The biggest complaint I used to have about Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles was the figure of John Connor. This was a sort of kind of huge problem, in that the show wants us to care about the figure that will one day lead the revolution against Skynet. To have such a great big hole of emo suck at that center of an ostensibly cool universe really held the show back. But now? Problem not quite solved, but definitely moving in the right direction.
Season 2 is definitely shaping up as one in which John takes those first steps towards his future self. As Morpheus said to Neo, there’s a difference between knowing the path and walking the path. The Season 1 John merely knew his path, cognizant of his future only as theory, not practice. As The Killers might say: he’s got soul, but he’s not a soldier. He has, however, got guilt over his first kill.
The way the show wove in the guilty John and Sarah both bear over the death of Sarkissian’s henchman from the end of Season 1 really went a long way in clarifying John’s slow, unsteady journey throughout the year. It’s as if that was in some way the first step in making the abstract concrete, the moment in which the future was indeed sealed for John Connor. And without any way to stop it, John has to live his life in between days of innocence and leadership. A sort of purgatory before hell.
While John lurches ever forward, Skynet itself took a breather of sorts, taunting its makers with a child-like joke so sophisticated only child psychologist Boyd Sherman could solve it. I will admit I saw the two plot points converging the second both the AI programmer and Sherman used the equivalent of flash cards in order to elicit responses from their subjects, but the notion of a human “raising” a computer stands in nice contrast with a computer raising a child. Quite the symmetry there.
Speaking of Robo-Mom, I’m glad my instincts about it taking over Weaver’s existence post helicopter crash came to fruition this week. Tonight’s study question: did her model cause the crash? More than likely, in that ZeiraCorp is the key to some faction of Skynet’s future plans. I say “some faction” because the Cameron-centric ep a few weeks ago insinuated that there was more than one mindset amongst the circuit-laden citizens of the future.
Meanwhile, Derek has issues: lady issues, in the form of a former fellow soldier gone AWOL. He owes her his life for helping prevent his suicide in the future, but those photos sprawled all over her floor bespeak mischief. If I may invoke The Matrix once again (and I can, in that this is my blog), I look at her and see Cipher, the human who would rather die painless through aiding the computer enemy versus experience a miserable life followed by a meaningless death.
In short, I’m glad that Terminator received a full season pickup, since each episode builds upon the last in a positive manner. I just pray such a pickup doesn’t interfere with the eventual launch of Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse. That might make Boob Tube Dude SMASH.