Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles 2.1

[hazelk]

That opening section to “Samson and Delilah” was amazing. Very fluid POV. Cameron began it as Delilah, fine and fair, ended it as Samson killing the lion but Sarah was the “strongest man that had ever lived on earth.”

Sarah at the bathroom door being sorry for what John had to see and what he had to do. There was shame with the seeing, which makes me think John killed Kardassian but had to see his mother helpless. Sarah Connor would be ashamed of that weakness more than anything. But they’re alive.

For John Connor love isn't something you say, it's something you do - you save each other's lives. It's going to be a hard standard for any human female not his mother to live up to.

Shirley Manson as the McT1000 – didn’t see that coming but it explains a lot. Does she think she’s the Whore of Babylon?

And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication. And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
 And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.
 And here is the mind which hath wisdom.

Certainly when she’s around no sanctuary is sacrosanct.

In Judgement Day a Skynet Termintor’s default state was not to be able to learn but either that’s changed or Shirley is different, revels in that difference and appreciates it even in a lowly chess computer. I wonder if she really is just another Terminator or more closely linked to Skynet itself (which last season we learned was part-descended from a traffic control system).

Cameron has some fuzziness to her logic as well. I wonder what made her chip right itself and when. Whether simulating emotion was part of that process, whether John giving her the gun completed it, whether the original fault wasn’t simply an effect of direct physical damage but a response to being attacked.

Still feel sorriest for Agent Ellison. “We’ll see.”

Comments

[kiki-miserychic.livejournal.com]

There's a post on the composer, Bear McCreary's blog that talks about the opening Samson and Delilah track.

I agree with your reading of John seeing his mother helpless and her being ashamed of that weakness.

I'm hazy on Cameron's rewriting myself. At first I thought that she overrode the program herself after John handed her the gun and everything she said while pinned was manipulation. Then I thought her part about running a check was true and getting hit by the truck caused it. Now I'm still a bit confused.

This can't end well for Angent Ellison.

[stormwreath.livejournal.com]

I think John killed Sirkassian, but I think Derek assumes Sarah killed him. Is this the first time John has killed anyone?

Regarding AIs learning - wasn't it stated in T2 that Skynet deliberately switches off a Terminator's learning capacity when it sends them back through time, because it doesn't want them learning to rival or surpass it? ("I am a jealous god.") But Cameron hasn't had that switch flipped, so she's still capable of learning from experience.

It was certainly left unclear - deliberately, I think - but my assumption is that Cameron's basic programming was still in "Terminate John Connor" mode at the end of the episode. She made the conscious decision to override her own programming, because she's becoming self-aware. When she was pleading with him for her life, it was a trick, a manipulation... and she didn't convince him, but she did convince herself.

I wonder if she now sees herself as the resurrected Jesus? Or is she Lazarus, and John is Jesus?

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the link to the blog, it was really illuminative seeing the creative/collaborative process laid out like that and so interesting that it was originally seen as a Cameron song. I wonder which part, she can be both Samsom and Delilah but the more I hear it the more the refrain" If I had my way, I would burn this whole building down" is the part that sticks. As if she has a rage in her and I suppose that fits with them incorporating Weaver into it. Weaver more and more like Skynet's Cameron the more I think about it.

With the rewriting I think it's a good kind of confusion and probably a big seasonal theme if the monologue Weaver had about not following the programme is anything to go by. I mean the show seems to have outgrown the voiceovers but its never been shy about laying its themes out right there in the text

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Yes, I think your story got it right but they're not telling Derek that. I did see a comment about the offcial podcast that implied Sarah did it but if that's the case I can't work out what she was telling him she was proud of that he's done when they were trying to persuade him to kill Cameron. Either way I think it would be a first kill for either of them and a first kill in front of the other one too.

Regarding AIs learning - wasn't it stated in T2 that Skynet deliberately switches off a Terminator's learning capacity when it sends them back through time, because it doesn't want them learning to rival or surpass it?
I can't remember , I do remember them taking Arnie's chip out but not why. It would be a good reason for Skynet to turn off the learning ability. Then again this is a different Skynet, this one didn't come online until 2011. Maybe this one smarter but fuzzier or less risk adverse. I'm assuming that Weaver has her switch flipped like Cameron's - she's Skynet's Cameron and thinking back some of her dialogue was quite Cameronesque. Not the traffic monologue but the "It's from the bible' and "It's going to change the world." Oddly naive things to say for a businesswoman.

She made the conscious decision to override her own programming, because she's becoming self-aware. When she was pleading with him for her life, it was a trick, a manipulation... and she didn't convince him, but she did convince herself.
Something like that, like it's getting to be less about flipping switches and more organic. I don't think Cameron understands what she did, which is interesting - she doesn't trust herself to do it again.

I wonder if she now sees herself as the resurrected Jesus? Or is she Lazarus, and John is Jesus?
Maybe she wonders if Jesus was a terminator (like Buffy with Rasputin).

[bop-radar.livejournal.com]

I agree about the fluid POV, though I think this reading of the episode overall is very strong.

For John Connor love isn't something you say, it's something you do - you save each other's lives.
I like that a lot. I loved his line. And I think Cameron proved the truth of it in overriding her programm.

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

I like that too, thanks for linking. On the official blog Josh Friedman said he thought the song applied to all the characters in some way at different points in the episode. Then he said something about part of it being the power women had over men, which I found a little off-putting until I thought of Derek and Charlie doing the reverse Bechdell test in the van (ie there are more than two men and they get to talk to each other but it's all about Sarah).

[bop-radar.livejournal.com]

Mmm, I have mixed feelings on him saying it's about the power women have over men too... that doesn't sit well with this universe for me. I find myself glad about Derek and Charlie's reverse Bechdell test though (it IS the Sarah Connor Chronicles after all!).