Mark Watches ‘The Sarah Connor Chronicles’: S01E09 – What He Beheld

In the ninth and final episode of the first season of The Sarah Connor Chronicles, THAT WAS SO OVERWHELMING. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch The Sarah Connor Chronicles. 

Holy shit, that was INCREDIBLE. Both understated and over-the-top, this finale managed to feel like a proper close to this chapter of the story while hinting at A LOT OF THINGS. A LOT. INCLUDING ONE THING THAT I NEED TO YELL ABOUT BECAUSE I WANT SO DESPERATELY FOR IT TO BE REAL.

Let’s chat, y’all. I have things to say.

Protector

Y’all, I was retroactively destroyed by the cold open of this episode once Derek revealed who those kids were. But The Sarah Connor Chronicles is not content with merely invoking this emotional tool just for the sake of it, and that is what makes this such a fascinating choice. The entire Terminator franchise has to rely on time travel as a story premise, and while that leaves a lot of storytelling potential, it’s also easy to rely on cliches and archetypes if you’re not careful. There’s definitely a trope at work here in “What He Beheld” – a person visiting their past self – but it’s in the details that this show absolutely knocks it out of the park. I mean, if we’d just seen Derek watching himself and his brother, I think that would be powerful enough. I got the sense that he’d been constantly visiting that park to watch them, so it’s like he’s watching over them, just to ensure that they’re safe. (Within this world, that’s a reasonable thing to do. What if a Terminator travels back in time to kill Kyle Reese, thereby preventing Sarah from having John?)

But Derek doesn’t take John to that park in order to do something for himself. He gives John the first glimpse of his father ever. AND HIS FATHER IS A CHILD, AND IT’S WEIRD AS FUCK, AND IT DOESN’T MATTER BECAUSE JOHN IS SO OVERWHELMED BY THE OPPORTUNITY THAT HE STARTS CRYING AND I AM SO DONE WITH THIS SHOW.

Sarkissian

Oh my god, where is this going? In the pursuit of the Turk, the Connors unravel a complex conspiracy that I don’t think I understand at all, and I WANT TO KNOW SO MUCH MORE. It’s a brilliant move on the part of the show because it demonstrates to us that this isn’t going to be a singular story. At this point in the season, all we had to go after was the Turk, and now it’s clear that this is just the tip of the iceberg in… something else??? It was so jarring to finally meet “Sarkissian,” to see him openly manipulate Sarah and blackmail her, and to have the episode suggest that this man was connected to something much larger than himself. What’s so special about the Turk? Does someone else know what it becomes?

CAN WE ALSO TALK ABOUT CAMERON DURING THIS PLOT? I’m so endlessly entertained by this show sticking these violent, terrifying scenes within the framework of high school. In this case, one of “Sarkissian’s” men tries to keep an eye on John, but Cameron manages to stop him. Oh, right, by killing him and stuffing him in his own trunk. WHICH SHE THEN OPENLY ADMITS TO MORRIS, OH MY GOD, WHAT ARE YOU DOING. I guess they’re going to prom now? (Oh god, maybe not because of reasons.)

Anyway, this just gets so deeply complicated and uncomfortable and frightening. I mean, let’s just talk about the big one: Derek shooting “Sarkissian” in that alley right in front of that little girl, and we’re tricked into believing that she is his daughter, and WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME, SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES? And that’s not even the most shocking thing in this episode, y’all! Actually, given that Derek is the shooter, it’s not surprising that that specific character would do something so brutal. We’ve seen multiple times that Derek is willing to kill anyone he sees standing in the way of the greater mission, so while he does cover that girl’s eyes, he still executes her “father” with little hesitation. It’s terrifying! But that’s the dichotomy of Derek Reese that’s been presented to us in the show. He can be the man we saw when he showed John his father, and he can be the man who killed “Sarkissian” without a second thought.

So, I’ve had to put “Sarkissian” in quotes because that’s not actually who he is, and that’s because this show is super, super evil. The man they’d been interacting with the entire episode is… well, who knows? We never find out his name, and his hard drive shows another man with the name Sarkissian. ALSO, SURPRISE, THE OWNER OF THE INTERNET CAFE IS BEHIND PROBABLY EVERYTHING AND HE PUTS A BOMB UNDER THE CAR AND IT BLOWS UP WITH CAMERON INSIDE IT. WHY. WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME.

“Do I need to kill you now?”

I’m going to save some thoughts for predictions, but I need to talk about this. NOW. I loved that we got to see Carlos and his gang again, though I’m sad that most of them are now dead. (What about Carlos himself?) I wish the show would name the young Latina woman who keeps showing up, but HOLY SHIT. GREAT. GREAT. Her silence allows her to secretly follow “Sarkissian,” and that’s how she tells the Connors where he is. But after this woman helps them, Cameron asks her, “Do I need to kill you now?” Which seemed really, really, really strange, given the circumstances. This person had just led them to “Sarkissian’s” hideout and nothing more. It’s not like she learned anything about the Terminators or Skynet.

Oh god, y’all. Y’ALL. WHAT IF THIS GIRL IS ALSO A TERMINATOR. WHAT IF SHE IS AN OPERATIVE. WHAT IF.

That’s probably bogus, but whatever, it’s a great idea, I LOVE IT, I just want her and Cameron to have their own show. I WANT IT.

Ellison

I can’t. I CAN’T. There is just so much brilliance in what the writers choose to do with his plot, and I am so thrilled he’s still alive because THERE IS SO MUCH POTENTIAL. Like, where do I start??? How about with Ellison visiting Charley and basically telling him that he believes Sarah Connor? This man’s whole life has been upturned by recent events, so I saw this as a desperate grab for stability. Ellison cannot keep this whole world to himself anymore, and so he goes to the only person who might have a connection to Sarah Connor. He knows she’s alive now, and he knows that she wasn’t lying about Skynet. Of course, the meeting doesn’t quite go as he expected, since Charley isn’t about to just hand over Sarah to someone who might believe her.

But from meeting Charley, Ellison gets a name: Kester. This is how this show builds the inevitable confrontation between Cromartie and Ellison. Once Ellison has the name, we know it’s only a matter of time before he connects it to Laszlo, and it’s only a matter of time before this all starts to make sense to him. Even then, I expected something different. As the FBI agents began to converge on Kester’s place, I assumed that Kester would have escaped, slipped out of a window and chosen a less confrontational option than one that would get so much attention. But I even commented in the last episode’s video that Kester was getting more and more bold, and I’D FORGOTTEN I’D SAID THAT.

I think it was absolutely monumental that this show chose to show us the ramifications of this raid by sticking a camera in the pool and merely showing us the horrible aftermath. It leaves our imaginations running wild, and it’s about a million times more horrifying than if we’d actually seen everyone, including Greta Simpson, die at Cromartie’s hand. (It reminded me of a certain scene in the original version of Let The Right One In, which I highly, highly, HIGHLY recommend.) All we see is body after bloody body plunge into that pool, all murdered by Cromartie in a manner of minutes.

All but Ellison, who is spared for… what? Why keep him alive? As witness to the carnage? The man ABSOLUTELY knows Terminators are real now, so why keep him around? I’M SCARED.

This season was brief, but it packed a hell of a punch. I can’t wait for season two.

The video for “What He Beheld” can be downloaded here for $0.99.

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