Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles Season 2

[Truth Seeker]

Samson & Delilah


Writer: Josh Friedman

Director: David Nutter

Star: Lena Headey (Sarah Connor), Summer Glau (Cameron Phillips), Thomas Dekker (John Connor), Brian Austin Green (Derek Reese), Richard T. Jones (Agent James Ellison), Garret Dillahunt (Cromartie), Shirley Manson (Catherine Weaver)

Recurring Role: Dean Winters (Charley Dixon)

Guest Star: Sandra Purpuro (Agent Norgaard), Marcus Chait (Justin Tuck), James Urbaniak (Sarkissian), Shane Edelman (Matt Murch), Carlos Sanz (Minister), Roger Guenveur Smith (Sac Federici), Noemi Amarilla (TV Field Reporter), Max Perlich (Walsh)

After the Jeep explosion, John's 16th birthday makes him confront the fact that he's destined to be alone. Meanwhile, after Cromartie's massacre, Agent Ellison must face off against both the Feds and his faith.
​

 

[Arnwyn]

Not bad... not bad at all.

A little deus ex machina in one part (I hope I'm using that phrase right), but still acceptable. Weird and a little off-putting, but acceptable.

And - is that Shirley Manson of Garbage? That's interesting.

And holy hell,

Spoiler

a freakin' T-1000! I was hoping we'd eventually get to see something like that. A little talky-talky for a Terminator (which I hope gets explained), but still.... a T-1000

!

 

[Ranger REG]

And - is that Shirley Manson of Garbage? That's interesting.

Yep, it's her. And she also sang the cool song for the Season 1 montage in the beginning of Monday night's Season 2 premiere episode.

 

[GoodKingJayIII]

I haven't read any of the other responses, because I don't want them to color my own opinion.

There is something I really do not like about this show. I keep watching, keep trying to like it. There are very few concrete complaints I have about the show (though I'll list a few below). There's just something about the execution and atmosphere that really rubs me the wrong way. Wish I could be more concrete than that.

I had a few problems with the episode last night. I did not like the new intro (the longer shots of the terminator being constructed with a lot of expository dialog). I hope that was only for a recap in the 1st episode.

The opening 10-minute sequence after the carbomb explosion just had awful camera work. I know they were trying to go for a particular effect, but I don't think they achieved it.

Shirley Manson was terrible.

Spoiler

I know she's supposed to be a robot

, but they really could've chosen someone else. Maybe she'll surprise me with her acting, but her job was pretty basic last night, and I don't feel she did it.

 

[Troy70]

I for one love it.

Can't wait for next week.

 

[Truth Seeker]

My mouth dropped, when the lady was not a lady, in the men's bathroom.

 

[Brown Jenkin]

I started getting into the show last season towards the end. It seemed to be setting the right tone. This season however has left me way less than excited after the premire.

[sblock]Evil cameron I didn't mind until the end when she was begging for her life. She seemed to be getting to emotional but even then I was willing it let it pass as part of a trick to get herself released. When she said she loved John and then he pulled her core I figured that he knew she was lying because Cameron would never say that.

Then everything went bad in the show. John seemed to have too much of an atachment to her. He decided that somehow the chips in the core had been damaged and then fixed them by dusting them repeatedly. Say What? Then against everyones better judgement, including his uncle who said they can go bad he puts the now dusted chip back in. Ok, Cameron going good was inevitable, but why not let it go at least a couple of episodes.

Next, John is somehow more freaked than normal by something, but I am not sure what. Given all that he has seen up till this point why is he suddenly more freaked than usual. Why was the bad haircut done because he was freaked. If they really wanted to give the actor a really really bad haircut why not let him do it as part of setting up a new identity like they should be doing now. (Oh wait, then Sarah would need a new haircut, and they would be acting rational by relocating).

Then lastly the whole evil corporation. I thought it was bad that somehow there was an evil corp that was being set up that would create skynet. Then it went to rediculous when it turns out a Terminator was running it.

1. When did terminators suddenly become expert at long term infiltration and business management?

2. If you do get a terminator to run a corporation dedicated to seting up skynet, why are they trying to do it from scratch? Why not just bring back the chips and software you need from the future?

3. Why does the T-1000+ have emotions?

4. If the terminator is trying to infiltrate why is it killing high level employees instead of firing them? Killing them will only draw attention.

It really seems like the show is all of a sudden going in a completely different direction. Instead of being about Sarah and John trying to survive and figuring out how to stop skynet from being born by piecing together a puzzle it is now about them fighting an evil corporation with a terminator at its head. Also instead of being about man versus inhuman machine they are ripping of Galatica by humanizing the mchines and making it about what makes one human. If I wanted Galatica I would watch that, I want Terminator which is man vs. persistant inhuman machine. This seems to be heading down the road that happened in Star Trek when the Borg were humanized much to thier detriment. [/sblock]

I will give the show another couple of episodes but right now its prospects don't look good for me. I have to wonder if that between seasons there was a major turnover in creative control and the writing staff.

 

[el-remmen]

I am still giving it a chance.

Sure there are still lots of unexplained things, and the machines themselves are being developed - but that is to be expected when changing a movie format into a long-term episodic presentation. The robots needs to be complicated by the emotional and social requirements of existing unnoticed in pre-apocalypse human society.

I think two things are required to like this show: 1) patience, 2) the realization that things are going to be changed about our understanding of the machines and the setting for the show to work in the long-term.

Also, the first song "Samson & Delilah" is a traditional song, but mostly I've heard the Grateful Dead do it - one of my favorites.

 

[Arnwyn]

I will give the show another couple of episodes but right now its prospects don't look good for me. I have to wonder if that between seasons there was a major turnover in creative control and the writing staff.

Thumbs up to Brown Jenkin's post. Those things bothered me, too, especially now that you mention it in detail.

I can answer one thing, though - John being "freaked out" is because he killed a man right at the end of Season 1. He's never killed before, and it looks like it's not sitting well with him.

 

[Dog Moon]

As for 2. I thought they couldn't come back with ANYTHING. Isn't that why they always were naked? And bringing back something from the future doesn't make sense because if no one ever truly created it because they always got the technology from the future, how would it have been created originally? [dwelling too much on time stuff probably isn't healthy during shows like this, I suppose]

Although it is weird that the machines are suddenly capable of infiltration when I had thought they were mainly weapons. I suppose maybe they could be programmed that way, like a sort of spybot.

For the humanization thing...while it's been a while since the first season, it seemed like that has sort of always been a little bit there with Cameron. I swear I remember a couple points last season where it's like 'woah, that's a big step towards humanity, if it can ever truly be found.' But, to be fair, it did seem like a sort of unique trait among her only.

I do totally agree about the damaged chip thing though. I was waiting for him to have to use some sort of computer skills to fix it or electronics skill to repair wiring or something and that it would take a little bit of time, not simply dusting it off and saying 'okay, all good'.