Writer: Toni Graphia
Director: Charles Beeson
Cast: Lena Headey (Sarah), Thomas Dekker (John), Summer Glau (Cameron), Shirley Manson (Catherine Weaver), Richard T. Jones (Agent James Ellison), Leah Pipes (Jody), Enrico Natale (Customer), Ace Gibson (Slacker), Jessica Makinson (Mrs. Young), Ray Conchado (Security Guard), Mackenzie Smith (Savannah), Laura Leyva (Doctor), Ali Chen (Secretary), Fay Wolf (Lila), Garvin Funches (Police Officer), Jillian Armenante (Rita), Jon Huertas (Trevor), Busy Philipps (Kacy Corbin), Amy Tolsky (Housewife), Ralph Cole (Male Prostitute), Jeff Leaf (Helmut) & Roberto Sanchez (Desk Sergeant)
Director: Charles Beeson
Cast: Lena Headey (Sarah), Thomas Dekker (John), Summer Glau (Cameron), Shirley Manson (Catherine Weaver), Richard T. Jones (Agent James Ellison), Leah Pipes (Jody), Enrico Natale (Customer), Ace Gibson (Slacker), Jessica Makinson (Mrs. Young), Ray Conchado (Security Guard), Mackenzie Smith (Savannah), Laura Leyva (Doctor), Ali Chen (Secretary), Fay Wolf (Lila), Garvin Funches (Police Officer), Jillian Armenante (Rita), Jon Huertas (Trevor), Busy Philipps (Kacy Corbin), Amy Tolsky (Housewife), Ralph Cole (Male Prostitute), Jeff Leaf (Helmut) & Roberto Sanchez (Desk Sergeant)
JohnAre you okay? Cause if you try and kill
me again I wouldn't mind a head start.
Cameron
If I was going to try to kill you again, we
wouldn't be having this conversation.
An intriguing episode of character development, necessitating a wonderful performance from Summer Glau, as a glitch in Cameron's system causes her to lose her memory while out shopping. Suddenly aware of suppressed memories about the near-future (where she's a scared member of the human resistance captured by machines -- huh?), Cameron mistakenly begins calling herself Alison Young and is taken under the wing of a streetwise teenager called Jody (Leah Pipes)…
John (Thomas Dekker) tries desperately to find Cameron after she goes missing, tracing her whereabouts by asking "do you know Jody?" countless times. Meanwhile, Sarah (Lena Headey) finds herself at the bedside of pregnant Kacy (Busy Philipps), after her neighbour is taken to hospital with worrisome abdominal pain. This storyline is the least interesting overall, although it does help humanize Sarah as she relates personal memories about John's birth to Kacy.
Elsewhere, Agent Ellison (Richard T. Jones) debates whether to accept an offer from Catherine Weaver (Shirley Manson), who wants him to lead her efforts to find evidence of sentient machines. This story is becoming quite interesting, primarily because I'm at a loss to explain why Catherine (whom we know is a liquid metal machine herself) needs Ellison for this purpose. None of it makes sense to me yet, but it's definitely intriguing, if a little slow going. Former-singer Manson isn't improving much in the acting-stakes (her scenes opposite Jones are quite tedious), but the undercurrent of the story keep you invested. I was also surprised to see Catherine's red-haired young daughter show up; which suggests there was a real Catherine Weaver at some point, whom the T-1001 has murdered and replaced.
Anyway, the real joy of this episode is watching Summer Glau flex her acting muscles, as Cameron's amnesia enables slightly more human interactions with people. The flashforwards to the mysterious Alison Young (Glau again), being interrogated by an unseen person with a voice-scrambler, also means the actress can ditch her emotionless cyborg persona entirely. I've grown so used to Glau's delightfully skewed performance, that it's genuinely eye-opening just to see her smile or cry.
While the resolution to Cameron's amnesia and unlocked memories isn't wholly satisfying (it involves a minor cheat and fresh information about what Terminators are capable of), the journey is interesting and different. For an action-orientated show like Chronicles, it's brave of writer Toni Graphia to slam on the brakes and pen an episode that boils down to three storylines where people talk to each other (Cameron/Jody, Sarah/Kacy, Ellison/Catherine). While not totally successful and occasionally too slow, Glau's compelling performance kept me hooked and I applaud the producers for trying something different. More flashforwards are also welcome, as Chronicles does a surprisingly decent job of showing a war-torn future on its relatively small budget -- forgiving the odd bad greenscreen.
Overall, "Allison From Palmdale" will probably divide audiences, but if you appreciate characterization and have become inured to certain story-types on this show, it's a refreshing change of pace. So far, season 2 is moving forward very well, which makes it's even more frustrating to hear ratings in the US are now described as "apocryphal". Its poor performance is even being blamed for Prison Break's fourth season slump.
Cancellation is now a very real possibility, as Fox are unlikely to order more episodes past the agreed 13, and may pull the plug any day now. To any Americans reading, I'd appreciate you giving this show a try; it may not be perfect, but it's more entertaining than a Terminator TV series had any right to be.
Don't let it get terminated.
29 September 2008
Fox, 9/8c
