Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles

9. September 2008 by Matt.

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!

Terminator is quickly becoming one of my favorite shows on television. I picked up the Blu Ray of Season 1 a few weeks ago and was blown away by the quality of show. I was eagerly awaiting the 2nd season premiere and was not let down. The openening scene is a wonderful start in which Cameron (Summer Glau) awakes following the explosion at the end of season 1. Unfortuantly, her chip is damaged from a piece of shrapnel lodged in her skull. We don’t discover exactly what’s damaged until she encounters Sarah (Lena Headey) and John Conner (Thomas Decker) inside the house (which is now on fire) next to a dead body. Cameron targets John and points a gun at him, attempting to terminate him. Apparently, her chip is damaged inso that her mission has reverted to terminate, rather than protect, John. Well shit.
Most of the main plot of the episode focuses on Sarah and John fleeing from Cameron and attempting to fix her. After a failed attempt to open her head up to reach her chip we see how sadistic an evil Cameron can be. Cameron tortures Sarah in order to force John out of hiding. Keep in mind, Cameron is still in control of herself, and she has all of her memories. She just thinks her mission is to kill John, not save him.
John eventually lures Cameron into a garage, and then Sarah rams her with a truck, pinning her between two engines. John seizes the opportunity and begins opening Cameron’s head in order to remove her chip. This is one of the most suprising and entertaining scenes I’ve seen in a tv show lately. Cameron begins to plead with John to not remove her chip. “John, no, please! I don’t want to go! I’m good now! I’m sorry. ” The whole time Sarah is screaming at John who is now unsure of what to do. Terminators don’t have the ability to feign emotions like that…or do they? It’s almost heartbreaking. Summer Glau’s performance here is just spectacular. Then comes the bombshell… Cameron pleads further, “I’m sorry for what I did. Please, listen to me, I don’t want to go! Everything is perfect! I love you, please! I love you! I love you John, and you love me!” I did not see that coming. So this begs the question…what transpired between future John and Cameron? Does Cameron feel emotions now? Was she just lying?
John gets the chip out and they decide to burn her body to destroy her. John tinkers with the chip in the meantime to try and fix it. Going against his mother, he reactivates Cameron. He hands her and gun and asks her to promise not to kill him. From Cameron’s POV we see her screen go from “TERMINATE” to “Termination Override”. We don’t yet know if this is from John’s tinkering or Cameron overriding her mission on her own.
Oh, and besides all of this, Shirley Manson of Garbage joins the cast as a Cyberdine executive. At the stunning conclusion of the show, she is revealed as a T-1000 Terminator…the very same kind that Robert Patrick played in Terminator 2. Awesome CG graphics that look as good or better than the movie help this play out, and I was pleasently surprised. I can’t wait for next week’s episode!

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