‘Chronicles’ Flashes Forward

By LillyKat
PTR Staff Writer

It’s official: I am now Summer Glau’s Number #1 Fan.

(Okay, no … I can’t really claim that; I don’t want to overstep her longtime fans and/or unfairly cut in line).

But suffice it to say: She. Just. Rocks.

Honestly. It’s getting harder for me to believe this gal was not originally part of the Terminator film series.

Somewhere.

Somehow.

Ne’er mind she was only 3-years-old in 1984 (first film); and 10-years-old in 1991 (second film). Ne’er mind that she’s playing another inert character (alas, I have not watched Firefly, so please don’t hurt me, but my friends tell me she was kinda robotic over there, too). Ne’er mind she actually was on PTR Fave’s Cold Case in the first season ep, “Love Conquers Al.”

She is too good on Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

And the show is slowly revealing that it’s just as much about her Cameron terminator as it is about ol’ Sarah and John. We know Cam’s been sent back to protect. We know she’s learning at a much faster, not-be-such-a-dork-all-the-time rate than Arnold. We know she has more than earned her Tin Miss nickname. We know she and recently revealed Uncle Derek had some sort of run in the past … er, future.

But please do not tell me Cam is going to turn on us?!?!?!

Okay, alas, I digress. And speculate. My bad.

But this week’s ep left us with some seriously unanswered questions about what may or may not be cooking with Cameron. Like, she managed to incinerate that nasty T888 from last week - home cooked, BBQ style, complete with pit built out of bricks in the garage. We know this is required otherwise they’ll … er, it’ll manage to reassemble itself and come back to life.

Yet she kept the processing chip.

No, no, no, no, no!

We also learn the whole “re-programming” of bad terminators into good can backfire. Suddenly, they go bad. For no reason. And no one knows why.

No, no, no, no, no!

This ep was chock full of fabulous stuff. It was treated in a present day/flash forward format, where we got to see further detail of the post-Judgment Day future. Leader-of-mankind John (never actually “seen” but referenced constantly) has figured out the way to send a selected group of individuals back across time to begin the fight against Skynet (duh, we knew this). But what we did not really know was how the whole thing became a reality in the future. It is portrayed as sort of rumor, almost disblief, by the tattered and weary resistance fighters - especially the Reese boys. Yet, we finally get the inside look at the top secret facility John’s concocted to conduct the transport.

And where Cameron is his protector yet again, having recently been reprogrammed.

Not surprisingly, Derek is part of that selected group sent back – especially after he finds out about his brother Kyle (that would be John’s dad, remember?). Problem is, he’s having one too many of those flash forward moments in present day, where he thinks he’s being held captive by machines. In actuality, he's on the kitchen table in John and Sarah's abode, trying not to have his lungs bleed out.

And that would be in no small part thanks to Charley.

Dearly beloved Charley.

You know how I wax poetic about ol’ Fritzy on The Closer - how fabulous he is, how he needs to be cloned and sent over to Lilly Rush on Cold Case.

Yeah, well … Fritz now has competition.

Sarah: “I didn’t wanna leave you.”
Charley: “Gun to your head?”
Sarah: “More like gun in my head … it’s complicated”
Charley: “Then uncomplicated it for me.”

Awww!

I so wish Charley would stick around.

He’s handy for Sarah and John to have – his paramedic-ness helped save Uncle Derek without the need of a hospital. John truly trusts him, sees him as the closest thing to a father he’ll ever know. Sarah does care for him, but is so tied to her fate she can’t admit she does. Yet, he's the one to give Sarah the heads-up the FBI is still on her case 8 years later. And did I mention he's pretty quick to get the whole Skynet/robots/metal-endoskeleton thing?

Seems like a good guy to keep around.

Cam freaking him out not withstanding. Alas, it would appear he’s done with Sarah and Co. for now. Bummer. But, hey … can we send him to Cold Case?

The fight to save the world continues …

New episodes of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles air Mondays at 9 p.m. on FOX. You can also watch full episodes online. Just visit the Official Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles Web site to catch up (or re-watch!)