In the eleventh episode of the second season of\u00c2\u00a0The Sarah Connor Chronicles<\/i>, I cannot believe this show. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0The Sarah Connor Chronicles.<\/i><\/p>\n
Trigger Warning: For discussion of ableism, cancer
\n<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
I am just so thrilled that this show is willing to take storytelling risks like this. It makes this show feel refreshing and exciting. Plus, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just good writing! And good entertainment! I HAVE EMOTIONS!<\/p>\n
John \/ Riley<\/b><\/p>\n
What frustrates me most about this storyline \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean that as a criticism of the writing but as my reaction to the story itself \u00e2\u20ac\u201c is that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve\u00c2\u00a0repeatedly seen examples of John\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s need for a close friend to be honest with. And I bought completely into the notion that Riley\u00c2\u00a0was<\/i> that person for John! She seemed so perfect, despite that I also knew that their relationship couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t work in a world like John Connors. OH, HOW CLOSE TO THE TRUTH I WAS, AND YET\u00c2\u00a0HOW FAR AWAY<\/i>. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s agonizing to watch Riley reach out to John and provide him with the sort of companionship he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s looking for because what she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s doing is deceptive. I suspect there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s something genuine here, that Riley truly does like John, but it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t excuse the fact that her entire story is fabricated just so she can get close to him.<\/p>\n
What I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m worried about is the inevitable fallout. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s only going to be a matter of time before John finds out who she is, and then what? We see quite clearly in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Self Made Man\u00e2\u20ac\u009d how John reacts to bad situations, at least in his current state, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not pretty. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s prone to violence, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bottling up his anger, and he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s liable to truly hurt someone. Not that I think he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d actually hurt Riley, but she may set him off in a way that has terrible ramifications.<\/p>\n
BUT HE NEEDS A FRIEND. ARRRGGGGHHH IT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S SO HARD TO WATCH.<\/p>\n
Cameron<\/b><\/p>\n
Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s be real with ourselves, though: this is Cameron\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s episode, through and through. I can barely believe that the comment I made at the beginning of this episode TURNED INTO THE ACTUAL STORY. I think you\u00c2\u00a0might<\/i> be able to argue that what Cameron\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been doing while the Connors sleep is part of her mission in an abstract way. Gathering information about the world is a good thing; so is her attempt to gain a real friend. But I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what happened here, not entirely. I think that Cameron is honestly seeking some of this out for her own sake. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s self-interest, and not in a way that is entirely selfish.<\/p>\n
But I also don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to ignore the selfishness we\u00c2\u00a0do<\/i> see in her interactions with Eric. These scenes \u00e2\u20ac\u201c wonderfully acted by Summer Glau and Billy Lush \u00e2\u20ac\u201c are some of the most muted and powerful bits of all of\u00c2\u00a0The Sarah Connor Chronicles<\/i>. I admit that I find the idea of Cameron trying her best to be human to be a compelling one, and there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a lot of that to be found in this story. I was also surprised by this show giving us a character in a wheelchair, not making him a giant stereotype, acknowledging his limitations within an ableist world, and giving him a story that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all his own. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s rare. Awfully rare, I should say, and it shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be that way. But Eric isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t portrayed like most characters we see like him on television, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nice. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not saying it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s perfect representation (that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not my point to make), but I enjoyed seeing him get so much screen time.<\/p>\n
And lord, within their interactions we get A TIME TRAVELING MURDER MYSTERY, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s FUCKING INCREDIBLE, and I LOVE EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m even into how ambiguous they left Stark\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mission. When we discover that Stark was sent back in time to assassinate a California governor (PLEASE TELL ME IT WAS SCHWARZENEGGER L O L), we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re never told why. Does it matter, though? The mystery here reveals that Skynet FUCKED UP. They sent Stark\u00c2\u00a0to the wrong December 31.\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>So Stark, fully aware of what his mission is, plots to guarantee that the tower he uses for the assassination is built, and it involves an utterly ridiculous and complicated set of events started by an accidental fire that began with his arrival. Stark built himself into a wall so he could wait for December 31, 2010, the date of the assassination. HOLY SHIT.<\/p>\n
Yet I found myself even more interested in seeing Cameron\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s friendship than the murder mystery. IT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S SO COMPELLING. There are a ton of little signs that this really\u00c2\u00a0was<\/i> a friendship. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d clearly been hanging out for weeks at the very least and are comfortable enough with one another to talk casually. But I noticed that Cameron increasingly demonstrates her abilities without any hesitation, and\u00c2\u00a0that<\/i> isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t sensible. What I mean is that there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no reason, if she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s on a mission, to compromise her identity. But she does it\u00c2\u00a0repeatedly.\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>She blurts out the precise temperature; she picks him up when the elevator doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t go to the top floor; and then she callously informs him that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s got cancer again.<\/p>\n
That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s important because it demonstrates that Cameron still hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t figured out how to contextualize the information she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s received. She can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t understand what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s acceptable to say and do within human behavior, so she comes across as cruel. We know she doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t meant to be cruel, but Eric\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s reaction is what matters here. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s utterly destroyed by what she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s done. Does he leave his job so that he doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have to see Cameron again? Or is he off getting treatment? The show is deliberately ambiguous about this, and then we watch as Cameron immediately reads the situation and hands over Eric\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s donuts to the new overnight employee. Cameron\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still in a space where she does what she needs to in order to get exactly what she wants. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a core part of her, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s one of the biggest obstacles standing in her way. It seems like she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s\u00c2\u00a0trying<\/i> to be more human, you know? That seems important enough all by itself. But she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s got a long way to go.<\/p>\n
The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Self Made Man\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 eleventh episode of the second season of\u00c2\u00a0The Sarah Connor Chronicles, I cannot believe this show. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0The Sarah Connor Chronicles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[623],"tags":[624],"class_list":["post-4329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-sarah-connor-chronicles","tag-mark-watches-terminator"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4329\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\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":"