{"id":4316,"date":"2014-12-23T08:00:05","date_gmt":"2014-12-23T16:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=4316"},"modified":"2015-01-01T11:11:14","modified_gmt":"2015-01-01T19:11:14","slug":"mark-watches-the-sarah-connor-chronicles-s02e04-allison-from-palmdale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2014\/12\/mark-watches-the-sarah-connor-chronicles-s02e04-allison-from-palmdale\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘The Sarah Connor Chronicles’: S02E04 – Allison from Palmdale"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the fourth episode of the second season of\u00c2\u00a0The Sarah Connor Chronicles<\/i>, I am destroyed. How is Summer Glau real? H E L P. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0The Sarah Connor Chronicles<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Trigger Warning: For discussion of torture<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Seriously, Summer Glau is a gift.<\/p>\n

Sarah \/ Kacy<\/b><\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m thankful that the show gave so much space to the Cameron\/Allison plotline because REASONS, but there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s another part of it that works incredibly well. Sarah Connor is completely out of the action, but her storyline is still incredible. While Cameron reflects on her past life, Sarah\u00c2\u00a0thinks back to her own experiencing raising John. This is done through Kacy, who is BEAUTIFULLY given her own story within this show. And fuck, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m so thankful that this is the type of show that cares about its secondary characters like this. Kacy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s anxieties over raising her unborn son are legitimate, given that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s unsure if she wants to raise him with a father who is also a police officer. Does she want her son to be in an environment that might be prone to violence? Which is TOO REAL for Sarah, since that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s precisely the kind of world that John grew up in, and\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 well, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not too bad. But she can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t exactly tell Kacy\u00c2\u00a0that<\/i>, you know?<\/p>\n

So what\u00c2\u00a0does<\/i> she tell Kacy? What sort of advice does she give? I thought it was incredibly empowering that Sarah made a point to tell Kacy that she survived raising a child all by herself. Whatever Kacy chooses to do \u00e2\u20ac\u201c raise her son with Trevor or not \u00e2\u20ac\u201c she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s got the power to do it alone. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s such a rad message for this show, and honestly? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pretty rare for a mainstream American show to say that you\u00c2\u00a0don<\/i>\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t<\/i> need two parents or a father to raise a child.<\/p>\n

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

WHAT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S REAL? WHAT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S FAKE? WHO IS A MACHINE AND WHO ISN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T? So, that helicopter crash was real? Is that the point where Catherine Weaver became a Terminator? But what if her entire history \u00e2\u20ac\u201c including the crash \u00e2\u20ac\u201c is fake? BUT IF THAT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S THE CASE,\u00c2\u00a0WHO THE FUCK IS THAT CHILD?<\/i><\/p>\n

I think that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s entirely possible that Savannah is real, and that her mother is simply an imposter at this point. My guess? That helicopter crash is the moment when the Terminator decided to infiltrate ZeiraCorp. But I still don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t understand\u00c2\u00a0why<\/i>. This doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make a bit of sense to me because\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 what is she doing here? Why test Ellison like this? What does he have that she needs from him??? That has to be the explanation for this or else she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d ignore him or dispose of him. She wants something she can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get to, and Ellison is how she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll get it.<\/p>\n

I was surprised by the revelation that Ellison had once been married. What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s with this entire episode being an unending series of depressing histories? Good lord.<\/p>\n

Allison from Palmdale<\/b><\/p>\n

You know, I\u00c2\u00a0knew<\/i> from this franchise that Terminators \u00e2\u20ac\u201c at least those tasked with infiltrating human ranks \u00e2\u20ac\u201c were all once people, and yet? It never once crossed my mind that Cameron had once been a human. Well\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 okay, technically, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not true. They were always separate entities, but Cameron\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153flesh\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is based entirely off of a real person, as was her voice and some of her behavior. Plus, Cameron had to be programmed in a way to best replicate humans, so why not base that off her original self? There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a lot of worldbuilding accomplished by Cameron\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s flashbacks that helps explain this process, from the way the Terminators study humans to the horrible ways in which they torment them. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s unsettling to watch for a number of reasons that are super obvious (HUMANS IN CAGES, WHAT THE FUCK), but one that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s never going to\u00c2\u00a0stop<\/i> being unnerving:<\/p>\n

Seeing Allison.<\/p>\n

There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no way that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Allison from Palmdale\u00e2\u20ac\u009d works with an actress who isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t on Summer Glau\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s level. After spending twelve episodes with the emotionless and cold Cameron, we see how Glau can stretch her range to portray the fierce and terrified Allison Young, both in the future and in her interactions with Jody. We don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ever truly find out what caused the glitch that caused her to forget who she was, but Cameron reverts to the earliest memory she has, which is all of Allison. (Oh my god, that means that voice we heard in the early interrogation scenes\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6\u00c2\u00a0that<\/i>\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Cameron\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s original voice<\/i>.) While she latches on to Jody in present times, we see how Allison is desperate to escape the hellish nightmare that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s trapped in. All of this is paralleled with Cameron\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s therapy sessions with the halfway home\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s social worker, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m so messed up. What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so fucked up about this is that Cameron is merely channeling Allison, and all of this information she learned was from torture. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s how she was able to access those emotions to use them in the present time, AND IT HURTS MY HEART TO THINK ABOUT THIS. Allison was a resilient young woman dedicated to John Connor and fiercely courageous. Is\u00c2\u00a0this<\/i> why Derek hates Cameron so much? Did he know the real Allison???<\/p>\n

Regardless, there was no way for this to end well. Cameron was not Allison and she could never be her. Was it fascinating to watch her bond with Jody? Of course it was! And it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the most capacity for emotional depth that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve\u00c2\u00a0ever<\/i> seen in Cameron, but\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not real, is it? I guess that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Allison from Palmdale\u00e2\u20ac\u009d wants us to think about. There are moments where Cameron, in her glitch state, evokes an entirely human persona. Is there something here or is this just\u00c2\u00a0really<\/i> good programming? At what point did John Connor get a hold of Cameron and re-program her from what we see here? God, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to mess me up forever, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. Cameron killed the person she was based off of. And she nearly killed Jody for lying to her, too! (And for the record, I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even count how many people I met while living in Los Angeles who were just like Jody: pretending to be poor while actually being upper middle class\/upper class. THEY\u00e2\u20ac\u2122RE EVERYWHERE, OH MY GOD.)<\/p>\n

If we accept that Cameron was always programmed to despise humans, that she was part of Skynet\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s domination, then what the\u00c2\u00a0hell<\/i> was that moment where she claimed that she was part of a faction that wanted peace? Was that a technique to throw Allison off? To gain her trust? WHAT WAS THAT? Look, Cameron hates lies\u00c2\u00a0and lies all the time<\/i>. Was she lying to Allison? She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s definitely lying to John at the end of the episode, and we know she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lied plenty of times before. So where does her programming start and where does it end?<\/p>\n

Summer Glau for\u00c2\u00a0all the awards<\/i>, by the way.<\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Allison from Palmdale\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":"