Lower Decks

The following review contains spoilers for Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles through the current episode, “Mr. Ferguson Is Ill Today,” originally broadcast November 10, 2008.

QUINN’S STORY

This episode of Terminator has the potential to be huge.  It has the potential to be one of the biggest (and possibly strongest) episodes in the series.  It has the writing, the acting, and the cajones to move the story into bigger and better places.  In an isolated episode, it was fantastic, and as FOX moved to the credits, I was completely satisfied.  But if the promo is any indication, it could all be for not.

We’ve been hearing for a while that someone was going to die.  John and Sarah were safe…no need to worry about them.  Cameron is too important to the show to go.  It would’ve been odd to set up the Ellison/Weaver arc to have him bite it here.  That brought the candidates down to Cromartie, Derek, and Riley.  All three were present and strong candidates for certain death.

I’ve stated before that Derek is too important to this show to die.  He makes the future something real, and I think his presence is crucial in the survival of the show.  If he ever dies, I hope it’s the series finale because I suddenly can’t see the future of the show without him.  And as much as I think people want Riley to die (and it’d teach John a very unfortunate lesson that he can’t be near people as much as he wants to), I didn’t think the producers would pull that card.

That leaves us with Cromartie…who actually ended up buried in the ground.  Cromartie has, so far, given the series a constant villain.  Terminators have come and gone, but it was Cromartie that has been a constant.  And as much as that works, I’ve always found that to be a bit mysterious.  In the movies, the plot took place over the course of a couple days because the Terminators don’t give up until someone (their target or themselves) is dead.

Cromartie, however, has experienced tons of down time in this series.  We don’t know where he is or what he does in episodes where he isn’t present, but it comes off as strange.  He’s able to track John down in Mexico one episode, but he cannot find the Connors isolated in LA without the help of some punk kid?

That’s why he had to go.  That’s why he had to die.  I don’t know the alternatives (because Skynet can’t keep sending Terminators), but I just think he had to go.

And it all ended so well.  Cromartie puts it all on the line.  He kidnaps Sarah Connor, tracks John down in a Mexican jail, and makes his final move.  And the Connors, reunited in the town where John grew up, along with Ellison, Derek, and Cameron, take him down inside a Mexican church.  It’s an interesting plan with Derek and Sarah holding down Cromartie from the high ground while Cameron comes out of the shadows to blow him away (and I must say the CGI/makeup of the dead Cromartie looked pretty good).

It ends with a fantastic scene of an emotional Sarah getting rid of Cromartie’s chip once and for all…crushing the chip in an explosion of anger, sadness, and fury.

And that’s where it has to end.  It just has to.  Too much was invested in this episode to have him return, and I was satisfied when I saw the chip destroyed.

But then there was the promo for next week.  If you don’t like reading promo spoilers….stop here.  It might be a trick, but I didn’t like what I saw and I have to deal with it.

There he was.  Alive and in the flesh.  Hopefully it was some kind of “nightmare” scene, but the entire promo alluded to the fact that Cromartie somehow survived.  They obviously didn’t destroy his body, and there’s a chance that Sarah destroyed another chip (perhaps the one Cameron salvaged last season).

But I hope he’s gone.  I hope it’s a trick.  I hope that we don’t have to face Cromartie again because I thought this was a great end to his road.  And even if they’re able to top it next time, I don’t think it will have the emotional impact.  As Cromartie walked into the church, I wrote in my notes “Cromartie has to go” and he did.  Don’t bring him back.

But I’m sure we’ll deal with that next week.

As an isolated episode, this one was great.  I love the whole “Sarah’s Story, Cameron’s Story, John’s Story” way of storytelling.  I’ve always been fascinated with alternate modes of telling a story…just like the movie Memento.  I’ve watched Memento chronologically, and there’s nothing special about the story.  But the way it’s written (from end to beginning) makes it what it is (one of my favorite movies of all time).

I’m sure it would be the same way with this episode.  If it simply went from start to finish…mixing in POVs, I’m sure it would’ve been an above average episode.  But going back and forth…mixing in different points of view…made it exciting and fun.  Big thumbs up on the story structure, writers.

And the pairings in this episode were very well done.  We start off with John and Riley…the weakest of the group.  Like I’ve said, I understand the need to have the Riley arc.  John has been wound so tightly for his entire life, and he finally sees the ability to let loose with Riley.  You can totally understand how John can run off to Mexico, leaving Cameron, Cromartie, and his destiny long behind.

But, that being said….just like Cromartie, this arc needs to end.  I agree with Derek and Sarah and Cameron and everyone else….John needs to get his head back in the game.  I don’t know what it’s going to take (probably a death….Derek?  Riley?  His mother?) to snap it back into place.  But hopefully this was enough…having Riley in the line of fire.

And I don’t think it necessarily needs to end with John being alone.  I think letting Riley in on the secret will do the same thing.  It will allow the two Johns (Baum and Connor) to coexist in a way, but it will keep John on his toes.  Terminator 3, for all its flaws, established that John Connor can’t save humanity on his own.  His mother won’t be around forever, and he’ll need someone by his side to be his strongest.  Maybe that person is Riley.

But all the teen angst needs to go away.  John’s been reckless, and he’s been stupid.  And while it didn’t really hurt this one, in my opinion, that needs to get fixed really quickly.

The second pairing is Derek and Cameron.  You can still sense in Derek’s body language that he doesn’t trust the machine.  Sarah sees Cameron as a necessary evil, but I don’t think Derek sees it that way.  He knows that, as strong as the machines are, humans are capable of destroying them on their own.  I think, however, Cameron has a respect for Derek’s fighting ability.  It makes for an interesting dynamic, and I love when they’re paired together.  There isn’t much from them, but their one scene was nice.

The third was Sarah and Cromartie.  You have to wonder why Cromartie kept Sarah alive, but I also really liked their interaction in the car.  Cromartie pointed out something that I’ve also noticed….Cameron’s security has not been strong.  From the break-in last week to this week’s kidnapping of Sarah, Cameron has been lazy.

Cromartie suggests it goes back to the chip malfunction, and I’m glad that hasn’t been forgotten.  I’m also glad that there are more consequences to the chip’s malfunction than simply turning on John.  But I hope that’s something that gets resolved before the end of the season.  I think it works isolated in season two, but I don’t want it to keep going into the potential season three.  Let’s get John and Cameron fixed and back to their A games.

And then there’s Ellison…alone.  Ellison seems to be working on his own here since there’s no sign of Weaver.  He does seem to be interested in saving/helping the Connors, and I think it works that he was on his own.  I think he desperately wants to be a part of the solution, and I think Sarah was a bit harsh to him in the end.  With Cromartie “gone’ – the danger surrounding Ellison (as far as both he and the Connors know) is gone.  You’d think that Sarah would welcome the help.

I wanted to mention something else before I moved on.  Last night, I watched the original Terminator on television, and I noticed something.  Linda Hamilton’s has a very similar voice to Lena Headley, and I think they give a similar performance.  In fact, I think Lena does a pretty good job combining both of Linda Hamilton’s performances.

And let’s examine that a bit.  In the first movie, Sarah is a bit of a damsel in distress at first…who learns a lot about her inner strength by the end of the movie.  But she’s still soft and kind throughout.  In T2, Sarah is an emotionless shell of a person with a very clear focus on Judgment Day and the end of the world as she knows it.

Lena’s Sarah has the toughness, but she also has the softness…and I think it makes sense.  Original Sarah is soft because she doesn’t have any idea about her destiny.  T2 Sarah is cold because she has too much of an idea (and because her son has been taken away from her).

Lena’s Sarah has John to keep her grounded, and she knows that the future is not set in stone.  She’s able to regain a little bit of her humanity, and she’s able to find the kind of faith/hope that she exhibits in the original movie.  People who think that Lena’s Sarah doesn’t work need to rewatch the original IMO, and they need to realize that her Sarah has found some even ground between the warrior and the damsel.

Just something I noticed.

And I wanted to end on a question.  What’s the deal with the title?  Who is Mr. Ferguson, and how did he relate to the plot?  I was thinking that Mr. Ferguson was one of John’s teachers, and that was his excuse for taking Riley down to Mexico for the day.  But I don’t remember hearing that, and it’s purely speculation on my part.  What did I miss?

All in all, I really hope that Cromartie is gone for good.  Because if he is, this episode is a huge turning point in the series.  If he’s back, it’s just a bump in the road that might be quickly forgotten.  And as much as I enjoyed it, I really hope it isn’t reduced to that.