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The Sarah Connor Chronicles: The Tower is Tall But the Fall is Short
by Brad Trechak, posted Oct 20th 2008 10:02PM
(S02E06) Much of Catherine Weaver's backstory was told in this episode. We have learned that the T-1001 (presumably) killed and replaced the original Catherine Weaver and her husband. Although for some reason we have yet to learn she left the daughter Savannah alive.On the other hand, we still don't know the T-1001's motivations. She has no problem committing murder, as seen in her first appearance. The T-1001 nearly encountered John tonight, so we're still in the dark as to whether her mission is to terminate him (as with all the other Terminators) or something else entirely. If she encounters John and doesn't try to kill him, then she may be part of that cyborg contingent that has some other objective that was seen in the first season.
When the T-1001 acted particularly robotic at the beginning of the episode, I thought it was poor writing and a horrible inconsistency with her previous behavior, then it was explained that she was learning human behavior by watching old home movies of the original Catherine Weaver. That explains a great deal as to why the T-1001 can emulate certain behaviors, but others such as child-care elude her.
Which brings me to another interesting theory: why was a Terminator (or Terminatrix, depending on if they are named according to gender) sent back to presumably kill Boyd Sherman when he is helping Catherine Weaver develop an artificial intelligence that presumably leads to Skynet?
The first possibility is that the Terminator wasn't sent back to kill him but fulfill some other function that may have included protecting him.. The second possibility is far more interesting...
I think the Terminators in the future have started to break into factions. There are the "originals", which are trying to kill John Connor (they tend to act more simplistic), and the "others" which are following a new program whose objectives haven't yet been fully revealed (and these tend to act more sophisticated). Mind you, none of this explains how Skynet is "learning" in the future to make Terminators more sophisticated (such as giving them a self-destruct chip). To me, this begs the question that since all this is history to Skynet, why didn't the Terminators have a self-destruct chip in the first place? Ah, the headaches of time travel.
Not only did the T-1001 not kill Savannah Weaver, she is even acting maternal towards her. Even worse, young Savannah is scared in the beginning of the episode of her mother (and rightfully so), then with a little robotic affection starts acting like she's safe. It's a somewhat implausible change (and I say this about a show involving time-traveling robots).
I'm glad they're finally dealing with the fact that the Connor family needs therapy (just from the first season beating alone). Under the same circumstances, who wouldn't?
When Jesse first gave the idea that she went AWOL from the future, I thought to myself "it's amazing that more future soldiers don't do that". After all, where else is there to run? And how will the future authorities go after them? Then the audience was subtly informed that she was there for a mission regarding Derek and the Connors and my theory was blown to bits.
That was a hilarious elevator fight scene. They hired a contortionist to play the red-headed Terminator and both the interruption by the family with the little boy and Cameron wrapping her up like a pretzel had me in stitches.
A lot happened in this episode that was riveting. The further development of Catherine Weaver, the fight scene, the psychoanalysis of the Connors, the mystery of Jesse and the investigations of Ellison made me want to tune in to the next episode. This series is really starting to find itself. If this quality continues, it could succeed Battlestar Galactica as the best sci-fi currently on television.
| To kill Boyd Sherman | |
|---|---|
| To protect Boyd Sherman | |
| To make pretzels | |
| To have someone to play chess with |
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