Spoilers. The mid-season finale is of mild interest, but it's generally flawed and another frustating dip in quality. An intriguing and occasionally exciting season that bettered its first, Chronicles is now sagging under a growing burden of vague subplots and an unclear direction. Hopefully, when the show returns next year, it will refocus and find its second wind..."Earthlings Welcome Here" has Sarah (Lena Headey) investigating the mysterious three-dot symbol again; her latest theory taking her to Desert Canyon in California, where a UFO conference is being held. Photos of "Californian drones" in the sky match the triangular dots Sarah is so obsessed with, and she's pointed in the direction of a mysterious blogger called Abraham (who claimed he was part of a top-secret research project, possibly back-engineering alien technology.)
Sarah meets with a ufologist called Eileen (sounds like "alien", ha-ha), who turns out to be a transsexual called Alan Park -- and used "Abraham" as a pseudonym when she blogged about her experience working for the government. Eileen was employed for her skill in light detection and ranging (Lidar), and Sarah begins to suspect the technology Eileen was working on has something to do with Skynet's origins. Unfortunately, Eileen was always taken to work in a blacked-out vehicle, so Sarah suggests using hypnotic regression to uncover clues about the whereabouts of the secretive research facility.
At home, Cameron (Summer Glau) is growing suspicious of Riley (Leven Rambin), despite John's (Thomas Dekker) insistence his girlfriend isn't a threat. Flashbacks confirm that Riley was recruited by Jesse (Stephanie Jacobsen) in the future, and the two women were sent back in time with a mission to keep John and Cameron separated.
The story with Agent Ellison (Richard T. Jones) is belatedly resumed, too; with the Federal agent tasked by Catherine (Shirley Manson) to help her A.I computer "John Henry" learn ethics. The system has now been hooked-up to the body of Cromartie (Garret Dillahunt), to provide a human face and tactile input, as Ellison plays chess with it and tries to develop its sense of morality.
Both subplots don't really advance the story very much. After 12 episodes of build-up over Catherine, her super-computer, and Agent Ellison's unwitting collaboration with the machines, I'm still waiting for the eureka moment to occur. There's only so long a mystery can be drawn out, before viewers need an answer… or at least a strong indicator that the writers have a direction and end-game in mind. I think the idea is that Catherine's been sent back to improve Skynet (we've been shown that the future is in constant flux), probably by making it more "human" and better able to predict behaviour and understand human values. I just wish that would be made more explicit in the show -- if, indeed, that is the intention behind this story.
As for Riley's story: it was momentarily enjoyable to see a character with no experience of a world before Judgment Day, when she arrived in the past and was fasinated by simple luxuries like pillows and showers. Beyond that, the idea of a time-travelling "honey trap" is a little bit laughable. I think we need to be shown how Cameron is unintentionally hindering the human resistance's fortunes in the future, thanks to her relationship with the adult John Connor. Then again, seeing a loved-up John Connor and his concubine cyborg sounds equally as silly as the Riley honey-trap idea -- and might further damage the mystique over Future John. People struggle to accept Dekker as a leader of men in this series, but at least his character's journey is intended to be a boy becoming a man. There's an excuse for his general wetness.
The main story is on Sarah's shoulders, and Lena Headey is a bit of a disappointment. She smoulders and sneers to fine effect, but her drab voice-overs and apathetic attitude to missions is a bore. Mind you, it was nice to see Eileen allude to how numbed and emotionless Sarah is after she survives a brush with death. Indeed, Sarah is often more impassive than the machines she fights against. This episode also appeared to have something to say about Sarah's evolution from pink-outfitted waitress to knife-wielding chick -- but the occasional visions Sarah had of her "alter-egos" didn't amount to much.
Overall, a lack of compelling action in Sarah's storyline, and the redundant nature of the Riley and Ellison subplots gave this mid-season finale a sluggish feel. Things picked up in the last five minutes, with Sarah apparently discovering a test site for flying machines (that appear to be prototype "Hunter-Killers" seen in the wartorn future), but it was too little too late. And didn't we already discover the three-dots were celestial coordinates a few weeks ago? Or was that just one possible answer?
Sarah Connor Chronicles will return next February, dumped into a Friday night slot for its last nine episodes. Unless the already low ratings miraculously revive in a worse timeslot (not likely), season 2 will mark the end of this TV spin-off -- just as Terminator: Salvation breaks the box-office in cinemas. I sincerely hope the writers plan for the worse and end on a high. On the evidence of "Earthlings Welcome Here", they need to sharpen some of the ongoing storylines quickly, which have blunted in the past four weeks.
15 December 2008
Fox, 9/8c
Writer: Natalie Chaidez
Director: Felix Enriquez Alcalá
Cast: Lena Headey (Sarah), Thomas Dekker (John), Summer Glau (Cameron), Richard T. Jones (Ellison), Shirley Manson (Catherine Weaver), Leven Rambin (Riley), Garret Dillahunt (Cromartie), Stephanie Jacobsen (Jesse), Dinah Lenney (Eileen), Michael Hyatt (Barbara), Barry Livingston (Pete), William Stanford Davis (Pastor Jonas) & Ned Bellamy (Winston)
