Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles - General Discussion

[David T. Cole]

Discuss Here!

[Trini]

Warner Bros. has ALL the episodes up on their online platform CW Seed: http://cwseed.com/shows/terminator-the-sarah-connor-chronicles/

 

I haven't re-watched in ages; I forgot that the first season was so short. I thought it was at least 13 eps.

Edited August 5, 2015 by Trini

[Too Late Kev]

Thanks, Trini, that's an awesome site. There don't seem to be any ads breaking up the episodes, either. Fantastic!

[supposebly]

I finally started my rewatch. I bought the DVDs some time in the winter and just didn't get around to it until now. I'm not sure anyone is still following this, so I might be talking/writing to the ether. As far as I can see, not enough traffic  to create episode threads.

I haven't seen it since it aired and I had forgotten how completely awesome the pilot was. Sarah's fears in her nightmare at the beginning, the completely messed-up way she and John relate to each other and still in some ways, a very basic and normal mother-son relationship.

John begging her to stop it again shows how young he is and that he still thinks his mom can solve anything. It breaks my heart. And strengthens Sarah's resolve.

I giggled at Cromartie walking into the bank, letting it all hang out....subtlety is obviously not his strong suit.

[mattie0808]

I'm around and interested to hear thoughts on a rewatch. I haven't had any real opportunity to do one. I had my issues with the show, but enjoyed it, and was really mad/sorry to see it cancelled before its time. IMHO, it was definitely a better continuation of T1 & T2 than any of the subsequent movies.

[magdalene]

I loved some of the episodes of the first season, but I really love the final episodes of the series. They did some truly fascinating stuff with Weaver and John Henry, etc.  The final scene is great and gives you such food for thought.

I hold the probably unpopular opinion that the mythology in this series is better than in any of the movies with the exception of the first movie.

I am currently re-watching the first season.

[AndySmith]

I have to admit...I ended up liking Weaver/T-1001 a heck of a lot more than I thought I would.

Edited May 18, 2016 by AndySmith

[margol29]

This had to have been one of my all time favorite TV series. I was so upset when it was cancelled. All the call-backs to the first 2 movies were great. It took me a while to get used to a brunette Sarah Connor but it worked. 

I wish I had a forum  to discuss episodes with especially in the second season. Some of those were fantastic. I really need to do a rewatch.

[SparedTurkey]

I wish the writers had let people know how the show would have ended/what would have happened in season 3.

That said, I thought the show did suffer a little bit because John seemed to get more screentime than Sarah...and frankly Sarah was more interesting.

[Too Late Kev]

I still miss this show and watch my DVDs from time to time. "Goodbye to All That" is a favorite.

There was an interview with Brian Austin Green at one point about season 3. He talked about them running around in the future, and that Derek was somewhat different because he'd never lost Kyle. I think he also mentioned John having to fit in and take orders, but I'm not sure.

[mattie0808]

17 hours ago, SparedTurkey said:

I wish the writers had let people know how the show would have ended/what would have happened in season 3.

That said, I thought the show did suffer a little bit because John seemed to get more screentime than Sarah...and frankly Sarah was more interesting.

Agreed on both counts...This show and "Awake" are the shows where I really wish the showrunners would give a detailed accounting of where they would have gone at least for the next season if not in a more overall sense. Sigh.

Also, I kind of wish that the John in this series was more like the T2 one than what was, IMO, a more typical angsty teen. Whether John was supposed to be 10 or 13 in T2 (T2 said 10, T3 said 13, I don't remember if the show made it clear?), as an older teen, I just thought he'd be...different, I guess? He did have his moments though, and it's not like the John in T3, T:S, or T:G was some great shakes!

[Too Late Kev]

John was 15 in the show; he had his 16th birthday at the end of season 1. Cameron was going to pick up a cake (I think) when she was blown up in the car bomb.

[Delphi]

I just came across my dvds of this while packing and am planning on doing a rewatch.  I'm very excited for it.   This was my favorite show for so many reasons and I agree with the above opinion that this timeline works so much better than any of the latest movies. 

I really did love how they were exploring the concept of anew AI to fight Skynet and the idea of Cameron becoming self aware.   

[magdalene]

When did you guys start to think that Weaver was not the bad guy/Skynet? For me it was when she wanted JH to be taught a moral code.

This show had some flawed episodes but there was a lot of great stuff in it.  One thing I really appreciated was how they handled the death of a certain main character -  no dramatic TV  music, no cheesy foreshadowing - just quick and matter of fact death. That was very un-TV show like.

[Trini]

On 6/28/2016 at 9:21 PM, magdalene said:

When did you guys start to think that Weaver was not the bad guy/Skynet? For me it was when she wanted JH to be taught a moral code.

 

Even with that, I still didn't trust her until the finale. It could have been some over complicated Skynet plan, man!

[John Potts]

I liked the way that there were factions of humans that supported the machines (The Greys) since it allowed more complex plotting if the series was to last (alas, that never happened) and it made sense that to have any chance the Resistance would have to find ways to fight Skynet on ITS programming too (the fact that John managed to reprogram Arnie-bot in T2 indicates they could do exactly that).

I never trusted Weaver either - I'd thought she was a Skynet long con. I remember being creeped out when Savanna found "John Henry" and thinking her "mom" was going to eliminate her for knowing too much.

 

Quote

mattie0808 Also, I kind of wish that the John in this series was more like the T2 one than what was, IMO, a more typical angsty teen.

I rather liked the portrayal of John - he certainly had his whiny teen moments, but he did occasionally show the inner steel that would make the "Saviour of Humanity" he was to become.

[supposebly]

Finally getting back to my rewatch. I'm at the intro of Derek and his backstory in Dungeons and Dragons. And I had completely forgotten that he was a bloody liar! He told Sarah that Andy Goode was already dead when he came in. That was absolutely not true as the flashback showed when he woke up.

Charlie and Sarah's good-bye scene broke my heart. I forgot what happens to him but I don't have a good feeling.

Love Ellison so much!

Demon Hand:
Such a beautiful episode. Full of plot and telling scenes culminating with Derek watching Cameron dancing and him almost crying.

Vick's Chip.

Well, and now we see John who starts trusting Cameron. Or possibly his hormones are. And Sarah finds out that Derek is a liar. 
I realize I don't really remember much about the plot, mostly individual scenes like the one when John removes the chip from 
Cameron's head. Or Sarah interrupting Derek's shower or his long toothbrushing.

What He Beheld:

I cry with that scene where Derek takes John to see young Kyle and young Derek. And it hits me that they 
did at least postpone Judgment Day. I know they did but this is when it hits me.
And that scene where all the agents get dropped in the pool is just gorgeous. Poor everyone, poor Ellison, and poor John. 
No birthday dinner and no cake since Cameron gets blown up. It's funny how Sarah insists that they have to do these things.
It's not something I expect from her.

Edited October 18, 2016 by supposebly

[Ailianna]

I liked that with all her hardness and badassery, Sarah realized that the survival of humanity is more that merely the physical survival--they have to keep alive human culture and experience, like birthday cake.

[supposebly]

I'm not sure why but I had to take a break in my rewatch.

Samson and Delilah.

So much love for this episode. Cameron's gorgeous limp. The scene after the car crash when Sarah told John to get away with that brief moment where it occurs to me that they must have had a discussion about such a situation in the past where she explained to him that he would have to go and not come back for whatever reason. Great acting there, and it hits me again how weird John's upbringing is. Not a fan of the haircutting, so cliched. I got his growing up, or at least growing away from Sarah from the whole scene about Cameron's chip. He is starting to rely on his own judgment even when it's incredibly risky. Or maybe he's starting to rely on his hormones. Hard to tell them apart at this point.

Automatic for the people.

I find this episode somewhat confusing. And the beginnings of Railey seem like a regression for John. But I guess it's hard to sustain a crush on someone who tried to kill you and hurt your mother. And it is a reminder that John is still only 15 (16?). In many ways more adult than others but still. And common ground between Cameron and Sarah in the end. Two women about to blow up. 

The mousetrap.

So terrible for poor Charlie and his poor wife. Shut up Sarah, Charlie saved Derek's life once. I love the quiet scene with John and Charlie at the hospital. It shows some growth for him, and possibly some acceptance that this life of his, although not by his own fault, gets people killed. I did find it odd that Charlie, being on the run, would not look up when another car stops right beside him. Same with his wife. That wasn't terribly smart.

Terminators don't swim, they just drop to the ground and walk out. That would take a long time if you dropped them out of a boat at high sea. Now I want an episode of Cromartie walking to shore for a few months and his adventures.

Allison from Palmdale. 

Considering how the show ended, I wonder about the time line here. Other than that, I'm sure it was a nice change for Summer Glau to be able to emote a bit more. I like Ellison a lot. I'm with Catherine Weaver here. Poor Sarah giving birth under those circumstances. 

I wonder if these last 2 episodes were also about Sarah and Connor hardening themselves.

I write poor [enter character's name] a lot. I take that as good writing and acting.

Good-bye to all that.

"We all die for you." What a thing to say to your nephew. But I guess, it's been a long time since Derek was a boy. Marty to Sarah about being a sucky mom. Funny. I wish TV writers would stop using the Wizard of Oz to make their point. Although this one was actually beautifully done. Overall though not my favorite. Too many things to overlook. Like setting claymores where people run. 

The Tower is tall but the fall is short.

Parents and their children. While one mother finds that she can't help her son and is actively refused by him, another - albeit one made of liquid metal - is trying very hard to become a real mother. Although her attempts at smiling are terrifying. And some people never get a sense of humor.  

Derek and his terrible war stories. And his terrible girlfriend.

Cameron gets someone to play with and makes a pretzel.

John has PTSD. Took a while to get to it, apparently. This one should have been done way before the previous one.

 

Brothers of Nablus/Mr Ferguson is ill today.

I have no words. Just an all around great two-parter. And Sarah and John break my heart at the end.

For levity: Derek: "Metal."

When Cameron just walks across the plaza to the police building after he cautions being out in the open.

It's nice they give Cromartie a POV too.;-) Garret Dillahunt just kills in this show.  I think everyone does.

Why did they cancel it again? 

Edited January 9, 2017 by supposebly

[Delphi]

On 1/8/2017 at 5:32 PM, supposebly said:

 

When Cameron just walks across the plaza to the police building after he cautions being out in the open.

 

I love that scene as well.   Cameron is so resolute in her,  "I can't let anything happen to him," while Derek looks completely flabbergasted that she actually cares. 

[margol29]

I was bored waiting for new shows in the fall so I started a re-watch of this show. Looking back I realize what a great show this was. All the call-backs to the original first and second Terminators. I just love Garret Dillahunt! I an so happy that he is still being cast in popular shows.

I was really hoping for a season 3 that could have gone in fantastic directions.

[Whimsy]

48 minutes ago, margol29 said:

I was bored waiting for new shows in the fall so I started a re-watch of this show. Looking back I realize what a great show this was. All the call-backs to the original first and second Terminators. I just love Garret Dillahunt! I an so happy that he is still being cast in popular shows.

I was really hoping for a season 3 that could have gone in fantastic directions.

I agree.  I really loved this show and am still sad it was cancelled. 

[margol29]

Just finished the re-watch. Man I totally forgot about some of the episodes. 

"Goodbye to All That" Great episode. I loved Sarah reading The Incredible Wizard of Oz to the young boy. As Derek and John were killing the terminator at the military school, Sarah was reading a passage from the book that went with the chase.

"Self Made Man" A good stand alone episode. Gives us a peek into what Cameron does during the night.

Spoiler

I totally forgot that Riley was from the future!!

[Raja]

I do wonder if Riley being a weak point got them to create the story line where Cameron was built as a copy of an actual person as opposed to the body builders in the original movie?

[margol29]

Good point, Raja! I realize that all terminators can't look the same for reasons that the same actor can't play all the parts. (Not everyone is a Tatiana Maslany.) LOL But you can write it off as Skynet not wanting to be recognized using the same body. Also, some Terminators are Infiltrators so they would not all look the same. 

[Llywela]

1 hour ago, margol29 said:

Also, some Terminators are Infiltrators so they would not all look the same. 

From memory, I believe this was the central point of the Cameron terminator: she was specifically built for infiltration purposes, modelled on a very specific individual known to have access to the inner circles of the resistance movement. There would only have been a few such individual terminators, with the majority built to a more standard model, I guess - I seem to remember in the show's flashforwards seeing a lot of terminators that weren't given human form at all, more basic robot-types. I suppose only those that needed to move covertly among humans needed to be given truly human form - the more covert their mission, the more individual their design would need to be.

[paulvdb]

Of course they'd need different models. Otherwise the resistance would just see someone who looks like Schwarzenegger and immediately know that he's a terminator.

[Llywela]

46 minutes ago, paulvdb said:

Of course they'd need different models. Otherwise the resistance would just see someone who looks like Schwarzenegger and immediately know that he's a terminator.

Well, yeah, but Cameron is built very differently from the other terminators we see. Her programming is different as well, designed around an actual human personality. A lot more effort went into her design than the average terminator. There wouldn't have been the need to make that much effort for most. I mean, the only reason to have terminators look different at all is if they specifically need not to be recognised - which would mostly be for infiltration purposes. In general, in Post-Apocalyptic Future terms, if they are mostly just guarding or building or whatever, it wouldn't matter what they look like, so they could all look the same - heck, an army of Schwarzenegger terminators guarding a prison camp would totally freak out the inmates, which would support the goal of keeping them frightened and passive!

[Raja]

33 minutes ago, Llywela said:

Well, yeah, but Cameron is built very differently from the other terminators we see. Her programming is different as well, designed around an actual human personality. A lot more effort went into her design than the average terminator. There wouldn't have been the need to make that much effort for most. I mean, the only reason to have terminators look different at all is if they specifically need not to be recognised - which would mostly be for infiltration purposes. In general, in Post-Apocalyptic Future terms, if they are mostly just guarding or building or whatever, it wouldn't matter what they look like, so they could all look the same - heck, an army of Schwarzenegger terminators guarding a prison camp would totally freak out the inmates, which would support the goal of keeping them frightened and passive!

When we saw uncle's back story we saw damaged humans and skeleton terminators in the prison guard role. 

The question is were all of them modeled on specific people or was Cameron special in that an actual prisoner served as her template? I   would think that using actual people would force random appearance before the liquid metal models appeared 

[SparedTurkey]

12 hours ago, Raja said:

The question is were all of them modeled on specific people or was Cameron special in that an actual prisoner served as her template? I   would think that using actual people would force random appearance before the liquid metal models appeared 

Cameron was special - she was modeled on, I want to say Alison(?), who was a part of the inner resistance I believe. I think there was an episode about Alison and explained how that came about - now I want a rewatch haha!

This show was a casualty of the writer's strike is that right? I think it was going in a really interesting way. Plus Shirley Manson and her slicing necks down a hallway. I loved Lena Headey in this (saw it before Game of Thrones which is why I always expected Cersei to have weapons hidden in her walls haha!) as Sarah Connor. Plus the redheaded child was also great and not....like some children in tv shows. I wish the writers would have released what they were planning for season 3. Would have been a good show I feel.

[Affogato]

On 10/24/2018 at 5:17 AM, SparedTurkey said:

Cameron was special - she was modeled on, I want to say Alison(?), who was a part of the inner resistance I believe. I think there was an episode about Alison and explained how that came about - now I want a rewatch haha!

Cameron at one point thinks she is Alison and calls her mother, who is pregnant with Alison (it is implied she may name her daughter Alison because of the call: “that’s a nice name”). That’s after she is blown up at the end of season one. Cameron is different in seasons one and two but still investigates the human experience. She is fascinated by death because she knows she will die. 
 

i assume at the very end that is Alison. The dog is a questionmark. Kyle is given a picture of reasonably young Sarah with an Alsatian. Is it the same dog?  If Sarah travels in the normal linear way she would be much older if she lives to see john again. 

Edited November 7, 2019 by Affogato
Spelling

[Affogato]

I have ‘t watched this since it was on the air. Until now, a combination of the new movie and time due to foot surgery. 
 

really impressed by how dense each episode is—intertwining storylines, reactions to events. Very impressed by Thomas Dekker’s portrayal of John Conner’s change into someone who makes his own decisions, and his many very believable teenage reactions. Sarah’s struggle with this. 
 

i wish it had continued but in making the transition to the future for John it does come to a natural and satisfying conclusion. That surprised me, i didn’t feel that way at the time. Of course there is a lot of story left to be told, but less Sarah Connor and more Joh Connor? Possibly. 

Edited November 7, 2019 by Affogato

[Llywela]

59 minutes ago, Affogato said:

Cameron at one point thinks she is Alison and calls her mother, who is pregnant with Alison (it is implied she may name her daughter Alison because of the call: “that’s a nice name”). That’s after she is blown up at the end of season one. Cameron is different in seasons one and two but still investigates the human experience. She is fascinated by death because she knows she will die. 
 

i assume at the very end that is Alison. The dog is a questionmark. Kyle is given a picture of reasonably young Sarah with an Alsatian. Is it the same dog?  If Sarah travels in the normal linear way she would be much older if she lives to see john again. 

The significance of the dog in that final scene is that it proves that the person holding the leash is the human Alison, not the terminator Cameron. We were shown previously in the show that dogs react to terminators, I think we are shown dogs being used to sniff out 'metal' because they always react. So the dog is included in that scene to prove that although John is seeing a person who looks like Cameron, it isn't Cameron but the human Alison, who Cameron was specifically created to resemble. Which means that John has reached the future at an earlier point than Alison's capture and death.

Damn, but now I'm longing all over again to know what was planned for season 3.

[Affogato]

6 hours ago, Llywela said:

The significance of the dog in that final scene is that it proves that the person holding the leash is the human Alison, not the terminator Cameron. We were shown previously in the show that dogs react to terminators, I think we are shown dogs being used to sniff out 'metal' because they always react. So the dog is included in that scene to prove that although John is seeing a person who looks like Cameron, it isn't Cameron but the human Alison, who Cameron was specifically created to resemble. Which means that John has reached the future at an earlier point than Alison's capture and death.

Damn, but now I'm longing all over again to know what was planned for season 3.

That makes sense although my assumption is a dog could learn to accept one, like a human could. Familiarity breeds ... familiarity.