Writer: Zack Stentz & Ashley Edward Miller
Director: Bill Eagles
Cast: Lena Headey (Sarah), Brian Austin Green (Derek), Thomas Dekker (John), Summer Glau (Cameron), Shirley Manson (Catherine Weaver), Richard T. Jones (Agent Ellison), Dean Norris (Nelson), Billy Unger (Marty), Will Rothhaar (Martin Bedell), Rene Heger (Pyle), Beau Billingslea (General Hobbes), Johnny D'Agostino (Bartender), Alexandra Raines (Marty's Mom), Garland Spencer (Senior Cadet), David Cheaney (Martin Bedell), Jonathan Jackson (Kyle Reese), Patrick Kilpatrick (The Terminator) & Bobbi Sue Luther (Bar Skank)
Director: Bill Eagles
Cast: Lena Headey (Sarah), Brian Austin Green (Derek), Thomas Dekker (John), Summer Glau (Cameron), Shirley Manson (Catherine Weaver), Richard T. Jones (Agent Ellison), Dean Norris (Nelson), Billy Unger (Marty), Will Rothhaar (Martin Bedell), Rene Heger (Pyle), Beau Billingslea (General Hobbes), Johnny D'Agostino (Bartender), Alexandra Raines (Marty's Mom), Garland Spencer (Senior Cadet), David Cheaney (Martin Bedell), Jonathan Jackson (Kyle Reese), Patrick Kilpatrick (The Terminator) & Bobbi Sue Luther (Bar Skank)
The best episode of the season? Written by the duo behind Agent Cody Banks? Well, nearly. "Goodbye To All That", by Zack Stentz and Ashley Edward Miller, is something of a spiritual sequel to their season 1 story "Dungeons & Dragons" (which, in my opinion, was when Chronicles started to show real confidence in itself). A big reason for their early success, reflected here, is the prominence of flashforwards to the war-torn future and a focus on Derek Reese (Brian Austin Green)…It shouldn't be this way, but Derek and Cameron (Summer Glau) are far more interesting and entertaining than the mother and son they protect. While it's understandable Glau's sexy, tough and kooky performance will draw fans, it's quite surprising to find Green running a close second. It helps that his character is battle-hardened and mysterious; something the eponymous Sarah Connor (Lena Headey) can't compete with. Headey remains a crushing disappointment to me, although she's admittedly not helped by scripts that have her playing nurse maid (last week's "Allison From Palmdale") or babysitter this week. The personality dilution of the TV Sarah Connor character is its biggest failing. How much more exciting would it be if Sarah were a female Jack Bauer type?
Sarah's drippy subplot proves Stentz and Miller hold the original movie in high regard, though -- as the story partly replays the narrative of James Cameron's seminal movie. A Terminator (Patrick Kilpatrick) is systematically killing everyone called "Martin Bedell", in a thorough effort to purge the existence of a future lieutenant for the human resistance. The same tactic was famously used to find Sarah, so she races to rescue a little boy (Billy Unger) targeted for termination, and has to protect him until Derek and John (Thomas Dekker) to devise a way to kill the cyborg assailant.
The relevant Martin Bedell (Will Rothhaar) is currently training to be a soldier at a military academy, so Derek and John go undercover (as a tutor and student, respectively) to ensure his safety. Their arrival stirs memories for Derek, who knows Bedell from the future, while John gets some much-needed gun training along the way.
"Goodbye To All That" is at its best in the academy scenes, helped by more of the show's amazingly good future-set flashforwards (considering the budget). But it's unfortunate the actor playing Bedell doesn't look significantly older in the future; and the actor playing Kyle Reece (Jonathan Jackson), a hugely iconic character for the franchise, is a disappointing choice. The iffy casting is annoying in these future scenes, but fortunately the present-day situation more than compensates.
A climactic offensive to disable the Terminator (forest scenes that echo Predator in its "David versus Goliath" subtext) are a great deal of fun, if far too short. Juxtaposing the action with a narration by Sarah, reading a passage from "The Wizard Of Oz" to Marty, was also a nice touch that worked better than expected. I like these artistic flourishes Chronicles occasionally offers its audience. Was anyone else expecting an Oz reference the moment Derek and John chose "Baum" as their aliases, by the way?
FBI Agent Ellison (Richard T. Jones) continues to be duped by Catherine Weaver (Shirley Manson) here, but I'm hoping this story gets focused soon. While it was great to see the series mining its own history (with Ellison visiting the nuclear power plant from "Automatic For The People" and realizing Sarah Connor was involved), I'm still more frustrated than intrigued by this storyline. And are the writers intentionally trying to emasculate Weaver's T-1001 status? In the premiere, the liquid metal villain morphed out of a urinal, and now she kills a man with a deadly tonguing? It's all on the wrong side of silliness, if you ask me, and Manson's line delivery gets drier by the week.
Overall, it's a shame Sarah's subplot was so tedious and unrealistic (that kid was too calm after being snatched from his home by strangers, because a homicidal robot tried to kill him!), and there were other small problems that chipped away at my overall satisfaction level. Luckily, the academy-set events with Derek, John and Bedell were strong and enjoyable enough to keep you happy.
5 October 2008
Fox, 9/8c
