Okay, so just for the record? What we saw last night was not really a "two-hour finale". It was the next-to-last episode and the season finale, played back to back. I'm just saying. I enjoyed both episodes very much -- more on that in a moment -- but I wish networks would stop playing this particular marketing trick. Because some shows actually do go out of their way to create finale episodes that sustain and cohere over two hours, and that's not what this was. There's a way to advertise things like this without being deceptive.
Rant over. On with the nice words now ...
In "Vick's Chip", we do NOT find out that Skynet's grandfather is the Commodore VIC-20, if that's what you were thinking. Because we all know that Turk is the illegitimate love child of an Apple IIe and a TRS-80 (Model III). No matter what that tramp Amiga 500 says.
Anyway, the Vick in this case refers to Vick Chamberlain, the name the T-888 cyborg was using as it lived its normal, married life before wiping out all of Derek's teammates in that safe house. As it turns out, his mission was not to hunt down the future rebels (that was just a fringe benefit), but to help his human wife Barbara create something called ARTIE, which is basically a city-wide traffic control system. Unbeknown to Barbara, this system will eventually become a surveillance "nervous system" for Skynet. Long story short, since Cameron thought to save Vick's processing chip, the Connor Crew are able to hack into it, learn about his mission, and thwart the plan by patching Cameron's chip directly into the traffic network. Day saved.
Between all the main action, we get a lot of anti-Cameron posturing by Derek, who may or may not have known about Vick's mission, but who Sarah now realizes lied about killing her geek boyfriend Andy. So nobody trusts anybody at this point, except John, who seems to trust Cameron more than he probably should. Which might have something to do with the fact that he seemed ready to kiss her as he slid that processor chip back into her hole (DIRTY!). Which begins to make me wonder -- just what kind of relationship do these two have in the future??? "Tight" presumably. We already see them keeping secrets from Sarah together -- like the fact that Cromartie is hot on their heels. I wonder exactly what we'd see if we hacked into Cameron's chip?
"What He Beheld" (the ONE-hour finale) opens with a flash forward to June 2011 -- Derek & Kyle enjoying their last few moments of childhood innocence, playing ball, moments before some nukes pass overhead, kicking off Judgment Day. Jumping ahead a bit, this sets us up for another scene later in the episode, when Derek will take John out for some ice cream to celebrate his 16th birthday, and the two of them will sit in the park watching two kids play ball. At first, you think it might just be a simple thematic callback on the writer's part ... but it actually is a slightly younger Derek & Kyle. John figures this out, Derek confesses that he knows John is a Reese, and John the teenager gets to hand a ball to his five year old father. It's all very touching, in a paradoxical way.
The major plot line deals with the Connor Crew's ongoing hunt for the Turk. They've used the contact info Cameron obtained from the Russian to broker a $500K deal -- via internet cafe -- with some bad-ass dude with a British accent named Sarkissian. But it's all a setup. This guy has been doing his homework, and knows that information about The Outlaw Sarah Connor is worth far more than half a million dollars. Things get complicated, Cameron kills a henchman, Derek holds a gun to a little girl's head, Cameron agrees to go to the prom, Sarkissian dies, and in the end, they still don't have the Turk. And, as it turns out, they didn't even kill who they thought they killed. The real Sarkissian was the dude behind the counter at the internet cafe.
Meanwhile, Our Man Ellison is still hot on the trail ... but of Cromartie now, instead of Sarah. Thanks to a tip from Charlie the EMT, which leads him to investigate "Agent Kester", combined with the cyborg hand that was briefly in his possession, Ellison knows now that he's dealing with a machine. Unfortunately, he doesn't know enough about exactly how dangerous that machine is, and in his naiveté, executes an FBI raid on Cromartie's hotel room. The result is one of the most cinematically impressive scenes I've ever seen in a sci-fi TV show ...
With Johnny Cash's "The Man Comes Around" as the soundtrack, we watch from the bottom of a pool as one broken FBI agent after another is thrown unceremoniously into the increasingly blood-tinged water -- one, two, three, half a dozen, a dozen -- all sinking slowly toward the camera. That scene alone was worth the price of admission. When it's over, we see Cromartie pointing a gun at Ellison's face. Ellison shuts his eyes, a beaten man, ready to die ... and Cromartie walks away. Not sure why. Because he knew he wasn't a threat? Or does he need Ellison alive for some reason?
But this is not the biggest shock of the finale. No sir. Johnny Cash is not finished singing. We see a scene between Sarah & John, who has in fact remembered John's birthday, even though John believed she would not. They joke and smile, and Sarah tells him that Cameron has left to pick up his cake. (Uh oh -- things are way too happy here.) Cut to Cameron climbing into their black SUV. She smells something odd, looks around, sees Sarkissian walking down the street, turns the key in the ignition ... and the SUV blows up. Apparently, more than one man has come around. My guess is that the bomb was meant for Sarah. But this is probably little consolation to Cameron.
Next season (?), on The Sarah Connor Chronicles: We finally get to see what Cameron looks like naked. Completely naked. Without any skin or muscles. Just a shiny, curvy exoskeleton. Oh, and good news for all the Brian Austin Green fans out there -- his character didn't die!
Seriously FOX, you better renew this one!
Did you miss an episode? Or are you just a little confused about what's going on? Then watch this handy 2-minute recap to get yourself caught up in advance of tonight's 2-hour season finale ...
Just imagine if FOX had gone to this much trouble to keep viewers hooked into some other great shows ... like Angel, or Firefly, or Arrested Development, or Undeclared, or the Adventures of Brisco County Jr., or The Lone Gunmen. And if you don't even know what those last two shows are, blame it on whoever was in charge of FOX at the time. I'm just glad to see that they seem to be putting a lot of effort into keeping this show around.
"TooMuchFreeTime.net, that's awesome!" - Brian Austin Green
Last Thursday, Freakgirl sat in on a conference call with Josh Friedman, writer and executive producer of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, and Brian Austin Green, who has been playing Derek Reese, Uncle from the Future. The quote you see above was really the most important moment of the entire call, but just in case you want see what else Freakgirl learned, read on ...
The entire call has been reprinted at the end of this post, but for those you who don't feel like reading it, I'll summarize the key points, then repeat the entirety of Freakgirl's question, which came at the end.
- The season finale we'll see tonight wasn't supposed to be the season finale. It just turned out that way because of the writers strike. But Josh seems to think it was actually a good place to end the season.
- Josh is aware that the time travel aspect of the show is under heavy scrutiny by the fans, and admits that sometimes, he and the other writers just sit and stare at each other when the timeline gets too overwhelming.
- Brian Austin Green can carry heavy things.
- Josh had to stop watching Battlestar Galactica, because he was afraid watching Ron Moore's handling of the Cylons would influence his vision of where he wants to go with the cyborgs in Terminator.
- The show has not yet been renewed for a second season.
- Josh originally wanted to bring back Kyle Reese, but decided to create the character of his brother and bring him back instead.
- Josh would like Season 2 to be funnier, along the lines of a show like Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
- Josh and B.A.G. both know what happened to Derek in that house where he was being held prisoner ... but neither are telling.
- B.A.G. is a hard core Star Wars geek.
AND NOW, HERE'S FREAKGIRL'S QUESTION:
Moderator: Gentlemen, we have one last question and it’s from [Freakgirl] from TooMuchFreeTime.net. Please go ahead.
BA Green: TooMuchFreeTime.net, that’s awesome!
Freakgirl: Hello, guys.
BA Green: How are you?
Freakgirl: I told my readers that I would be on this call today and overwhelmingly they wanted to know, will we ever find out who painted all those doors at the high school?
BA Green: I’ve read a lot of that question myself, Josh.
J. Friedman: I hope so. I know. So I hope that you know. I don’t know if anybody can tell by the way that we put the show together but I really do try to plant things and pay them off and I really hate television shows that abandon ideas; whether it’s sort of carryover emotionally from episode to episode. That’s one of the reason the show is so serialized is I just feel compelled to constantly track these things through. That story line -- that’s it, that story line is part of the story line that was certainly supposed to be resolved and I was going to continue with it and resolve it in the first season. There’s been some high school stuff that we shot that actually explored that stuff more that ended up on the cutting room floor. High school stuff is one of those story lines that whenever --
BA Green: It’s touchy, right?
J. Friedman: What?
BA Green: It’s touchy, isn’t it?
J. Friedman: Yes. High school is one of those weird things where it’s like either there’s fans that they don’t want any high school stuff and there’s fans that like the high school stuff and I kind of have my own opinions about high school and what it’s there for. So whenever I go to high school stuff I kind of want it to be important so I definitely had this whole big story that I was working on. Some of it got dropped for time during editing and I wasn’t around to edit, so it happened. I don’t even know that I disagree with it. So the answer to that is a very longwinded way of saying I don’t know. But I haven’t forgotten about it and there was a plan. There’s always a plan. Executing the plan is a whole different matter.
AND NOW HERE'S THE ENTIRE CONFERENCE CALL:
(all names of questioners have been edited out)
Moderator: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to the Terminator interview with Josh Friedman and Brian Austin Green. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. I’d now like to turn the conference over for a few words and opening remarks from Tra-Mi Callahan. Please go ahead.
T. Callahan: Hello. It’s Tra-Mi Callahan from FOX. Thank you so much for joining us today on the Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles conference call. We have with us today Josh Friedman, who is the executive producer and creator, and joining us shortly will be Brian Austin Green --
BA Green: I’m here now.
T. Callahan: -- who plays Reese on the show. Before we open it straight up to questions and answers I’d like to remind everyone that Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles has a special two-hour season finale on Monday, March 3rd from 8:00 to 10:00pm. And I would also like to ask call participants to limit their questions to one per outlet in an effort to give everyone an opportunity. Thank you so much for waiting around for us. Let’s go ahead and start the Q&A.
Moderator: Our first question will come from [---] from the Pittsburgh Post. Please go ahead.
Q1: Hello, there, Josh. I had a quick question. I know the show’s ratings have been pretty good, maybe not great, but pretty good. But I also understand it’s a very expensive show to produce and I’m just wondering what you think the odds are of renewal given the rating situation and the cost of production?
J. Friedman: Well, let me take the second part. You know it’s not actually an expensive show to produce. In fact, I think we’re below the budget of many action shows that are on TV right now. In fact, our budget is much more in line with your basic drama that you would find on any network. So I don’t think that cost at this point plays much of a factor.
Q1: Okay.
J. Friedman: As to the ratings, you know I don’t know what to make of it, really. I think that the show has done well for a new show and for a new drama. There are not many that do very well or haven’t been doing very well, certainly in the last strike era. And we do very well in certain demographics. We do very well in DVR. We do very well on downloads. I think for our type of show that is a big chunk. We were one of the top five shows being TiVo’d right now, which is how I watch the show because otherwise no one would know that I’m watching.
Q1: Thank you.
Moderator: Thank you and we’ll go to [---] from Zap2it.
J. Friedman: Brian is here now, right?
BA Green: I’m here.
J. Friedman: Oh, goody.
Q2: Hello, guys. Thanks for doing the call. I guess my question is probably for Josh. At what point did you decide that the point that you’re reaching in the second episode on Monday was the right point for the finale and what sort of finale is it in terms of the tone you want to leave viewers with?
J. Friedman: Well, you know it’s serendipitous. I wasn’t there. I was on strike and so this is the number of episodes that we had reached; we had only written up to this number and produced up to this number when I went out on strike. So it happens that a lot of stuff locks in and comes together during these last two episodes and frankly, that’s just dumb luck. If we would have gone one episode more or one episode less I think it would be probably less satisfying.
Q2: This is not the point that you guys slated at when you initially pitched the first 13 to FOX.
J. Friedman: No.
Q2: Okay.
J. Friedman: No. But I don’t know that four episodes from now would have been a much better finale than the one that we have.
Q2: But there’s still some cliffhanger point that you’ll have to get to next season, hypothetically.
J. Friedman: Well, yes. I’m kind of thinking about that all right now. Again, the strike is such a weird situation, but the school of thought is, well, you could start next year picking up almost where you left off, but sometimes what the next episode, episode ten isn’t necessarily right for a season-two premier. So I think you have to rethink how much continuity, not continuity, but how much carryover you’re going to have from where you plan or it gives you a chance to sit back and say, alright, what can we do for season two? I have a plan going forward. It’s just how we integrate that into the beginning of season two.
Q2: That makes sense. Thanks a lot, guys.
Moderator: We’ll go to [---] from TVIsMyPacifier.com. Please go ahead.
Q3: Hello. Thank you both for taking the call. I have to say first that I am extremely nervous. I’m a huge fan. Is there anything you can tell us about the upcoming season finale? Of course without giving too much away.
BA Green: Oh boy. Josh?
J. Friedman: First of all, TV is also my pacifier so --
BA Green: It’s a really hard question.
J. Friedman: A hard question; I’ll just say there’s a lot of chickens and a lot of roosting.
BA Green: You know, it’s funny, I was online last night going through some of the chats just to see what people were talking about, and this is one of those shows, unfortunately -- I mean it’s unfortunate for me in the sense of whenever I do an interview that if you give any little bit of anything, people will talk enough about it that they’ll start to figure out what’s going on.
Q3: Right.
BA Green: So it’s a very fine line of what you can and can’t talk about.
J. Friedman: It’s cool. I’m kind of with Brian. I’m a fascist about spoilers. I’m the biggest pain in the ass to the marketing and promotion department, and I think they were very happy that I was on strike for 14 weeks. I seemed to be --
BA Green: ... around you?
J. Friedman: Yes, they ... whatever they want to do and since I’ve gotten back I get these little e-mails and they say, “Can we show this?’ And I say, “No.” If I had my way the commercials would be 30 seconds of black with the words “Sarah Connor” on them.
BA Green: I actually did a talk show one night and the only clip we could get of me on the show, because I hadn’t premiered on it yet, was the teaser from the episode before, so it was like “Next week on the Sarah Connor Chronicles” and it showed my running and fighting, everything that everybody else had seen. We couldn’t get anymore footage than that. I knew at the end of it all that was Josh’s doing.
Q3: That keeps it interesting for the fans, so --
BA Green: It does keep it very interesting for the fans.
Q3: Thank you very much.
BA Green: Yes.
Moderator: Thank you. Next we’ll go to [---] from SYFY Portal. Please go ahead.
Q4: Hello, everyone. It’s SyFy Portal, but Josh, I really appreciate you guys taking the time to talk again. And Brian, I’m really enjoying you on the show --
BA Green: Oh, thank you. Good.
Q4: I think you’re a great addition to it. But Josh, you know one of the things that writers, they’re going all over the place with this plot. I’m wondering where it’s going and how it works in with the entire back-story of the Terminator franchise. But I guess the biggest question is is that in the past that people just assumed it was very difficult to make the time travel jump, which is why we haven’t had so many jump backs from the Terminators and stuff, and why there’s always been limited instances of it. But now in the series it seems like there’s almost like a highway going back and forth in time travel highway. How do you keep that highway in check at the point where you’re not stepping on yourself by creating potholes all over the place? Why don’t they just send everybody back and just do this, or just drop a nuclear bomb just in the middle of something to just get it done with, or send something back with a thousand chips in it so they can build all these robots? How do you try to stay away from all that?
J. Friedman: That’s a --
BA Green: Didn’t we just talk about this, Josh?
J. Friedman: I try not to abuse the time travel too much. I think we think about it all the time. I’ve been in the writer’s room and there will be points, it happens at least once a day where all of a sudden we just go quiet and everyone stares at each other because we completely tilted like a pinball machine because we can’t wrap our brain around what we’re trying to do. I think that I have a pretty specific idea as to what I believe the rules of our universe are and I try not to violate them. I think that chaos theory abounds and that’s always my argument, a specific geek argument, why doesn’t Skynet just send -- well they can’t send a nuclear bomb back. I think even Skynet probably at this point understands that the causality is so complicated that it’s unclear as to what any one thing might do. So I think to do something en masse is a very -- they might end up destroying themselves, when they need the humans as much as the humans need them to kind of -- well, they need the humans more right now, until later, once they’re created, then who knows.
Q4: Do you think that’s something that might eventually come up in maybe in the plot if there is a second season or so? Or is that something that’s just fans will have to just kind of assume is there and just argue it out?
J. Friedman: Well I think it’s great to argue it out. When it’s the movies, there’s that sense of refrigerator logic where you sit down, you watch the movie, it’s a big chase, it’s adrenaline and it hits you when you’re driving home or later, you’re like, “wait, wait, he just sent his best friend back to birth himself” -- you can go crazy just off the first movie and with a series obviously there’s much more time. One, there’s more time to analyze it, and two, over time we have to introduce more elements so it becomes more complicated and it starts to fold in on itself. I just try to keep it clear and I think stay true to the basic ideas of the movies. It’s a lot to wrangle.
BA Green: I don’t think you abuse the time travel thing at all. You’ve had the opportunities. We had the conversation too, of the possibility of bringing Kyle Reese onto the show instead of Derek. But then within that was the whole concept of, okay well then at what point are people actually dead and at what point do we have to realize that a character is gone. I mean that’s --
J. Friedman: Yes.
BA Green: It’s a weird, confusing line. I don’t know how specific you can really get with any of it because at the end of the day it’s something that’s completely nonexistent at this point. So who knows how one thing can overlap into another and how one decision can affect another? It will probably be an argument we’ll be having until the end of time.
Q4: Brian, do you know of any plans to keep you going in the second season at all, if there is one?
BA Green: That’s a question for Josh. I have no idea.
J. Friedman: All I’ll say is that I think Brian is doing an awesome job and I think he’s brought more to the series than I even imagined that he would. So I’m really happy.
BA Green: I can carry heavy things. I think that’s what --
J. Friedman: He moves furniture.
BA Green: I’m hauling furniture --
J. Friedman: He’s like a grip.
BA Green: I’m really helpful with cleaning days and stuff like that in the house.
J. Friedman: That’s why they kept him on 90210 so long actually.
BA Green: (Inaudible.)
J. Friedman: At some point he was just walking around carrying Shannon Daugherty’s gondola or whatever that thing is called.
BA Green: That should be episode one of season two, I’m just in the house with an apron on lifting furniture and just cleaning underneath things because I’m strong enough to do it. That would be awesome.
Moderator: And we do have [---] from TheArnoldFans.com. Please go ahead.
Q5: Hello, Josh.
J. Friedman: Hello, [---]. I just saw you last weekend.
Q5: That’s right. Did you have a good time at WonderCon?
J. Friedman: I had a lovely time at WonderCon.
Q5: Yes. Really quick, I just want to say over the last few weeks I’ve visited some famous locations from the Terminator films, like the Tiki Motel, Cyberdyne Building and Big Buns Restaurant. Have you or will you consider writing in any scenes to be shot at actual locations from the films in season two?
J. Friedman: I hadn’t thought about it. I’m just happy when I get to go outside and shoot anywhere.
Q5: Well let me ask, maybe, Brian, where was the future war battlefield location shot, and did you have a good time with that?
BA Green: Oh, I had a fantastic time with that and that was sort of shot all over. Most of the battle stuff was in downtown Los Angeles, and it was actually a concrete recycling factory. So it was helpful, they didn’t have to bring the actual cement in, just everything else.
Q5: Right. Did you get to keep your outfit?
BA Green: I wish. Because if I did, I would actually have it on one of those mannequins in my movie room or something, here. It was the coolest thing ever. The blaster alone, the fact that I was the only one with a green scope on it was pretty cool. But there were a bunch of specific little things all through the costumes that -- just little details that you really didn’t pick up, but everybody had Terminator Kills on their sleeve, these little badges. And they were just little Terminator heads but everybody had one for every kill. Some guys had one and I think I had seven, which was pretty cool.
Q5: Thank you.
BA Green: Thanks.
Moderator: Thank you. And we’ll go to [---] from SF Universe. Please go ahead.
Q6: Okay. This one is for Brian. We talked a little bit about this on the last conference call. What’s it like to be in a scene with an actress that really as a machine can’t react to you the way a normal actor would be able to react to you?
BA Green: Well, it’s fantastic for this job. Summer is so good at completely staying in those moments and I think that oddity is what sort of creates the tension and excitement in the scenes. You do scenes all day long with people that react and when you have somebody that just sits there and blankly stares at you they almost end up becoming these staring competitions. And Summer and I will sort of laugh by the end of them if we haven’t made it all the way through, just because it’s an interesting relationship between the two of us. They’ve both known each other for a long time and there’s a lot of tension within it.
Q6: And that’s really come through on camera too.
BA Green: Oh, good.
Q6: Thanks for taking our questions.
BA Green: Thanks a lot.
Moderator: Thank you. And we’ll go to [---] from MotherOf AllDestiny.com.
Q7: Hello, Josh and Brian. How are you doing?
BA Green: Good. How are you doing?
J. Friedman: Good.
BA Green: I was on MotherOfAllDestiny.com last night just to check out the site.
Q7: Oh, well thank you.
BA Green: I like it.
Q7: Well, good to know that I’ve got all of your attention there. Thank you guys for having such great content that we can always put up there. So the character of Derek, how is it for you, Brian, knowing that you are officially now a member of the Reese family, that your character has kind of become a member of the mythology of the show?
BA Green: Yes.
Q7: Have you thought about what it would be like that maybe your character might get integrated into other things like novels or comic books down the road?
BA Green: No. I hadn’t thought about that at all. Again, it’s almost like wrapping my brain around actual time travel. It doesn’t really -- people have asked me that before and just going into the first episode that I had, Josh knows, I was really worried about how people would respond to me playing this character. I was a huge fan of the films and I was a huge fan of Michael Biehn and Kyle Reese as a character. So I knew I was kind of holding a heavy weight in taking it on.
At this point it’s not really how involved in the franchise or how big a part of the franchise I am or not, it’s really for me just the daily stress of making sure that I’m being true to the character in the franchise. So that’s the most important thing to me at the end. When I go on your site or any of the others that the fans don’t have a feeling that I have somehow let them down as far as what they would expect from Terminator as a franchise. So that’s all I really think about. If I end up being part of a comic book, that’s bad “....” If I don’t, what I’m doing now is bad “....” So at the end of the day this is all just really cool.
Q7: Alright. Well, thank you.
BA Green: Thanks.
Moderator: Thank you. We’ll go to the line of [---] from Starburst Magazine.
Q8: Hello, Brian. Hello, Josh. Thanks again for doing this today.
J. Friedman: Sure.
BA Green: Thank you.
Q8: And my question actually is for Brian. Brian, I wanted to find out, maybe you can tell us, what were some of the acting challenges you found for stepping into this role, and how does seeing your character grow and develop in the episodes you’ve done so far?
BA Green: Oh my God. That’s a very in-depth question. The challenges -- I’ve got to say the biggest challenge going into the show was the fact that I was hired the night before I started work. So I really knew very little of the character except for the first script that I had in my hand, which is the first episode that everybody saw of my character. So the big challenge for me as an actor was the next day on set whenever I’d see Josh, just asking him as many things as I could. Just trying to get as many answers to questions as I could, because picking up a script and not knowing what happened before, and it’s like, okay, what the hell is a Turk and what -- there’s so much involved in every script. The scripts are so detailed. And I really had no reference.
That’s been the hardest thing for me as an actor is trying to make sure that I have enough back-story to really understand what Derek is doing and what his thought process is. Development wise he went from living in the future where he was fighting every day to survive to now being in a world with a blue sky and grass, and fighting for a different reason. It’s at times just a huge rollercoaster for him. He still really has no grasp of it. I mean, he’s just coming out of nearly dying. So he’s got a lot of growing to do I would say.
Moderator: Thank you. And next we’ll go to [---] from I09.com.
Q9: Hello.
J. Friedman: Dude, dude, seriously, ease up on us.
Q9: What?
J. Friedman: Ease up on us, dude. You kill us.
Q9: Really? You mean our coverage?
J. Friedman: Yes, your reviews. You kill us every week.
Q9: Really? No, we love the show. We’ve been really nice about it. We’ve snarked a little bit.
J. Friedman: I read.
Q9: Wow. Well, now I feel -- I didn’t know you were reading our reviews. That’s such -- wow. That’s good to know.
BA Green: What Web site is this?
Q9: I09.com.
BA Green: Yes, I haven’t read any of them. Are they just killing us every week, Josh?
J. Friedman: Oh, it’s a combination of killing and snarking and -- there’s joy in there somewhere, I guess.
BA Green: Oh, okay.
J. Friedman: Yes.
Q9: We’ve been really nice about the show as a whole --
BA Green: Just so you know, we read everything. We do. I was on last night looking at my list of people I’d be talking to, going okay, let me go on some of these sites and see what people are saying so I know what’s coming up and what I’ll have against me.
Q9: No, I think we’ve been pretty much positive in general about the show, with the occasional bit of snarking, I think. So the question I wanted to ask, I had a couple of questions, but I’ll just pick one. In the last episode when Summer is doing ballet and there’s this whole thing about they start to want to have our culture and they want to have what we have, are we heading towards the thing where the Terminators are going to by like ... and they’re going to have more emotional stuff going on? Because it seems like there was a hint of that.
J. Friedman: Well, first of all, I would argue, with all due respect, to Ron Moore that ... have wanted to be like Terminators for many years. But --
Q9: Right.
J. Friedman: Probably all of them wanted to be like Blade Runner. But I think she is a more advanced model and she has more ability to at least mimic emotion and do some things. I think any time you have any form of cyborg, android, ..., whatever, there’s always a temptation by the writers to start exploring that whole humanity thing. How far it goes and where we go and what her limitations are is something I’m still exploring. It’s interesting because I think that for where -- there are two groups of people I think who watch these shows, there are the real sci-fi people who watch these shows and then there’s everybody else.
Q9: Right.
J. Friedman: It seems that everybody else has probably never seen Battlestar Galactica and probably can’t remember Blade Runner and couldn’t tell you what was going on. So they’re all fascinated by it, and then you have the people who’ve seen every episode of Star Trek and watch that episode where ... -- and they’re like, oh they’re going down this road, because we’ve seen this road, and you sort of have a responsibility on the one hand, I think, to try to explore it in the ways that it most obviously occurs. And then I think to the people who’ve seen these things before, which includes me, you want to keep those people interested so you want to explore it in the ways that we haven’t seen it before.
Q9: Right.
J. Friedman: It’s a delicate balance and we only had nine episodes in and everyone has a different idea as to where, what Summer should be doing, and what Cameron’s attitude should be, and is she feeling emotion or is she just pretending to feel emotion? If you continue to pretend do you eventually feel? How is that possible? It’s something that we toss around a lot and we’re working through it. But when I was writing the show I would not watch Battlestar. I said to Ron Moore, honestly I had to avoid Battlestar for like a year because I couldn’t handle -- they do those things so well, or at least I think they do, that I really wanted to go off on my own and not think about it. Anyway, I don’t know if I answered your question.
Q9: Yes. I think that’s very helpful. Thank you so much.
Moderator: Thank you. And we’ll go to [---] from MovieWeb.com. Please go ahead.
Q10: Hello, it’s MovieWeb, actually, but I was just wanting to spend some time to talk about season two, and have you actually officially been renewed for season two yet?
J. Friedman: No.
Q10: You haven’t? Are you expecting an offer on that any time soon or --?
J. Friedman: I hope so. Everyone’s sort of -- the first year show is sort of the ritual for first year shows is to come back into the network and tell them what season two is. Things are just a little weird this year because of having the strike so we have to readjust what our season two plans are. We’re going to go in and sit down with the network and we’ll do a post-game on season one and talk about season two. They’ll make the decision. FOX, they haven’t made a decision on any shows yet. So I fully expect to get in there with them pretty soon and hopefully have an answer pretty soon because we need to start writing.
Q10: You said that maybe episode ten might not be a best start for season two, so are you planning on still integrating the last three episodes from this season that you never got to make, into the second season somehow?
J. Friedman: Well, that’s what I’ve been sitting around and I’ve been thinking about. Some of those episodes were -- I can’t tell you what episode ten is, but episode ten was a fantastic episode ten and an absolutely horrible season premier for a season two. “....”, it is heartbreaking for me. I just wish I’d gotten -- I really, really wanted to do episode ten, it was like one of my favorite ideas and I can’t do it. I really can’t do it because it would’ve been a terrible season premier. So you know --
Q10: It was a really cool episode though.
J. Friedman: Yes. But it’s not doable. Yes it’s going to take some re-jiggering but I think there are ideas and beats from those episodes that we had planned and hadn’t filmed that will definitely be making their way in. It’s nice to -- I’ve got a little perspective on the show and when we were working on episodes 10, 11, 12, 13, we had yet to air episode one. So it’s nice to actually now have seen the show and sort of educate yourself on your own show on what works and what doesn’t work. It’s like you have a second chance with a look at it.
Q10: If you ... will it be just a half season as well or are you looking at maybe going like a full like 24- or 22-episode season or will it still be like a half season?
J. Friedman: Again, that’s up to FOX. I don’t know. Last year I had 22 planned and we switched it to 13 and we did nine. So I’m always -- when I sit down and plan a season out, until someone tells me otherwise, I plan for 22, and if it’s not going to be 22 I make adjustments. But I always plan for 22. I’ve had ideas for probably the first three or four years. I’ve got arcs for them. Sometimes it just a matter of moving things up or moving things back or seeing where it goes.
Moderator: Thank you and we’ll go to [---] from Deadbolt.com. Please go ahead.
Q11: Hello, guys.
J. Friedman: Hello.
Q11: Josh, this is actually for you. Now originally you wanted to bring back Kyle Reese, we know. I was just wondering how did you plan on portraying that or how far did you have that mapped out before Derek joined the picture?
J. Friedman: I’m not going to say how I was going to do it but I had an idea but it was one of those things that probably worked really well on paper, and I could easily explain it to you if we sit down for ten minutes. But I think if it was probably something that was a bit of bridge too far for an audience, and again, Kyle is sort of a sacred cow and I think one thing to see him in the future and it’s another to see him in the present. I don’t know, I still hold out hope that somehow I’ll figure out to get him back, but every time I ever brought it up everyone looked at me like I was completely insane. I listen to everyone every once in a while when it’s unanimous.
Q11: Okay, right on. Thanks a lot, guys.
J. Friedman: Sure.
Moderator: Thank you. And we’ll go to [---] from Hollywood.com. Please go ahead.
Q12: Hello, gentlemen. How are you?
BA Green: Good. How are you?
Q12: Good. Thanks. I’m kind of excluding Cameron from this question, but my question is, is nothing funny in the future?
J. Friedman: In the future or in the present?
Q12: In your present. Cameron gets all the comedy but nobody else ever seems to be anything but angry. Well, I mean, I can’t see it’s the end of the world.
BA Green: She gets the comedy though by chance. She’s not like Jerry Seinfeld. She’s not standing up there with one liners and --
Q12: “I call nine millimeter.” Come on, guys. It was awesome.
BA Green: Yes, it was. That was just an awesome line. That just worked out well.
J. Friedman: I think that -- it’s weird. In the pilot there’s absolutely no humor at all and I say that having written it. And then I sat down and wrote the second episode and I put a lot of jokes in it and most of them were Cameron’s. Everyone ... the table read and when read, it was like, I was really funny. And everyone’s laughing; it was like we had a sitcom taping. And it was like, God, first of all no one thinks that I’m ever funny and I know for a fact that I’m hysterical. They wouldn’t -- everyone was like, wow, that’s really funny, it’s really funny and I remember Lena came up to me and she’s like, Josh, this is really funny, I’ve got to do comedy in here. Now you never told me I was going to do comedy. I was like, well, let’s go for it.
Every time people just put on the boots and the leather jackets it just seems people get pretty serious. I’m going to try to get more comedy next season. It’s one of my vows, is that we explore more of the dark humor of the situation. I think there are shows -- Buffy did a great job with that many moons ago. I always thought it was a great balance. So if it’s not funny, that’s really just my fault for not getting there. Every time I sit down to do it just comes out the other way.
BA Green: I laughed in the pilot when she hit [Cromartie] with the truck. That’s was actually .... I got a huge laugh from --
J. Friedman: It’s always funny when somebody gets hit with something but you end up with Three Stooges humor or Cameron says something odd. But I think there’s never more --
BA Green: You never know when humor is going to be funny until you shoot it or really until we’re on the day, on the set doing it. You read it and you don’t really pick up the humor until you’re doing it. There are just a lot of odd moments that become really humorous, that are just humorous out of being so odd, I think. Those are the ones I always laugh at.
J. Friedman: Yes, they’re strange, there’s just not a lot of ha-ha. But I’m going to work on it, I promise everybody.
Q12: Thanks.
Moderator: Thank you. And we do have a follow-up from [---] from TVIsMyPacifier.com.
Q13: Hello.
J. Friedman: I’m so nervous. How are you, [---]?
Q13: I’m good. It’s been fun listening. I just wanted to find out will we ever find out what happened in the room that they took Derrick to before he was released? And if that house is the house that Sarah and John are living in now?
J. Friedman: That is not the house that they’re living in now, I will say that. I will actually give a definitive answer.
Q13: Okay.
J. Friedman: That is not the same house. And it is certainly my goal that we find out what happens down there.
Q13: Okay.
J. Friedman: I originally planned on doing four episodes -- if we had a 22-episode order of the first year, I had pitched doing four episodes that took place in the future out of those 22.
Q13: Oh, okay.
J. Friedman: Then when we had an order of 13, we were going to do two, and then I was still planning on doing a second future episode out of one of the four episodes that was not filmed because of the strike, was going to be a future episode where we probably would have explored that. But we didn’t get there.
Q13: Right, and --
J. Friedman: Hopefully next year.
Q13: Now, Brian, do you know?
BA Green: Do I know what happened in the -- ?
Q13: Yes.
BA Green: I do.
Q13: Oh, okay, okay. Alright. Well, thank you.
BA Green: Thanks.
Moderator: Thank you. And we have a follow-up from [---] from SF Universe.
Q14: Josh, you touched on this briefly saying you had kind of fallen behind on Galactica ... I was going to ask you both what other current shows are you watching right now?
J. Friedman: American Idol on FOX. I love that little Daniel what’s-his-name. I watch, and I’m not up-to-date, so no one spoil it for me, I’ve not seen the last Liar but I’m a religious Liar watcher. Every time they ask this question I completely blank out on what I watch. What else --?
BA Green: I’m not watching any television, really, at all except for this show, to be honest.
J. Friedman: Good answer.
BA Green: No, it’s actually the truth. It’s the only thing I am TiVo’ing and watching really just out of the excitement of it, being on set and shooting what we shoot and then sitting back and seeing how it all comes together. For me I can read a script ten times and there are still things that I miss that I don’t really completely understand until I watch it. But it’s really the only thing that I’m watching weekly.
J. Friedman: I also really like the New Adventures of Old Christine. I do. It’s funny. But I watch the Liar and I love Dexter when Dexter’s on. The same shows that everybody else likes.
BA Green: I’m always just waiting for shark week.
J. Friedman: Oh, yes.
BA Green: I spend most of my time waiting for shark week.
Q14: So Brian, what would you say, I guess, are some of your all time favorites?
BA Green: Some of my all-time favorite shows?
Q14: Yes.
BA Green: Oh, ... I watched Battlestar Galactica when I was a kid. I had the toys and it was the coolest thing in the world when Universal Studios had the ride, where the tram went through and the [Cylons] were out and all that was going on. Now, God, I’ve always been more of a movie watcher really than a TV watcher. I think when I watched television it would tend to be more on the comedy side. I’d watch a lot of Three’s Company and shows like that.
J. Friedman: Dude, you’re talking like you’re 100 years old.
BA Green: I am 100 years old. Are you kidding? I’ve been in this ... business longer than most of our cast has been alive.
J. Friedman: I know.
BA Green: It’s ridiculous, you know. I’ll hang out with Thomas and he’s 20 years old, I’m like, really? Yes, my SAG-card, I’ve been a member since ’85. It’s just my life dates me. There is no real way of making myself look any younger within it all. I’m a huge Star Wars fan, ultimately. I’m Star Wars to the end, until I die.
J. Friedman: Yes, so am I. I’ve even --
BA Green: I’m in my room right now with all my movie memorabilia and I have so much Star Wars ... I’m such a nerd. I’ve got Darth Vader’s helmet and Princess Leia’s gun, and I’ve got Han Solo’s gun and then all the light sabers, all in cases, the signed editions. It’s retarded.
J. Friedman: I have the little Darth Vader Lego with the cape hanging on my keychain right now.
BA Green: Do you really?
J. Friedman: Yes.
BA Green: Dude, I’m such a --
J. Friedman: Yes. I still spent like $100 on Star Wars Lego stuff at WonderCon just for my three-and-a half-year-old.
BA Green: Yes, I saw the bag. You know what was really sad was like I almost got in a fight with Megan over wanting to get stuff for my son. And she was like, “He doesn’t need anymore. All you ever do is buy him Lego Star Wars stuff.” And I was like, “Yes, but I’m sure there’s a Jawa there and it’d be awesome, he’d love it.” I’m a total -- I’m a nerd and my son is a big Star Wars nerd now also. I’ve destroyed him.
Moderator: Gentlemen, we have one last question and it’s from [Freakgirl] from TooMuchFreeTime.net. Please go ahead.
BA Green: TooMuchFreeTime.net, that’s awesome!
Freakgirl: Hello, guys.
BA Green: How are you?
Freakgirl: I told my readers that I would be on this call today and overwhelmingly they wanted to know, will we ever find out who painted all those doors at the high school?
BA Green: I’ve read a lot of that question myself, Josh.
J. Friedman: I hope so. I know. So I hope that you know. I don’t know if anybody can tell by the way that we put the show together but I really do try to plant things and pay them off and I really hate television shows that abandon ideas; whether it’s sort of carryover emotionally from episode to episode. That’s one of the reason the show is so serialized is I just feel compelled to constantly track these things through. That story line -- that’s it, that story line is part of the story line that was certainly supposed to be resolved and I was going to continue with it and resolve it in the first season. There’s been some high school stuff that we shot that actually explored that stuff more that ended up on the cutting room floor. High school stuff is one of those story lines that whenever --
BA Green: It’s touchy, right?
J. Friedman: What?
BA Green: It’s touchy, isn’t it?
J. Friedman: Yes. High school is one of those weird things where it’s like either there’s fans that they don’t want any high school stuff and there’s fans that like the high school stuff and I kind of have my own opinions about high school and what it’s there for. So whenever I go to high school stuff I kind of want it to be important so I definitely had this whole big story that I was working on. Some of it got dropped for time during editing and I wasn’t around to edit, so it happened. I don’t even know that I disagree with it. So the answer to that is a very longwinded way of saying I don’t know. But I haven’t forgotten about it and there was a plan. There’s always a plan. Executing the plan is a whole different matter.
Moderator: Thank you. And Ms. Callahan, did you have any closing remarks today?
T. Callahan: Yes. Thank you, everybody for joining our call today. My apologies for the delayed start. Hopefully everybody got their questions answered. And a reminder that Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles has a special two-hour season finale on Monday, from 8:00 to 10:00 pm. Thanks everybody.
J. Friedman: Thank you.
BA Green: Thanks.
The Connor Crew cleaned up some loose ends this week. First, there was the "Case of the Missing Hand" -- tracking down that pesky cyborg appendage that got left behind a couple of episodes ago. Exercising her usual restraint in dealing with issues like this, Cameron blacks out the entire city in an attempt to retrieve said hand from the police evidence locker, but comes up short. Disappointed, Sarah assigns her to the "Case of the Missing Turk" -- tracking down Andy's computer, which is now in the hands of The Russian.
Sarah takes on the Missing Hand situation herself. Proving yet again that cyborgs are not the only ones who can play Make Pretend, she calls the police station acting like she's a policeman herself, and determines that Ellison (FBI dude) must be the one who has the hand. She tracks down where he lives, searches his apartment, and also comes up short. But she does find some of her old "Sarah Goes Wild!" tapes from the 90s -- one of which she makes the mistake of bringing home with her, which John of course finds, and watches, and learns that she signed away rights to him, just days before the events in Terminator 2.
Meanwhile, using these tapes as a lead, Ellison has tracked down one of Sarah's old psychiatrists, who -- after coming face to face with both an Arnold and a Morphy cyborg in the 90s -- is now holed away, waiting for the Apocalypse. He drugs Ellison, wakes him up, babbles about Doomsday for a bit, Ellison gives him the hand, he babbles some more, drugs him again, then lights the place on fire. Sarah arrives before he has a chance to get away, knocks him out, takes the hand, and saves Ellison's life. The doc ends up in the nut house, Ellison starts going to church again, and Sarah destroys the hand.
Cameron has equally good luck. She joins a dance class taught by the Russian's sister. And this, of course, is an inside joke for those of us who know that Summer Glau used to be a ballet dancer before she injured herself and became an actress instead. Cameron gains the sister's trust, makes contact with the Russian, learns that he sold the Turk, gets the contact info of the buyer, then coldly walks away and leaves them both to die, further establishing the contrast between her and Sarah.
Then at the very end of the episode, we get an oddly beautiful scene of Cameron dancing alone in her room, with Derek Reese watching quietly, a pained expression on his face. If I'm not mistaken, it's the same music that Derek and his buddies heard while being held prisoner by Skynet in the future. My guess is that he and Cameron -- or a duplicate of "Cameron" -- met during his incarceration (before he saw her at the rebel headquarters). Maybe he's even seen her dancing before. Maybe ballet dancing is one of the ways she was trained to move in a more human-like fashion?
Next week, we get the 2-hour season finale, and I have a feeling we'll learn a lot more about both Cameron and Reese. After that ... who knows. I haven't heard yet whether the show will be picked up for more episodes. I hope so. But where FOX is concerned, I know enough not to get my hopes up.
Well, it happened. I knew it would. After the first 4 or 5 episodes of a sci-fi series, either I decide it's simply not worth my time -- as most recently happened with Flash Gordon and Bionic Woman -- or the other thing happens ... I get hooked. The latter happened for me with last week's episode of Sarah Connor, and continues this week. The premise has been firmly established, a few ongoing plot lines have been set in motion, the characters have become familiar, and now it's as if the writers have just pulled up in a truck and said to me, "Come with us if you want to live."
Anyway, here's the breakdown for the last two episodes ...
First off, I have two words for you: "GuIDANce Counselor". Enough said about that. Except, how funny was Cameron during that scene? As pointed out in the most recent episode, Summer Glau is really managing to pull off a version of this character that is more often downright creepy than funny, which keeps her from coming off as silly. If that makes any sense.
Okay, so Andy Goode enters the scene again as the potential father of Skynet, when he calls Sarah to let her know that her burning down his house (which he of course doesn't know was her) was a good thing. Because in recreating Turk, he's made him better than ever. Bottom line, he enters Turk in a chess competition, and Turk loses, but somebody -- not one of the Connors or Cameron -- kills him anyway. The most likely suspect is Derek Reese, brother of Kyle Reese, John's father. Did NOT see that coming! Well played writers, well played. And did I mention he's being played by 90210's Brian Austin Green?
Sarah visits Derek in jail, finds out who he is, then helps him escape from both the police and from the T-888 cyborg that killed the rest of his Future Unit back in the second episode. Cameron takes the terminator down and removes its hard drive, effective disabling it. But Derek has been shot up a bit during this encounter, and in order to save his life, John makes an executive decision: he goes to fetch Sarah's ex, Charlie Dixon, who is an EMT.
This week's episode picks up from there. Charlie manages to save Derek's life, with the help of a blood transfusion from nephew John, while Sarah finally breaks down and gives Charlie the whole story, cyborgs and time machines and all. He takes it remarkably well, warns Sarah about the FBI agent (who we know is Cromartie) that's on her trail, then exits gracefully. I'm sure it's not the last we'll see of him, though.
Meanwhile, at least half of the episode is flashback material buzzing through Derek Reese's unconscious brain. Of course, it's only a flashback to him. To us, it's a flash forward, because it's all events that happen before Derek gets sent back in time. We get to see the show's version of Kyle Reese (any old General Hospital fans out there recognize who it was?), ogling the show's version of the photo of Sarah Connor that MADE him fall in love with her before he ever met her. And now, of course, we realize that John Connor likely gave Kyle that photo to make him fall in love with his mother, so that he could go back in time and bang her on the first date, thereby knocking her up with John. Which is kind of creepy. But hey, global destruction by robots makes a man do strange, unorthodox things.
We see the Reese brothers and a small society of other humans living in what is essentially a foxhole. When Derek and three others go out on patrol, they're attacked and taken prisoner by cyborgs. While imprisoned, Derek meets an older version of Andy Goode, who confesses to being responsible for Skynet. Derek and his crew escape -- although it's unclear how -- where did that ax come from? -- and head back to the foxhole, only to find it has been cleared by the cyborgs. They meet up with some other humans, who take them to the new headquarters. Derek learns that his brother is still alive, and that John Connor sent him on a special mission. He demands to speak to John, who then decides to send him and his crew back in time to act as a supply station ... which brings us up to date.
Oh, and when Derek said he didn't kill Andy Goode? He lied. He totally did. But now we understand a little better why. Although I don't think Sarah will be happy about it if/when she finds out. In-laws ... always so much trouble!
And Cameron? She's acting sneaky. First hiding that piece of Coltan, and now the hard drive from the terminator they took down. I'm hoping her intentions are good, though. Who knows, maybe she's just planning to build herself a little cyborg puppy named T-Bone?
No painted doors this week. Cromartie is looking for Coltan, the stuff Terminators are made of. The Connor Crew are looking for Cromartie (who is now the guy from The 4400). The Connor Crew instead find another cyborg, Freakgirl's boyfriend Brian Bloom, who is stockpiling Coltan for use after Judgment Day. They stop him, destroy the Coltan, and Cameron saves a little bit for herself.
That's all for now. Discuss!
Okay, so if you watched this week's episode, odds are you want to talk about those painted doors. Because seriously, what the hell was up with that? And I have some ideas. But first, let's run through the rest of the episode ...
Using photos left behind by the Future Freedom Fighters, Sarah gets a lead on somebody who may be responsible for the creation of Skynet -- a former Cyberdyne intern (Andy) who now sells cellphones. She dates him for a few days, and learns that he's created "The Turk" -- a primitive AI that mostly just plays chess. When she learns from Andy that The Turk has moods -- that its choices vary from day to day for no logical reason, she realizes this is perhaps the first sign of Skynet-like self-awareness, and decides to act. In the end, instead of killing Andy, she burns down his house, thereby destroying The Turk.
All the while, the future person with the Skynet bar code on their arm is stalking Andy as well. My suspicion is that this mysterious person is perhaps Miles Dyson ... but I can't quite figure out how that would be. My reason for thinking so is kind of meta. When they showed the photo of Miles with his family in the first episode, I noticed it was actor Phil Morris, who played Kramer's lawyer Jackie Chiles on "Seinfeld", and who plays J'onn J'onzz the Martian Manhunter on "Smallville". And he's had small roles in several other sci-fi shows I've watched over the years, so I know his face. In other words, he's not just some model they brought in for that picture. So I keep expecting him to show up.
Anyway, so Cromartie (the cyborg from the pilot) is still trying to put himself together. Having reunited his head with his body last episode, this week his extreme makeover is focused on acquiring some flesh and skin for himself. So he steals some blood, finds a scientist who specializes in skin-making, they whip up a tub of bloody goop, and voila, he has skin. He looks a bit like the Toxic Avenger ... but at least it covers up the metal skeleton. Oh, and then he steals the scientist's eyes and kills him.
Meanwhile, Cameron acts like a bitch whore freak. And cracks some jokes. And prevents John from playing the part of a hero to save a distraught girl who throws herself from the roof of the school's gym. Which brings us to the painted doors ...
The first painting was just a closed door, with the letter "A" on it. Which as any high school student who read the Cliff's Notes for "The Scarlet Letter" can tell you means "adultery". The second painting was the same door, but with a pink bra hanging from the knob -- which seems to reinforce the adultery idea -- and the letters "DAN" on it. Dan? Who's Dan? Is that his bra? Or did he steal it from the girl who keeps crying every time she sees one of these paintings? The third painting is the same door, with the same pink bra, but partially open this time, and a glimpse of a semi-clothed woman standing behind it. And now the letters spell "IDAN". I've run through the possibilities in my head, and since we're talking about a high school, one word springs to mind here: "GUIDANCE". As in, guidance counselor. Did the guidance counselor have an affair with this girl? Did he maybe get her pregnant? And if so, who's painting the doors? Is it terminator-related? Cameron says the doors look like the frescoes of some artist, but I didn't catch the name. Is it relevant?
Anyway, the details of all this are strange enough that I'm guessing this storyline isn't closed. If John & Cameron are staying at this school for now, then the mystery of the doors will probably play itself out in future episodes. Maybe the guidance counselor (if I'm right about that) will make a play for Cameron and live to regret it. Or maybe he's already involved with that mopey blonde chick that John is so fascinated by, and this will force John to have to act the hero, even though Sarah doesn't want him to.
Previously on Terminator ... an artificially intelligent computer from 2029 named Skynet wants to eradicate mankind. So it sends a cyborg assassin back in time to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor, the not-yet mother of the human resistance leader. Her future son, John Connor, sends back a man named Kyle Reese to protect her, and he does, and then gets her pregnant with John. Ten years later, two more terminators from 2029 arrive, one programmed to protect John Connor and the other sent by Skynet to kill John Connor. The good one tells them that a Cyberdyne employee named Miles Dyson will create the first self-aware computer in August 1997, which will evolve into Skynet. So Sarah tries to kill Dyson, and can't do it, but he dies anyway and blows up all of his AI research. Sarah and John and his pet terminator kill the bad morph-y terminator, the good terminator kills itself, and the future is safe.
The Sarah Connor Chronicles picks up the story in 1999 ...
In the pilot, John Connor is fifteen years old. He and his mother have been bouncing around from one town to another for the past five years, trying to keep one step ahead of The Law, who believes that Sarah killed Miles Dyson. There have been no terminator sightings in that time. Sarah starts to fall in love with some dude named Charlie, gets engaged, and decides it's time for her and John to move again, to some podunk town in New Mexico. The sad fiancee files a missing persons report, which puts Sarah on the police grid again, bringing them unwanted attention of the cybernetic variety.
John starts going to school, and on his first week there, a substitute teacher -- actually a future cyborg -- named Cromartie digs a gun out of his leg with a letter opener, and uses it to try and kill John. But a cute girl -- actually a future cyborg -- named Cameron (Summer Glau of Firefly) takes a bullet for him, giving him time to jump out the window. We get the classic, "Come with me if you want to live!" moment, and John and Cameron (have you figured out why the name is cute yet?) escape in a truck. Cromartie finds Sarah Connor, tries to use her as bait to get John, but Cameron turns the tables, and after a brutal smackdown, they all escape again while Cromartie reboots.
Turns out Cameron is from 2027. Remember, the death of Dyson created a new timeline, and in this one, Skynet goes active in April of 2011. Everything's a bit more complicated now, because the John Connor in this new timeline knows everything he learned in the second movie, and has put many more players in the game. Besides Cameron, there's also some guy named The Engineer, who was sent back to 1963, and whose legacy is an isotonic cyborg-killing gun and a time machine, hidden in a bank vault. Sarah uses the gun to incapacitate Cromartie, and Cameron uses the time machine to send the three of them forward in time to 2007, at a critical point in Skynet history.
Which brings us to episode two, Gnothi Seauton (which means "Know Thyself" in Greek), where a few days after the time jump, Sarah is trying to scramble together new identities for them all. Cameron tells her about a group of four future resistance fighters that John has set up to act as a kind of supply depot, but when they get there, a new bad cyborg has already beat them to the punch, killing all four. It runs when it realizes what Cameron is, and they lose it. Then Cameron reveals that one of the reasons they've jumped ahead to 2007 is because Sarah died of cancer in 2005. Which, if you've seen the Terminator 3 movie, is effing BRILLIANT! Basically, the writers have invalidated the events in that movie -- which included Sarah having died of cancer and Skynet launching nuclear missiles at the end -- by just leapfrogging it entirely.
Okay, so Sarah goes to her old friend Enrique to get new IDs, and he sends them to his nephew Carlos, who wants $20K. They go back to the resistance safe house, find some money and diamonds, and barely escape before the cyborg gets there. Somebody with a Skynet concentration camp bar code on their arm watches them leave. After getting the new identification from Carlos, Sarah goes back to confront Enrique, who she believes is lying to her (and it turns out he is), and before she can find out for sure, Cameron kills him. Turns out that unlike previous terminators, Cameron takes orders from nobody but the future John Connor himself.
Meanwhile, it turns out that Cromartie's head has time traveled with them. He reactivates his body, which is buried in a junkyard, brings it to him, and I'm sure he'll be causing trouble for our heroes soon enough. But for now, Sarah has decided to stop running, and take the fight to Skynet, just as she did in the second movie. Oh, and John is doing stupid teenage things like leaving the house when he's not supposed to, using the internet, and making contact with Sarah's ex-fiancee Charlie. And you can tell that he's already hot for Cameron.
All in all, I'm enjoying the show so far. I'm a sucker for just about anything involving time travel and/or "The Fugitive" formula, the action and special effects really are (as per the marketing hype) of a movie caliber, and swapping Arnold out for Summer Glau was an inspired move. Speaking of which, I like the way they've written Cameron. The danger with a character like this is that you go too goofy with it, and overplay the whole "I'M A ROBOT!" shtick. But here the touches are understated so far, and she/it isn't asking a lot of dumb questions or making dopey robotic blunders and faux pas. Her Pinocchio (Pinocchia?) Phase is inevitable, but hopefully they don't rush it.