TV Review: Terminator: SCC – Born to Run

Posted by Kevin Carr (kevin@filmschoolrejects.com) on April 11, 2009

The Sarah Connor Chronicles

The Sarah Connor Chronicles, FOX, Airs Friday 8/7c

Episode: “Born to Run” (Season Two, Episode 22)

Synopsis: Sarah is in jail, facing FBI prosecution. John and Cameron are holed up in a seedy motel, waiting for things to blow over. But John Henry is tapping into the police video feed and passing information about Sarah’s interrogation to the Garbage Terminator. Agent Ellison is uneasy with John Henry’s eavesdropping but the Garbage Terminator reminds him that he doesn’t always operate on the right side of the law.

Eventually, John and Cameron orchestrate a prison break for Sarah, which leads them to a confrontation with the Garbage Terminator, and her true nature is revealed. Cameron heads down to the basement to confront John Henry. When the rest of the gang meets up with her, they discover she has given her chip to John Henry, who has jumped into the future. John and the Garbage Terminator follow them through time to emerge in a post-apocalyptic future where they meet up with some familiar but relatively green resistance fighters.

Review: Well, here we are in the season two finale of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, and much speculation surrounds whether this is actually going to be the series finale as well. There’s a lot going against this show in regards to a third season renewal. The viewership at the end of this season is about 20% that of the series premier last fall, and the season two numbers running about half that of the season one.

Also, The Sarah Connor Chronicles was meant to be the lead-in to Dollhouse on Friday nights, and that Joss Whedon show is bringing in more viewers each week. Although the past two or three weeks have leveled out, it’s not uncommon to see a certain percentage of the Dollhouse audience just skipping the Terminator portion of the block.

And in a way, all this trouble is understandable. Season two had more than its fair share of problems. There was a serious focus issue, especially in earlier episodes. It took many weeks to get some of the characters – the title character of Sarah Connor, in particular – out of a funk. At times, the one-shot stories made more sense than those that continued through the overall series arc.

Things started to look up in the last few episodes of the series, but I fear that might be a little too much too late for the show. This season finale definitely opens up some interesting doors. If you thought we were rid of Brian Austin Green, think again. Now that John Connor has jumped into the future with the Garbage Terminator, he gets to meet him again… along with his own father Kyle Reese (played by the boyish man-child Jonathan Jackson, who doesn’t hold a candle to Michael Biehn).

This season finale was a bit of a slow starter, with Sarah Connor in jail, trying to keep John safe from a distance. There were some interesting aspects to the show during the down moments in the beginning. The one that really jumped out at me was Cameron and John’s pseudo sex scene. Sure, they didn’t have real sex, but the tension was there, and considering the scene involved Cameron stripping down, having John climb on top of her and penetrate her… well, if that ain’t Terminator sex, I don’t know what is.

We did get a taste of what John Henry actually is. He jumped into the future, but since he’s no longer connected to the hardware, he’s not the same “person” he was before. And with Cameron’s chip, along with the explanation that even suppressed Terminator programming leads to killing desires, he’s set up to be a serious foe in future episodes.

And let’s not forget the double-crossing nature of the Garbage Terminator. We can’t believe what she says because she lies to everyone. And, let’s not forget the fact that she orchestrated the “hit” on her by letting a piece of herself fly the assault vehicle into her window office (and quite possibly orchestrated the kidnapping of her own child). I’m sure I’m not the only one thinking this was a grand plan to get herself in the future with John Connor… alone.

The lead in to a possible third season looks promising. We’ve got the original Sarah from Palmdale back before Cameron the Terminator kills her. We’ve got Derek back, presumably to hone John into the leader of the future. We’ve got Sarah staying back in the “present” to help John in the future. (And did anyone else notice that Sarah finally said the word “Terminator” in the script… I believe this was the first time the word was spoken in the series.)

Still, the coolest part of this episode wasn’t the episode itself. It was the extended sneak peek at the new Terminator: Salvation movie, due out in theaters on May 21.

Anyway, my hope is that if FOX sees fit to grant a third season, then maybe the showrunners will keep the quality up in these future episodes and not let them degrade like they did in mid-season this year… but I’m not holding my breath.

Up Next: The last five episodes of Prison Break.

For more coverage of your favorite shows, check out the TV for Movie Lovers Archive.

Did you watch The Sarah Connor Chroniclesthis week? If so, feel free to discuss below.


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  • Rick
    Wow. That was some of the best television I've seen in years. It would indeed suck if the show's not picked up, but if this was a series finale, it will have to go down as one of the best ever. This show is just too good not to continue.
  • nomar
    Does anybody know the rating numbers from last night? I hope they were up so the suits might just give it another season at least. This show has alot of potential now that the show has finally found its feet. It will be bad news if TSSC is dropped. Good sci fi on television is slowly becoming extinct.
  • TBITS
    I agree, freaking awesome episode. Lot of sexual tension, lot of explosions, a LOT of Summer Glau. What more could you ask for?

    They definitely need a third season.
  • 790
    Wow what was that? Wow, I've never seen a cliffhanger leave off with so many new questions. I havnt been following this season but last nights finale was real good. One question I have is why is the female T-1000 called the Garbage terminator? She can't be trusted but if she wanted to kill John she would have right when they arrived in the future. I sure hope we get some answers to this.

    The show still has canon issues with the time machine, etc. But as far as a tv show goes that was compelling tv !!!

    I can see if Terminator Salvation blows the Box Office away that TSCC will get a 3rd season. Btw the trailer for Terminator Salvation was meh, I hate the fact that Marcus doesn't know he's a Terminator. Come on what the f, this isn't Battlestar Galactica. And that grunge music in the background was laughable.
  • nomar
    there may be hope for a third season according to this web site.http://terminatorwiki.fox.com/page/Terminator:+Th...
  • sad to say, i've never seen an episode of this show. great review - i'm going to start watching! is it out on dvd?
  • ....wait wait wait...........John Conner basically did it with a Terminator???? TRAITOR!!!!! lol
  • vikoy
    you do know that the LM that joined Weaver was from the eel in her aquarium and not from the HK.. i think we can safely assume that it was the brother AI that attacked..
  • JDV
    Kevin Carr, I think you mistook what happened in the scene in which Catherine Weaver's office was attacked. She did not orchestrate the attack, John Henry's brother's AI was guilty of that. The metal that rejoined Weaver's body was the eel in her aquarium tank. John Henry is Weaver's "son", why would she do anything to endanger him?

    I don't think Weaver has any intention of harming John and Sarah. Do you remember in the flashback episodes in which Jesse is given a message from the liquid metal Terminator (in pandora's box) to give to John Connor? The message was "No", an answer to the question "Will you join us?". The liquid metal Terminator was Weaver, and Jesse delivered the message to Cameron. Cameron was asked the very same question in the Season 2 finale by Ellison, who works for Weaver: "Will you join us?"
  • I was thinking that too, she left a part of herself in the tank as that eel, perhaps to protect herself from ever being destroyed.

    So, why did Cameron give John Henry her chip? After the last few episodes, I'm at a loss as to why the ratings for this are so bad, this and Dollhouse seem to be getting gutted by the Friday night slot, despite really good quality episodes over the last while.
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