||SPOILERS|| A huge improvement over the entertaining but hollow first part, "Today Is The Day: Part 2"1 delivers an episode of intrigue, tension and surprisingly strong acting from Thomas Dekker, Stephanie Chaves-Jacobsen and Brian Austin Green...Jesse (Chaves-Jacobsen) is taking a nighttime swim in a public pool; a sequence interspersed with flashbacks to her time aboard the U.S.S Jimmy Carter, having just retrieved a mysterious package from an oil rig full of Terminators, on the secret orders of resistant leader John Connor, carried out by T-888 helmsman Queeg (Chad L. Coleman). Jesse is prepared to trust Connor by transporting the package back to him, but finds the sub's crew are uncomfortable with the whole situation...
What's to say the package isn't a bomb? Shouldn't a human have been told about Connor's plans? Why should they entrust their safety to "metal" that might malfunction, or lying? All valid concerns, and curiosity gets the better of the sailors, as they open the Pandora's Box before Queeg and Jesse can stop them, unleashing a liquid-metal Terminator that proceeds to kill the nearest crewman with a speared-arm to the gut, assume their shape, and disappear down an air vent.Sadly, the episode misses a trick in failing to crank up the tension about having a shape-shifting entity aboard such a claustrophobic place, so a riff on The Thing isn't forthcoming. I guess Star Trek: Deep Space Nine got there first. Instead, Jesse begins to find merit in her crew's concerns, and eventually takes steps to remove Queeg from duty -- although official means are superseded by his secret mission, leaving her no choice but to terminate Queeg with a gunshot to the head. After that, the crew abandon ship, letting the Jimmy Carter sink to crush-depth to destroy their chameleonic interloper.
In the present (well, technically the past), John has quietly pieced together the mystery surrounding Riley's death, and confronts Jesse in her apartment after she returns home from her swim. As I mentioned last week, Thomas Dekker doesn't get a lot of credit for how he plays the teenaged John Connor (troubled and whining), but this episode is a big step towards rehabilitation. Once again, by limiting Sarah (Lena Headey) in the storyline, it gives John room to stand on his own two feet and step out from his mother's shadow. His two-hander with Jesse, quietly confronting her over the murder of his girlfriend as part of a misguided attempt to change his future self's dependence on "metal", was superb. Quite possibly the best work Dekker's done on the show.
Likewise, when Jesse is allowed to go free by John (so she can live with her demons, as he has to), there's another excellent electric encounter waiting in the car park with her lover Derek. Derek breaks off their relationship now he knows the awful truth. But, unlike merciful John, he's not above shooting her -- although his shot is blocked by Jesse's quick-thinking to throw her jacket at him and sprint for the nearest exit. We see Derek squeeze the trigger... but does he hit his target?
Overall, after a depressingly sluggish mid-season, this episode appears to signal a tidal change. We got some real progression in several areas, and the future-set storyline also continues to provoke some thought. Before the liquid-metal Terminator manages to escape from the sinking sub, it tells Jesse to pass on a message to John Connor: "the answer is no". Later, Jesse meets with John's aide/concubine Cameron, who reveals that the question John posed was "will you join us?" So, it seems that Skynet's forces are less loyal to their AI leader than we imagine, and John is trying to persuade them to join the human resistance? That would confirm our suspicions from earlier in the season. Cameron also reveals to Jesse that the events aboard the sub have caused a miscarriage of a baby she didn't even know she was pregnant with (Derek's the likely father), which was interesting but a little hollow. I suppose it was meant to give Jesse's character even more of a reason to hate "metal", for indirectly killing her child.So yes, a very strong episode that has finally restored some energy and excitement to the series, as we approach the season (and perhaps series) finale...
9 April 2009
Virgin1, 10pm
Writers: Ashley Edward Miller & Zack Stentz
Director: Guy Norman Bee
Cast: Lena Heady (Sarah), Summer Glau (Cameron), Brian Austin Green (Derek), Thomas Dekker (John), Richard T. Jones (Ellison), Shirley Manson (Catherine), Garret Dillahunt (John Henry), Stephanie Chaves-Jacobsen (Jesse), Bill Tangradi (Pool Attendant), Erin Fleming (Goodnow), Krishna Cole (Blake), Yuri Lowenthal (Garvin), Chad L. Coleman (Queeg), Drew Rausch (Rick), Theo Rossi (Dietz) & Chris Ellis (Hayes)
1. This episode is known as "The Last Voyage Of The Jimmy Carter" on a few sites, owing to an incorrect press release from Fox, before the producers decided to make "Today Is The Day" a two-part episode.
