Lower Decks

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
“To the Lighthouse”
Originally Broadcast Friday, March 27th, 2009

I’m sure in the middle of the “Is Sarah Crazy?” arc, viewers of this show were wondering where things were going.  Wondering if any of that stuff was going to matter, or if the show would ever get kicked back into gear.  To those people, I have a question for you.  Are you satisfied now?

I never really thought the show was rudderless.  In my opinion, it’s simply too well written for there to be several episodes of nothingness.  The show, like LOST in a way, throws things out there and almost everything comes back at one point or another.  It has exceptional continuity, and every move seems to have a payoff.

And, as was the case with poor Charley, most loose ends are eventually tied off.

I was really sad to see that Charley was dead.  I thought the scene between he and Sarah was great, and I think that he was one of the few connections that she has to her old life.  Remember that, to Sarah, her relationship with Charley wasn’t that long ago.  He might’ve moved on, but a part of Sarah didn’t.

And, considering his value in Sarah’s life, I found it odd that they’d kill him off.  It almost seems like the writers realize that the end might be near, and they’re closing out as many arcs as possible.  If the show’s over, they will have tied up as many loose ends as possible, but if the show continues, they’ll be able to move in a new direction.

I just can’t imagine that, if the show is supposed to go on for several more seasons, why they’d kill Charley off so soon into the story.  It’s just too bad if you ask me.

It does go to show you why Sarah is so paranoid to isolate herself.  So many people that she’s been around have died.  From Kyle Reese to Charley.  Enrique to Miles Dyson.  John’s foster parents to Andy Goode.  Even the T800.  Everyone seems to die in the effort to save John.

Not a good sign for Cameron and/or Derek.

Speaking of them, ”To the Lighthouse” ends on one of the biggest cliffhangers that you’ll see on the show.  John is missing, last seen in Charley’s now-missing boat.  Derek and Cameron were both kidnapped by people who know that Cameron is a terminator (although she saved them both).  And Sarah, herself a target, must find her lost son before he’s killed.

It’s funny/ironic that Sarah didn’t trust Cameron or Derek to know about the lighthouse, but if they’d been in on everything, I bet the situation would’ve ended differently.  Perhaps Charley would’ve survived, and almost surely, John would’ve been in capable hands.

And then there’s John Henry and his mysterious “brother” that is somehow connected to Miles Dyson.  ”He” seems to be masterminding everything, telling that one man how to disable Cameron’s chip and attacking John Henry itself.  In addition, John Henry explains that the AI is “in a significant percentage of the world’s computer systems.”

Sounds a whole lot like Skynet if you ask me.

And if it is Skynet, it’s another sign that the show is worried about its own fate.  Because it seems a bit early to be bringing on Terminator’s greatest villain, in any capacity, and I wonder how it came to be.

I almost thought the original problem with John Henry was going to be the idea of learning about “changing the rules” – most of John Henry’s lessons with Ellison and Weaver have been about staying within rules and laws.  I thought, just maybe, that the idea of going outside the rules had corrupted his programming.

But, the way things worked out, these two stories are getting closer to coming together.  John Henry is now cognizant of Sarah Connor, and they each seem to have a common enemy in this Brother character.  With only two more episodes left, things are certainly coming to a head.

I loved the banter between John and Sarah in the car.  Things have been so serious this year (and their relationship has weakened) that they haven’t had a lot of fun together.  In a lot of ways, you seem to forget that they’re mother and son.  And I thought it was refreshing to see them play together in the car, even for just a few seconds.

Cameron tells Derek about Jesse’s miscarried baby, and all signs seem to point to the fact that Derek did pull the trigger last week.  He seems somber when talking about her, and he’s kept her jacket.  It’s odd that they left us on a cliffhanger and then only subtly referenced it this week.  I wonder if we’ll get the scene in it’s entirety at some point?

Then there’s the lump in Sarah’s breast.  Sarah, in this series, seems to realize that she’s running on borrowed time, and she has to teach John everything he needs to know before her time runs out.  She seems genuinely happy to know that the lump insider her breast isn’t cancer, and it seems to rejuvenate her enough to take care of the attack on her.

And like I said, I thought the scene between Charley and her was extremely well done.  I don’t think Lena Headley gets the kind of credit that she deserves, and so I’ll do that right now.  Excellent acting.

The transmitter is interesting, though.  I wonder if the people that Winston is working for have been watching the Connors this whole time, and their exodus is what caused all of the attempted kidnappings?  It just seems like odd timing if you ask me.

The fact that it wasn’t cancer is good, though.  If they’d introduced Skynet and Sarah’s cancer in the same episode, it would seem like surrender in a lot of ways.  I’m glad they’ve saved some things for season three and beyond.

I really like the dynamic between Cameron and Derek – I don’t think there’s a whole lot of love between the two, but I think there’s a sort of mutual admiration.  Derek obviously doesn’t like the machines, but I think he realizes that she’s a valuable member of the team (as long as she’s functioning properly).

And I think Cameron has some kind of respect for Derek’s ability to take care of the Connors.  She realizes that she’s the superior fighter, but I think she respects his ability to stay alive.  She might even respect his ability to fight alongside her.

I also like that she rescued him.  Derek isn’t really a part of Cameron’s overall mission to protect John, but she knows that he has value to John as a person.  And even though she almost gets herself destroyed, she still risks it all to save him.  Its one of Cameron’s decisions that is based on the greater good than short-sighted strategy.

But Cameron’s final words of the episode seemed important – she claims she rescued Derek because he could’ve given up John’s location under torture.  Derek claims that he would never give in to torture, but Cameron says that he’s done it before.

Is she referring to something from Derek’s past?  We know that Derek has been captured by Skynet a couple of different times (possibly in different timelines) – did he break during one of them?  Perhaps giving up the location of John?

Like with most things on this show, I don’t think it was meaningless.

Then there was the shootout on the docks.  I had a feeling that all of Charley’s preparation (explosives on the dock and at the beach) would come into play at some point – but, again, I had no idea that it would happen so soon.

I thought it was pretty interesting that we never really saw the attackers.  There were obviously several people coming for John and Charley, but we didn’t really know the numbers.  Just like most things on this show, it was done in a subtle and artistic way.  Which is pretty much what separates this show from the Terminator movies.

So that’s it.  Things have certainly cranked up in the past couple of episodes, and things seem to be leading to a combination of the Connor/Weaver storylines.  I can’t wait to see how they sort themselves out, and I hope you can’t either.