TV-Reviewed

After viewing this episode, I can understand why Fox decided to air the first two episodes on consecutive nights. The pilot established the circumstances under which the series is set up, and this episode illustrates not only the fish out-of-water mindset of the Conners, but the urgency for both SkyNet and the Resistance to succeed in their goals. Thereby, justifying the need for a weekly show to tell the story.

Sarah’s piece of mind about being in a different time is quickly shattered when Cameron tells her of Terminators seeded throughout their timeline in order to prepare for SkyNet to come online in 2011. The Terminators not knowing of John’s existence in the timeline is a great tension setter, for Chromartie, who was accidentally sent forward with John, Sarah, and Cameron to the current timeline, is the potential game-changer of the story. The Resistance also sending their own fighters to the present levels the playing field and makes the shows premise more clear: fighting a war of the future in our present.

Summer Glau as Cameron

Not only is humanity itself at stake, but also Sarah’s mortality. Finding out that she “died” in 2005 gives her the motivation to start training herself to be the fighting Sarah we saw in T2. A lot of criticism, unfair in my view, was that Lena Headey’s portrayal of Sarah Connor doesn’t fit with Linda Hamilton’s original take. The criticism is neither here nor there, because in a weekly tv show, you’re seeing characters on an extended journey that no one movie could accommodate. If the physical journey from one timeline to another started in the pilot, then Sarah’s emotional journey begins here.

John’s desire to leave their safehouse prematurely leads to the weak point of this episode. Wanting to explore the “new” world around him is one thing, but leaving to find your mother’s ex-finance is just plain stupid at this stage of the game. I know it’s probably needed in order to stage a reunion for Sarah and Charlie Dixon (Dean Winters), but I just find it to be annoying and unnecessary. As a fanboy, I don’t want to see the John Connor character to become the “annoying child” of a tv show.

Overall, one plot point does not overshadow jam-packed second episode that really gets the show and the revised mythos behind it rolling.

Rating: 8.4