Jessie didn't get her ass kicked this time, she intentionally got beat up to hide the fact from Reese that she got her ass kicked. There was no way to hide what Riley did to her, so why not get in a fight to have a real story of how you got beat up.

YOU ROCK. Seriously, I love your review. You obviously love the show, and the characters, and you write everything in an interesting and funny way. Also, you totally have a Cameron fixation. There's no denying it. I know one when I see one! (I have one too. ^_~ She's so cool! How can anyone not?)

Cameron's line about the bird? Definitely the funniest of the night. And yet sad. Poor Cam.

And I thought that I was the only one thinking/hoping Cameron was in that box! XD But I'm thinking not. I think Derek's mission he was talking about (when they said goodbye) was going into the future, which meant Cameron was already there, and had thusly already been with John.

Also? The motor home comment? Too funny. And a great mental picture.

As for who's the smartest on the show, I feel compelled to argue for Cameron. I mean, John is brilliant, but he's been pretty dumb about a lot of things...(we love him anyway though, or, at least, I do). But even though Cameron's a terminator and very smart in some ways, he's infinitely smarter in others. Tough race. But, I would definitely say they're both smarter than everyone else on the show. ;)

Anyway, this is a great review!

I love the whole cast, and I think that Summer Glau is especially excellent. The episode where she was having 'flashbacks' as a human showed the incredible range of emotion she is capable of. (Something we also saw in full effect on Firefly) The fact that she has to exhibit so much restraint as Cameron is a testament to the nature of the character. Her character often displays morally ambiguous expressions, and you don't know whether to find her charming or terrifying. She interjects humor with the right amount of deadpan, and genuine wonder at some of the ways humans react to situations like stress, death, or love. I know that fox will probably end up canceling this great show, and I'll be mourning. But I hope that they at least allow the show to run its full season, and not leave us praying for a film ending.

Sarah: "Going on a field trip."
John: "I call shotgun."
Cameron: "I call 9mm."

Summer Glau is the best thing about the show, and not because she's hot. Every show on TV has at least one female as hot or hotter than Summer Glau. So watching a particular show to see X, who is hot, is not a valid reason for picking one show over another. There's always someone more attractive, anyway. Summer Glau just had a cameo on The Big Bang Theory last week, and while she's very pretty, she's nowhere near as hot as Kaley Cuoco (which is a cooler name, too).

When I first learned that there would be a "hot young teenage chick terminator" in this show, I was incredibly disappointed - I thought the idea was completely moronic. And to an extent, it is moronic. But Summer Glau pulls it off quite well. So much so that she's the best thing about the show. Her scenes are the best, and she really nails the 'robot' thing. That one scene, earlier in the season, when she was trapped between the cars, actually crying and screaming "I love you and you love me" (without blinking) to convince John not to yank her chip out totally freaked me out.

But if you think "robots are not interesting" then why the fuck are you watching a show about robots? Go watch Celebrity Basketweaving or Yodeling with the Stars instead. You'll still fit in at the watercooler....

Oh and the Cameron character - SUCKS. robots are not interesting. I would be delighted if they got rid of Summer Glau and that lame character. there is nothing to develop with a bad actress and a robot character.

I don't watch Terminator for action. I watch it for the layering they're doing. I like seeing the development of Connor and I'd like to see him grow more. It seems his mom has stopped training him and that bugs me.

Good show that has gotten better and I'm hoping it continues its slow march.

Diego:

I think all "infiltration model" terminators have working genitals. Otherwise, they'd be pretty worthless as infiltration units... "show me your junk" would be too easy a test for the humans to use in order to weed out the metal.

Ellison knows about Skynet Judgment Day, as he has read Sarah Connor's psychiatric file - he made fun of it in the series pilot episode. Now that he knows Sarah Connor is actually right, he has shown not the slightest bit of interest in stopping judgment day; rather, he just wants to spread Jesus to the robots. Like most "waiting for the rapture" Christians, the vision of burning skies, incinerated bodies, rivers of blood, and skulls on the streets gets Ellison all hard and horny. He jerks off to his collection of "Left Behind" rapture-porn, and stopping the end of the world is the last thing he'd ever want to do. To Ellison, like any Evangelical Christian put in his position, stopping Skynet would be equivalent to stopping the second coming of Christ (John Connor = Jesus Christ... both are "J.C."). As skynet destroys the world, all the Ellisons out there who "Know" that they are "Saved" will greet the nuclear explosions with a smile, expecting their souls to shoot straight up to heaven, while all the "unsaved" Jews and Muslims burn to death and then go straight to hell to suffer eternal damnation.

Praise Jesus! Praise Skynet!

I'm not sure if the TSCC writers have actually thought this out in terms of Ellison's character... I read that it was the actor, Richard T. Jones, who plays Ellison who "insisted" that his character on the show be religious (how humble of him). But Ellison's actions make perfect from my own point of view, as someone who has nothing but disdain for religion - especially that aspect of religion that causes people to hope for the end of the world.

You guys... Has anyone thought about the fact that maybe... just maybe... Jesse is metal herself?

It's just... We saw her moving that lamp two times by an inch or so. Remember in the sub, when the terminator could not miss by an inch or a second?

I don't know.. The way she moved that lamp made me think about the possibility.

Maybe she's a terminator, programmed to act as human-like as possible?

Maybe it's far fetched... But I won't rule out the possibility.

That Ellison is still working for Ziera Corp is a testament to how stupid religious people are. Any rational person in Ellison's position would have not only gotten the hell out of there, found Sarah again and helped her destroy Zeira Corp (remember, Ellison knows all about Skynet and Sarah's judgment day story from psychiatric interviews which to his great dismay have been confirmed to him via his own first-hand experience). But Ellison is an extremely religious Christian, and the Weaverbot is intelligent enough to use that against him by letting Ellison think he can bring Christ to all the Machines - a "metal missionary" to save their computer chips from eternal hellfire and damnation (heat is a computer's worst enemy, after all).

And Ellison goes right along with it. He "Knows" with a capital K that he's such a great perfect superb Christian that he is the one to teach John Henry about God. He actually has the gall to say "humans are made in God's image" to a humanoid robot!

I find this to be a sad but true commentary on the state of mankind. Computers are anything but irrational, and as such, "faith" is the last thing any computer would have. A human can "Know" that 1 + 1 does not equal 2 if it makes the human feel closer to a figment of the human's imagination. A computer, on the other hand, will always know that 1 + 1 = 2, and it has no "feelings" to induce an error in the calculation.

Ellison can't tell that Weaver is strange? Ellison never thinks to ask John Henry if there are any other robots (cyborgs, non-humans, whatever) like him at Zeira Corp? Ellison never thinks to tell Sarah Connor about what's going on at Ziera Corp? He's no longer with the FBI, and he know knows that the crazy whackjob Sarah Connor is perfectly sane and absolutely correct.

I think Ellison, as a Christian, actually wants Judgment Day to happen - as soon as possible. What Christian doesn't? Since he "Knows" that he's "saved" surely he thinks his soul will shoot straight up to heaven the moment the Skynet bombs start exploding. So at this point, I think the best explanation for Ellison's motivation is that he, like any religious person put in his position, is actively trying to bring about the end of the world, obsessed with the eschatology of the Book of Revelations.

As such, SkyNet and its robots are just following their amoral programming (although the "which came first, skynet or the robots traveling back in time to create skynet" issue certainly puts a twist on that), while religious humans like Ellison, Osama Bin Laden, etc. are actually acting upon their specific intent to bring about the end of the world.

So, I contend that James Ellison is the ultimate villian of The Sarah Connor Chronicles. He's become a faith-based terrorist and he doesn't even realize it. And the Weaverbot didn't even have to do anything aside from softly rub his religious boner. "You, Mr. Ellison, are a man of superb, unyielding faith! What better person to teach morality to John Henry!" Weaverbot had him right there, hook, line and sinker.

"Cyantre said...

There would be so much comedic value if Summer Glau was in that box, especially for any Firefly fan."

Nice one.

Also, "toaster roots" - hilarious.

I love this show. But I take issue with the fact that John didn't totally lose it when he saw Riley's body. Maybe after he's seen so much death in the future he would disassociate, but for now, he's still a teenager who loved this woman. I need a little more emotion on this show. It's starting to feel like the humans are robots too.