The latest Sarah Connor Chronicles gifted us a gem of smart storytelling this week, and took the story in an entirely unexpected direction. The events as portrayed by the entire Terminator franchise are serious stuff, with most of humanity destined to be wiped out by a technology they can’t control. So grim that it would be easy for the show to take itself and the characters far too seriously. In an early scene John, Sarah and Cameron attend a ‘Family Therapist’, following a clue left in an earlier episode. Some of their responses to Doctor Sherman (is that a nutty professor reference?) are superb, especially Cameron’s unique perspective on ‘being alone’. The twist in this plot comes along early when we find out that liquid alloy terminator Catherine Weaver is also a patient of Dr. Sherman, because unsurprisingly her young daughter wets herself when ‘mummy’ gets angry. But the real question here is why Weaver needs the child at all. Surely she could just take on the personality of a single person? But then she starts working on ‘being a good mummy’, as if this is a very necessary part of her mission. Are these limitations something to do with the Turk currently malfunctioning in her labs, or is it something deeper in the terminator psychology? Meanwhile Derek runs unexpectedly into an old lover, her appearance in this time is entirely unexpected. Something isn’t right, but what exactly is it? Jesse claims to have gone absent without leave after one of John’s pet Terminators killed half the bunker she operated from. Something stinks, if Derek can work out what. But with another terminator on a collision course with John and Dr. Sherman, he’s not going to be relaxing anytime soon. Luckily Cameron intercepts this particular robotic foe, and folds her for handy carrying after a comedic fight in an elevator. But then, after the comedy, soul searching and intrigue, the script writers throw a scene on the end of this episode like a primed fragmentation grenade. Derek’s been under the impression that John’s problems stem from seeing his mother kill a man in the season 1 finale. But we never got to see those events till now, and it’s not Sarah that kills him! This is an electric show and well deserves the full season order it’s just won! My only complaint is that there isn’t another show ready to broadcast for another two weeks, what will I find to write about?
