Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles #2.10 - Strange Things Happen at the One-Two Point (episode)

directed by Scott Peters
written by Ashley Edward Miller, Zack Stentz
series created by Josh Friedman
based on characters and concepts created by Harlan Ellison, James Cameron

Just when I figure I have this show down, they yank out the rug from beneath my feet and reveal just how much more clever they are than I.

Let's start with Jesse. I figured she represented a faction within the human resistance that was increasingly anxious about John's trust of and dependence upon reprogrammed machines. I thought they would go a broader political route and reveal that she wanted to assassinate John so a less machine friendly leader could rise in his place, but they went a different direction. Jesse wants to take out Cameron because she feels that the time John spends with her as a young man is directly responsible for his future thinking. I knew Derek would be caught between a rock and a hard place when he found out, and such is most certainly the case.

And then there's Riley. Nearly every viewer saw from the beginning that she was little more than a cute crush designed to throw a wall between whatever's going on with John and Cameron, but I didn't expect the twist we got here. She knows about the future and has ties (possibly romantic) to Jesse, who wants her to woo John so as to put up said wall between him and Cameron. It's a brilliant move on the part of the writing team as they twist one of the season's greatest weaknesses into a gripping asset.

And then we get to Ellison. My guess was that he would learn about the Turk (now named John Henry) near the end of the season which would lead to a sacrifice on his part as he saved the day. I was way off. Not only does he learn about it here, but he takes it in stride, exonerates it for the murder of Dr. Sherman (who I thought would be a bigger part of the show), and sets himself up as a moral mentor. And how about that little twist at the end!

This episode just blew me away. Even the Sarah thread, where she got herself involved in a corporate espionage scandal involving an experimental computer chip, was perfectly executed, first playing up her longing for her normal past, then showing she hasn't completely recovered from the nut-house level of obsession Linda Hamilton so memorably depicted in TERMINATOR 2. It was a nice blend of the two Sarahs and it'll be interesting to see how far they take it.

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(review written 11/29/08)