In the eighteenth episode of the second season of\u00c2\u00a0The Sarah Connor Chronicles<\/i>, the group begins to turn against Cameron, and Jesse reflects on her role in the war against Skynet. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0The Sarah Connor Chronicles<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Trigger Warning: For discussion of death\/dead bodies, and grief.<\/b><\/p>\n
Everything is so messed up SO MESSED UP.<\/p>\n
John Henry<\/b><\/p>\n
HOW DOES THIS SHOW CONTINUALLY DRAW OUT THE TENSION IN EVERY SCENE WITH JOHN HENRY IN IT? WHY DOES CATHERINE WEAVER PERPETUALLY TERRIFY ME?\u00c2\u00a0IS ELLISON GOING TO LEARN THE SECRET JOHN HENRY IS KEEPING FROM HIM???<\/i><\/p>\n
I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m just so into this story, and there are definitely times when I wish the writers would focus on it a little more. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re so close to the finale, and the main characters have never figured out how much influence Catherine Weaver\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s had on events. (Which is also to the credit of the writers; we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve managed to have\u00c2\u00a0so many<\/i> interesting and exciting stories over the course of these last 27 episodes without the two major storylines ever intersecting in a big way.) But it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just so satisfying to see Ellison grapple with the monumental task of teaching John Henry ethics. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m now convinced that Catherine purposely ignored her daughter\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s request to play and hide-and-seek, all so that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d wander off and eventually find John Henry. Catherine is just so\u00c2\u00a0giddy<\/i> throughout the scenes with Henry, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll never be comfortable to watch. You can tell that she has no real concern for Savannah and is instead fully captivated by the ways in which John Henry is growing.<\/p>\n
But why?<\/i> I still don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t understand this! If John Henry is truly blossoming a conscience, then what role does he play in Skynet\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s future? Why would Skynet need a moral machine? I DON\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T GET IT. At this point, I also think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just a matter of time before John Henry spoils Catherine\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s plan, which would inevitably lead to some sort of confrontation between Ellison and her. Ellison teaches John Henry the negative ramifications of keeping secrets, and so I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m guessing he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll realize that there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a risk in keeping Catherine Weaver\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s secret.<\/p>\n
And I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll explode when that happens, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. THIS SHOW IS SO TENSE.<\/p>\n
Jesse<\/b><\/p>\n
I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll say this: I appreciate the emotional complexity of Jesse as a character. Stephanie Jacobsen is a gift here, able to play Jesse in\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 what? Two timelines? Or is this the Jesse we know in the current timeline? I still haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t figured out which version we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re seeing, though I feel like this might explain why she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s on the mission she is on. Clearly, something happened to her in 2027 that would motivate her to be as callous and heinous towards Riley. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not to say anything in her past would justify the extended abuse and manipulation of Riley. It doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t work that way. But even in the few glimpses of the Jesse we get in 2027, she feels different. Less cold. More willing to trust.\u00c2\u00a0What happened?<\/i> Why does she trust Queeg so much, but now despises Cameron? (Shout out to Chad Coleman, who is a phenomenal actor, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. His work on\u00c2\u00a0The Wire<\/i> is an EXPERIENCE.)\u00c2\u00a0What<\/i>\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s in the box???<\/i> What was so important that John Connor would send his fellow Resistance fighters RIGHT INTO THE HANDS OF THREE TERMINATORS??? (Is that the same model that we saw in the torture sequence last season???)<\/p>\n
I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m a mess.\u00c2\u00a0I<\/i>\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m a mess<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Cameron<\/b><\/p>\n
The bulk of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Today is the Day, Part I\u00e2\u20ac\u009d covers the inevitable development post-Riley\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s death: everyone suspects that Cameron executed Riley because she posed a threat. Goddamn it, I knew<\/i> it! Jesse\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s manipulation is so layered, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s terrifying to think how far she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s gone to cover her tracks. She sowed discontent in the Connors, played Riley so that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d do exactly what she needed, and then she gets in a fight to cover the injuries she got from her spat with Riley. By the end of this episode, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m left wondering if she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pulled it all off, and it certainly looks like that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the case.<\/p>\n
It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s unfortunate, then, that all the tiny things that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s have unsettled everyone about Cameron are now being used against her. While the future John Connor may have indeed instructed Cameron to save parts for repairs, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no way she can prove that. So she ends up looking like a liar. The show had already established that Cameron could lie to John Connor, and now it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s proven to be a\u00c2\u00a0disaster<\/i>. Of course, Sarah can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ever discount any threat posed to her son; she\u00c2\u00a0has<\/i> to believe them all. That makes Cameron\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s behavior suspicious\u00c2\u00a0all<\/i> of the time, and I feel like Sarah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s on a dangerous precipice here. I would not be surprised if Sarah finally took out Cameron in order to protect John. That would fulfill Jesse\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mission, but hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t it\u00c2\u00a0also<\/i> been established that Jesse is from a different timeline, one that ultimately doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t come to fruition? Time travel,\u00c2\u00a0you hurt my brain<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Even if there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s high stakes at hand, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Today is the Day, Part I\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is still grounded in the sort of emotional exploration that makes this show so compelling to watch. John\u00c2\u00a0is terribly conflicted by what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s happened. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s heartbroken that Riley is dead, and he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s probably blaming himself for her death, too. So when Cameron takes it upon herself to \u00e2\u20ac\u201c more or less \u00e2\u20ac\u201c troll John in front of Riley\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s foster father, all so that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll believe she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still alive, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s particularly gutting for John. Did she do this out of a need to convince him not to go to the police? Or was that Cameron\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s way of telling John that she really\u00c2\u00a0did<\/i> love him? That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s left unsaid, but it was obvious that John was DEVASTATED by what Cameron did to him.<\/p>\n
Gods, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, that scene at the end with her body in the morgue is just so\u00c2\u00a0awful<\/i>. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s raw, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s uncomfortable, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a perfect demonstration of the sort of life John will eventually have to live: a lonely one. As Cameron says, everyone \u00e2\u20ac\u201c including John himself \u00e2\u20ac\u201c is a risk to John Connor. There are an innumerable number of factors that could lead to his demise, and he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll never get a chance to outlast them. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a never-ending battle complicated by time travel. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a life that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll proudly charge into at one point, but we still haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seen\u00c2\u00a0how<\/i> that decision comes about. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still on the precipice himself, and we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know if Jesse\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s interference has irrevocably changed the timeline.\u00c2\u00a0For the worse<\/i>.<\/p>\n
WHAT AN UNFAIR CLIFFHANGER. Oh god, I need more of this show, which makes me sad because there are only four more of these left. \ud83d\ude41<\/p>\n
The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Today is the Day, Part I\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 eighteenth episode of the second season of\u00c2\u00a0The Sarah Connor Chronicles, the group begins to turn against Cameron, and Jesse reflects on her role in the war against Skynet. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0The Sarah Connor … Continue reading
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