T:SCC 2.08 "Mr Ferguson is ill today"

[hazelk]

Sarah Connor is making a safe and burying stuff under the floorboards, which is as good a definition as any of what her life has become. Cromartie turns up and suddenly it’s back to where it all began. Garret Dillahunt does have something of an Arnie look to him. Rounder eyed and less roidy but still it’s there. He’s her original nightmare but it’s not her he wants.

Jump cut back a day to Cameron’s turn of view. From which it becomes clear that much of her gnomic wisdom is more like simple mimicry. Drops her jacket before going into John’s room because “It’s hot out.” When Cameron isn’t sleeping I think she reads the bible and watches cable porn. Future John talks about how lonely it is to be him which in this context begins to sound like a really bad chat up line by a visiting rock star. No wonder 16 year old John is so skeeved out by his future self he skedaddles to Mexico. It saves his life.

John and Riley sitting on a bus and it’s something like the ending of The Graduate when “ the what do we do now” of the situation suddenly hits Dustin Hoffman and Katherine Ross just as the credits fall. Except that there are no credits and it’s not sudden. Riley to her credit actually wants to talk about it – I think in another world she might even be good for John. She has the classic Connor hot and cold commitment issues, if it weren’t for the killer robot thing she’d fit right in. Rocks fall, John phones home and not-his-mother answers. His real mother must be dead.

But she isn’t because Cromartie believes in people. He believes in their usefulness and underestimates their tenacity. Sarah won’t die for John any more but she’ll throw herself out of a moving car and nearly slice her hand off cutting the ropes around her wrists with a crushed coke can while unseen gunshots ring out all around her but still be ready to fight when someone opens the trunk and it’s Agent Ellison.

So the Tin Man has found his Dorothy or Job the Lord but neither of them are too impressed to see him. Stories are merging now, all the ducks coming home to roost in a row. Last to call in is Cromartie’s although strictly machines don’t have stories, things are either true or they’re not. Machines can’t be happy and yet Cromartie looks close to achieving that mystical state as he spots Agent Ellison picking up a first aid kit from the trunk of his car. “You will lead me to the Connors.” That was Cromartie’s story and finally it seemed to be coming true.

But this story had a plot twist and ended badly for the Terminator although in a way that will vid like a mother. They lay the body in a shallow grave and Sarah takes the chip. Sarah Connor making things safe and burying stuff like she always does because what else is there? She doesn’t even recognize the things Ellison has lost. Sarah Connor, hero, mother, survivor finally loses it and for a moment at least John grows up.

Comments

[beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com]

Great review as always! You always manage to pick up on some interesting images and themes.

When Cameron isn’t sleeping I think she reads the bible and watches cable porn.

Heh. :-D Either that, or Future!John did and programmed her with it. Though...

Cromartie believes in people. He believes in their usefulness and underestimates their tenacity.

YES. And I love how in his last episode, Cromartie got to point out that even HE can see that something's wrong with Cameron's chip - and obviously, something is wrong with his too. (It would have to be after all he's been through.) He was a Terminator with free will, an agenda and a strategy of his own (he let the cops live?!?) and I'm really going to miss him.

machines don’t have stories, things are either true or they’re not

And yet it all goes down in one of the most symbolic places imaginable - a catholic church with references to just about every modern Western cliché. This episode had everyone except Derek and possibly Cameron (depending on whether you ascribe her actions to independent/irrational/faulty thought or very careful programming) try to abandon their programming; John made a (last?) attempt at being John Baum, Sarah found herself back where she started and finally had the breakdown that's been 6 years in the making (even if it came a bit suddenly, it's a great callback to a very similar scene in (the director's cut of) T2), Ellison seems to have given up on the law enforcement and thinks he's following his own ideas (even while he's being unwittingly reprogrammed by the T-1001), and Cromartie died in the arms of Baby Jesus in a way that befits... a hero? Or at least antihero? There was a distinct Pale Rider/Tony Montana vibe to his demise, for starters. in a way that will vid like a mother, hell yeah. This wasn't the painful, costly take-down of a Big Bad that we know from the first two Terminators; this was an execution that looked almost like a ritual sacrifice. And while I don't think we'll see Cromartie himself again, like you say, that grave is pretty shallow. And sacrifices tend to come back to life in one way or another, even if the scheduling of the show alone should ensure that it takes more than three days.

I'm not sure what to make of the fact that in Cromartie's last POV, right before John puts a bullet through it, we don't get the usual Terminator POV. Not red, not green. Just an ordinary view with slight digital distortion. What exactly got sacrificed here, when Skynet's most powerful warrior (possibly?) got sent back to our world time and killed? What's the allegory I'm looking for, the almighty all-knowing non-human entity that creates a human son in order to die and bring about a new... something something...

Electricity, Electricity, lama sabachthani?

...sorry. I like symbolism. Carry on.

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

And I love how in his last episode, Cromartie got to point out that even HE can see that something's wrong with Cameron's chip
There was a bit of 'maybe I'm messed up but not as much as HER' in that although his even feeling the need to explain this to a human prisoner is part and parcel of what ails him. I'm going to miss Cromartie.

this was an execution that looked almost like a ritual sacrifice
Exactly, it's like that thing were every villian is the hero of his own story but Cromartie has to go one better and be the messiah of his (complete with metaphorical Judas kisses from one of his own).

Sarah found herself back where she started and finally had the breakdown that's been 6 years in the making (even if it came a bit suddenly, it's a great callback to a very similar scene in (the director's cut of) T2)
It was a little abrupt but once it got going...On the official blog they said Lena Heady got so into the role she actually cut her hand on the gun barrel (so was that real blood in the trunk of the car)?