{"id":4280,"date":"2014-12-11T08:00:15","date_gmt":"2014-12-11T16:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=4280"},"modified":"2014-12-02T15:24:49","modified_gmt":"2014-12-02T23:24:49","slug":"mark-watches-the-sarah-connor-chronicles-s01e04-heavy-metal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2014\/12\/mark-watches-the-sarah-connor-chronicles-s01e04-heavy-metal\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘The Sarah Connor Chronicles’: S01E04 – Heavy Metal"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the fourth episode of the first season of\u00c2\u00a0The Sarah Connor Chronicles<\/i>, John feels confined by his new life, eager to do something substantive, and then EVERYTHING IS AWFUL. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0The Sarah Connor Chronicles<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m just sort of realizing that this show\u00c2\u00a0has<\/i> to be serialized for it to work, and the part of me that loves serials (EVERY PART OF ME, FOR THE RECORD) is happy that\u00c2\u00a0The Sarah Connor Chronicles\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>is the kind of show that is committed to a constant growth of its own mythology. We are learning more about the future and about the resistance, all while getting a chance to see how Sarah and John cope with their absurd life. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a story-of-the-week feel to these last three episodes, but they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not so self-contained that they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t serve the overarching plot of season one. Which is\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 well, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a lot going on here, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m thankful that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got a lot to worry about it. Seriously! I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know how this show could have 31 episodes, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m getting a fantastic sense of the potential of this narrative. So, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got two main plots at work here in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Heavy Metal,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d ALLOW ME TO DISCUSS THEM.<\/p>\n

Agent Ellison \/ Laszlo<\/b><\/p>\n

I get to say that Ellison is literally close to the answer to his \u00e2\u20ac\u0153case\u00e2\u20ac\u009d because HE LITERALLY IS. HE WAS STANDING RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE TERMINATOR AND HE HAS NO IDEA. I feel like I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got a good grasp on where Ellison\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s story is going. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s becoming increasingly frustrated by his colleagues, since none of them are interested in pursuing the murders. He knows that there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s something to the strange blood he keeps finding at all these crime scenes, and eventually, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to lead him to the truth, WHICH IS THAT SARAH CONNOR WAS RIGHT THE WHOLE TIME. What happens if we reach that point? Does he ally himself with the Connors? Does he fight them? I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see him as an antagonistic force anymore, you know? And I totally thought he\u00c2\u00a0would<\/i> be, given that he was so set on capturing her. So I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m absolutely interested in seeing where he goes next. HE\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S SO CLOSE.<\/p>\n

literally<\/i><\/p>\n

Getting Involved<\/b><\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m still uncomfortable that Jordon\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s suicide was used as character building for John Connor. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the basis for what John does in this episode, in addition to his desire to stop running from every possible confrontation. Now, I think this story shows us that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not that Sarah wants to flee at the first sign of trouble. Her purpose here is so drastically different from John\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s. She has to keep him alive, so when she realizes that the situation in the warehouse is not what they expected, she wants to pull away. She wants to assess the risk to them all! (So did Cameron.) But John doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t interpret this sort of behavior as sensible or necessary. He perceives it as the same pattern as always: things get dangerous, they all move again.<\/p>\n

So John Connor goes and gets himself locked in a truck with an armed guard.<\/p>\n

Seriously, this episode is just one absurdly tense moment in John Connor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s life after another. THERE ARE SO MANY GREAT SCENES OF TENSION IN \u00e2\u20ac\u0153HEAVY METAL.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I love the way that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re composed, since it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s like a giant letter to John Connor that says, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153STOP FUCKING EVERYTHING UP AND THINK FOR FIVE SECONDS, JOHN.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Which he does! He devises a way to knock out the guard, Mike, in the truck right when his cellphone nearly blows the whole thing. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s able to avoid the guards\u00c2\u00a0and<\/i> the other Terminator once they arrive to the correct depot, and he figures out a way to communicate with Sarah once he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s trapped inside the fallout shelter. The kid isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t a fool, and he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s crafty as hell. The problem is that he clearly is in over his head here. He had no way to know the scope of what the Terminator was tasked with doing way out in the Antelope Valley. (More on that in a second.) He just wanted to make a difference, to stop this horrible future he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s always told about.<\/p>\n

And I do get why this is so frustrating for him. He hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t had any sort of glimpse of what is to come, so he always hears about himself in the third person from people who knew him or know what he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to do. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s spent nearly all of his life being told that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be some great hero to the Resistance, and his actions in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Heavy Metal\u00e2\u20ac\u009d are an attempt to\u00c2\u00a0become<\/i> that person instead of always\u00c2\u00a0hearing<\/i> about him. In that sense, John\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s got a hellish identity crisis at work here because none of us ever get the chance to know how we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll turn out. John can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see how he got to Point B from his Point A, and it causes him stress and anxiety over it. He doubts himself all the time, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still working under the authority of his mother, and he doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t understand how anyone could see him as a leader.<\/p>\n

Yet, that is.<\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so intriguing to me that Sarah and Cameron have such different views of John Connor based on their time with him. We keep hearing that John hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t become the man Cameron knows\u00c2\u00a0yet<\/i>. Is there a clear moment in time when that happens? I would imagine that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a lot more gradual than that. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a process!<\/p>\n

Speaking of time, how is the timeline affected by what these characters did here? Cameron reveals that she was made in the terminator factory at Depot 37, and they just got rid of all the coltan that was supposed to be used to build the terminators in the future\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 so did Cameron throw away her own supplies? How does she still exist? Was she made from another stock? IMPORTANT QUESTIONS WITH MARK.<\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Heavy Metal\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.
\n– If you would like to support this website and keep Mark Does Stuff running, I’ve put up a detailed post explaining how you can!<\/a>
\n– Please check out the MarkDoesStuff.com<\/a>. All Mark Watches videos for past shows\/season are now archived there!
\n– My Master Schedule<\/a> is updated for the near and distant future for most projects, so please check it often.\u00c2\u00a0My next two Double Features are now in the schedule! I will be watching <\/b>The Sarah Connor Chronicles<\/i><\/b> and then <\/b>Leverage<\/i><\/b>. <\/b>Commission away!
\n– I will be at quite a few conventions and will be hosting events throughout 2015, so check my Tour Dates \/ Appearances page<\/a> often to see if I’m coming to your city!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"