[SPOILERS] It's strange to remember that mid-season T:tSCC had sunk to near-unwatchable levels, as the final batch of episodes have been amongst the best ever. "Born To Run" is a very intriguing beast, too; a season finale that positions events for a radical third season (still unconfirmed at time of writing), and yet works adequately as a series finale to feed our imagination...After the events of "Adam Raised A Cain", Sarah (Lena Headey) is an imprisoned fugitive being interrogated by Detective Auldridge over: the murder of Miles Dyson (see: T2), a bank vault explosion (see: "Pilot"), the kidnapping of Savannah Weaver, the whereabouts of her "dead" son John (Thomas Dekker), etc. Of course, Sarah isn't talking. She always prefers to simper, and history has shown that chatter about time-travelling cyborgs only gets you a one-way ticket to the funny farm...
Meanwhile, John is debating whether to rescue his mom with the help of Cameron (Summer Glau), who surprises him by revealing she may be responsible for Sarah's predestined cancer if her nuclear power-source has become unshielded. Later, there's a beautifully peculiar, sexual scene between Cameron and John in his bedroom, where the sexy Terminator takes off her top, lies on the bed, asks John to lie on top of her... and symbolically "penetrate" her with a knife. This enables him to feel around in her insides for signs of malfunctioning power-cells. Luckily, he doesn't find any...Sarah manages to get a message out to her son, thanks to Father Bonilla (Carlos Sanz), the Hispanic priest from season 2's premiere whom she can persuade to believe her story, and who can't legally be recorded talking to her. Bonilla arranges new fake IDs for John and Cameron at Sarah's behest and gets a woman to drop them round, together with a message to leave as soon as possible and not to attempt a rescue...
At ZeiraCorp, Catherine (Shirley Manson) becomes determined to meet with John Connor, as she has many questions for him and wants to thank him for protecting Savannah. Ellison (Richard T. Jones) later arrives to speak with John, passing on a message to Cameron from his flame-haired employer: "will you join us?" It's the same message the liquid-metal Terminator passed onto Cameron in the future, after escaping from the sinking Jimmy Carter submarine. Is Catherine the same Terminator..? Or is her message a coded phrase used by a renegade faction of Skynet machines?
The Terminator that attacked Savannah is also still around, arming itself at a gun shop in an echo of Arnold Schwarzenegger doing the same in James Cameron's original movie. The cyborg arrives at ZeiraCorp to complete its mission and kill Savannah, but is thwarted easily by Catherine -- who surprises him by lancing him with her arm-blades and terminating him by conducting electricity through his body from a nearby mains supply. John Henry (Garret Dillahunt) speculates that "his brother" must have sent the cyborg...
The big set-piece of the finale is Cameron's solo attack on the L.A prison to rescue Sarah, against her wishes. This allows the show to indulge its action side (again, echoing a similar scene in the '84 movie), and the make-up crew even get to give Glau the iconic Terminator battle-damage of an exposed, crimson eye ball. Sarah is extricated during the ensuing prison-wide breakout, leaving with John in a getaway car, determined to investigate Savannah's claim that ZeiraCorp have a sentient machine living in the basement.
After arriving at ZeiraCorp and being escorted to see Catherine by Ellison, Cameron is secretly tasked with killing John Henry in the basement. In her office, Catherine confirms audience suspicions that she's not technically a villain, as she claims they share a common enemy (the forces sending a Terminator to kill the Connor's and Savannah -- who must be important in the future, somehow.) As Catherine speaks, one of the "drones" Sarah investigates mid-season is spotted flying towards Catherine's high-rise office window on a kamikaze run, prompting Catherine to protect them when the drone impacts, by turning into a metal shield (finally outing herself as a cyborg to the Connor's and Ellison.)
Interestingly, it seems that Catherine and Sarah are two sides of the same coin -- both have sons called John who will decide the fate of mankind; John Connor will lead the resistance, but Catherine claims he can't do it without her "son" John Henry. They race to the basement, aware that Cameron has been instructed to murder John Henry, arriving to find Cameron disabled and slumped in a chair with her chip missing. Catherine claims that Cameron must have given her chip to John Henry, and they notice the phrase "I'm sorry John" printed on nearby screens from Cameron.
But where is John Henry? Catherine corrects that their question should be where is John Henry -- as she reveals equipment around the room that she's gathered to fight Skynet (including The Turk), and triggers a time displacement bubble. John and Catherine step inside, the former determined to find the now-mobile John Henry to retrieve Cameron's chip, as Sarah and Ellison watch on.In the future, John and Catherine appear naked together (time-travel must reset liquid-metal Terminators to a default naked setting; it happened to the T-1000 in T2, too.) Shortly after finding clothes, John is discovered by a search team as Catherine vanishes, and is shocked to see that one of the team is his dead uncle Derek! Only, this future-Derek doesn't recognize John... or even know the name "John Connor". Clearly, time has been altered as a result of John's trip into the future (as he clearly didn't live through Judgment Day to become resistance leader). Adding to the familial crisis, John's dead father Kyle is also part of their group, as well as Cameron -- only, it's not actually Cameron, it's her physical template Allison (as otherwise the group's dogs would be barking in her presence.)
Fade out...
Well. I'm going to be mightily frustrated if we don't get a third season, for the simple fact "Born To Run" sets up some wonderful possibilities. The narrative appears likely to divide its time between 2008 (with Sarah and Ellison, possibly involving the search for Miles Dyson's missing son Danny, which is mentioned), and in the war torn future with John.
And what a crazy situation that will be for the teenage John! Will his family believe his insane story, as they now exist in an alternate universe where John didn't have any impact on events? Either way, John can get to know his dad, who died before he was born! Derek's been "resurrected"! Summer Glau would get to play a girl with emotions, whom John doesn't have to feel strange about fancying! And who is this alternate future's resistance leader, if not John Connor? What is John Henry actually planning to do in the future? Is he trying to find his brother? Does he have good intentions? Why did he need Cameron's chip? To become mobile? Does this mean John Henry is part-Cameron now? What will Catherine do in this timeline to help? Is she upset that John Henry fled? How did he know about her time displacement gizmo? She must have told him, surely...
As you can see, there are an abundance of compelling questions with which to fuel another season, or two! I sincerely hope T:tSCC gets a chance to answer them, now that it's belatedly found a way to capitalize on its two-season build-up in such fine, creative style. Or maybe writer/developer Josh Friedman knew the chances of renewal were low, so threw a lot of crazy-fun ideas into the mix for the heck of it? I mean, is it viable to set half of the show in the future, budget-wise? How will that play to TV audiences being treated to a big-budget dystopia in Terminator: Salvation this summer? And would you really have left Sarah stranded in the past with Ellison if you knew you were coming back next year? Their options for a story feel limited... beyond making their own time-machine to jump ahead to get John back, while avoiding more Terminators.
For now, we'll have to wait a few weeks until T:tSCC's fate is decided by Fox, but if it really is a case of "hasta la vista, baby", I'm pleased the series went out with all guns blazing and provided fans with a finale that (even if never resolved) will spark debate, theories and fan-fiction for years to come.
30 April 2009
Virgin1, 10pm
Writer: Josh Friedman
Director: Jeffrey Hunt
Cast: Thomas Dekker (John), Lena Headey (Sarah), Summer Glau (Cameron), Richard T. Jones (Ellison), Brian Austin Green (Derek), Shirley Manson (Catherine), Garret Dillahunt (John Henry), Shane Edelman (Matt Murch), Sabrina Perez (Chola), Linden Goh (Fuller), Joshua Malina (Agent Auldridge), Carlos Sanz (Father Armando Bonilla) & Cooper Huckabee (Salesman)
