Grant Brünner: Bassguy

This post spoils important plot points for Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Unless you have seen episode five of season two, please do not read this post.

John and Derek make their way to a military academy to protect a future member of the human resistance from a T-888. Like “Allison From Palmdale” and “Dungeons & Dragons,” the story is told by switching between the future and the present. In the future, we get shown Derek, Kyle, and the new character — Martin Bedell. As we progress through the plot we find out that Bedell is a vital part of the human resistance, but he is considering leaving the military academy. Derek plots out series of traps to stop the T-888, and has a group of cadets watching for the “Intruder.” After the terminator powers through Derek’s sharpshooting and the land mines, he targets Bedell. John catches the T-888’s attention, and leads it to a tar pit. Derek gets a few shots off at the terminator’s head, and it falls into the tar. John lights the tar on fire, and Bedell runs up as the terminator is engulfed in flames. John and Derek bid farewell to Bedell, and then Derek explains to John the importance of saving the cadet. In the future, Bedell sacrifices himself to save forty prisoners. John is one of those prisoners. The conversation John and Derek have on the drive back is a very strong moment in the series. John is growing exponentially as a character.

Sarah and Cameron are busy protecting a young boy that shares his name with the cadet. After snagging the boy from his home, Sarah and Cameron take the boy to their house. He becomes fairly upset, but Sarah does her best to comfort him. Tying back to the first season, Sarah and the boy read The Wonderful Wizard of Oz as he falls asleep on her lap. We hear the story as a voice over as the terminator enters the military academy. Once John and Derek dispose of the T-888, Sarah sees the little boy off at the bus station. Sarah is clearly going into maternal overdrive this season. A substantial amount of Sarah’s screen time is spent on her reflecting on children, her relationship with John, and her own mortality. We are seeing the softer side of Sarah. (Say that three times fast.)

Ellison and Weaver are looking into the events that took place in “Automatic for the People.” Ellison to the plant looking for answers, and learns the details about all of the damage that the terminators did. He heads to the bar that the plant workers drink at, and looks through some photos. In one of the pictures, Ellison sees Sarah. He brings back the plant information to Weaver, and she takes on the plant manager on her own. She goes to the same bar, picks up the manager, and death-kisses him. It is completely creepy, but very visually interesting.

It has been a good while since we have heard from Riley or Charley. I’m curious as to how much those two will factor into the rest of the season. We have barely gotten started with Riley, but we have a lot of back story with Charley. We’re already five episodes in, so it is pretty important that this show gets picked up for a full season. On the same note, they introduced us to a new female character named Jesse on the official blog. She’ll be introduced in the next episode, so we’ll be juggling even more people. I’m completely immersed. This season has been even better than the first. I am more impressed with each and every episode. “Goodbye to All That” is my favorite episode yet, and lets hope they continue with this great momentum.