Topic: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles: The Complete First Season marathon

[Tom]

08. Vick's Chip (2008-03-03)
Writer: Josh Friedman (Created By), Daniel T. Thomsen (Writer), James Cameron (Original Characters By), Gale Anne Hurd (Original Characters By)
Director: J. Miller Tobin
Cast: Lena Headey (Sarah Connor), Thomas Dekker (John Connor), Summer Glau (Cameron), Richard T. Jones (Agent James Ellison), Garret Dillahunt (Cromartie), Kristina Apgar (Cheri Westin), Edoardo Ballerini (Timms), Karina Logue (Barbara Chamberlain), Andre Royo (Sumner), Jonathan Sadowski (Sayles), Matt McColm (Vick Chamberlain), Luis Chavez (Morris), Brian Austin Green (Derek Reese), Bruno Amato (Gym Coach), Joshua Wolf Coleman (Clerk), Allen Evangelista (Doug), Aki Kotabe (Kendo), Tony Raymond Wilde (Eric Carlson)

I think we can make a drinking game with Derek's line "That's what they do" (while looking at Cameron).
"She lied" - "That's what they do"
"He killed her" - "That's what they do"


One of the things I didn't like about T2 is John's incredible hacking capabilites. And here they are doing it again. He was thrown eight years into the future, so he is new to current computers. And yet he can interface with a chip from the future and hack into the memory storage of the T-888 in a few minutes/hours, what even Cameron couldn't do.

Rating:

[Tom]

09. What He Beheld (2008-03-03)
Writer: Josh Friedman (Created By), Ian Goldberg (Writer), James Cameron (Original Characters By), Gale Anne Hurd (Original Characters By)
Director: Mike Rohl
Cast: Lena Headey (Sarah Connor), Thomas Dekker (John Connor), Summer Glau (Cameron), Richard T. Jones (Agent James Ellison), Garret Dillahunt (Cromartie), Catherine Dent (Agent Greta Simpson), Craig Fairbrass (Fake Sarkissian), Jesse Garcia (Carlos), James Urbaniak (Café Manager), Luis Chavez (Morris), Sabrina Perez (Chola), Ryan Kelley (Young Derek), Skyler Gisondo (Young Kyle), Brian Austin Green (Derek Reese), Dean Winters (Charley Dixon), Keith Pillow (Mr. Bianchi), Mark Bloom (FBI Evidence Clerk), Ramona Dubarry (Karen), Aldo Gonzalez (Cholo #1), Bailee Madison (Little Girl)

A good episode. I like the birthday present for John from Derek. Even though this episode wasn't supposed to be a season finale, I think it works quite well as such. We have a nice emotional scene (above mentioned birthday gift). And a big blow to the FBI agent's investigation (the "slaughtering" of all the FBI agents), with a hint that he will play an important role in the future in favor for the machines. And then the last scene where the car bomb with Cameron in it goes up (which she will probably walk away from with minor damage, I assume).

Rating:

[Dragonfire]

What He Beheld
Sarah and John's true identities are discovered by a mysterious operative. Comartie's infiltration of the FBI has devastating consequences.

My Thoughts

I really enjoyed this episode and think it worked pretty well as a season finale.  There were still doubts about Cameron and Derek that seem to have all sorts of potential for the second season.  I like that the FBI agent has had to realize that there are some very strange things going on and I think it will be interesting to see how he continues to cope with that.  I loved the birthday present Derek gave John.  It was very touching and also opened up some possibilities for the second season as well that should be interesting. 

Overall I've really enjoyed this series and am glad I decided to pick up the DVD set.  It is a really entertaining show that has added new things to John and Sarah's story while also remaining true to the source material of the first two movies.  Now I want to start on the second season episodes right now.   

[addicted2dvd]

OK... I goofed... I went to copy my disc 2 reviews to use as a guide for disc 3... and forgot what I was doing and instead edited disc 2 for disc 3... so my disc 2 review is lost. 

Disc 3:
NOTE: need to do another quick week...

7. The Demon Hand

Not bad... definitely a decent episode... but for some reason I felt like I wanted more.

8. Vick's Chip

Pretty cool episode... I enjoyed the storyline this one has.

9. What He Beheld

Maybe not the best of season finales.... but I did enjoy it... and liked the cliffhanger they had.

Over-all Season Thoughts:

Over-all I still enjoyed this series quite a bit. But I am a little concerned. I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as I did the first time watching it. So for me at least I am wondering how much re-play value this series will have.

[DJ Doena]

One question to the last episode: I have the feeling I missed something but I don't know what.

Cameron imitated the voice of the man when they were "ordered" to come "here". How did they find out where "here" was and who was that black woman with the blood on her shirt?

[DJ Doena]

Disc 3

The Demon Hand

Synopsis: After he found the hand of the Terminator Special Agent Ellison begins to dig real deep into Sarah Connor's file. He watches her video tapes from the mental institution and he tries to get in contact with Dr. Silberman, her psychiatrist during her stay there. Meanwhile Cameron tries to retrieve the Turk.

My Opinion: I liked this episode for two reasons. The first one is the nice wrap-up of the second movie. And even though it's on "another timeline" I thought that this Dr. Silberman was very close to the one we saw in Terminator 3 shortly before he encountered the Arnie-Terminator for the third time.
But my favourite scene of this episode was when Cameron left the apartment after she got the information. This scene screamed at me "Never forget that she's a machine, not a feeling, living being, no matter how she looks like.". She protected them as long as she needed them and then they were of no more concern to her. To save them would have been an act of humanity and that's not on her program.

Vick's Chip

Synopsis: Derek finds the CPU of the previously destroyed Terminator and accuses Cameron of lying and she admits to it. After the argument is over, John tries to load the data from the memory chips to see what the Terminator was doing before he was destroyed. And there they find a connection to a project which can control the entire traffic infrastructure of Los Angeles.

My Opinion: This is one thing that has always bugged me on Science-Fiction series: That somehow all computer hardware and software is compatible and that they can communicate with one another. OK, Skynet and the Terminators are an invention of the human race but where did John even get a compatible interface port to plug the CPU in?
But that aside I liked the fact that both Cameron and Derek became a bit more grey (ok, we already knew he killed that Turk guy, but still).

What He Beheld

Synopsis: Sarah tries to purchase the Turk but the seller tries to blackmail her with her past and he's watching John to make sure Sarah pays. But his plan doesn't turn out as expected. Meanwhile Ellison discovers that Kester is a fake FBI agent and he tries to take him down.

My Opinion: Taking into account that it wasn't planned as cliffhanger it was a decent one. It leaves quite a number of questions open that demand an answer and thus the viewer will most likely tune in "next year". I especially wonder why Ellison is still alive. Is he important to Skynet or is it just because he was unarmed and no threat to Cromartie? But then again Terminators are not the Borg, why should he let someone live who can identify him? As I said, enough reason to continue watching.

Disc 3 - My Opinion: I like the show better with every episode I'm watching and the less time travel is involved the less mistakes with the timeline happen.

The Season - My Opinion: It's not the best show in the world, but very enjoyable, especially due to the two female leads. I'll continue watching it even though it's likely to get cancelled after the second season.

[Dragonfire]

One question to the last episode: I have the feeling I missed something but I don't know what.

Cameron imitated the voice of the man when they were "ordered" to come "here". How did they find out where "here" was and who was that black woman with the blood on her shirt?

I'm not sure how they figured out the where the here was.

The black woman was in the second or third episode.  After Sarah, John and Cameron jumped to 2007, Sarah got in contact with the one guy she'd known before -I can't remember his name now - about getting new papers for everyone.  IDs and social security cards.  Her friend didn't make the documents anymore, but he sent her to see his nephew I think it was.  The black woman was around the house where Sarah and Cameron went for the papers.  Cameron waited outside and ended up standing by the woman next to a car.  In the last episode, that bad guy - I have no idea what his name was - ended up back at the nephew's place trying to track down Sarah.  I think the black woman was showing walking around outside the house again when the bad guy arrived.  I have no idea why she went to Sarah..or what was up with her and Cameron in the car toward the end of the episode though.