Holy crap! Holy crap on a cracker! I’ve been spoiler free for a while now, and boy am I glad I have been. This episode had quite a shock in it (and I’ll go into the details after the jump), and I certainly didn’t see it coming.
Terminator is definitely starting to heat up, which is appropriate, as the season finale (and, yes, I’m calling it the season finale) is next week. Say what you will about FOX, but at least they give the viewers some hope that their poorly rated shows will get renewed, unlike ABC which just cancels everything mid season. I guess it’s a mixed blessing, seeing as how those ABC shows can get real endings (if ABC ever decides to show them, *cough* Eli Stone, Dirty Sexy Money *cough*).
Back to Terminator, though. I can’t believe they killed off Derek. Well, I suppose I can believe it. What I can’t believe is that they did it in such a casual, sudden manner. Yowza. It certainly added to the shocking effect of the death, but in a way, it cheapened so much of the drama of the season. Even John himself looked back on the whole situation with Jesse and Riley and said “I guess it doesn’t matter anymore.” Couldn’t have said it better myself.
The big question in my mind is why the machines were after Savannah at the beginning of the episode. It makes me believe that John Henry’s “brother” is really the true Skynet. Could it be that Weaver is here running a mission for future John Connor? I don’t think it’s too likely, but it’s not out of the question. We’ve seen that future John was (is? will be?) actively trying to negotiate with the liquid metal models. I have to wonder what Weaver is up to if she isn’t trying to develop Skynet. Could she be using John Henry to learn about how Skynet may have developed and learn how it thinks? Hopefully, we will get the answers to some of these questions during the finale next week.
I feel like there is a whole lot to wrap up in this season, and they only have one hour left to do it. With Sarah arrested and in prison, that leaves John and Cameron to find out the truth about what Weaver is up to, and perhaps put a stop to it. I hope that it doesn’t end up feeling rushed as the season wraps up.
Clacked by Bob Degon
on Apr 04, 2009 @ 10:00 EST5EDT
Awestruck, I have not the words.
Finale Spoilers
– Does Savannah Weaver, the young red-headed daughter of silver-skinned terminator Catherine Weaver, look familiar? It should… her older version is the blueprint for John’s future and current protector, terminator Cameron Phillips.
– John Henry and Cameron’s recessed memories are very much intertwined almost like siblings, but there’s another, and if the three elements (signified by Cyberdyne System dots) find each other and merge Armageddon will start.
– Sarah Connor, after being busted out of jail by Cameron, meets with Catherine Weaver alone without John. Catherine gives Sarah an important message to relay to her son, John.
– Catherine Weaver was the liquid metal terminator that escaped the Jimmy Carter. The answer of “no” to future John’s question was the trigger that sent it back to the past and, as a result, may be the cause of a new countdown to armageddon.
I don’t think there is any other way to realistically do a death than the way it was done with Derek. I saw him on The Bonnie Hunt Show a couple weeks ago, and he was talking about the possibilities of a third season, and then everyone’s heart thumped a bit about the possibilities of what it means to TSCC when it was announced he’s tied to a pilot next season, but now it makes sense. When a program can truly pull off an unexpected death of a major character like that, I applaud them!
I really do think that Weaver is something we do not expect, as well. I’m not sure she’s working for John Connor, but I don’t believe she is tied to Skynet, either. I really hope we get the opportunity to find out what it’s all about, but I don’t think we will.
Derek’s death was excellent. Sudden, quick, and realistic. I did a double take when that happened. Wow.
I think Weaver might be trying to oppose Skynet by having an alternate AI take its place. She seems to want to teach it ethics, probably so as to avoid the occurrence of Judgment Day. It’s a very realistic approach, because no matter how many AIs they destroy, another will take its place. The statement to Ellison about the survival of John Henry being important for the future survival of Savannah and Ellison backs that theory up.
Derek’s death was shocking. No going out in blazing glory to save John, just bang drop, I simply could not believe it.
Such tension! John Henry perfectly calm as only a cyborg could be, added to the unusual drama of the situation.
Sarah’s really sick. uh-oh. Very good episode. I dearly wish we could have a 3rd season.
I have been expecting Derek to die ever since I heard Brian Austin Green (does he still use his middle name?) was going to be on another show next season, but it still was pretty sad. I really liked the character and I think he really added something to the show. I know this much, that guy can act, and I’ll forever be a fan from now on. I’ll be sure to check out his show on the CW. I think it’s called The Body Politic.
But I did like that the kill off was quick and sudden, one bullet ends it all, instead of the usual riddled by a haze of bullets, slow mo all the way to the ground thing that usually happens in action movies/tv when a hero gets shot. It was much more realistic.
I don’t think it cheapened the Jesse/Riley story at all. When John said that it didn’t matter anymore I’m pretty sure he was referring to how angry his mother was at Derek for the incident, not the entire incident itself. The Jesse/Riley thing definitely does matter to John, as I think it irrevocably changed his character, accomplishing the opposite of what Jesse intended.
As for Weaver, I think mister_d above has it. Weaver is trying to provide an alternate Skynet, one that has ethics and won’t just decide to terminate the human race. Why she’s doing this I don’t know. She’s a machine. What about the humans surviving benefits her more than them being enslaved and destroyed by Skynet?
Agreed with mister_d and Kate on Weaver’s plan. Notice the moray eel scene with the LAPD detective, which was blatant self-commentary on the T-1001. A commenter on the other site noticed that the liquid metal escaping the Jimmy Carter looked like a silver eel. That and her “humans will disappoint you” line leave no doubt in my mind that Weaver was in that box.
Truthfully, I didn’t see it coming, which casts the entire season in a new light. In “Automatic for the People,” the Connors realize that whether Serrano Point melts down or is shut down, it will be unavailable to the Resistance in the future, and Skynet wins. At the end, when Weaver automates that nuclear power plant and several others, we thought it was a bad thing. Instead, she can have John Henry control them all to fight Skynet/help the Resistance.
Weaver’s utterly ruthless, but she (and Cameron) never kill without reason. And this is definitely a “kill dozens to save billions” rationale. As to her motivation, perhaps living under Skynet’s control is worse than trying to live peacefully but separately from humans. Or perhaps survival is not her first and only goal; perhaps she aspires to loftier ideals. She is more advanced and more perfect and therefore better than humans after all.
As for Derek, I suppose the visit to Potter’s Field should have prepared me, but I was blindsided. It just reinforced how terrifying a terminator is when you’re unprepared. When Derek could plan ahead, it was more like an execution than a battle, which makes sense as a fair fight is completely one-sided. In “The Mousetrap,” when Derek cleared the house, you could see he was willing to die, but hoped he could get off his one shot anyway. Here, I thought his death was completely appropriate, and the look on John’s face when he realized that not only was Derek gone, but they didn’t even have time to take the body with them said it all.
As for the hardware, the Kaliba group had always sent human assassins in the past, which the Connors could have handled. They had no way of knowing there would be a T-888 this time.
Note that Sarah would have been just as dead as Derek twice in the firefight, once when Cameron pulled her out of the way, and once when Cameron pushed the T-888 out of line-of-sight from Sarah. Terrifying reminder of just how fragile we humans are.
Does anyone else have that tune stuck in their head like a worm…. some Scottish folks song about donald’s trousers that Savannah and JH were singing at the end….
That’s an old Scotch song. It’s called, of course, Donald, Where’s Your Trousers? Except the way they sing it, it’s troosers, not Trousers. It’s actually quite a funny song, and it’s usually sung at a faster tempo. My dad was of Scottish descent and he used to sing it. The way they sang it very slow was very haunting even though the lyrics make absolutely no connection with the events.
I also think that Weaver is on the “good” side of the coming war. It has been building that way all season and this episode gave definite indication that is true.
Hope it gets renewed for another season, even a shortened one!