By LillyKatPTR Senior Staff Writer
There’s a new girl on the block.
And it isn’t Shirley Manson.
For the first time, John Connor brought a girl home from school.
Awww.
Seriously, it’s cute and funny to have John so clueless, Sarah so irked (no surprise there), and Cameron assessing new girl’s (Reilly) “threat” level (as only Cam can do).
Can’t fault ol’ John for wanting to live a little. I mean, what’s the future leader of mankind to do, eh? He even gave Reilly his cell number. Go, John.
On the save the world front this week on Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles, the team had to stop a power plant from falling into the hands of the machines. Unfortunately, I’m not really feeling like the team succeeded. Sure, they averted a Three Mile Island-esque meltdown, but now six power plants are going to go online to be monitored by … wait for it … a computer thanks to the human error(s) perceived to be the source of this "failure."
Not.
More like machine manipulation.
See, in the future, this particular power plant is being used as a major strategic source of power by the machines. Right now, it just seems to be trying to get itself back online thanks to one Carl Greenway who, naturally, finds himself terminated. Too bad, too, ‘cause he seemed like a nice guy who was trying to do the right thing in not putting a nuclear reactor online when it had safety issues (generally a good call).
Except that’s what the machines want.
They’re all for faulty power plants nearly melting down so as to point out just how error-prone human monitoring of these systems can be, and thus, prove why they should all be linked up and/or online together.
Argh.
And isn’t it convenient that our Three Mile Island incident of this week just so happens to have a company waiting in the wings to instantly take care of putting six power plants online at once.
Run by Shirley’s evil T-1000 self.
Double argh.
Their efficiency is just so irritatingly amazing.
(And for the record … I know I shouldn’t be calling Shirley Manson's character “Shirley,” since that is her real name, not her character name. But it’s just more fun this way. And besides, we’ve only heard her character name once, and she T-1000’s herself into various different persona, so it’s just easier to call her Shirley because we at least know who we’re talking about.)
Classic Cam Moment of the Week: doing her best impression of a pool shark, with the whole “Gee, I’m a girl, I don’t know how to play this game” routine. She raked in the cash, eh? Seemed kinda proud of herself, too. I think I’m going to call her Pool Shark Cindy from now on (okay, not really, but that was a funny sequence)
Concerning Cam Moment of the Week: She just seems off, doesn’t she? Like, delayed reaction, sort of processing things slower … I don’t know. As Sarah said, she seems to now be a guard dog that can’t be trusted. Why oh why did she have to have her chip tweaked?!?!?!?!? Well, I still trust her. What can I say: I LOVE CAMERON!!!
Anyhoooo … have some serious concerns for Charley next week. He’s now going to have do the live-on-the-run thing. Bummer. And if his wife keeps smacking him around for trying to be a good, there’s a cold case homicide detective in Philadelphia who could use a decent bloke for a change.
The fight to save the world continues.
New episodes of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles air Mondays at 8 p.m. on FOX. You can also watch full episodes online. Visit the Official Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles Web site to catch up (or re-watch!)
2 comments:
An excellent episode.
My one quibble was, why would Shirley morph back to the female exec so soon after leaving the podium as the male exec? There is too big of a chance of someone finding out. The only reason to do it was so we viewers would know and when that is the reason they shouldn't be so obvious about it.
I don't trust Reilly. I am totally unspoiled, but I don't trust her at all.
Cameron is great. I too wonder about her occasional slow reaction times. My unspoiled theory is that she really is thinking. She is in effect reprogramming herself. She is thinking not just about the immediate task but also about what and who she is and what she should be doing.
Remember last season (pre-bomb) she took dance lessons and after she allowed others to kill her instructor she continued to practice. It was like she had artistic aspirations. The bomb damage may have furthered weakened her programming and thus accelerated her re-programming.
Last week, Shirley said she wanted a robot that would cross against the light (or some such metaphor for not follow the rules). I wonder if Cameron may become that robot.
All this is totally unspoiled speculation.
Slight correction LK: "See, in the future, this particular power plant is being used as a major strategic source of power by the machines" should read "is being used as a major strategic source of power by the *humans*".
Derek Reece explained that in the future it was the main source of power for the humans and the machines were trying to take it over. The idea being planted in their minds, and ours, is that the machines had a plan to destroy it in the present to prevent it being used by the humans in the future. Of course what ended up happening was it surviving but being under machine control in the present. But the Scooby Gang don't know that.
Scenes like Shirley morphing back are purely done for the audiences benefit. We often see morphing characters showing their other side briefly at the end of a scene.
Cameron is acting a little slowly. Perhaps she needs a reboot, a defragging, or for someone install the latest drivers :-)
One thing that did bother me was early on when John was talking to Cameron in the church about being OK or not. Why isn't John asking Cameron to run a diagnostic test on herself to find out what might have caused the reset to default Terminator mode?
The pool hustling scene was great fun, though they rather underplayed it. They could have continued for a while longer. Perhaps it was cut short so they could get on with other things.
The situation with Charley and his wife came across a little odd. Why are they at real risk? Why is the wife just accepting all that and going with him? It just didn't feel right to me.
Why did the guy from the future go to the trouble of painting messages on the basement walls in his own blood, and then go and stumble into the house and tell them one of them? He'd have been better off going in to the house, dictating the messages and getting treatment. I thought he'd survive for a while because I recognised the actor's face.
Well, I guess they have a few missions to look into now.
I don't think I distrust Reilly, yet. She may become a millstone and weakness for John in the future though. Or she could be a Kristanna Loken-style T-X.
LK, if you want to make a Cold Case link to T:TSCC you could go via Charley's wife. Sonia Walger starred in The Mind Of The Married Man TV series in which Kathryn Morris so memorably (for me at least) guest starred. She even shared a bed with Sonia, sort of ;-)
RichE.
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