{"id":4352,"date":"2015-01-08T08:00:04","date_gmt":"2015-01-08T16:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=4352"},"modified":"2014-12-30T15:22:48","modified_gmt":"2014-12-30T23:22:48","slug":"mark-watches-the-sarah-connor-chronicles-s02e16-some-must-watch-while-some-must-sleep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2015\/01\/mark-watches-the-sarah-connor-chronicles-s02e16-some-must-watch-while-some-must-sleep\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘The Sarah Connor Chronicles’: S02E16 – Some Must Watch, While Some Must Sleep"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the sixteenth episode of the second season of\u00c2\u00a0The Sarah Connor Chronicles<\/i>, I fucked up. I was so wrong. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0The Sarah Connor Chronicles<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

Trigger Warning: For nonconsensual drugging, torture.<\/b><\/p>\n

I honestly think that the best way for me to fully understand this is to watch it again. I completely fell for the massive misdirect of the narrative, which means I spent forty-odd minutes compiling all my criticism and thought on \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Some Must Watch, While Some Must Sleep\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and being UTTERLY FUCKING WRONG ABOUT EVERYTHING. I was so ready! I was so prepared to talk about how the dream sequences were Sarah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s way of working through her guilt over killing Ed Winston! I was so prepared to talk about how Sarah is at a point where her lack of self-care has made her a risk to those around her.\u00c2\u00a0I was so ready to talk about seeing Terminators where there were none.\u00c2\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

Clearly, this episode had different plans for me.<\/p>\n

The Dream<\/b><\/p>\n

So, everything in the sleep clinic is a dream, one that Sarah has while under the affect of the drugs that Ed Winston gave her. In hindsight, there are a few tells, namely in the way that each new twist manifests in Sarah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dreamworld. While both realities are heavy on paranoia, I think there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a whole lot more anxiety present in the sleep clinic scenes. They feed into a specific fear of Sarah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s: being unable to defend herself. The whole place is nightmare fuel for her since she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s incapacitated a great deal of time. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s at the whim of medical practitioners, many whom she can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t trust. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s away from her son, who doubts her and appears to be development more awkward feelings for Cameron. Hell, the entire reason she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s in the clinic is\u00c2\u00a0because<\/i> of John. Does Sarah worry that this is what John\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to eventually do to her? Then there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s another reference to cancer, and BY GODS, the entire story is designed with Sarah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fears. Every aspect of it!<\/p>\n

When Dana dies, for example, Sarah feels like she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s thrown into yet another battle with Skynet, one John is reluctant to believe, though he does come to her side eventually. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a surreal development, though, because this\u00c2\u00a0felt<\/i> like a murder mystery unconnected to the larger plot. Why? Why were we exploring this? (Of course, this is even more frustrating because all the dream sequences seem meaningless, too. If they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re a dream, how can we expect to be held in suspense by things that aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t actually happening? OH FUCK, I FELL FOR THIS SO HARD.) Why is Hector and his tattoo so important? Why does he talk so strangely? Why does Nurse Hobson seem so malicious? Was I\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>imagining this, or was it all because I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d gotten so used to untrustworthiness that I just defaulted to that with every new character?<\/p>\n

Even when Sarah and John discovered the computer equipment in the basement, it was entirely possible that this was a routine part of the facilities. What if there wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t anything malevolent about this? What if there was a perfectly reasonable explanation for this? Of course, now I see how this is a perfect parallel to her anxieties over the three dots. Sarah is terrified that she won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be believed by her own son. Worse, look at the eventual result of that: she and John are executed by a Terminator. This\u00c2\u00a0is<\/i> her worst nightmare, though it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s stretched out over an agonizing dream sequence that exploits all of her insecurities.<\/p>\n

WHICH MEANS THAT ALL OF THE SCENES OF \u00e2\u20ac\u0153REALITY\u00e2\u20ac\u009d ARE A MILLION TIMES MORE MESSED UP THAN I THOUGHT THEY WERE.<\/p>\n

Real Life<\/b><\/p>\n

Jesus, I spent the whole episode discounting everything I was watching. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153None of this is real!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I told myself. So who cares if Winston threatens her? It has no actual bearing on the plot aside from it being a narrative metaphor. Goddamn, it worked\u00c2\u00a0so well<\/i> as that, you know? Winston\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s line about killing Sarah now has a totally new meaning. HE WAS SERIOUS. Plus, practically every detail (but not all of them) was something that could have easily come from Sarah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s subconscious. There wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t much revealed here that was\u00c2\u00a0new<\/i>, you know? I was fascinated by the way that Sarah used Diana against Ed, exploiting his own guilt over his job and how it had torn his life apart. When he started talking about his company sending him to a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153private clinic,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I assumed that this was just an invention on Sarah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s part, something her mind came up with to explain why Winston was in front of her.<\/p>\n

And then reality and dream life blend in this terrible, confusing way, and I can see now how the dream world was a response to Sarah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s predicament. Winston\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s insistence that John will come to his mother is reflected in the dream, and we see how it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all a trap to get John Connor. It represents yet another fear of Sarah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s: that her son will care too much about her and get himself killed because of it. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s at this moment that she snaps out of the dream world, realizing what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s actually happening, and THEN SHE DOES A LOT OF GROSS THINGS TO ESCAPE AND IT HURTS. Oh my god,\u00c2\u00a0it was real<\/i>. And now Sarah has actually<\/i> killed him, and she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no closer to discovering who he truly worked for. Just\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 oh lord, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hard to wrap my head around what happened here, but I think I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got it? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s too much.\u00c2\u00a0This show is too much.<\/i><\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Some Must Watch, While Some Must Sleep\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 Double Feature is now on the schedule! I will be watching <\/b>Leverage<\/i><\/b>.<\/b>
\n– The 2015 Mark Does Stuff tour is being announced!!! Check my Tour Dates \/ Appearances page<\/a> often to see if I’m coming to your city!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"