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Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles – 2×21 – “Adam Raised a Cain”
Friday, April 3rd, 2009
Posted by QuinnTerminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
“Adam Raised a Cain”
Originally Broadcast Friday, April 3rd, 2009
In the time when this show desperately needs everyone to watch live, I decided to stop being a hypocrite and tune in on a Friday night. It might be too little, too late (although maybe not…more on that inside), but it is probably something that I owe the show and its creators. So, for the first time all season, I present you a review of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles…on time.
I can’t believe it.
No, scratch that. I absolutely believe it. I knew it was going to come, and I have been subconsciously preparing myself for it all season. The cast is simply too small and yet the Connor face too much danger to get through an entire season without a casualty.
Even when Jessie and Riley and Cromartie died, I knew that the inner family was going to face a death. It wouldn’t be John, obviously, and it probably wouldn’t be Sarah. And while it could be Cameron, Summer Glau has become the face of the show.
That left Derek. In a lot of ways, my favorite character. He was going to die, and it was just a matter of time.
I loved Derek’s character because he was the connection to the future. To Judgment Day. To Kyle. To Future John. Sure, Cameron can give John and Sarah an example of the dangers of the future…give raw statistics and information on Skynet and all the chaos it will bring.
But Derek gave the future a soul. He lived it. He experienced it. He breathed in the future, bled in the future, and loved in the future. Whenever John and/or Sarah wondered what the fight was about, Derek had the scars to prove it was real. That it was dangerous. And that it was coming.
Derek was such a great character that it didn’t matter that freakin’ Brian Austin Green was playing him. I grew to love him anyway…that’s the kind of character he is. And now he’s dead.
If the show is over, it makes sense. It makes things real, and it makes things matter. If the show is over, it will miss Derek’s presence. I promise you that.
And for it to happen the way it did was just shocking. It wasn’t some big battle between Derek and a machine to allow John a safe escape. Where Derek, using some of the old tricks he’d learned, found a way to compete with a terminator one on one. He killed the machine, but it got him too. And he fights with the machine, battling to hold on longer than the other. And, knowing he’d won, Derek smiles and dies.
No, it is just a random occurence that Derek wasn’t ready for, and a terminator did what it does best and shoots him in the head. Derek probably didn’t see it coming. Probably was talking to Kyle before he knew what happened.
He didn’t die like Kyle saving John or Sarah. He didn’t die like Miles Dyson, saving the world a few more years by delaying Judgment Day. His death had no meaning, and it had no purpose.
Part of me thinks that Derek deserved a cool death. And yet part of me knows that heroes don’t always die heroically. It doesn’t always come down to the protagonist and the antagonist in a mano-y-mano death match. Because, most of the time, heroes get out by the skin of their teeth. Most of the time, they get lucky.
But when that luck runs out, death could come at any minute from any direction. Derek had probably been in that same situation a hundred times, and he probably turned that corner every time with a second to spare. Enough time to jump out of the way or fire the first shot.
This time, he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
You might think that 600 words is probably too much to devote to the death of a character, but readers will probably know what I think Derek meant to this show. And I hope you agree with me.
We probably should’ve seen it coming, though. The episode opens with a shot of the graveyard where Kyle is buried, and the first person we see is Derek. A couple minutes later, John utters the words “everyone dies for me.”
He meant Charlie. The writers were foreshadowing Derek’s death.
Even John Henry discusses death with Ellison, wondering why the human brain doesn’t have the capacity to download itself somewhere after death. The two discuss the idea of heaven, even though John Henry doesn’t seem to fully understand the concept.
Anyway, other than Derek’s death…this was a major episode. Finally, after an entire season, Ellison’s story and the Connor’s story merge. I’ve thought that the Weaver/Ellison story has been slow, but it’s certainly built up to a great place.
The catalyst for all of this was the discovery of a phone (carried by one of the attackers at the lighthouse) with Savannah’s picture on it. John surmises that whoever was after him would soon be after the girl, and they travel to the Weaver house to find/save her.
And just like that, a terminator shows up to grab Savannah, but he is unable to find the girl because of the Connors (and a little bit of help from John Henry). Derek actually dies as the heroes are escaping the house (Cameron lost the one-on-one battle with the terminator that allowed him to escape to kill Reese. Bah.).
A couple of interesting points here. First, why would a terminator be after Savannah? Is this the first major clue that Weaver isn’t working for Skynet? Or did Weaver actually send the terminator to kill “her daughter” – sacrificing her in the way she mentioned so many times in this episode.
It might be a combination of the two. Weaver tells Ellison later in the episode that she believes Savannah’s survival (and Ellison’s for that matter) would depend on the survival of John Henry.
Now that could be the big clue. We’ve been led to believe, since season one, that the Turk (and, thus, John Henry) was Skynet. But last episode revealed that the real Skynet might be John Henry’s brother. If that’s the case (and the Cain/Abel comparison is accurate), John Henry might be the one to finally defeat Skynet once and for all. He might be a cyborg John Connor, if you will.
Now why would Weaver want to destroy Skynet? For the benefit of humanity? Maybe, but she hasn’t shown a great respect for human life. But it doesn’t seem like she’s doing anything to pave for the coming of Skynet – in fact, quite the opposite.
So, here, the Connors learn about John Henry. John Henry learns about the Connors. The Connors learn about Ellison’s connection to Weaver and John Henry. And Weaver learns about the Connors.
Or does she? Weaver seemed surprised that Sarah Connor was alive, but was she faking it? As a machine, she’d almost certainly have to know about John Connor, but she doesn’t seem all that interested in finding the boy. Since all Skynet machines have the “kill John Connor” order hardwired into their programming, that’s another piece of evidence that Weaver is working on her own.
All of the John Henry/Weaver/Ellison stuff is pretty interesting to me, as John Henry fights to identify with both of them. He obviously has a connection to Weaver, but he also has an admiration for Ellison. I’m still wondering whether John Henry would fight to defend Ellison if it came down to him or Weaver.
I almost think he’d die to save the man if that’s what had to happen.
Because it seems like John Henry has learned that human life is “sacred” – even if Weaver doesn’t seem to think so. He definitely has an attachment to Savannah, working most of the episode to make sure she’s returned safely.
A side story in the episode dealt with the LAPD investigating the break-in at the Weaver estate. The detective in charge is immediately suspicious of Ellison, openly discussing the possibility of his involvement with Weaver herself.
One thing leads to another, and by the end of the episode, Sarah is arrested outside of a movie theater. Ellison had arranged the meeting to give Savannah back (as leverage for a meeting between Sarah and Weaver herself) – and Sarah was taken into custody immediately after Ellison took the girl back.
John immediately blames Ellison, threatening to kill the man before finally running off with Cameron. The agent promises that he didn’t know about the police, and the terminator from earlier watches the arrest take place.
That whole scene seemed a bit funny to me, and I almost wonder whether or not Weaver had come in the guise of Ellison. It seemed like an odd plan to send Ellison for the girl, promising to arrange another meeting later. I may be looking into it too much, but something seemed off about it.
In either case, was Weaver behind the police’s tipoff? Maybe she wanted to make sure that Sarah Connor was kept under control? I’m not sure what other reason she’d want for John’s mother to be in police custody.
Of course, maybe they were after Ellison…the detective wanting to take the agent into custody? But they didn’t seem terribly interested in taking him into custody as soon as he showed up on the scene.
Speaking of Sarah, what an ominous quote from Cameron about her condition. Cameron, in talking to John, says that Sarah’s plan was to give him to Charley – and with that, she tells him about the lump in her breast.
Cameron tells him that she assumed that it was cancer, and John seems to think that it was a reasonable assumption. But then Cameron tells John that Sarah has lost weight – something that certainly implies that Sarah might actually be sick. Ominous, indeed.
So at the end of the episode, John is left alone. As an eerie connection to his future self, he’s simply left in the care of Cameron (seemingly his own companion in the future). Derek is dead. Charley is dead. And his mother has been arrested and might be sick.
I guess everyone does die for him.
Where do they go from here? John is obviously going to move to get his mother out of jail, and Sarah is going to continue to want to talk to Weaver. Next week might even be a rerun of Terminator 2…with the Connors breaking Sarah out of a high-security facility to go to a major corporation and fight a liquid-metal machine.
And if next week is the series finale, I’m going to desperately miss this show. And if it is, I hope FOX allowed us to have a great finale.
But there’s hope! In the preview, it specifically said “season finale” – and I think that’s reason to get, at least, a little excited.
Because they could’ve simply said “finale” – leaving both options open. And, of course, they could’ve simply come out and said “series finale” if the show was definitely going to be cancelled.
I’m going to go ahead and be the optimist and think that they included “season” finale because the show is coming back. Derek dead or not, I want this show to continue.
But I’m sure I’ll have a lot to say about that, season or season finale, next week. I hope a lot of you joined me and watched the show live tonight. Because if we want this show to continue, it’ll need as many fans as possible to tune in live.
See you then!
April 4th, 2009 at 12:11 am
I agree with you about the role that Derek played in the show with an outside perspective of what the future really is like. I’m guessing that Ellison may now have to play that outsider role that gives the Conner’s a sounding board from a different point of view.
April 4th, 2009 at 12:47 am
The way that the characters are quickly being picked off one by one is a pretty sure sign to me that this will work as a series finale if the show is not renewed. Until tonight’s episode, I was not particularly OK with that. However with Derek’s utterly meaningless, nihilistic death, I just don’t care anymore. I cannot emotionally invest in a show that slaughters three major characters in three episodes in a row. I cannot emotionally invest knowing that no matter what happens, Judgment Day is coming. Everyone does die.
It’s this very innate problem, and I hate to have to say it now, but it is this problem that makes “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” an utterly failed experiment. It’s too damned depressing to be watched any longer. It’s psychologically unhealthy to watch a show this depressing. There is absolutely no hope to be had with this TV show’s plot. All the major characters except John will die before Judgment Day. This is preordained. If they were crap characters, then maybe the show would be watchable, but, no, the characters are actually very well-written and well acted. Watching this show has become an collective act of mass masochism.
As for the finale, I have no doubt about what will happen. And I have no doubt what will/would be the first arc of a third season if the show somehow did get picked up again (something is was 100% rooting for until Derek’s quick and entirely unremarkable death). I don’t know if these thoughts/predictions are to be considered spoilers, but it’s all fairly evident as to the inevitable sequence of events, so readers be wary:
Ellison will die in a depressing but in a manner following a Biblical allegory. Sarah will be taken away from John. Cameron will not allow any of the three to be together anymore. There will be a fight scene between Cameron and the renegade liquid metal Weaver. Cameron will become deactivated, John will go on the run, and the fate of Weaver and John Henry will appear doomed but with a potential out left in there in case of a season three.
However, they may instead choose to simply nip it in the bud and reveal the full hand in the finale, what Weaver really is. She obviously is the liquid metal from the U.S.S. Jimmy Carter who refused to join with John Conner in the future. However, she instead goes to the past to play out an alternate solution to fighting the initial “Skynet 2.0″ virus that creates the original line of Terminators. Her mission in the past is designed to bring what she/it considers to be a peaceful solution between humans and machines through John Henry. She creates John Henry to be “God” as she said in this episode. Her idea of peace is for a better, more humane version a “Skynet 3.0″ or “Skynet 2.0″ alternative through John Henry as tutored by humans like Ellison to run the world. John Henry would be a machine overlord to rule over and allow humans and machines to co-exist.
Oh, and Cameron would of course recognize her from the submarine.
A philosophical/religious debate would take place if there is time, and if there is a third season, then Sarah, John, and Cameron would reunite with some new character/s to take Weaver and John Henry as well as John Henry’s “brother” out via explosions.
Since there is not much chance of that, instead we likely will end up with a finale where everything appears destroyed except for John Henry’s “brother” program (as Judgment Day is inevitable). Everyone but John will die or appear to be dead (with perhaps the exception of Sarah who may stay locked up or go off on her own as she attempted to do last episode). And then John will go alone into the night, and it will be… well… depressing.
April 4th, 2009 at 1:09 am
Just one last follow-up thought about this show as a failed experiment:
It initially was conceived and aired during the Bush administration when everything felt and was very bleak. (I’m not the only one who feels that way.) However, since Obama’s infectious messages of hope seeped into the mass media mentality, the bleakness of the show that matched the bleakness of the atmosphere created in both this country and this world no longer feel applicable to most people.
It’s happening to other television shows, movies, and in other creative media. People are eschewing the depressing thought of a pre-ordained Apocalypse in exchange for a world filled with happier messages. A large part of that has to do with the spirit that Obama’s election brought to not just this country but to the world.
People’s world views changed as he climbed through the nominations and went on a campaign of success through positivity. The bleakness, the dreariness of the last decade seemed to dissipate for a while and some fun and brightness cracked down from the skies.
At least for a moment. Fun and hope came back alive in America for a few months. The mentality of the masses glistened with a hint of a new world that was not one of endless wars, violence and hostilities.
And so our desire for nihilistic and depressing shows like “Terminator: SCC” died off during those couple of months. And suddenly happy, bright shows started to appear to reflect the new atmosphere.
But, that of course got smashed to pieces when the U.S.’s economy, and then the world’s economy went to crap.
The odd thing, though? Most of us don’t want to go back to consuming the depressing media that sated our darkened minds from the Bush era. Instead, this global economic disaster, pushed on by the messages of reasoned hope coming from the Obama White House (as opposed to the constant messages of imposed fear by the Bush White House), kept Americans like myself wanting to stick with positive art, positive media. Media and art that suggest constructive ideas in times of hardship, not media and art that prey on our fears of impending doom.
The atmosphere in this country, and the world, has changed. We want media that brings us some solace and joy, not doom and gloom. This is yet another reason that this TV show is simply not meant to be renewed. We want something more fun. Something just as smart and evocative, but not so utterly nihilistic and depressing with an inevitable conclusion of global doom.
Hell, we’re staring down both barrels of a global collapse right now in real life. We don’t want to spend our fantasy lives there too.
April 4th, 2009 at 7:45 am
One thing that annoys me is the introduction of John Henry’s brother last episode. I like the concept, it adds a layer of complexity that I enjoy. But if the show is going to be canceled, it is unfortunate that they introduced such a big concept so late in the game. It might have been simpler if they had just let us assume that John Henry was the origin of SkyNet.
There are a few potential ways they could take the show. The brother could created by the government or the grays. John Henry could be the origin of good terminators who don’t want to kill all humans while his brother could want to kill them. John Henry could sacrifice himself to destroy the brother. Or it could all be something else completely. But if it’s going to be canceled, we’ll never know.
April 4th, 2009 at 1:07 pm
Well the funny thing about all of the deaths on the show is how little there was to any of them. Riley died in a pretty legitimate fight (she even had the edge of Jesse for a bit there), but the others were a lot more artsy than you’d expect.
Jesse, if she’s actually dead, died off screen. Charley died off screen, but at least we saw a body for some closure. And Derek’s death was about as shocking as you can get, but there was very little to it.
If any of you watch HBO’s “The Wire” – it reminded me of a major death on that show (I won’t spoil it for those who haven’t seen it). Major character gunned down in a very “simple” manner – I thought it worked there, and I think it works here. I’m more mad *that* Derek died than *how* he died. And that’s just because I thought his character was freakin’ awesome.
As far as Dreggor’s comments, its hard to argue with them. The show is, at times, depressing. At other times, it’s very depressing. But we’re talking about a series and a universe where most of humanity dies. And even though, at the end, humanity wins (so says Kyle Reese)…we’re left with a wasteland Earth and a species that has to rebuild completely. They’ve been so focused on the war that they might not have noticed that the world is a freakin’ disaster zone.
But that’s the thing…its so well-written…so well-done…that you can’t help but feel for the characters when they die. It isn’t like a random death on 24 or Prison Break or some other action show…you can feel the death the same way the characters are supposed to.
How will the show react in a third season? I’m guessing it would still be great because I don’t expect the writing to drop. It will probably still have elements of depression in it (because everyone dies for John), but it will also probably be extremely well done.
April 5th, 2009 at 5:17 am
I completely agree about the writing and the manner in which the deaths are handled. And also your description of the show being “at times, depressing. At other times, it’s very depressing.” It’s that masochistic combination that keeps me watching every week, but it is often such a spiritually-wrenching experience. (And at other times it’s a very spiritually-wrenching experience.) And while I would hate to see it go, at the same time it feels a bit like euthanizing a sickly but wonderful pet. It’s probably the best for both parties.
April 5th, 2009 at 12:27 pm
Well, its funny you say all of that because I’ve been trying (albeit for only a couple minutes) to think of something pleasant from this show…and I can’t think of much. I can think of the “punch buggy” scene from a couple episodes back, but that was quickly escalated into an episode that featured Charley’s death. There’s the scene where Derek takes John out for ice cream, but that scene quickly melts (pun intended) into talk of Judgment Day. Even the victory over Cromartie was tarnished by Sarah’s meltdown (including her smashing of the chip).
So is it self-torture to watch this show? Where “happy” things rarely happen and everyone seems doomed? I don’t know, but I still find myself drawn to the show and fearful for the characters.
I’m not really sure what that says about me.