeezed too hard. It doesn't escape, it falls. Did she want it to live or die? Either way, it's not something covered in her programming. Later in the episode, Cameron does not kill Riley, when in months past this would not, as she tells John, have been a decision to make, it would simply have been a matter of following her programming. She doesn't kill Riley, maybe because John wants Riley to live, or maybe because she is willing to wait and see whether the Riley problem will solve itself, or maybe she just doesn't want to kill Riley. Either way, it's a decision that requires sentience and the exercise of judgment. (Like the bird, Riley still dies, but I'll get to that in a moment.)
Nothing is unambiguous about Cameron's actions in this episode, and I loved that. Asking John to repair her arm isn't just about being repaired; as John points out later, she could have done it herself. It's about John repairing her (and she also makes him complicit to another secret, by showing him she keeps parts of the Terminators they have killed instead of burning them); like her "I love you and you love me" in the season opener, it's manipulative and is not. There is a purpose to it, and it's not repair - closeness, probably; but she's not lying, either. The bird did die against her wish, she does not want to kill without meaning to, and she does want John to fix her arm. And then the gesture in the end. On one level, it's the ultimate gesture of trust; here's a way he can kill her. On another - does he knew she didn't lie to him? Maybe nothing will happen when he ever presses that button. She tells him she cannot self destruct as well. He doesn't know, but then he didn't know when he gave her the gun in the season opener, either. He accepts it as a gamble of trust, and their inability to kill each other.
Meanwhile, Riley figures out what some reviewers, including yours truly, have speculated on a while ago: Jesse's goal was to provoke Cameron into killing Riley as the one thing guaranteed to make John Connor turn against Cameron (and any other possible mechanical confidant). I had expected Riley to be either aware of this or to remain ignorant. That she realised, and confronted Jesse with it, was unexpected, and surprised me. Riley is one of the most tragic characters on this show. Early in the episode, she and John have an exchange which in a way sums up what both she and Jesse are unable to do. Referring to Riley's suicide attempt, John says "it's past", and Riley protests: "So I should just forget about it?" "No," John replies, "I didn't say forget about it. But I'm saying it's past." Sarah, and even Derek, are characters who have been through hell as well, and they will never forget it, but they keep adapting to the world as they find it to be. Riley might have travelled to "paradise" - a past that isn't yet apocalyptic - but she keeps living in hell, both because of Jesse's orders and because she chooses to obey them. When John asks her to tell him the truth near the end, she can't do it, and it would have saved her life. Instead, she returns to Jesse, and thus to her death. As for Jesse, she's in a circle; she might have brought Riley to change the John Connor she knows, and been willing to sacrifice Riley for that aim, putting everything in position to achieve this aim, but in the end she ended up literally ending Riley's life, and though she'll probably try to at least frame Cameron for it, I'm willing to bet the entire Riley gamble backfires massively for Jesse, and not just in the sense that she's about to be found out. Because guess whom John is going to trust now? By her actions Jesse probably created her own John Connor, the one who doesn't trust anyone but Cameron in the future.
Mind you: Derek asking about Judgment Day and the dates for same is a reminder of his belief that they have already created different timelines. He's probably right. The pilot episode by moving Sarah and John several years ahead created a different timeline to Terminator 3 and the future Cameron was familiar with when she came to the past, the one where Sarah died of cancer. Derek and Jesse might already be from different futures than each other. And I wouldn't be surprised if Catherine Weaver was also from a different one. This of course begs the question of how Sarah & Co. will ever know whether they can change the future enough to avoid Judgment Day - there are no more reliable witnesses from the future. "Future John doesn't live here," Cameron says to John, "you do."
(And on that note: the thought struck me that John-Cameron-Future!John somewhat resembles that classic triangle Clark Kent - Lois Lane - Superman.)
I'm unable to make any predictions for the big plots right now, but I'm pretty sure that the Connors will move again by the end of this season, given all the attention they just received thanks to Jesse. If the show gets cancelled (insert "Noooooooo!" here), that's an ending I can live with, everyone on the road. As long as everyone includes Cameron, because that Roy Batty allusion and talk of self destruction makes me somewhat nervous on her behalf...
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-03-07 04:01 pm (UTC)This is the confusing part, because Jessie says something in an earlier episode which demonstrates she doesn't think "her" John was influenced by Cameron as a teenager, just as an adult--which is impossible, because she has to come from a more recent timeline than Cameron does, so in any timeline Jessie could come from, Cameron would have had to have known John as a teenager, unless you tweak the timelines in a way so complex it would effectively break the contract with the viewer.
Jesse's goal was to provoke Cameron into killing Riley as the one thing guaranteed to make John Connor turn against Cameron (and any other possible mechanical confidant).
Not just any other mechanical confidant (and John's positive memories of the 101 series might persist) but most especially, any other Cameron model. How this would effect any future relationship John could have with Alison, I don't know. (It occurs to me that John would have difficulty trusting Alison, which would mean the entire purpose of creating a Cameron-model in the first place would be undermined, but it seems doubtful that Jessie could figure out any of this on her own.)
no subject
Date: 2009-03-07 04:20 pm (UTC)Remind me, what did she say? Because if she was talking to Derek, she could just have tried to deflect - obviously, she doesn't want Derek to know her plan has Cameron killing Riley as a crucial element.
It occurs to me that John would have difficulty trusting Alison, which would mean the entire purpose of creating a Cameron-model in the first place would be undermined, but it seems doubtful that Jessie could figure out any of this on her own.
Yes. As far as we know, she doesn't know about Alison.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-07 05:28 pm (UTC)There are plenty of wanys to fanwank it, the most obvious being that Jessie just doesn't know how old Cameron's relationship with Jessie's version of future!John runs. Or perhaps in Jessie's timeline, John met Cameron, but she died in the S2 season premiere, or some such.