In the third episode of the first season of\u00c2\u00a0The Sarah Connor Chronicles<\/i>, Sarah must wrestle with a heavy moral choice when she locates a possible source for Skynet\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s technology, while John copes with his own restrictions in getting involved. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0The Sarah Connor Chronicles<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Trigger Warning: For discussion of suicide, bullying, and body horror\/gore<\/b>.<\/p>\n
I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m super confused about that one plot, but hopefully, a future episode sheds light on what the hell I just watched. LET\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S TALK ABOUT THINGS.<\/p>\n
Heroism<\/b><\/p>\n
There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an aspect to this largely bewildering plot that I can relate to more than most: keeping one\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s name out of the papers. That seems like a strange thing to be able to empathize with, but my mother was so paranoid about my birth family finding my brother and I that she used the same logic that Sarah and Cameron do here. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a complicated story that I still don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t quite understand after all these years, but I\u00c2\u00a0do<\/i> understand how jarring and upsetting it was to be pulled out of things and denied a chance to pursue certain interests because it might risk attention. I remember having to quit Mock Trial because of it. I remember my mother telling me not to do too well in Cross Country or Track because my name might get printed in meet results, and then we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d be found. I think this played a huge part in my desire to\u00c2\u00a0not<\/i> hide myself or limit myself, and LOOK AT ME NOW. My entire life is on the Internet,\u00c2\u00a0is anyone surprised<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Does \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Turk\u00e2\u20ac\u009d handle this issue well? I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not so certain, particularly since the apparatus the writers use to present us with John\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s moral conundrum is\u00c2\u00a0someone else<\/i>\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s suicide<\/i>. It feels crass, especially since the focus isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t on the girl who was bullied and killed herself, but John\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s development. Which isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t to say that we should not question how John should and should not get involved! I think that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a super important thing for this show to examine, but this? Like\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 what were those paintings??? Who is IDAN? Why make multiple of them and hint at something like this and then kill off the person who it directly affects? Oh god, there could be an answer to this in a future episode, but I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel like it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s unfair to say that John\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s story in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Turk\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is pretty confusing and abrupt, especially since most of the plot concerns someone else.<\/p>\n
Adaptation<\/b><\/p>\n
It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s definitely entertaining to see Cameron do her best to try and assimilate into human culture, so I do find it quite amusing that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s doing this within the framework of high school. Sometimes, she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s quick to adapt, but for the most part, when she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not dealing with anything directly related to protecting John Connor, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clear she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s out of her element. She observes and then tries to mimic, but she doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t understand context. She doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t understand how the slang word \u00e2\u20ac\u0153tight\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (WHICH I HADN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T HEARD IN LIKE 15 YEARS, OH MY GOD) works, nor does she comprehend gifts. But she got eyeshadow right!!! I WAS VERY EXCITED ABOUT THAT, SHE LOOKED STUNNING.<\/p>\n
Andy Goode<\/b><\/p>\n
IT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S TYLER FROM\u00c2\u00a0THE MIDDLEMAN<\/i>. Who\u00c2\u00a0isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t<\/i> on this show, I swear!<\/p>\n
Sarah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s plot over the course of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Turk\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is an ambitious one, especially since it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s framed by all the references to the creation of the atomic bomb. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also a direct parallel to the events of\u00c2\u00a0T2<\/i>, so I was pleased that Tarissa Dyson played a small but vital part in this. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a part of the fabric of this universe, and this story relates to her. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s that fear at the heart of Sarah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s moral struggle: Is it\u00c2\u00a0right<\/i> to kill someone for something they haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t done yet? While I was very pleased with how Dyson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s story unfolded in the film, I also knew that Andy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s could not unfold the same way. He couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t truly understood the stakes at hand because his work was so far from the end result. Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, he built a computer that could play chess. The Turk is\u00c2\u00a0not<\/i> at the same level that Dyson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s work was on, so I hardly think he would have understood how his computer would bring about the end of the world. So Sarah had to take this slowly; she had to determine if there really was a possibility that he was a key to Skynet\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s development, and then she had to make a choice. Could she really kill him over this, no matter how sweet he was?<\/p>\n
It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s agonizing to watch, and it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t help that Hines plays Andy as super charming. (Not that that negates the whole moral conundrum thing. If he was an asshole, that still doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t necessitate his murder.) Sarah constantly has this possible future in mind, and must weigh all her actions against it. Is it worth it to take the risk and eliminate Andy? Is she protecting John or simply destroying another life? IT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S TOO REAL, Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ALL. And this is the kind of shit Sarah has to think about\u00c2\u00a0all the time<\/i>. She makes a compromise at the end of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Turk,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d choosing to destroy Andy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s computer and burn down his house instead of killing him. But is that a permanent solution? And how can she ever know if what she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s done actually changed the future? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not like she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s in a video game and she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll suddenly get a notification that her mission was completed. This is an ambiguous, wide-reaching disaster, and she has to take it one step at a time.<\/p>\n
Detective Ellison<\/b><\/p>\n
Okay, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll echo what I said in the video for this: He is not going in the direction I thought he would. While he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still interested in solving these cases, his skepticism of Sarah Connor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s story is not at the forefront of his scenes. No, he seems even less interested in taking her down and far more interested in figuring out what the\u00c2\u00a0fuck<\/i> is going on. Every new crime scene confuses him further because none of the details ever match up. Still, he tries hard to stay in control, even though he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still a number of steps behind everyone else. I was super pleased to see Carlos and his crew on screen again, and that scene in Carlos\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s house was ELECTRIFYING. What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fascinating to me is that neither party \u00e2\u20ac\u201c not Carlos nor Ellison \u00e2\u20ac\u201c actually has any idea what they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve gotten wrapped up in. WILL THEY EVENTUALLY FIND OUT???<\/p>\n
The Terminator<\/b><\/p>\n
I think the easiest way to justify the scientist\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s behavior in this episode is to assume that he was so transfixed by the solution to his human-skin-growing experiments that he ignored all of the EXTREMELY OBVIOUS RED FLAGS that would have sent most of us running screaming from that Terminator\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s presence. For example: greeting the doctor by lifting him into the air by his throat. PROBABLY A RED FLAG, SIR. We didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see much intimidation beyond that, so, for the sake of discussion, let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s assume that was enough to convince the man to work with this stranger wearing filthy clothes covered in blood and a mask that obscures his entire face.<\/p>\n
That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a lot to assume, but SUCH IS LIFE. This episode not only shows us that\u00c2\u00a0Cromartie is still on the search for John Connor, but that he may have just gained the knowledge of how to grow human skin for future Terminators. Right??? He has the equations, he watched the doctor, he knows how it works, AND THIS CANNOT POSSIBLY END WELL. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also gross. SUPER GROSS.\u00c2\u00a0ENDLESSLY GROSS<\/i>. Everything is so messed up, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all.<\/p>\n
The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Turk\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can be downloaded here for $0.99<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n – Mark Does Stuff is now on Facebook<\/a>! Feel free to Like the page, which I’m running myself, for updates and SILLINESS. In the third episode of the first season of\u00c2\u00a0The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Sarah must wrestle with a heavy moral choice when she locates a possible source for Skynet\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s technology, while John copes with his own restrictions in getting involved. Intrigued? … Continue reading
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