TSCC - Born To Run...

[cj2017]

 

The Good

Sarah in jail getting her snark on; “I never liked funny boys.”

John Henry rolling twenties at will.

Sarah in jail attempting to drop Ellison in the shit; “Maybe we were in this together!”

The T1 shout-outs; gun shop Terminator, jail break terminator getting all shot to hell, Sarah yelling madness at an interrogation room camera, Kyle…  

The return of the Samson and Delilah priest. This show likes it when you pay attention.

The return of Chola. Now with actual lines.

Sarah; do not think of her, do not come for her, leave. I guess John took that to heart.

Fox running an advert for Prison Break over a shot of Sarah sitting forlornly in her cell. Who says the network doesn’t have a sense of humour?!

The hint that Danny Dyson is probably a Kaliba prisoner/collaborator and a new link to Skynet, which opens up a whole new angle to play with.

Sarah not falling for an interrogation switcheroo like she did in Some Must Watch… Detective I believe you now, honest didn’t push her buttons quite as well as Winston did (but then, Winston had drugged the shit out of her) and Sarah manages to maintain her protective cover for John; “my son is dead.” Who knows? He might have been an ally, but it was good to see her not taking the chance.

The fact that the self destruct Terminators are on Kaliba’s side, which probably means that Pretzel Terminator was also working for Kaliba. In which case, was Savannah the target in The Tower…?

“What’s that Bible story… the one where the locks fall off?... Yeah, that’s a good one.” Sarah’s so cool when she’s so cool.

Understatement of the episode: “I’m not 100%” The words “no” and “shit” sprang to mind.

John’s “I love you.” So out of the blue and lovely. No wonder Sarah looked stunned.

The elevator ride: pure win. And no muzak.

Sarah allowing herself a little “Ha. Told you so!” smile at the three dots.  Not so crazy now huh?

 The return of the Reese Boys (John’s reaction to Kyle was lovely) and Derek all alive and shiny.

 

The Bad

“Maybe you got nothing to lose.” Yeah Ellison. Did you not listen to what she just said? Let the lady with the history of the crazy paint a picture of what she’s been doing for the past ten years, y’know those ten years she skipped through time over with the help of a cyborg. If you want a picture painting, have the balls to get an easel out and paint it yourself. Don’t put the onus on the woman who already got abused for years in a psychiatric hospital for telling that story.

Ellison being a self-righteous prick for the ninety-twelfth episode running.

Ellison not dying in a fireball.

Why was John Henry suddenly Weaver’s parrot? It was mildly amusing first time out. Then, not so much.

Oh Ellison, talking “outside” doesn’t really work so well when you’ve got a Terminator eavesdropping. Cameron heard Sarah telling John about Riley from way outside the garage.

The whole weight loss thing makes no sense at all. Sarah explicitly denied any “unexplained weight loss” in To The Lighthouse during a scene where she had no motivation whatsoever to lie. Yet suddenly, she’s lost 11% of her body mass in 6 weeks. You’d notice that. Especially if you’re as skinny as Sarah is, hell you’d need to be walking sideways over grids if you lost that much weight. Bad continuity or lazy-assed plotting? Seeing as this show usually rocks at continuity, I’m going to plump for the latter.

Shame Water Cooler Terminator was offed so quickly. He was scary-good. Guess he knew who Weaver was, but no one had clued him into what she was.

Speaking of Weaver – anyone else take a sharp breath when she raised a finger upon meeting the Connors? “Woah, don’t be pointing that at anyone now!!”

The drone – don’t those things have lasers or something? Something a little more efficient than just arbitrarily smashing it through a window and hoping for the best? Cool shot with it approaching from the distance but still… it seemed a little daft as far as master mass-murdering plans go. Plus, Weaver’s Batfink wings: a bit silly.

Strangely over-dubbed and stilted dialogue in the stairwell after the explosion. ADR having an off-day?

The Downright Fucking Ugly…

Sarah’s prison orange. Right down to those nasty shoes.

The motel wall paper and curtains.

The fact that Cameron had told John there was no power cell leak, and then suddenly decided that she would let him go ahead and check just to shoe-horn in a totally unnecessary and utterly squicky scene to appease the Jameronians. Even the actors looked uncomfortable.  And I felt like I needed a shower immediately afterwards.

Cameron’s originally dead set against a jail break, and the next minute she’s non-lethally shooting the shit out of the LAPD. And John didn’t wonder that that was a little odd? Nothing to do with Ellison’s little chat, perchance?

Derek – all alive and shiny. Don’t get me wrong, I love the shifty little bastard and I was very happy to see him, but he died awesomely just last week. Hitting reset this week… Josh, would you like cream or ice cream with that cake?

So this is what it all comes down to? John – whom the writers have tried so very hard to retcon into some semblance of a man that is destined to lead the human race – jumps through time to who knows when, with a complete stranger to save his fucking cyborg girlfriend?! And Sarah lets him? No. No. A world of no. Sarah should have fought tooth and nail to stop him being such a hormone-addled idiot and John, well, John came off even worse.

There was talk, from Dekker, that Sarah would leave her son but, in the end, her son abandoned her. In one breath he’s slowly coming to terms with the fact that his mother might be very sick, and in the next, he’s hopping into a time-bubble after his cyborg shag-piece. I can’t begin to fanwank the sense back into that. On the bright side, at least Sarah still has her head in the game; “I’ll stop it.” But ditching her with Ellison and letting John go play happy-families with his new nuclear family – they even have a cute puppy – was a smack in the face for her character. After tearing the relationship between Sarah and John apart for most of the year, the writers have worked diligently in the last few episodes to build it up again. Then in one fell swoop Friedman seems to decide, what the hell, and stomps all over it in the final minutes.

“People matter, John… they’re all that matters. Don’t ever forget that.” One carefully constructed thematic arc negated in favour of five minutes of “aren’t we cool?”ness.

I really wanted to love this one. Being something of a masochist, I wanted to cry buckets and have my heart broken. I guess it just wasn’t to be.

 

Comments

[cospinol.livejournal.com]

While I did think John's stunt was way overboard. I can't agree that his intentions are out of character. I've been calling the "Jameron" thing all season long, I don't think it's anything Josh Friedman did, it's in many episodes.

John's resentment of her, IMO, was always as fake as his resentment of mom earlier in the season. And I though quiet adequately portrayed by TD. He always had a strong bond with Cameron. It was always more complicated and subtle than people give it credit for (the insane Jameronian fangirls don't count).

[cj2017.livejournal.com]

While I did think John's stunt was way overboard. I can't agree that his intentions are out of character. I've been calling the "Jameron" thing all season long, I don't think it's anything Josh Friedman did, it's in many episodes.

Friedman just accelerated it to an unbelievable degree for me. The Jameronian thing has always been there as UST, something in the background, enough to make Sarah uncomfortable but nothing overt. Suddenly, in one scene, we're supposed to accept that it's True Love Forever and it was a leap of faith too far for me. Plus it squicks me out hugely, but that's just my opinion!

John's resentment of her, IMO, was always as fake as his resentment of mom earlier in the season.

Not sure he ever resented Cam, he got distracted by a real-live girl in Riley and the show chose to focus on that for a while (another reason why the switch back to Cam was so unbelievable.) FWIW, I thought the Sarah/John spat played out better. Sure, his reasoning was all to cock - mad at mommy cos she couldn't quite save his life when someone tied her hands behind her and attempted to throttle her - but the sulky, resentful, stroppy little teen was pretty realistic. Problem is, they then retconned John past all that, and for a couple of episodes he was finally looking like a leader. Then he jumped through time after his hormones and that was the John we were left with. Right back to John Baum. What a waste.