Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles 2.02

"Automatic for the People"

Kicking off the episode, a naked Zack Ward appears in a time bubble, wounded and bloody. Stealing clothes from a nearby hobo, he proceeds to locate the Connor clan and delivers a cryptic warning before he croaks. "Greenway", "Power Plant", "2 Days"; and that folks, is the main plot for the second episode of season 2!

Sarah, Cameron and Reese delve into the local power station that becomes a rebel hold out in the future and the sight of a major battle. (We're shown this in a quick flashba...flash forward) Sarah and Cameron fake their way into the plant tour posing as wanna-be janitors looking for jobs while shopping for a new house on the side, and Reese disappears. John heads back to school where he meets a cute young friend and invites her back to his house that he has yet to see.

This second episode continues more of the apparent theme of this season, "stand around and talk a lot". We're treated to many scenes of lengthy exposition and and very little action. We get drama from Sarah having to find a new house. We get drama from Sarah's old boyfriend having to explain to his wife what is going on and why they have to leave their home, (still don't fully understand that myself). We're treated to more of John's whining about wanting a life of his own and wishing he had a normal teen aged life. Just not very much to sink our teeth into.

Sarah and Reese latch on to the fact that they must do something within two days at the power plant, but they're not entirely sure what it is they're supposed to do. They know that this is a brand new plant and that it is going to be tested for the first time by an engineer named 'Greenway"; but do they stop him or do they let him do his thing? Thankfully the true reasoning is revealed by the end of the episode; it is a plot by the bots to sabotage the plant allowing them to install artificial intelligence as a back up to operations. There's a whole lot of unneeded talking sandwiched in between the scenes of interesting plot continuance which makes it a bit of a chore to get through the episode.

They continue to paint Sarah as a wishy-washy mom wanting to love her son and continue to mold him for his future role. There's no real resemblance to Linda Hamiltons tough as nails portrayal from the original films here. We catch glimpses towards the end as Lena Heady cut blocks a security guard while curb-stomping him for his gun, but there's too little of this excitement and too much of the weepy mom unsure how to deal with her troubled son.

Episode two still fails to take us back to what I enjoyed of the first season, but there are glimpses of the excitement that would make the show really great. If we they are given the luxury of a full season that will allow these side plots to develop, there's still hope. For christ sake though people, give us some more action and explosions! This is "The Terminator" for shit's sake!