{"id":4374,"date":"2015-01-16T08:00:01","date_gmt":"2015-01-16T16:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=4374"},"modified":"2015-01-15T22:12:41","modified_gmt":"2015-01-16T06:12:41","slug":"mark-watches-the-sarah-connor-chronicles-s02e22-born-to-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2015\/01\/mark-watches-the-sarah-connor-chronicles-s02e22-born-to-run\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘The Sarah Connor Chronicles’: S02E22 – Born to Run"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the final episode of\u00c2\u00a0The Sarah Connor Chronicles<\/i>, the Connors discover the plans of Catherine Weaver and John Henry. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to finish\u00c2\u00a0The Sarah Connor Chronicles<\/i>.<\/p>\n

SO MUCH FOR GETTING CLOSURE, RIGHT?<\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not going to get over this, not only is this a spectacular finale for season two, but because it shows SO MUCH PROMISE for the third season that\u00c2\u00a0should<\/i> have happened. While I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m going to spend the rest of my life being furious that there isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t another episode of this show to watch, I do appreciate that the writers committed to an ending that ties up a lot of loose ends and introduces about a thousand more. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even know if they had a chance to re-purpose \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Born to Run\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as a series finale, but I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think that affects me all that much in terms of how I viewed this episode. It was a\u00c2\u00a0fantastic<\/i> story, one that openly demonstrates that these characters never truly get an ending. Within the\u00c2\u00a0Terminator<\/i> universe, John and Sarah Connor will always be fighting Skynet, and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Born to Run\u00e2\u20ac\u009d hints at what the next chapter will be.<\/p>\n

While crushing my heart into pieces, I should say.<\/p>\n

Agent Aulridge<\/b><\/p>\n

What a pleasant surprise to see Joshua Malina in this show! COULD YOU IMAGINE\u00c2\u00a0THAT<\/i> POTENTIAL, BY THE WAY? What if the third season was Auldridge, Ellison, and Sarah trying to fight Skynet in the past while John, Allison, Catherine, and Derek fight it in the future? Okay, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m going to need to stop doing shit like this, but seriously. Over the course of this episode, Aulridge realizes that the stories left in the wake of the Connors validate what Sarah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s always been saying. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s probably the quickest someone has ever come around to believing her, and I love that this is never taken away from us. I did worry that he might have been the Terminator sent by John\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153brother,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d but nope! Totally genuine and willing to help Sarah in the fight against Skynet. Unsurprisingly, though, Sarah doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t bite; part of me wonders if Aulridge\u00c2\u00a0said<\/i> he believed her just to get her to break down, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not sure that theory sticks. When he tells her about Danny Dyson, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s out of interest in the case, isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t it? (I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m so angry we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get to see what happened to Danny, NOT FAIR.)<\/p>\n

Run<\/b><\/p>\n

There are a lot of emotional moments within this finale, but few of them hit as hard as the message passed along by Sarah through both Father Bonilla and the (previously!) silent girl from last season. I honestly bought into the notion that Sarah had found a weakness in the prison and was going to tell John how to exploit it. But that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not who Sarah is, is she? Sarah always puts her son first, above all else, and it makes perfect sense that she would recognize that her vulnerability in that prison was a huge risk to John\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s life.<\/p>\n

So she told them to leave her behind.<\/p>\n

This whole series has been so rooted in Sarah and John\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s experience\u00c2\u00a0together<\/i> that I felt immediately sad at the thought of John separating from her and going his own way. (Which is now doubly devastating because THAT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S WHAT HAPPENS AT THE END OF THE EPISODE.) They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re inseparable in my mind. However, Sarah would always be willing to do anything to save her son, and if that meant suffering alone in prison (again!), she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d do it. Plus, I had no reason to believe that they\u00c2\u00a0would<\/i> go back for her. John defers to his mom\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s judgment frequently, and you could tell that he was going to obey her. That is, until one little twist.<\/p>\n

Will You Join Us?<\/b><\/p>\n

NOT ASHAMED OF HOW LOUD I YELLED WHEN ELLISON SAID THIS. My gods,\u00c2\u00a0look at Cameron<\/i>\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s face<\/i>. She knew\u00c2\u00a0exactly<\/i> who Catherine Weaver was in that moment, and she knew that this was going\u00c2\u00a0way<\/i> over John\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s head. He had no idea what the stakes were. I think that this undoubtedly proves that Catherine Weaver (and those Terminators in the oil rig) are all part of some third party, and that Catherine has spent this entire series preparing to join the Resistance. Did she say no in the future because her side weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t\u00c2\u00a0ready<\/i>? How did this divergence even happen? The show is deliberately vague on the details, which is both a lot of fun and utterly unfair. (Why, FOX, do we repeatedly trust you to air\u00c2\u00a0any<\/i> television show?) But it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clear that Catherine knew her time had come. Look how callous she is about\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 well, everything.<\/p>\n

The same goes for John Henry, who watched Cameron rescue Sarah Connor and\u00c2\u00a0purposely helped \u00c2\u00a0her<\/i>. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no ambiguity here, and there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no ambiguity when he asks Cameron to join him. Cameron ends up\u00c2\u00a0giving up her chip<\/i> so that John Henry can save humanity. BY TRAVELING THROUGH TIME, MIND YOU. No big deal, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just a TIME DISPLACEMENT MACHINE in John Henry\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s room. NO BIG DEAL. How was this show expecting me to deal with all of this on top of the return of the Kaliba drone, which tries to destroy ZeiraCorp, forcing Catherine Weaver to reveal that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a Terminator? LIKE??? I AM BUT A MAN,\u00c2\u00a0SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES<\/i>. I found the final act of this episode to be exhilarating; it was one huge plot twist after another, complete with the emotional weight that has made this journey such a satisfying one. We get to see (albeit briefly) Ellison\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s reaction to Catherine\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s identity; we get to see John make an agonizing choice between Cameron and his mother; we get to see Ellison refuse to travel to the future.<\/p>\n

Again, lots of potential, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m being honest here: the sight of John Connor meeting Derek for the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153first\u00e2\u20ac\u009d time was the least okay thing about this episode. Oh, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s great, don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get me wrong, but it only made me crave so much more from this show, knowing that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll never get another episode. John finally gets to meet his father. He finally gets to meet Allison Young. THIS IS THE MOMENT WHERE HE TRANSFORMS INTO\u00c2\u00a0THE<\/i> JOHN CONNOR, AND IT EXPLAINS SO MUCH OF THE SERIES. But it also means that\u00c2\u00a0The Sarah Connor Chronicles\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>ends with a rather distressing cliffhanger, one that isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t resolved. (I have no idea what timeline\u00c2\u00a0Terminator: Salvation\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>followed.) It sucks. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know how else to express such a simple statement. I am so impressed by what this show was able to do. From the writing to the acting, this was probably the most surprised I was by a show for Mark Watches. Yes, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m quite excited for\u00c2\u00a0Leverage<\/i>, but I think that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m genuinely sad that this is over. I wanted so much more from a show that already gave me more than I ever knew I wanted.<\/p>\n

Thank y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all for getting me to watch this, seriously. As scheduled, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll begin\u00c2\u00a0Leverage<\/i> on Monday morning! This also means that there is currently nothing scheduled for Double Features next. TIME FOR A SURPRISE ANNOUNCEMENT. After finishing\u00c2\u00a0Leverage<\/em>, I will be tackling the remainder of\u00c2\u00a0The Legend of Korra<\/em>, and then I will also watch\/review Series 8 of\u00c2\u00a0Doctor Who<\/em>. Following that, I will watch all 13 episodes of Kings<\/em>!\u00c2\u00a0COMMISSION AWAY, MY FRIENDS. (Note: Individual episodes of\u00c2\u00a0Korra<\/em>\u00c2\u00a0do not count double for a commission. They are still one episode per commission.)<\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Born to Run\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":"