Review: ‘Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles’ Episode #206
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This Week’s Operation: “The Tower Is Tall But The Fall Is Short”
From Fox: “What would a T-1001 need with a Doctor? Sarah, John and Cameron may soon find out as they track down another name on their list. Elsewhere, a woman from Derek’s past surprises him in the present.”
Damage Analysis
“The Tower Is Tall But The Fall Is Short” is the first episode of [[[Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles]]] in two weeks, and it’s about as good as the show typically offers. There’s interesting character development, including the introduction of a new player in the war against the machines.
The episode focuses largely on Catherine Weaver, the secret liquid metal Terminator in charge of ZeiraCorp. As per the episode summary, it looks like Weaver is not a T-1000, but a T-1001. Big difference, folks. It’s an established fact that Terminators can impersonate preexisting humans, but this episode insinuates that the Weaver we know has been impersonating the true Weaver for at least a couple of years. Catherine’s awkwardness around her daughter Savannah makes a lot of sense given that, well, she’s a robot and the kid’s a kid. Not exactly a match made in heaven, unless you’re Arnold Schwarzenegger. Shirley Manson might not have the sickest acting chops on the planet, but she pulls the part off serviceably, all the while adding an interesting new villain in the mix. And, once again, we feel awful for poor Savannah, who has no idea that mommy dearest has more in common with a toaster than she does with her.
John Connor also gets a lot of play, allowing Thomas Dekker more flexibility as an actor. It wasn’t easy adjusting to Dekker as Connor at the series’ outset, but he’s certainly grown more comfortable with the character. In this episode, you get a sense of why John has been acting so angsty lately: it’s revealed that back in the season premiere, “Samson and Delilah,” John killed Sarkassian in order to save his mother. As a psychologist named Dr. Sherman explains, it appears that John is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, not unlike a war veteran. Thankfully, the show is beginning to address the fact that John’s been through the grinder lately with the weight of the world squarely on his shoulders.
Given that, it’s kind of ridiculous that Sarah, Derek and Cameron would allow John to go anywhere unattended, especially to a psychologist’s office. Sure, it’s part of a stake out, but John’s an emotionally fragile mess, and rightfully so. Cameron should’ve recognized straight off the bat that John might risk important intelligence during a moment of vulnerability. It’s possible that they felt more comfortable since the shrink’s office was bugged, but still, John’s the salvation of the future. You’d think that his overprotective clan would take that a bit more seriously.
Stephanie Jacobsen makes her debut as future resistance fighter Jesse. I just watched [[[Battlestar Galactica: Razor]]] for the first time recently, so I had Kendra Shaw fresh in my mind when Jacobsen first graced the screen. Needless to say, for anyone whose seen Razor, it’s clear that Jacobsen can play dangerous. Jesse, who is Derek Reese’s lover in the future war, looks to have been taking surveillance of the Connor Clan. Who knows what the reason is, but she’s certainly not a mere war deserter as she claims to be. Regardless, Jacobsen is a welcome addition to the cast, although the odds of her having any sort of longevity are pretty minimal on a show called T[[[erminator]]].
And therein lies an odd contradiction seen in this installment. A female Terminator from the future shows up and gets into an all-out brawl with Cameron on an elevator. As the two proceed to beat the mother-loving heck out of each other, a family boards the elevator with the fighters. The robots cease their battle in some sort of attempt to avoid confrontation with the family, then resume their brawl after the family leaves. I can forgive that for Cameron, but the other woman is a straight up Terminator, no good guy programming or anything. She shouldn’t have a code of ethics like Cameron does. The scene was put in purely for comedic effect, just a silly gag to get a few cheap laughs. But it doesn’t work, coming off as completely forced and disingenuous.
It’s those little moments, the forced and contrived stuff, that really bring Terminator down. The series is full of excellent ideas, such as The Turk advancing beyond artificial intelligence to gain a sense of humor. There’s also some funny moments, like Dr. Sherman misdiagnosing Cameron with a mild form of autism. The concept of a robot with a social order is just bizarrely amusing. Still, Terminator struggles to find a firm footing this year with its confused, all-over-the-place story. Ironically, despite its poor critical reception and low ratings, the series got a full season order that all but insures a stay of execution for Sarah Connor. Combining the poor reviews, lack of audience and the show’s production value, one has to wonder if Fox made the right call in giving Terminator another shot at life.
Final Assessment: B-
“The Tower Is Tall But The Fall Is Short” isn’t a bad episode, but a wholly unimpressive one. Coupling a poorly defined plot and questionable writing choices, Terminator amounts to little more than an amusing way to spend your Monday night, unlike genre fair with real substance like [[[Lost]]] and Battlestar Galactica.
In The Future…
From Fox: “The Connors find themselves on high alert and in odd company after their house is robbed. Elsewhere, one Terminator terrorizes Ellison, while another gets dangerously close to John Connor. Meanwhile, Derek and Jesse continue to get reacquainted.”
A female Terminator from the future shows up and gets into an all-out brawl with Cameron on an elevator. As the two proceed to beat the mother-loving heck out of each other, a family boards the elevator with the fighters. The robots cease their battle in some sort of attempt to avoid confrontation with the family, then resume their brawl after the family leaves. I can forgive that for Cameron, but the other woman is a straight up Terminator, no good guy programming or anything. She shouldn't have a code of ethics like Cameron does. The scene was put in purely for comedic effect, just a silly gag to get a few cheap laughs.Perhaps an effort to avoid revealing the secret war that's going on to the general public?
In previous Terminator lore, that's never mattered. Look at the brawl that Arnold and the T-1000 have in the middle of the mall back in Terminator 2. T-1000 shoots right through people — he doesn't care who sees him. Heck, even in this show, Cromartie has been seen going after John in public with obvious robot damage. The scene in last night's episode just felt really forced to me, and completely out of sync with previous Terminator scenes.
Have any of you thought that the Terminator sent to the doctor actually WAS good? If the doctor helps with Skynet's development, maybe she was sent to kill him. As Jesse proves, Connor's not the only one sending people back. What if someone thinks killing the doctor is best? After all, Cameron is of the same mindset – kill all those involved. She doesn't hesitate to kill someone if it gets the job done. But here, that family was totally irrelevant. So, they both stopped.
I agree with the last comment – that last Terminator was modified by someone other than Connor so behaved differently than the others that are sent back by the machines to seek and destroy anything that gets in the way of their mission, definitely more to that story than just some random fight in the lift between 2 machines.
Well…they did mention that it was a new model that was upgraded. Maybe this one has emotions? or at least a better understanding of it's situation and is trying to keep the "war" convert. I wonder if this new chick, Reese's gf, isn't part of some kind of human resistance fighting the Conner's in order to stop Skynet in the future. Reasoning on that is that everytime the Conners thwart Skynet in the present, things seem to get worst in the furture. Maybe they think if they can stop the Conners and make JDay happen without any resistance that the machines well be easier to defeat/unprepared in the future. Kinda weird idea but remember in the first movie the humans won and Arnold was sent to kill John/Sarah to weaken the future resistance; in T-3 J Day was delayed and the machines were better prepared because the first try to stop them in T-2 made them aware of the threat and forced them to spend more time/resources to ensure victory.
1. There are sensible explanations are possible for fight suspension. The Machines may be correcting for past mistakes – it is to their benefit that humanity is not alerted to their existence. Creating immediate terror makes the target more elusive.2. Don't understand the negative reviews or the poor audience reception. Yes the story arcs are complicated. But the intensity of the characters is amazing. The fact that there are multiple agendas existing makes the story more interesting not less. That the AI was telling a joke was a fascinating development and "Weaver"'s relationship with her "daughter" add another level of complexity. Will this relationship with a human child change "Weaver"? What if acting like you care makes you care?3. I think this alternate reality is one of the most fully develop I have ever seen and I think it will be a mistake for Fox not to let it play out for the season.