Well we finally made it to the end of Season 2 of Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles and of course we are unsure if there will be a Third Season. However what a doozy of a Season it has been and Born to Run written by series Creator Josh Friedman, was one heck of a capper.
Everything hinges together nicely but my brain still feels like it was put into a blender. Pieces that were brought into play in the finale were set up long in advance as far back in fact as The Demon Hand. Actually as far back one could say as Dungeons and Dragons.
In Dungeons and Dragons when Derek turns to face John in the Time Displacement Chamber the silhouette is clearly that of a Younger or Present Day John. And in The Demon Hand we have the exchange between John and Sarah where they exchange “I will always find you’s”.
And in Season 2 in Allison From Palmdale we learn of the Faction of Machines that wants peace. And John wants to join with them we find out in the Two Parter Today is the Day, a John we must assume is either not there…or just hasn’t arrived there from our perspective. The T-1001 awoken early, and who gives the no message to Jesse is revealed to be Catherine Weaver. And that leads us back into discussion of the finale itself.
This episode was all about Sacrifice.
On all fronts.
Sarah sacrifices John a number of times by saying he’s already dead.
The good Father sacrifices his Sanity and perhaps his honesty to help Sarah to contact John and Cameron.
Cameron sacrifices the illusion of her humanity to John by giving him the tour of her insides and also going on a rescue mission of Sarah against her explicit orders.
Catherine reveals all and sacrifices the illusion of her humanity to Ellison to help protect them all and hopefully help to save humankind.
Ellison hopefully sacrifices any doubt he had about what he’s seen and knows.
Cameron sacrifices herself for John Henry.
John sacrifices his relationship with his Mom by going to the Future with Catherine.
Sarah sacrifices herself from the protector Mother role as far as being a protector/mother to John is concerned. And places her trust in John and his choice and ironically enough even in a “Terminator Btich” to watch his back.
In the end we find ourselves in the future with John and when he uses his name we find out that John Connor is either totally unknown or flat out doesn’t exist in this timeline.
Well he does now. And it dovetails nicely with the Derek time machine out of focus John in Dungeons and Dragons.
It also posits a few alarming possibilities.
Not the least of which is it possible that John Connor would die in the past in Judgment Day and not go on to lead the Resistance?
As a writer I’m totally digging that possibility because it speaks to a possible Timeline Zero that these might very well be events BEFORE the first Terminator film now.
What a stunning show this has become. Fox needs to understand just what it is they’ve got and not kick it to the side.
Here is a way you can help because now it’s about all we can do: Learn what you can do…and DO IT.
What a stunningly awesome way to end a season and if need be end a series.
Hopefully we’ll see the show continue so we can see John learn to train for the war by living in the war for a while. So he can return to the present and take on Skynet there with new found knowledge.
Fox and WB do not kill the series…shop it around if you have to…but don’t let it die.
Ross Out.
This show NEEDS to be renewed. If it gets canceled, then it will be a dark day indeed. Currently all TV viewing is down, but if Fox is smart they’ll see this show as an investment. It had growing pains, sure, but it’s growing into something beautiful. I can’t think of a better way they could have ended season 2… So long as we get a third season, at least.
“is it possible that John Connor would die in the past in Judgment Day and not go on to lead the Resistance?”
The reason John Connor has never been heard of when John arrives is because he didn’t exist. John Connor vanished off the face of the earth in 2009 and didn’t resurface until that moment in the future. there was no John Connor on judgement day. There was no John Connor when the resistance was formed.
What I meant though was could it have been possible that John Connor would have died on Judgment Day had he not leapt over it? He would still not have been heard of that way.
Lookit that I do reply to Comments.
Ross
Sonofagun….!
That would also imply how and why Cameron would’ve been so easily accepted by and come into Future!John Connor’s personal company and confidante.
Cameron never revealed how old Future!John was, and we all assumed it was a 40-somethin adult Connor. When in fact yeah it could be a young adult Connor. Bunk buddy notions aside, it makes a whole lot of sense. Someone he can relate to, being close his age in appearance, and he’d know best his not much younger lonely self would accept her just as easily and why. And we know they talked alot, and spent alot of time in each other’s company.
True, we see Allison, so there must be some relation there to the whole tie in. But then theres Cameron, modeled after her. Theres gotta be something unique and special about her. Why would John choose or pick Cameron over the real Allison? John’s already heavily predispositioned / biased towards Terminators for good reasons. For one, his young youthful life was saved by one (Uncle Bob), and two – as very recently exampled, they / she [Cameron] is the only person he can really truly trust. And as Present!John recently came to accept and knowledge his own feelings on the matter – its not about living tissue over hyperalloy metal endoskeletons (cybernetic living organisms), but one of the most human and basic needs- to love. And love can overcome any barriers and boundaries if one opens oneself to it. John loving Cameron for whom [identity and personality] and what she [Terminator - cybernetic living organism] is completes or rather closes one half of that open circuit (metamorphically speaking – coming full circle, or to make an open circuit closed thus creating a positive / negative loop). Cameron developing human like feelings for John, as well as John Henry caring for Savannah’s safety is the second half of that open circuit, Machines evolving past their primary code and core function, learning to love mankind.
The last 2 component to bridge the full circuit is the origins – man hating man enough to cause self destruction, and thus creates a machine to fulfill and bring about that destruction – SkyNet. SkyNet which brings about the biblical apocalypse known as Judgment Day, and creating the machine soldier army known as Terminators to finish mopping up the last of mankind.
Now the cycle to the Terminator mythos is complete and written, we only need to see how the rest of the middle story comes to bear, explaining and showcasing that mythos. For that, we truly need a Season 3, and very much a Season 4.
Due credit to Timstuff for the “man loves machine and machine loves man”
Btw – side note: When its all about sacrifice of the personal kind, its always for a believed good or greater cause. And in this episode, it pays back in big dividends.
Cameron sacrificing her girl illusion to John only reafirms and strengthens his love for her. There was more than sexual connotation to the “opening up and letting John inside”. Letting John see and feel what Cameron truly is on the inside – a machine. But also in doing so, was not just a possible risk of sacrificing whatever John began feeling for her; but also a direct and pure act of honesty, loyalty and trust for both of them. 1.) Cameron’s second act of trusting her life in John’s hands – having him reach in and feel her power cell; which could have been easy for John to grab and disconnect. 2.) Verification of honesty: When she told John she’d know if she was leaking radiation that could be harmful. Having John feeling a cold cell is believing without a doubt in John’s mind that her body and presence was not the cause of his mother’s growing illness. 3.) Devotion to John’s safety. Had it by chance Cam’s sensors were malfunctioning and the power cell damaged, Cameron would’ve willingly removed herself from John’s presence as not to cause illness within John. Therefore Cameron’s choice to sacrifice her illusion of identity to John could’ve also sacrificed any possible future relations with John.
Also, Cameron further selflessly sacrifices her girl identity for John to stage the prison break to free John’s mother, knowingly she might get damaged in a variety of ways. And damage she does get – a good portion of her facial skin and appearance. But the sacrifice and payoff is for John’s sanity and ease of conscience. It resolves some of John’s inner turmoil, and John still loves her, despite the ragged revealing / exposed identity.
Cameron also sacrifices what she has (and could have continuing present day) with John Connor to help John Henry. Sacrificing her body and chip for John Henry’s sake with a price of putting her own self at risk – in a non-mobile server storage system. It has a side consequence of John choosing to chase after JH to retrieve her chip, but its an admirable show and confirmation of love from John. Cameron possibly completed one or perhaps 2 of her goals – John loving her, and getting him sent into the future so John can survive.
Catherine Weaver also sacrifices her ‘motherhood’ of Savannah – even for a possible few days, entrusting the child to Ellison, and possibly to an extent – Sarah, knowing Sarah can be trusted to look after Savannah should there be unforeseen mishaps.
John also sacrifices his protection of / over Cameron’s body & identity of character persona when jumping to the future with Weaver. He knows his mother’s policy of destroying future tech, as well as his mother’s dislike of Cameron. Without Cam’s body to come back to, the chase foe the chip is half useless. Secondly, if the Turk or server storage is damaged or wrecked, Present!Cameron’s identity may be lost for good. And thats who, what and why he has fallen in love with in the first place. And it all lays in the hands of his mother until he gets back.
btw 2 – trill’s on the blink, so is acrobat. will have to do a windows wipe and re-install.
Kinda my own Cameron’s Glitch happening here