Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles“Automatic for the People”
Original Air Date – Sept 15, 2008
Tara – TwoCents Staff Writer
tara@thetwocentscorp.com
The Resistance sends a fighter (Zack Ward) to warn the Connors that Skynet is trying to destroy a nuclear power plant that is critical to the Resistance's future. Sarah and Cameron go undercover as janitors to figure out what's going on at the plant while John makes a new, very sketchy, friend.
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[photo: Michael Desmond/FOX]
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Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
ReplyDelete“Automatic for the People”
Original Air Date – Sept 15, 2008
Tara – TwoCents Staff Writer
tara@thetwocentscorp.com
The Resistance sends a fighter (Zack Ward) to warn the Connors that Skynet is trying to destroy a nuclear power plant that is critical to the Resistance's future. Sarah and Cameron go undercover as janitors to figure out what's going on at the plant while John makes a new, very sketchy, friend.
A man from the future arrives with the usual bright light and lack of clothing. Less usual? The sucking chest wound he's sporting. Meanwhile, the Connors are back in the church from last week. What kind of an idiot lets these people back into their church?? I'd order an exorcism and run for the hills.
Sarah and Derek discuss Cameron's untrustworthy robot nature...right in front of her. It's a good thing that she agrees with them, because she's acting more terminatoresque than usual. Cameron yells at John for saving her. She informs him that there are “people” who will be upset by his actions—and she doesn't mean Sarah and Derek.
Sarah and Derek decide to look for a new apartment and send John off to school. Cameron, however, will be staying home from school until Sarah thinks that she's vaguely trustworthy—so forever then. Sarah manages to find a fully furnished house for rent that day. Must be nice! I've been looking for a lowly unfurnished apartment for weeks!
They move in just in time for a visitor. The man from the future arrives with his sucking chest wound. He manages to warn them about the power plant and gives them a name: Greenway (Paul Schulze). Then he dies. Fortunately, Derek is able to fill in the gaps: no power plant, no Resistance.
Sarah and Cameron quickly get jobs at the power plant. Wow. I'm glad that a nuclear power plant has such great security. No wonder the robots took over. Sarah quickly becomes Greenway's new best friend learning that he has cancer and a lot of enemies. Greenway had stopped the power plant from powering up the reactor before for safety reasons, which didn't endear him to his co-workers.
Sarah's snooping gets her into trouble with Greenway's boss. He tricks her into thinking that she's been exposed to radiation to scare her. It works. Sarah is still haunted by Cameron's announcement that she will die of cancer, so any exposure to radiation is enough to spook her.
The next day, a very robotic Greenway puts the nuclear reactor online and then sabotages it. Of course, it's not really Greenway—it's a terminator. Cameron and the terminator fight, with Sarah, fighting her fear of radiation to provide a much needed assist. Cameron destroys the terminator and stops the nuclear reactor meltdown.
In other news, John makes a new female friend at school: Riley (Busy Philipps). She's pretty, blonde, and exceedingly creepy. He takes her home anyway, as you do, citing his need to have a life. Riley likes to watch John sleep, talk about the future, and give him robot dolls. Nope. Not suspicious at all!
Ellison visits the Dixons and breaks the news to Mrs. Dixon (Sonya Walger) that Sarah is alive and that there are evil robots running around. She takes the news very well, actually, slapping her husband before agreeing to leave town with him for their safety.
Sarah and Cameron manage to save the reactor, but the mysterious red-headed Terminator has the last laugh. To prevent another “accident”, a group of power plants will be linked together under a single automated system. Uh oh.
Cameron and Sarah have a heart-to-heart about Sarah's cancer (Cameron knows nothing) and Cameron's fear that she will just self-destruct. On that happy note, Sarah follows a trail of blood to the basement of the house and a series of bloody scribbles.
Maybe it was just me, but I thought this episode moved really slowly. Not enough action and way too much angst. Also, how stupid is John? Riley is about as suspicious as a smoking gun.
It's your turn to give me your Two Cents. What did you think? Was it a good episode or were you unimpressed? Is Riley a plant from the future? Did the “people” Cameron was talking about send her? Speculate below!
Not particularly impressed by this one (okay, the wall of blood thing sort of grossed me out, but that's because I took it too far and started thinking about what it would take to actually DO THAT), but I liked it namely because the guest stars were cool.
ReplyDeleteI mean, when I see Zack Ward I *still* expect Christopher Titus behind him (and Titus is unemployed at the moment I believe, sadly). And Paul Schulze! I love Paul Schulze. Have since 24. I just wish that for once someone would let him really be a good guy. I was all digging his character until he got replaced by the Terminator and then I was like, "Yep we should just expect Paul Schulze is always the bad guy." Shame I actually kinda liked the guy, well as much as you can like a one episode guest star.
Also loved the scenes with Dean Winters and Richard T. Jones this week. I hope they find some way to keep Dean Winters around; he's a good actor and I like him being the one reasonably 'normal' guy. Richard T. Jones is just growing on me every week. I used to hate his character's guts but you really feel him now and understand what he's going through.
But I'm not digging this new friend of John's. Yes, because when I am running from future robots who can be anyone they damn well please, I am totally going to bring home someone I just met. Please.