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The Mondokey Hole
Deep thoughts with the oldest nerd on the block.
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles 2.01
Submitted by Casey on Tue, 09/09/2008 - 02:54.
Monday night marked the return of Sarah and John Connor and their pet android Cameron with the Season 2 Premier: "Samson & Delilah".
Carrying from the excitement of last seasons finale, the episode opens with a slow motion and choppy musical montage as two dudes I forgot about from the finale snatch Sarah and John and blow Cameron up in a jeep. The force of the explosion wreaking havoc on Cameron's fetching frame, she limps inside to do away with the bad guys in over the top fashion, just like last year! Except....OH NO! Her program's been reset! Now's she's reading termination orders on John Connor! (We know this is true because we get to see it from her HUD, natch.)
Thankfully, this slow-mo bullet time nonsense only lasts for a couple of minutes. Seriously folks, not a good way to start a season premiere. We want action and shit blowing up, not MTV music videos. Opening sequences aside, this episode turned out to be a bit ho-hum after the excitement at the end of Season 1.
For those that haven't been keeping score, pretty much all of our cast is back. Lena Heady is back as Sarah Connor and while she is in fact a gorgeous leading lady, she's a bit weepy for the mother of savior of man kind. Thomas Dekker returns in the role of John Connor...but if he didn't, it wouldn't be much of a show would it. Since we'd already know how it ended and all. The thing that I feel most disturbed about with this show is the fact that I'm enjoying Brian Austin Green as the freedom fighter from the future, Reese. Sure, the douchey tough guy schtick probably comes naturally to him, but it fits well for the roll. The surprise addition here is Shirley Manson, lead singer of "Garbage". (Note: She's a babe too. We're up to 3 now in this show!) Shirley comes in as Catherine Weaver, who is the latest to latch on to the chess playing computer AI from season 1. This episode introduces her character as a feisty high powered red head for some leading computer firm, who wants the AI to start a project called "Babylon". (It's from the Bible.) This is all well and good, and there's a nice little surprise that rolls in at the end of the episode involving Ms. Manson. The verdict is still out though on whether or not she can act. To be honest? She's a bit wooden. Then again, I wasn't really paying attention because I have a soft spot for red heads, especially ones with Scottish accents!
As you can tell from the intro, this entire premier centers on Cameron turning bad and gunning for John Connor. They run the usual staple of good guy/bad guy feats, failing to bring anything new to the table. For the most part, it was okay. We get to see some genuine threat to Sarah and John for a change as they're banged up pretty bad and bleeding, and there's some nice chuckles as Summer Glau limps about and patches herself up with a staple gun. Where this episode turns south is when they turn John Connor, the savior of the human race mind you, into a giant pussy.
Yah, that's right all say it; they turned him into a pussy this episode. They've repeated ad nauseum through out this series that no matter what, John Connor must live. He must live. He's a badass, he's going to save us all, he must live. So when Cameron his body guard bot turns bad and tries to gun him down, does he finish her off in one fell swoop like one would expect from such a bad-assed dude? Hell no. He decides at the last minute to give her a second chance because she said she loved him.
What. The. Fuck.
This guy's going to be the person that grows up to finish off the robots that are decimating the human race by giving them a second chance because one says she loves him? Come on dude, grow a pair.
I've been a strong and vocal support of "The Sarah Connor Chronicles" throughout the first season, and looked forward to this premiere quite a bit. It wasn't the worst hour of television that I received, but it was pretty lacking for what I've come to expect out of the "Terminator" universe. I still hold out hope that this season will work out the kinks and the final tweets of this premiere may help it along the way.
If nothing else, Shirley Manson's always nice to look at!
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Re: "What the fuck"
He decides at the last minute to give her a second chance because she said she loved him.
What. The. Fuck.
When Cameron said she loved him, he knew she was lying, and pulled her processor out of her head. After spending who knows how long "fixing" it (it's unclear how much time passed, or everything he did during that time), he put her processor back in, just as she was about to be torched.
One false move would have led to her being lit up like a roman candle.
If anything, this proved that he was smart enough to repair Cameron and trust his future-self, who sent Cameron back in time to help him fight the other Terminators who are trying to kill him.
If they torched Cameron, I'd think this would be a short series.
---
Co-host of the Kryptographik podcast
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Fixed
Yah, John repaired her, but they didn't show any of it. That's the problem. By cutting that out, it made him look wistful and weak, not leader of the free world! :D
I agree too, it would have been a short series if they torched Cameron off. I just think they could have written it better to show more of why John thought she would be okay if he gave her the reboot. Honestly, I was expecting her to be reset in the alarm clock in the holy water bit. They also gave her some more ... human traits, as they made it look like she wasn't actually fixed; more an emotional overcoming of her programming. i.e. when she told Sarah 'Don't let him do that again if I go bad'
They didn't show John
They didn't show John decrypting Sarkassian's hard drive or the video on the other terminator's memory chip either, so I suppose I didn't need a "chip fixing" montage. ;)
I took the "Don't let him do that again if I go bad," line differently. If Cameron were being "emotional," she'd probably have thanked John. If her mission is to protect John, it's logical that she would tell Sarah that she shouldn't be "fixed" again, as it could potentially jeopardize her mission, and John probably wouldn't listen.
I'm willing to admit that since I enjoyed the episode, I may be justifying things I shouldn't. :)
---
Co-host of the Kryptographik podcast
http://www.lordshaper.com/kryptographik/
http://www.myspace.com/hellstorm_kgk
http://kryptographik.ning.com/
http://twitter.com/Hellstorm
I can see that
I can see that angle too now that you point it out. My first reaction though was that she overrode the Terminate order herself vs. not as the programming kicking back in.
Im definately in the 'cant
Im definately in the 'cant act' camp as for Shirley Manson, and a babe? She's one of those people that either looks great or like shit, in this she looks like shit.
The whole episode was way too whiney what with pretty much everyone shedding some tears (included the Terminator!!) I pretty much guessed Manson was goona be what she is although didnt expect that version, if you get my drift. I hope if there gonna carry on like this though they improve the CGI from the first season as it was horrible.
www.myspace.com/devil2pay
I have a shennanigans!!!
I loved the episode despite the huge logic flaws (and the John Connor wig hair!). There was enough action to keep me satisfied and Summer Glau can certainly turn on the menacing thing when she needs to.
As far as John fixing the chip, I agree I would have like to see him do something more than give the chip a good shine. They ultimately need Cameron though, because the reality is with all these terminators running, it would be really hard for him to survive.
My shennanigans comes from the fact that US shows generally finish about 1 minute past the hour these days. The problem is since I watch in Canada, we don't receive the US station signals, we are simulcast from Canadian broadcasters. So when the clock hit 9 PM last night (midway through the final scene), the episode cut off and the episode of the World's Toughest Jobs kicked in!!!! ARGGGGH!!
Boo, they do that because...
It's a ratings ploy. By making the show run 1 minute long, the logic is that people will miss the beginning of other shows so they'll stick around to watch what's on the network next. Most of the networks do it during sweeps periods, but they're doing it more frequently now to try and combat the erosion of viewers to cable channels.
Shirley was cool
I liked her character's appearance in the end but yeah she is a bit wooden but then again it might go along with who her character is...'know what I mean?
I like the show except for the kid who plays John Conner...that's a problem. Maybe he'll start to be more colder and tougher now that he cut his hair (symbolism much?)
-Tanya
Catchin' bullets with her teeth since 1977
Good point
In hindsight, you might be spot on about Shirley
hulu
i never get to watch tv.
hulu is my friend.
i will watch this tommorw.