"I'm not here to stop the war, sweetie. I'm here to win it."-- Jesse (Stephanie Chaves-Jacobsen)
Spoilers. Having served up three of its worst episodes in a three-part stench, "Ourselves Alone" is mild improvement -- if only because it gives Summer Glau more to do, and actually developed a major storyline.
Cameron (Glau) is suffering from involuntary motor reflexes that cause her to crush a pigeon she was intending to free after it became trapped indoors (also a subtle echo of that "upturned turtle" story from awhile back, confirming that Cameron has a sense of empathy not part of her programming.) Sadly, that interesting development isn't utmost on the writers' minds, as Cameron's physical dysfunction is instead seen as a possible warning sign that the cyborg protector could malfunction and turn against its masters.
Meanwhile, John (Thomas Dekker) and Sarah (Lena Headey) are concerned that Cameron will kill Riley (Leven Rambin) if she starts perceiving her as a threat to their cover. They know that Riley tried to commit suicide for some unknown reason, and now suspect it had something to do with her discovering their real identities. Riley doesn't help matters when she spies Cameron self-repairing her lower-arm (using spare parts collected from defeated Terminators, in violation of Sarah's orders), and thus arouses Cameron's suspicions further.Sarah visits Riley's foster parents and is surprised to hear about Riley's history of freaking out about an apocryphal future, lending credence to her theory that Riley knows more than she's letting on. Of course, we the audience know that Riley's a street kid from a future dystopia, brought back in time by resistance soldier Jesse (Stephanie Chaves-Jacobsen) to stop John falling in love with his cyborg protector and put the future of mankind at risk as a result. Sarah later meets with Riley's guidance counselor looking for more answers about Riley's state of mind, who turns out to be Jesse in disguise, manipulating the situation.
It's taken so long to get any progress with the Riley/Jesse storyline that "Ourselves Alone" just felt like too little, too late. There are some interesting moments contained therein (John helping fix Cameron by slicing open her wrist, echoing his girlfriend's means of suicide), and I like the ambiguity that surrounds Cameron these days. Ever since the car explosion that damaged the Terminator's circuits in the premiere, we're less certain about Cameron's motivations and fidelity. Summer Glau is at her best when making us uncomfortable with her china doll pout and twitchiness, and there's plenty of creeping threat throughout this episode. Really, it's all about whether or not Cameron would kill Riley to maintain their cover and reassert herself on John's life, knowing how much that tactically-sound idea would hurt John emotionally.
Of course, the big news in this episode is the reveal that Jesse's plan was for Cameron to eventually kill Riley, as that would be a tragedy large enough to turn John against Cameron forever. When Riley realizes this callous plan, an extended cat-fight ensues back at Jesse's apartment, culminating with Jesse shooting Riley dead. Rambin was particularly good in her dramatic scenes this week, helped by the simple fact that Jesse is one of the most unpleasant, manipulative and irritating characters on TV right now. Extremely unlikeable, but intentionally so.Finally, Cameron gives John a detonator encased inside a fob watch, linked to an explosive charge she's implanted in her head. The idea being that if she ever poses a threat to their safety, he now has the ability to terminate her at the push of a button. Cameron's interest in Riley's suicide is perhaps explainable as a recent interest in "self-termination", too, which was a nice bit of shadowing.
Overall, "Ourselves Alone" wasn't especially fantastic, but it was a damned sight better than the previous three episodes and it was nice to see some definite movement with the Jesse/Riley storyline, which also gave Rambin and Dekker better opportunities to stretch themselves. The main problem is that the sense of momentum season 2 once had has long since vanished, and this episode arrives about seven episodes too late. I'm no longer particularly interested in any of the storylines (beyond Catherine's project with A.I John Henry), and T:tSCC still needs to find a sense of narrative drive and direction.
26 March 2009
Virgin1, 10pm
Writers: Toni Graphia & Daniel T. Thomsen
Director: Jeff Woolnaugh
Cast: Lena Headey (Sarah), Thomas Dekker (John), Summer Glau (Cameron), Brian Austin Green (Derek), Leven Rambin (Riley), Stephanie Chaves-Jacobsen (Jesse), Mackenzie Smith (Savannah Weaver), Alex Carter (Ko Samuels), Gregg Perrie (Aaron), Leslie Thurston (Nurse), Tina Casciani (Working Girl) & Alison Martin (Molly Malloy)
