# Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles Season 2 thread \[open spoilers after it airs\] **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 24, 2008, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terminator-the-sarah-connor-chronicles-season-2-thread-open-spoilers-after-it-airs/465000 "2008-09-24T15:39:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 20
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terminator-the-sarah-connor-chronicles-season-2-thread-open-spoilers-after-it-airs/465000/381 "2008-12-04T18:04:38Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#): > > I thought they were trying to demonstrate the alien thought processes of terminators. In this case, his mission may not have been “kill governor X”, but “kill governor X at this place at this time”, and being the literal, logical, machine-minded things they are, he worked to recreate the exact scenario of his orders. Right, this is the same reasoning for Arnie driving the cop car into the police station and killing everybody in the place in hopes of killing Sarah. Realistically, he could have gone and hung out in a gravel pit for a couple months at least, then shot her in her sleep. John wasn’t even _conceived_ yet, after all. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terminator-the-sarah-connor-chronicles-season-2-thread-open-spoilers-after-it-airs/465000/382 "2008-12-04T18:06:24Z")
> [@Gangster\_Octopus](#): > > Huh? I mean He can change his plans that effectively and so contrived, yet he can’t figure out a different way to klill the governor? Like kils the Governor’s grandmother so he is never born or something like that. I just think the whole story was a freaking stupid contrivance probably started at a story session that went something like, 'What if a Terminator went back in time like 60 years and just waited in the exact spot to kill somebody." “Cool…” That’s certainly an arguably reasonable objection, although it’s possible that the terminator’s mission was not simply “assassinate the governor” but “assassinate the governor at this time and place”. Why would that be the mission? Well, it might be the mission because doing so would cause particular political or cultural repercussions that would have ripple effects that SkyNet (assuming it’s SkyNet who sent back this particular terminator) was interested in… ie, the very public assassination of the governor led to a general increase in security at public facilities, which led to increased funding for computer security software, parts of which ended up being crucial to SkyNet, etc. Or that might have been the mission because it was just phrased overliterally. > [@](#): > > And we are never once given a hint as to why killing the Governor matters…not one. What kind of lame storytelling is that. I think the episode is much better that way. It ties in with your first objection. If we know that the governor is going to be one of John Connor’s supporters in the future, and we know that the terminator’s mission was simply to kill the governor, then all your objections above are reasonable, and the terminator was doing all that neat stuff for totally idiotic reasons. If, on the other hand, we don’t really know what the terminator’s local objective was, precisely, nor how that fit into SkyNet’s overarching strategy, then it makes much more sense for the terminator to have gone to the rather extreme lengths it went to. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terminator-the-sarah-connor-chronicles-season-2-thread-open-spoilers-after-it-airs/465000/383 "2008-12-04T18:12:01Z")
> [@Gangster\_Octopus](#): > > I finally watched this last episode and I must say i am kind of shocked that swome follks found it any good. I thought it was awful. > > 1. What fucking library were they in? Library of Congress of our Imagination? I mean that place had everything, tax records, blueprints, video of obscure newscasts, police records (literally). it was such a lazy contrivance that it made me laugh and grit my teeth at the same time. > > 2. So let me get this straight, the Dillinger-nator is on a mission to kill the Governor of California (inside joke? Governator?)…in 2010. But he is sent back to the wrong time. When was he supposed to be sent back? Because it seems to me that the “plan” to build a building and wait in the walls for 60 years is pretty fucking stupid. That whole story was just stupid as hell and made no sense. > > 3. Terminator Glau is getting feelings. WTF?!?! I do not like this idiocy at all. > > 4. So she did steal the lighter and John’s like. “Meh”. After he almost beat a guy to death over it. > > About the only interesting thing that came out of it was the revelation that Terminator Glau killed tholse bowling guys. Having some sort of City Hall library full of useful information is the least contrived thing they’ve done. The original plan was not to build a building and wait in it. The plan was to arrive on New Year’s eve and assassinate the governor. Temporal error. Wrong New Year’s eve, and to make matters worse, the time bubble started a fire that killed the guy who would have built the building where the assassination was to occur. It’s just Cameron’s conjecture. The terminator could have been waiting to kill someone in 2020, or 2030 for all we know. We don’t know exactly how terminators think, but Cameron was basically thinking, “if I were him, what would I do?” We’ve seen terminators go into long-term waiting mode. What did Cameron do this episode that displayed any more feelings than she already has in past episodes? She told Eric his cancer is back and he should see a doctor, which makes perfect sense since he’s her source of nighttime learning. Learning about people and emotions has always been part of her programming. On preview, what **SenorBeef** said. Although there was a one-liner, sort of. When the evil developer said he was going to squash Stark like a bug, his answer was “we’ll see.” ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terminator-the-sarah-connor-chronicles-season-2-thread-open-spoilers-after-it-airs/465000/384 "2008-12-04T18:26:17Z")
But how could the Terminator know that everything would continue as normal if he just did all that stuff he did to get the building built? I mean, buterfly’s wing and all that stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terminator-the-sarah-connor-chronicles-season-2-thread-open-spoilers-after-it-airs/465000/385 "2008-12-04T18:38:15Z")
> [@Gangster\_Octopus](#): > > But how could the Terminator know that everything would continue as normal if he just did all that stuff he did to get the building built? I mean, buterfly’s wing and all that stuff. It was the best shot he had. And it appears time wants to keep mostly the same. The computer system is still skynet even though it jumped developers. Never mind that the reason behind the construction of a particular building is probably in the realm of background noise. If it ends up looking the same with the same name, people will likely use it for the same reasons. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terminator-the-sarah-connor-chronicles-season-2-thread-open-spoilers-after-it-airs/465000/386 "2008-12-04T18:42:50Z")
They mentioned how the building was an architectural landmark, so it was notable in and of itself for some reason. I agree that the butterfly effect may have rendered the whole thing moot, but most TV shows dealing with time travel/fate have some stupid “fate will find a way” message like there are magical fate fairies reconstruction the universe at all times (this was the main reason Terminator 3 shit all over the franchise). Edit: I think it’s plausible, given how far back the changes took place, and that the exact same building was designed anyway (the terminator would’ve had access to the original blueprints and could’ve designed the building himself to be exactly the same, have the same architectural significance, etc). ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terminator-the-sarah-connor-chronicles-season-2-thread-open-spoilers-after-it-airs/465000/387 "2008-12-04T18:51:53Z")
Well, every time Skynet or the Resistance sends someone back they know it’s a gamble what’s going to happen. I try not to over-think the paradoxy stuff, it’s kind of hard to enjoy the show otherwise. I mean, the whole show is about tossing things back in time and hoping things work out. ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terminator-the-sarah-connor-chronicles-season-2-thread-open-spoilers-after-it-airs/465000/388 "2008-12-04T19:10:54Z")
I will admit I am overanlayzing something that is always going to be full of contradictions. But for some reason this episode just really made me too aware of these things. And I still think that is some sort of Super-Library. ---
**Author:** ![Flander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8c91f0/32.png) [@Flander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flander)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terminator-the-sarah-connor-chronicles-season-2-thread-open-spoilers-after-it-airs/465000/389 "2008-12-04T20:03:30Z")
The super-library is like the internet, but the hot sexy girl REALY IS a hot sexy girl! ---
**Author:** ![Xan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/ac8455/32.png) [@Xan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xan)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terminator-the-sarah-connor-chronicles-season-2-thread-open-spoilers-after-it-airs/465000/390 "2008-12-04T20:21:36Z")
> [@Flander](#): > > The super-library is like the internet, but the hot sexy girl REALY IS a hot sexy girl! Or in this case an robot. ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terminator-the-sarah-connor-chronicles-season-2-thread-open-spoilers-after-it-airs/465000/391 "2008-12-04T20:40:40Z")
> [@Xan](#): > > Or in this case an robot. yeah, but a GIRL robot! ---
**Author:** ![Flander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8c91f0/32.png) [@Flander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flander)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terminator-the-sarah-connor-chronicles-season-2-thread-open-spoilers-after-it-airs/465000/392 "2008-12-04T21:04:24Z")
giggidy giggidy giggidy!! ---
**Author:** ![WilhelmGefallen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/9f8e36/32.png) [@WilhelmGefallen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WilhelmGefallen)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2008, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terminator-the-sarah-connor-chronicles-season-2-thread-open-spoilers-after-it-airs/465000/393 "2008-12-05T01:28:54Z")
> [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](#): > > The thing is, from the little we’ve so far been able to glean about how the show handles time travel, future John _didn’t_ know that the guy that was sent back would arrive dying, since that wasn’t part of his past; otherwise, all this ‘trying to change the past’ stuff would be moot, since everything would just happen the way it was gonna anyway. Good point I’d forgotten about the fact that Jessie & Derek seem to have come from different futures. ---
**Author:** ![Henrichek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5daacb/32.png) [@Henrichek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Henrichek)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2008, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terminator-the-sarah-connor-chronicles-season-2-thread-open-spoilers-after-it-airs/465000/394 "2008-12-05T01:44:15Z")
Let’s all agree to call them fembots, m’kay? ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2008, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terminator-the-sarah-connor-chronicles-season-2-thread-open-spoilers-after-it-airs/465000/395 "2008-12-05T03:56:08Z")
> [@Henrichek](#): > > Let’s all agree to call them fembots, m’kay? With machine gun gazongas? -Joe ---
**Author:** ![Flander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8c91f0/32.png) [@Flander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flander)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2008, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terminator-the-sarah-connor-chronicles-season-2-thread-open-spoilers-after-it-airs/465000/396 "2008-12-05T16:46:15Z")
> [@Merijeek](#): > > With machine gun gazongas? > > -Joe Or as I like to call them, gunzongas! ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2008, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terminator-the-sarah-connor-chronicles-season-2-thread-open-spoilers-after-it-airs/465000/397 "2008-12-05T17:19:20Z")
> [@Flander](#): > > Or as I like to call them, gunzongas! Consider yourself banned. From everything. Ever. God, I hate puns. -Joe ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2008, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terminator-the-sarah-connor-chronicles-season-2-thread-open-spoilers-after-it-airs/465000/398 "2008-12-05T18:14:03Z")
> [@Gangster\_Octopus](#): > > Well technically the guy was attacking Riley because she stole his lighter. > > I forgot about that. > > still, Worst.Episode.EVAR!!! No, actually it was a very good one. Most of your objections made no sense at all, to be honest. ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2008, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terminator-the-sarah-connor-chronicles-season-2-thread-open-spoilers-after-it-airs/465000/399 "2008-12-05T18:26:02Z")
> [@RikWriter](#): > > No, actually it was a very good one. Most of your objections made no sense at all, to be honest. No, it was actually a very bad one. Most of my objections made perfect sense, to be honest. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2008, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terminator-the-sarah-connor-chronicles-season-2-thread-open-spoilers-after-it-airs/465000/400 "2008-12-05T18:28:10Z")
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