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

[goodguy]

Now, refresh my memory, what is a T1? Or did you mean there was a nod to the first film?

Yes, I meant the first film and the terminator killing off all the Sarah Connors.

BTW, the Blu-rays mostly have 5 episodes per disc, but I'll settle for 4 to match your pacing...

Well, since you and I are apparently the only ones doing this, we can keep this varying around 4+ episodes per week. If one gets ahead more than 2 episodes he just waits for the other to catch up.

[Achim]

Yes, I meant the first film and the terminator killing off all the Sarah Connors.

Of course.

...and another nod coming right up in episode 6, with the failed smile attempt of Weaver at the photo shoot.

Well, since you and I are apparently the only ones doing this, we can keep this varying around 4+ episodes per week. If one gets ahead more than 2 episodes he just waits for the other to catch up.

Good plan!

[Achim]

6. The Tower Is Tall But The Fall Is Short
The weight of their mission takes a toll on the Connors when they infiltrate the office of a family therapist who also has ties to ZeiraCorp.

My comments:
Great episode here, where the Connors and Weavers path cross, without them noticing each other.

The Connor's story is trying to understand the meaning of one of those names they found on a wall (am I supposed to know who wrote them there? because I don't). As usual the question is whether their target needs protection or must be taken out. They visit Dr. Sherman (Dorian Heapwood, who is a pleasure to watch) pretending to need his services as family consultant. Well, obviously it turns out that not much pretending is required as there are strong issues between Sarah and John. Interestingly they get to resolve one of those issues (is that flashback something from season 1 or is it made up for the purpose of this episode?) by proxy of the doctor without ever confronting each other. This is the strongest part of the episode, with lots of small excellent dialog and acting bits.

The second plot deals with (New) Weaver learning to fake being affectionate to the child she "adopted" so that the child doesn't feel alienated by its own mother. Some references to T-2 can be found here. I am beginning to warm up to Weaver's story line, hoping it will continue to go down the same path, which previously felt overly gratuitous to me. The child actress playing the daughter Savannah gets to shine here a little bit.

A third, smaller, thread deals with Derek meeting his old flame from the future and getting involved with her. I was suspicious of her right away and we are presented some evidence to be just that towards the end. Will be interesting to see how this develops.

I hope Ellison's thread pays of sufficiently later, because the way they slowly build up the story with him better don't lead to him simply getting killed of or other stupid stuff like that. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy his bits immensely, I just hope it goes somewhere.



Can anyone tell me what the title of this episode refers to?

[goodguy]

6. The Tower Is Tall But The Fall Is Short
...
Can anyone tell me what the title of this episode refers to?

Well, Weaver's new project is called Babylon and I remember her building a big Lego tower for her daughter, so I assume it's a reference to the tower of Babel, which Men build to reach heaven and then God punished them for their hybris. On a more literal level, it could also refer to the suicide theme of the episode. 2nd best episode title after "Mr. Ferguson Is Ill Today".

BTW, I'm glad you liked it and I'm really looking forward to rewatch it, because I remember it as another contender for best of the series.

[Achim]

Well, Weaver's new project is called Babylon and I remember her building a big Lego tower for her daughter, so I assume it's a reference to the tower of Babel, which Men build to reach heaven and then God punished them for their hybris. On a more literal level, it could also refer to the suicide theme of the episode. 2nd best episode title after "Mr. Ferguson Is Ill Today".

BTW, I'm glad you liked it and I'm really looking forward to rewatch it, because I remember it as another contender for best of the series.

Thanks for the explanation. Yes, there was a Lego Tower involved. I found most of the other episode titles to more literate than this one, so I wondered what I was missing.

BTW, I will comment on episode 7 below and then will only continue once you've caught up. Take your time.

[Achim]

7. Brothers of Nablus
The Connors’ identities are put in jeopardy when their house is robbed.  Has Skynet found them already?

My comments:
Strange episode summary, as we are not really led to believe that at any moment in the episode. It's merely a threat that their personal stuff is out in the streets and that problem must be dealt with. The real threat in this episode comes from Cromartie, whose reappearance I highly enjoyed. I comes close to our heroes twice and both times suspense is built up nicely. Cameron has several funny one-liners when dealing with the shady elements of the city and it is shockingly funny how she deals with the robbers ("They knew where we live." ) Sarah at the same time as an unfittingly weak moment.

Ellison on the other end is blamed for murder, with a witness clearly identifying him. Weaver comes to help him. The lifting of this story line to a biblical level is a bit out whack and I am not sure what they are trying to say. It does however help to bring Ellison's story forward and bring him closer to his employer.

In overall it's a rather straight forward (in a good way), solid episode.

[goodguy]

2x06 The Tower Is Tall But the Fall Is Short
Synopsis: The weight of their missions takes a toll on the Connors when they infiltrate the office of a family therapist who also has ties to ZeiraCorp.
My Rating:

As I already briefly noted, this is another outstanding episode. It is a little more conventional than 2x04 both in its visual style and in its storytelling, but it is great nonetheless. Since I don't seem to be able to get a regular review of this down to an acceptable size, I just post some random comments on various aspects of the episode.

The corny intro is gone and Sarah's VO is back for a change. The small bits at the beginning and end fit well with the episode.

The writers have finally gotten a handle on the Weaver character that matches Shirley Manson's acting abilities. As a result, she is really great here. Also, the child actress playing Savannah is a real find.

Sadly, Ellison didn't have much to do, except wondering about the basement.

The AI stuff in the basement however was beautifully done, with another great piece of music by McCreary. I'm not entirely sure though if it is new or if it already had been used for the Turk in S1.

.... names they found on a wall (am I supposed to know who wrote them there? because I don't).

That was dying future guy in 2x02. Shown for your convenience in the previouslies.

(is that flashback something from season 1 or is it made up for the purpose of this episode?)

That was a flashback to the killing of Sarkissian at the beginning of 2x01. It was left ambigous who exactly killed him. Jon and Sarah never talked about it, but everyone assumed it was Sarah (as does Derek here again). Of course, as we learn now, it wasn't.

All of the sessions with Dr. Sherman were great, but especially those with John. Interestingly both T-Weaver and Cameron recognized that someone needed help, but Sarah didn't until she later listens to the surveillance tapes.

The suicide theme came a bit out of left field for me with regards to John. But I suppose it was introduced more for the benefit of Derek and the back-story with Jesse. Also, they picked it up nicely when Cameron looked at the self-destructed chip during the end montage.

Apropos Jesse. I wasn't suspicious at all during the first scene between Derek and Jesse, well at least not on first viewing. And despite knowing that she has some hidden agenda as evident by the photos, that scene still gets to me and I like to think that her battle fatigue is at least partially true. Stephanie Jacobson is truly amazing here.

All in all a very gripping and dramatic episode with a highly original terminator fight as bonus.

[Achim]

Thanks for helping my bad memory back on track there

The writers have finally gotten a handle on the Weaver character that matches Shirley Manson's acting abilities. As a result, she is really great here. Also, the child actress playing Savannah is a real find.

That is exactly what I was trying to say in my comments! That is why I found her to be "wooden" before (not exactly sure if I wrote that a<nd too lazy to re-read) and now the writers found how to utilize that.

[goodguy]

2x07 Brothers of Nablus
Synopsis: The Connors’ identities are put in jeopardy when their house is robbed.  Has Skynet found them already?
My Rating:

I pretty much agree with Achim's comments and don't have a lot to add.

The real threat in this episode comes from Cromartie, whose reappearance I highly enjoyed.

Well, SkyNet did send Cromartie back to find and kill John Connor, so the synopsis isn't entirely wrong. I too enjoyed him being back in the game and especially those scenes with Jody were great. And nobody does sinister like Dillahunt does.

I also liked that Riley was back, even if she causes John to do foolish things.

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I'm not sure how her dealing with Cromartie in this episode does fit with what we learn later about her. Shouldn't she have an inkling that the "guy" looking for John is a terminator?

...and it is shockingly funny how she [Cameron] deals with the robbers...

In retrospect, the Nablus story was a nice tip-off of what was going to happen.

Sarah at the same time as an unfittingly weak moment.

I wouldn't call it unfitting, on the contrary. As badass as she sometimes appears, she never has killed anyone, not even Dyson in T2. In fact, she is the only one who hasn't. John killed Sarkissian, Derek killed at least Andy Goode, even Jesse just killed Moishe (and in that was as ruthless as Cameron).

Ellison ... The lifting of this story line to a biblical level is a bit out whack and I am not sure what they are trying to say.

I'm not sure either. For Ellison, drawing on the bible is certainly not out of character and the comments from both Cromartie (SkyNet does not believe in you like I do) and Weaver (What good is faith if we don't use it) seem to enforce that. That he compares himself to Job and believes he is tested by God might be his hubris and actually lead him astray.

[Achim]

Sarah at the same time as an unfittingly weak moment.

I wouldn't call it unfitting, on the contrary. As badass as she sometimes appears, she never has killed anyone, not even Dyson in T2. In fact, she is the only one who hasn't. John killed Sarkissian, Derek killed at least Andy Goode, even Jesse just killed Moishe (and in that was as ruthless as Cameron).

Very good point there. I just figured her to be smarted than that. Well, at least she'll very soon enough how foolish she was...

[Achim]

8. Mr. Ferguson Is Ill Today
John and Riley’s getaway to Mexico has unforeseen consequences that bring the entire group south of the border and Sarah face-to-face with Ellison.

My comments:
At first I was wondering why the writer made John do so many foolish things. He id it in earlier episodes and had since seemed to have learnt. Well, if he wasn't doing things like running away without telling anyone, there wouldn't be any exciting plots

Matthias has pointed out before it's his favorite and I can at least confirm from my side that it's the best episode yet. I always enjoy the "bits and pieces" approach to tell a story, presenting us with segments, each following another person, that slightly overlap. This way important information can occasionally be left out only to be revealed later on. Kudos to the writer team to pulling it off very effectively

We also get great action by Thomas Dekker (especially the first half) and Garrett Dillahunt as Cromartie is very menacing here.

Only now, two or three episodes after the incident I realize that Ellison's role in all this must be bigger than we can imagine so far. Triggered by his question to Sarah about his role I noticed that  Skynet felt it was a good idea to actual model a Terminator after him. Well, or something. Looking forward to see more of him.

[Achim]

9. Complications
Fever dreams convince Sarah that a “three-dot” symbol will lead her to Skynet.  Derek wonders if they’ve changed the future.

My comments:
After the fast paced episode 8 is=t was quite reasonable to have things pulled back a bit for episode 9, getting some more character and story development done. There is basically three threads running, one for Sarah (boring), one for Derek (intense) and one for Ellison (short jaw-dropping).

Sarah is having some sort of recurring nightmare involving Cromartie and three dots that even has her sleepwalking. I don't really understand what they were trying to do with this and it had me mostly bored. It was nice to have Dorian Harewood as Dr. Sherman back though.

Derek's story I found very exciting. The slow build up and twists and turns that bring us to the revelation at the end. Two really interesting things are achieved in this episode, one being the discussion about changing the future

(click to show/hide)

the "maybe I have come back from a future where it didn't happen and you have come back from a future where it did" was great

and the other how they basically got Derek's girlfriend Jesse off the hook "with a whip-pan"

(click to show/hide)

I am referring to the moment when Derek is about to shoot the young Charles Fisher and she quickly stops him by shooting the older one. Her actions in this episode show that she really cares for him.

. The stuff under her bed shall not be forgotten though...

And then there is Ellison, who gives us a big jaw-dropping moment at the end.

(click to show/hide)

On the one hand he is a bit shady, since he lied to John about having Cromartie, on the other hand I find that he is handling with the best of intentions and unfortunately fails to see that his actions will have almost the exact opposite effect of what he is trying to achieve. Somehow I hope he gets to redeem himself later.



EDIT:
added rating

[goodguy]

2x08 Mr. Ferguson Is Ill Today
Synopsis: John and Riley's getaway to Mexico has unforeseen consequences that bring the entire group south of the border and Sarah face-to-face with Ellison.
My Rating:

Matthias has pointed out before it's his favorite and I can at least confirm from my side that it's the best episode yet.

I was only referring to the title, not the episode itself, although, as evident from my rating, I do consider it another excellent episode. As for the title: I didn't catch on to it right from the start. I found it oddly fitting to describe Cromartie's demise and I remember having that sentence stuck in my head for a while like a piece of music. But it wasn't until I rewatched S1 that I noticed it is the very first line of Cromartie in the pilot, when he appeared as a substitute teacher (and was played by another actor). Which fits nicely with the way the characters in this episode try to replace something they have lost.

Well, if he wasn't doing things like running away without telling anyone, there wouldn't be any exciting plots

More importantly, he would just be dead. Both Sarah and Cameron don't want John to be with Riley. Both think he is in his room, sleeping in. Both are the ones that allowed Cromartie to pick up the trail. But as Cromartie arrives at the house, John is gone. With Riley.

I always enjoy the "bits and pieces" approach to tell a story, presenting us with segments, each following another person, that slightly overlap. This way important information can occasionally be left out only to be revealed later on. Kudos to the writer team to pulling it off very effectively

I admit that on first viewing I dismissed it as too gimmicky, but it really isn't. Only in the case of Ellison's sudden appearance it is played for surprise, and even then not exclusively. More important seems to be the overlap and repetition of certain key bits and how it enhances the almost lyrical feeling the dialogue often has. And, of course, the different story segments emphasize how fractured team Connor has become.

As it all comes together in Cromartie's story, Ellison does lead him to the Connors, but on his own terms, because "all things are possible to him who believes." The shootout in a Mexican church uses bold Christ imagery, and a rather short version of another traditional song (La Llorona - The Weeping Woman) again takes out the sound of the action scene until Cameron finally brings Cromartie down. Cameron looks equally sad and curious while doing it - she certainly seems to think more about the terminators she kills than about the humans, echoing similar shots of her in 2x05 and 2x06.

Only now, two or three episodes after the incident I realize that Ellison's role in all this must be bigger than we can imagine so far. Triggered by his question to Sarah about his role...

One of the bits that gets repeated during the segments are Ellison's words to Sarah when he opens the trunk: "Sarah Connor? James Ellison. I *need* you to come with me." But when they talk during Cromartie's burial, Sarah refuses to give him the guidance he so desperately seeks. As he walks away, he will undoubtedly return to Weaver. And with the ominous music cue accompanying it and the way the takedown of Cromartie was shown, one can be pretty sure what will happen. However, Cromartie's chip definitely is destroyed.

[goodguy]

2x09 Complications
Synopsis: Fever dreams convince Sarah that a "three-dot" symbol will lead her to Skynet.  Derek wonders if they've changed the future.
My Rating:

At this point of the series, TSCC is certainly on a roll, one excellent episode after another. Once again I cannot agree with Achim that the parts involving Sarah were boring - their introspective and metaphoric quality nicely balanced the intense stuff going on with Derek. I wonder how Achim will think about the Sarah plot in the next episode, because that is the first time *I* will find it to be pretty weak.

With her breakdown at the end of 2x08, Sarah and John have actually become closer again and that continues here as they talk more openly with each other. Sarah turning over the turtle on the roadside is a Blade Runner reference (the empathy test to distinguish between adroids and humans), nicely used here to characterize her and to provide more food for thought for the always-curious Cameron, who will mimic her later on with great effect.

Sarah's dreams did make sense to me on first viewing, they do so even more when considering the whole series, but I will leave that part out. Sarah's first dream is the least transparent, but the liquid metal cactuses seem to point towards Weaver, who is yet an unknown to Sarah. It is safe to assume that the Weaver and Connor story lines will converge at one point in the series, however that may play out. Sarah's second dream is the most obvious, her humanity prompted her to safe the turtle and the kid in the bowling alley, which played right into Cromartie's hands. She knows what to do, but just can't do it, she sees herself as her own worst enemy, pointing a gun at her reflection in the window. John, however, doesn't think so. The third dream brings her back to reality, there isn't really anything she can get from talking to Dr. Sherman, considering the secrets she has to keep from him.

I didn't talk about Cameron and John in the previous episode (who had a great scene together that only at the surface seemed slightly creepy). Here they are great together again as they drive back to Mexico and then go after Ellison.

Ellison didn't surprise me. Based on the ending of 2x08 and given what he knows, his progression here seemed pretty straightforward to me.

The main story however is of Derek and Jesse and Charles Fisher, who collaborated with the machines (the bits were the "grays" are expositioned are the only slightly clunky parts in the episode). Robert Shiff (Toby from West Wing) as Charles Fisher was amazing and bringing in Adam Bush (robot expert Warren from Buffy) as the younger Fisher was an inspired casting choice. I agree with Achim that we can see that Jesse really cares for Derek, but there also was a strange vibe coming from her. One can attribute it to being completely rattled by discovering Fisher, but her caressing Derek while saying "You need to beat the hell out of him." was a bit too NBK (or whatever) for me.

While talking about 2x07, I said that Jesse was as ruthless as Cameron when killing Moishe, but here it is Derek again who has no moral scruples at all and would have killed the younger Fisher preemptively just as he did with Andy Goode. Jesse has no qualms killing people, but seems not be willing to go that far.

Time travel makes my head hurt, so I usually go with whatever spin is given to it. The "different futures" are an interesting turn, especially as it also means that Derek having changed the future means that he may have created the events that Jesse remembers, but he doesn't. The counterpoint to that is young Fisher. As Ellison's VO drones on to justify his choice (we can't allow history to repeat itself), we see young Fisher thrown in a cell, ensuring he is available to the machines on Judgment Day.

[Achim]

Wow, lots of good stuff...

I was only referring to the title, not the episode itself, although, as evident from my rating, I do consider it another excellent episode. As for the title: I didn't catch on to it right from the start. I found it oddly fitting to describe Cromartie's demise and I remember having that sentence stuck in my head for a while like a piece of music. But it wasn't until I rewatched S1 that I noticed it is the very first line of Cromartie in the pilot, when he appeared as a substitute teacher (and was played by another actor). Which fits nicely with the way the characters in this episode try to replace something they have lost.

Excellent!

More importantly, he would just be dead.

Well, yeah, there is that.

One of the bits that gets repeated during the segments are Ellison's words to Sarah when he opens the trunk: "Sarah Connor? James Ellison. I *need* you to come with me." But when they talk during Cromartie's burial, Sarah refuses to give him the guidance he so desperately seeks. As he walks away, he will undoubtedly return to Weaver. And with the ominous music cue accompanying it and the way the takedown of Cromartie was shown, one can be pretty sure what will happen. However, Cromartie's chip definitely is destroyed.

The way you put it makes one think that Sarah is partly responsible too, since she could have brought Ellisonm on her side and sadly refused to do so.

I don't think Weaver needs the chip, at least that's what I felt. She just needs the body to advance her technology there.

Sarah's dreams did make sense to me on first viewing, they do so even more when considering the whole series, but I will leave that part out.

Thanks for the explanation. At least it makes more sense now and maybe it will be regarded differently duiring a future viewing.


I agree on Jesse. As I said (or at least meant), while her affection for Derek is obvious she surely comes across rather creepy...

The counterpoint to that is young Fisher. As Ellison's VO drones on to justify his choice (we can't allow history to repeat itself), we see young Fisher thrown in a cell, ensuring he is available to the machines on Judgment Day.

How could I have missed that