I’ve almost been expecting there to be some sort of Cromartie backup chip that could hold John Henry’s consciousness and make him mobile again. But, it seems hard to believe Cameron wouldn’t know about it, or Weaver wouldn’t have found it.
Is there a website that does detailed recaps of this show? 'cause we screwed up the recorder, and only got the last 30 minutes of the episode. (And, no, we don’t have high speed Internet, so Dling the episode isn’t an option.)
I assumed Weaver slaughtered everyone at the planet because they let their guard down with the security. But knowing there’s a competing proto-SkyNet out there and that’s why she attacked makes much more sense.
Derek and Jesse realized they were from slightly different futures. The events of 2027 were mostly the same, the only difference we’ve been told so far is that Derek was not tortured in Derek’s future. And the only reason that came about was because SkyNet sent his torturer back to ensure he’d be around in the future, which was after Derek time-travelled. It’s literally the only specific change we’ve seen to the timeline.
I also think Cameron was able to recover because the guy was shakey about going toe-to-toe with a Terminator. He had all the instructions, but asking for clarification ate away at valuable shutdown time.
How would the Connors communicate? Derek was kidnapped, John was on a slow boat to nowhere, Charlie was very dead and Sarah was uncoscious after shocking herself with a defribrulator. The only one that wasn’t incapacitated was Cameron and she did what Terminators do, she attempted to reacquire Derek.
Go to your local library, bring headphones, head to Fox.com.
Cameron knows military action, she is intelligent and, most importantly, capable of learning; the group had various experiences in the past that showed how dangerous situations could have been avoided by a simple phone call. That she doesn’t even consider the possibility that their encounter is more than an isolated event is inexplicable (without going meta, of course).
And though Sarah couldn’t simultaneously shock herself and call her son, no one hindered her dialing his number after she had weathered the attack. Of course, she might have done so off screen, but we have seen her not call anyone in time so often, that an improvement in her modus operandi would have merited some visual confirmation (at least I would like to see her do something sensible from time to time).
I agree. There is a chance, though, that Weaver might not be interested in removing something like that – after all, John Henry is an experiment with an end unknown to us. Even if he went terminator on all of them, he could only hurt the humans, who seem to be expendable.
Cameron, of course, should know … on the other hand … not necessarily.
Justin_Bailey pointed out that there are almost no differences between Derek’s and Jesse’s timeline and, so far, we haven’t actually seen any changes among all the timelines when it comes to the terminators – which is, imo, a major “what the …?”.
We know that the Skynets each have different origins, which means deviating programming, varying resources, contact to other humans, etc. And yet, the 8xx terminators seem to have come from the same assembly line, regardless of their specific “maker(s)”. That would only be acceptable if any other design wasn’t feasible – but that’s just not reasonable.
I think the writers hadn’t been sure for quite some time how to deal with the different futures; but since they have confirmed that people from different timelines are back in one past, they shouldn’t have any problem at all to show variants among the terminators too – and a slightly different Cromartie would fit, imo, quite well into the rules of the world.
Btw., I think it is a great idea that the show points to (philosophical) differences among metal. After all, the T1000s have less in common with the 8xxs and the Skynets than we have with our primate relatives.
The 8xxs follow a traditional design: a mechanical apparatus controlled by a monolithic cpu, built by an assembly line; the T1000s, on the other hand, seem to consist of adaptive, nano-engineered metal that might, in close collaboration, establish some further stage of swarm intelligence.
These are two totally different approaches towards artificial life and I think, the writers made a good choice when they showed the possibility of an agreement between liquid metal and humans; the differences are so fast, that both parties are not necessarily in competition – unless world dominance is each side’s goal.
I liked Cameron’s “You’re welcome,” response to Derek after she saved him. It might have just been in response to Derek thanking her for telling him that Jessie had been pregnant, but it had just the right amount of snarkiness that she could have been saying “You’re welcome,” in response to Derek’s conspicuous omission of thanks for saving his life.
Regarding the last episode, it seemed to me that Cameron was NOT out for the expected 120 seconds. So…I’m thinking she was just insulated. Too many people know that trick after all.
-Joe
I’m a geek and timed it. It was 31 seconds on my watch.
In my head I guessed 30. I’m glad tosee my brain clock is unning well!
-Joe
I guess what I was saying was that it was a coordinated attack. Cameron couldn’t call anyway because there was no one to call. Derek was gone, Sarah was unconscious and John was under gunfire. They could have showed a random cellphone ringing somewhere but they already showed us why none of the Connors could answer.
From my pov, the fact that it was a coordinated attack made their actions even more stupid/stranger. What is Cameron’s prime directive? In her words: “Protect John, prevent Judgment Day!” And yet, while they are under an attack that is obviously not some random mugging, the she-bot takes her time to follow Derek’s kidnappers, rescue him and leave the place in no hurry at all while John might be in mortal danger! Shouldn’t her priorities – and therefore actions – have been totally different?
It should have started with:
=> Contact John to assess if he is in any immediate danger
[ul]
[li]If she reaches him and if there is no detectable present danger, she can then inform him about the situation and warn him. If there is danger, go there asap.[/li]
[li]If she doesn’t reach him, find him asap, which means: contact Sarah etc.[/li][/ul]
That would have made sense, given her priorities.
There’s no reason to call John because she has no reason to believe they are targeting him.
I agree this team really doesn’t communicate well, but as far as Cameron & Derek this time, Cameron did prioritize the urgency of determining if John was okay vs. Derek being tortured into revealing damaging intelligence. John might be in trouble but he’d definitely be in danger if Derek broke.
A little fanwanking there, yeah.
All those attacks happened at the same time. Cameron couldn’t call John because John was under gunfire at the time. He probably didn’t even have his phone on him. It’s not fanwanking and it’s not a plothole.
No reason, Xan? I don’t think so. Like I said: Derek and Cameron weren’t delayed by some street gang who tried to get their money, this was planned. Meaning: someone knows them and their whereabouts. This is already reason enough to check a) how the other members of the split group are doing and b) to tell them that someone is acting against them. If she couldn’t have simultaneously followed the kidnappers and call, I’d see your point – but I am pretty sure her processor allows her to multitask.
The timelines of the events could not have been of equal length: the attack on Sarah must have been over in two but not more than four minutes; even if we assume that all attacks started exactly at the same time, it means that Cameron was still driving towards Derek’s position when Sarah was already on her way to John. And if the attacks didn’t start perfectly synchronized, one call would have helped the other ones greatly.
Of course, it’s no big deal; I just wanted to explain what bugged me.
Of course it’s no big deal, I’m just confused as to why it would bug when the show clearly laid out that these attacks happened at the same time implying that any communication between the group would be pointless.
Sarah rushed back to the house looking for John in a panic was a pretty clear signal to me that she couldn’t call him and he couldn’t call her.
The tight plotting and the callbacks to the movies are one of the reasons I really love this show. Hell, the inclusion of Dyson’s proto-SkyNet even makes the idiotic alien and kidnapping episodes tolerable.
There I agree. But she still acted stupidly: after she didn’t reach John, she should have called Cameron & Derek to give them John’s (last known) location. Would you pass on the opportunity to recruit the additional help of an experienced soldier and a killing machine if you had reason to believe that your son was in grave danger? Obviously, Sarah does. Again. :smack: Else, Cameron wouldn’t have taken all the time in the world to rescue Derek and amble out of the kidnapper’s lair.
And if Cameron wasn’t able to contact John, she should have immediately called the person he left with: Sarah. And once again, she wouldn’t have acted as slowly as she did once she knew what happened to Sarah – even if she had decided to grab Derek first.
You see, the line of communication towards John might have been interrupted but not between Sarah and the other two.
And, like I said before, not reaching John in the current situation should have alarmed Cameron as much as hearing about the attack.
Ah, another point where we agree. 
Two things.
First of all, it’s been shown over and over that Sarah makes really shitty decisions. Over and over. And over.
Second, Cameron couldn’t assess whether John was in danger. She and Derek had NO IDEA where John and Sarah were. That was explicitly state in the episode that they didn’t know about Charlie’s place, or that it was where John and Sarah were.
Again, unless we see the ringing cell phone with nobody answering, it seems pretty obvious that they aren’t communicating. Stuff like that is pretty typical TV shorthand, but it’s also always looked pretty sloppy to me. Since it would have been a good idea to communicate, it seems pretty obvious that they CAN’T. John doesn’t have his phone with him. How do we know this? Because Sarah didn’t call him the moment she thought he was in danger.
-Joe
To avoid a likely misunderstanding: I don’t say that Sarah acted out of character, just that she couldn’t get over her mistrust and therefore acted stupidly … which, of course, is in character.
Cameron, on the other hand, acted strangely. A bit more urgency in her actions and a simple sentence towards Derek, like “We have to find John!”, would have changed my impression of the final scenes considerably. Then, I would just have assumed that she couldn’t even reach Sarah, and so a) wasn’t hindered by her “protect John”-goal while rescuing Derek and b) had simply decided to solve the problem that was in her reach first.
Eh, she had no idea John was in danger. She did know that she and Derek were in danger. If they are going to torture Derek to find John, they don’t know where John is and they are safe.
If she runs off to find and protect John (and she didn’t even know where he was), she risks leading the people who just took out Derek straight to John.
I think she made the best move she could with incomplete information.
-Joe