In the second episode of the second season of\u00c2\u00a0The Sarah Connor Chronicles<\/i>, a Resistance fighter brings information, John tests his mother, and Ellison reaches out. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0The Sarah Connor Chronicles<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Trigger Warning: For discussion of cancer.<\/b><\/p>\n
This was a solid episode, one that was definitely already facing a challenge after following \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Samson & Delilah,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m pleased with the number of things that Natalie Chaidez\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s script sets up for future episodes. LET\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S DISCUSS.<\/p>\n
Ellison<\/b><\/p>\n
I do find myself wishing that Ellison had a larger part here, but at least we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got a major loose end tied up in this episode. Ellison is still very much a drifter. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s got his faith, and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s about it. He has no other purpose as of yet because he doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know what his purpose can be. So he goes, once again, to the only person he can actually talk to, and he does the only thing he can: he warns them about Cromartie, who is very much alive and may take out any of them to get to the Connors. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a sad parallel between what the Dixons go through and what the Connors go through: both of them are uprooted by the truth. John and Sarah are just more familiar with it. But it seems that once anyone learns about the horrible fate of the human race, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re destined to start running. Hell, even Ellison\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s life is already in shambles.<\/p>\n
It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s inevitable, isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t it?<\/p>\n
John Connor<\/b><\/p>\n
See,\u00c2\u00a0this<\/i> is the sort teenage rebellion I thought it would be interesting for the show to explore, given John\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s age. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s smarmy, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s difficult, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s rebelling against his mother, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s desperately trying to establish his own identity separate from her, and he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clinging to the slightest sense of normalcy he can find. The show ramps up the awkwardness the entire time, of course, since John has literally no experience here. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s never dated anyone; he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s never brought a friend over to spend time with him; he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s frightened of his mother\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s reaction to him defying her. (HOLY SHIT, CAN I\u00c2\u00a0EVER<\/i> RELATE TO THIS, SINCE THIS IS LITERALLY MY WHOLE EXPERIENCE AS A TEENAGER.)<\/p>\n
I like Riley, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d love to see more of her, but I need her to have her own story aside from helping John develop as a character. What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s her family like? Why does she behave as she does? What inspires her to skip class as often as she does? MORE RILEY, SHE\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S GREAT.<\/p>\n
The Resistance<\/b><\/p>\n
As distressing as the thought is, I liked that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Automatic for the People\u00e2\u20ac\u009d highly suggests the unending futility of the war against the machines. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clear that the Resistance fighter (WHERE DID HE COME FROM, WHY WAS HE SHOT BEFORE HE MADE IT THROUGH) brought with him a framing device for this season, one that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dearly exciting to me. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a lot of potential for\u00c2\u00a0both<\/i> serialization and self-contained stories in that list of names and places and dates, and I think this episode was almost like a teaser for that. Here, with limited information, Sarah, Cameron, and Derek must\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 well, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s part of the challenge. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re given a name, a location, and a target of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153two days.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s it. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s infuriatingly ambiguous, but Derek and Cameron at least have enough knowledge of future events (their past??? oh god time travel HELP) to understand the importance of the Serrano Point Nuclear Power Plant.<\/p>\n
I thought it was a little cheesy that Cameron and Sarah so easily got jobs within the power plant, and some of the details of their infiltration are shaky at best. But I was willing to overlook those because of the story that was ultimately told through these characters. Sarah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fear about her cancer is ignited after an employee retaliates against her snooping and she has to start wondering if\u00c2\u00a0this<\/i> moment \u00e2\u20ac\u201c her time in the power planet \u00e2\u20ac\u201c is what inevitably gives her cancer. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s such an agonizing story because, like their fight against Skynet, Sarah can never truly know if she can change the future or her own timeline. If she really dies in 2005, what does her trip to 2007 mean? She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s already\u00c2\u00a0passed<\/i> that year, so does that mean she changed the timeline? Or does it just mean her inevitable death will be moved 8 years in the future to 2013? Is she really a ticking time bomb, her own cancer inescapable? (Why is it that Cameron asks Sarah the same question? Cameron\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s behavior in this episode is WEIRD AS FUCK, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going on with her?)<\/p>\n
These questions are also important because of that UNREAL reveal at the end of the episode. Despite that they all saved the power planet from destruction\u00c2\u00a0and<\/i> closure, Catherine Weaver swoops in to control it all at the last minute. Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not even on their\u00c2\u00a0radar<\/i> at this point. SHE\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S NOT! They aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even looking for her, and she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s busy collecting all the pawns to create and control Skynet, and IT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S JUST SO UPSETTING. I mean, she looks fabulous while doing it, but STILL.\u00c2\u00a0STILL<\/i>.<\/p>\n
ARRRGGGGHHH.<\/p>\n
Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n
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