{"id":4327,"date":"2014-12-30T08:00:32","date_gmt":"2014-12-30T16:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=4327"},"modified":"2014-12-18T20:49:08","modified_gmt":"2014-12-19T04:49:08","slug":"mark-watches-the-sarah-connor-chronicles-s02e09-complications","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2014\/12\/mark-watches-the-sarah-connor-chronicles-s02e09-complications\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘The Sarah Connor Chronicles’: S02E09 – Complications"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the ninth episode of the second season of\u00c2\u00a0The Sarah Connor Chronicles<\/i>, Cromartie disappears, Sarah seeks help, and Derek and Jesse deal with a possible enemy from the future. 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, nonconsensual medical procedures<\/b>.<\/p>\n

Holy shit, this show continues to be FANTASTIC. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still heavily serialized, it still finds ways to surprise me, and it still builds off existing mythology in increasingly fascinating ways. Look, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s simply not what I expected at all, point blank. LET\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S TALK.<\/p>\n

Cameron \/ John<\/b><\/p>\n

Hey, look, I was sort of prepared for something! Given what I do, I always feel a bit pleased when I pick up on something that becomes part of the story. Usually, I miss a lot of little things that later mean something significant. But I noticed how\u00c2\u00a0strange<\/i> Cameron has been lately in terms of her adaptation, and now it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been addressed a lot more openly than I expected. While she and John head back to Mexico (and then to Ellison\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s house), John observes Cameron\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s exploration of her senses. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s easy for him to claim that she can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t\u00c2\u00a0feel<\/i> anything, but she openly corrects him. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not quite how she works. But I understand\u00c2\u00a0why<\/i> John thinks the way he does. His experience tells him that these machines calculate the world around them, not\u00c2\u00a0sense<\/i> them. How can they feel anything that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s remotely human?<\/p>\n

I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know precisely how feeling and emotion work for Cameron, as the show hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t quite defined this experience for her. But as I watch her adapt to life with the Connors, I see telltale signs that\u00c2\u00a0something<\/i> is happening. There are tiny smirks or reactions that don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have any role in a mission, that are her\u00c2\u00a0own<\/i> entirely. Here, she struggles to understand empathy, using the turtle that Sarah saved as an example. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s one thing the machines don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t understand; they are programmed to behave within the parameters of a mission, not in the service of some form of morality. She does try, though. Unfortunately, her moment of empathy comes right after she nearly kills Ellison, and it involves her turning him off his back as if he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nothing but a turtle. Oh, Cameron. YOU TRIED, and yet, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re still so far.<\/p>\n

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

Hey, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s yet another episode where Sarah Connor crushes my heart. As a criminally and perpetually vulnerable person, I have a soft spot for stories that allow characters \u00e2\u20ac\u201c particularly those typecast as badasses or heroes \u00e2\u20ac\u201c to express their own vulnerabilities. I think what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so heartbreaking about watching Sarah try to cope with her own dreams is the stunning loneliness of it all. If the last episode showed us that John\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s life was lonely and solitary, this one reminds us that Sarah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s is, too. Like John, she has no one she can be honest with. Her life is a constant network of secrets that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s got to keep hidden from the world. So when she yearns for some sort of catharsis within her own mind, who can she turn to? I imagine it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s awkward to turn to her son after recent events; Derek is barely around now that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s spending so much time with Jesse. (When is he going to introduce her to the Connors???) Cameron is\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 well, Cameron. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t foresee Sarah turning to her own Terminator as a personal therapist.<\/p>\n

And yet, when she goes to Dr. Sherman (I WAS SO GLAD TO SEE HIM BACK), she discovers a problem that John had in the previous episode: she can never truly be honest with him, and that means she can never truly get close in any meaningful way. Even if he is a therapist and what she tells him\u00c2\u00a0is<\/i> confidential, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no way she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d violate her own personal code. Unfortunately, she can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even explain\u00c2\u00a0that<\/i> to Dr. Sherman. And he gets frustrated! As he should! He knows that Sarah is lying to him, and he knows that he can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get anywhere with her unless she tells the truth. But I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll ever relent on this, which sucks because SARAH CLEARLY NEEDS SOMEONE TO TALK TO.<\/p>\n

And then she talks to John, and\u00c2\u00a0I have melted from emotions.\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>That scene contains perhaps the most honest moment between the two of them, and for the Connors? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s remarkably sweet. Given John\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s argument with her a couple days earlier, I think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s significant that he tells her that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not a murderer, just after telling her that she\u00c2\u00a0should<\/i> have been one. In the Connor household, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s about as close to an apology as we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll see.<\/p>\n

SO WHAT DO THE THREE DOTS MEAN, AND WHAT DO THEY HAVE TO DO WITH GREENWAY???<\/p>\n

Charles Fischer<\/b><\/p>\n

This would have been an entertaining plot by itself, but I love the reveal at the end of this episode that gives us concrete evidence that the work the Resistance is doing in the past is changing the future. Because of the nature of time travel, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s now entirely possible that Jesse and Derek are from different timelines in the future. But was\u00c2\u00a0this<\/i> act a failure? Did Jesse and Derek guarantee that Judgment Day would happen by sparing Charles Fischer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s life?<\/p>\n

This plot started off relatively simple \u00e2\u20ac\u201c perhaps trope-filled \u00e2\u20ac\u201c but rapidly progressed to a point that brought out a great deal of development for both Jesse\u00c2\u00a0and<\/i> Derek. I liked that this examined whether or not these two were motivated solely by their own emotions towards Fischer. And was that a good or a bad thing? I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know that there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an answer here. We spend so much time wondering whether Jesse is telling the truth, only to find out that she was telling\u00c2\u00a0her<\/i> version of the truth. Her passion for revenge was justified, at least in her eyes, because Fischer had been responsible for both a betrayal of humanity and the torture of her lover. Because Derek doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t remember something that didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t happen to him, he has to grapple with the fear that Jesse has the wrong man.<\/p>\n

And Charles Fischer himself answers my question about whether or not Skynet has humans that work for them. Jesus, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sent back in time TO SABOTAGE HOMELAND SECURITY, using his\u00c2\u00a0actual<\/i> identity to implicate the 2007 version of Charles Fischer, which gets Fischer locked up, which guarantees that he survives judgment day, which\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 oh lord, PREDESTINATION PARADOXES HURT MY BRAIN SO MUCH.<\/p>\n

Catherine Weaver<\/b><\/p>\n

NO NO NO, ELLISON, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE. YOU ARE GIVING A TERMINATOR\u00c2\u00a0TO ANOTHER TERMINATOR<\/i>. NO, THIS IS TERRIBLE. THIS IS SO TERRIBLE. OH MY GOD.<\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Complications\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":"