TSCC 2.04 "Alison from Palmdale"

[hazelk]

1. In the founding myth for this franchise John Connor created himself by sending Kyle Reese back in time to be his own father. In its second installment Skynet created itself from the wreckage of the original machine that it sent back in time to kill John’s mother. In this episode I think Cameron may have created herself by giving the mother of her human template a name. And maybe one day she’ll tell John that name and at some point in the future he’ll meet a 16 year old girl and he’ll know both her name and what she needs to become to save him. John Connor saves the world but he’s not nice.

2. On a more mundane level the blonde girl of the week also become her own creation not by time travel but by a lie. Such a human thing a lie. In Ellison’s version of the Turing test, Weaver convinces him because he believes she told a lie for her daughter’s sake. The newly built machine-Cameron cannot bear to be lied to, it’s a killing offense. Later day Cameron is still offended but as a sign of her humanity no longer finds it a mortal sin, the blonde girl lives.

3. In an episode about identity Cameron’s was fractured to its very core while Sarah rediscovered a part of hers. From the character’s point of view it was a good episode for Sarah, bringing back memories of how she wasn’t just a killer or the mother of a killer. She told a lie that you’d infer has long been a comfort but seeing the effect on Casey took it back only to replace it with what may literally be another. It seems unlikely they can stay in that house indefinitely but if the world blows up maybe that isn’t the point.

4. Cameron stripped of her machine memories cried like a girl. Mimicry perhaps, I think all her tears followed Alison’s in the future, things she’s seen with her own eyes so whether she’s developing her own de novo emotional responses is less clear. In any case I don’t think simple emotions are what make us human in this story – according to Andy, the machines had rage from the beginning and we’ve seen it both in Weaver and in the machine-Cameron when she was lied to.

5. Cameron doesn’t swim but Alison tried to – nice call back to last week. Speaking of which…

6. Tiger!

Comments

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

I'm beginning to warm to Thomas Dekker-John but future Christian Bale-John is very scary and his purposes almost as obscure as Skynet's.

Cameron is herself a 'lie'.
Yes and designed to be a liar but can't bear to be lied to. It makes a kind of sense in that for Cameron lies are a lethal weapon and all work to one clear purpose. So when the humans lie to her that means they're trying to kill her but also they confuse her by telling so many lies and for so many different reasons that they contradict themselves. So she's angry because she's threatened and angry because they forgive the lies too easily - don't take them seriously and because they make no sense and their fuzzy logic is a threat to her understanding of how things work, who she is and who they are.

[bop-radar.livejournal.com]

*nods* That's very well-explained. It's fascinating but makes my head spin a little trying to imagine what it must be like to be her.