Now that I've finally had time to stop by, I thought I'd throw in my 2 clips. I wrote my blog for the episode last night (
T:TSCC 0219 - Today Is The Day, Part 2), but honestly I was so tired I don't remember much of what I talked about. Then again, I don't know what I'm going to say here. At least there is symmetry ;D
Of course the scene I couldn't help focusing on was the one between John Connor (the real John Connor) and Ms Jesse Flores. Dekker was outstanding in projecting the aura that future-John is described as having. I liked how this manifested when John steps to Jesse, politely requests her gun while matter-of-factly saying that she's not going to shoot him, and Jesse offering up the weapon without a moment's hesitation. But it didn't end there. As John walk to the window, he has a leadership sort of swagger...a confidence that spoke of Jesse never actually having any choice in the matter and John knowing that she'd know that.
It didn't stop there. John's telling Jesse about his history with the machines...calm, measured...gave him a context that I don't think Jesse (or most) ever knew. John Connor has never known a life without the threat of being hunted.
I couldn't help noting to moments of emotion from Jesse during the lecture. The first, when John said his first protector was Kyle Reese seemed to catch Jesse totally off guard. The second, when John said that he and she were the only think in Riley's life seemed to have rung an emotional bell (finally) with Jesse. There was, if only for that instant of holding back a tear (when Jesse looks up), regret. That moment showed that Jesse, the pre-agenda Jesse, was still in there somewhere.
What was stunning in the scene was how measured and calm John was. He basically told Jesse that, well, he's John Freakin' Connor, and there's a reason why he is. He told that to Jesse so that she'd give up whatever vendetta she had and just disappear. No lies. No threats. Amazingly, if future-John was there post-Jimmy Carter to do the same for Jesse, he'd have avoided this distracting period with Riley.
His knowledge of who Riley was coming sometime after "Mr. Ferguson" explains some things about how his demeanor changed with the Cameron/Riley interaction. At the beginning, he seemed to be trying to keep Cameron away. Toward the end he seemed to be wanting to use Cameron to force Riley's hand, get her to the point where she'd spill the beans. But...as he noted to Jesse, she didn't.
Another key scene was that early one with Derek. Derek isn't stupid, he knows that John was threatening him. See...while he didn't need Derek to tell John what was happening, he did need Derek to come clean. He needed Derek to understand that when John tells him that he pays attention to everything, he really does. Derek finally seemed to understand what almost everyone else has missed: that John doesn't want to retreat into the behind-the-curtain world of John Baum. He is and always has been John Connor.
This was made clear to Sarah when he pointed out that the place that she thought was so idyllic was actually a place he hated.
Sarah is definitely having trouble coming to terms that John is no longer "Uncle Bob's" little buddy, but is now the leader. John has twice now openly sided with Cameron instead of Sarah: in this episode with the apology to Cameron, and in "Samson and Delilah" when he chose to throw is fate in with Cameron by reinserting her chip.
Sarah's little in-the-little-b**ch's face moment with Cameron shows that she's having a lot of trouble with the idea that John likes and trusts Cameron more than her. Further confusing things was John finally taking a moment, presumably after fill Sarah and Cameron in on everything that had happened, to mourn. He'd held it in. He'd been the strong leader. But, with a little prompting from Derek, he had to be human for a moment. Of course since he settled on Sarah's lap instead of Cameron's shoulder is only going to fuel Sarah's often dicey protective me-and-you-alone-against-the-world neurosis.
As for the mimetic poly-alloy terminator (MPAT). While the jury is still out as to whether John was safe in seeking an alliance, it seemed pretty clear to me that if the initial answer was going to be something more positive than "no", that the sub crew totally scuttled it. First, they proved their unreliability in following orders by opening the box. After that, and presumably in full view of the hiding MPAT, the humans proved to be incredibly unstable. Finally, even when faced with information that their leader, John Connor, was calling the secret shots on this, the humans (i.e. Jesse) called a shot of her own and popped the trip-8 right in the CPU. After seeing that, why in the world would any MPAT (or anybody in general) want to have anything to do with John Connor's army? Clearly these humans would disappoint.
Speaking of the humans disappointing thing, I have to note an interesting detail, which may or may not be relevant, a member of another forum pointed out. John Henry was obsessed with choosing the correct color of paint for the eyes of his figures. With eyes being the window to the soul, they had to be correct. In the end, he chose blue...which just happens to be the color of terminator glow Cameron's eyes are. It's an interesting little tidbit. Might not mean anything, might mean much.
Was the MPAT Catherine? While some of the interlocking circumstances hint at that, I'm going to have to take a pass on even guessing at that. We don't even know how many MPATs there might be. It is interesting to postulate on what sort of agenda they might have now that it seems that what Cameron told Allison was likely true that there are actually three legs to this war: John, Skynet, and the other non-aligned terminators.
Cameron herself was interesting. Two of the scenes are definitely worth mentioning. I've read here a lot of back-and-forth about the lost baby thing. Clearly that was intended to do two things: give Jesse a stronger connection with Derek; and to give Jesse a reason to oppose Cameron. A classic case of wanting to kill the bringer of bad news.
When you combine that with this isolation of Connor, it's no surprise that Jesse wanted to do something about it. John hiding behind the machines (assuming he's alive and in charge at all--which here questions were implying when talking with Cameron) got her into this mess. If Connor had told her what was in the box, or told her that the Captain was under non-overridable orders, or...in fact...anything at all, then the mission likely wouldn't have resulted in the deaths of several crewmen and the loss of an irreplaceable asset.
It does make you wonder, in Jesse's futurepast, what role did Cameron play? In this instance, she seems to be more than just a gatekeeper. It's easy to understand Jesse's motivation because Cameron seems to be the overall keeper of John Connor. It does look that this if-you-tell-me-you-tell-John robot is really the one running things. With Cameron initially not mentioning the crew, only the machines, it somewhat implies that she's the one who gave Queeg his orders. It simply wouldn't occur to her to inform a human.
I'm always fascinated by Cameron's evolution over her lifetime. In "Allison", we see a pretty mechanical infiltration unit. In the modern day, an advanced cyborg who can convincingly pass for human when the need arises. In Jesse's future, Cameron is somewhere in-between. She's less robotic than how she started, but is still obviously robotic. Her attempt at connecting with a damaged human, by providing the nonsequitur TMI about the lost baby, shows that she iswas more inept at handling humans than she demonstrates in "Self Made Man".
But she does try to improve. Though many birds get sacrificed along the way, Cameron is trying to find the balance between conflicting expectations. It was interesting that when she held the bird, she held it with both hands. Was it so that the right hand could rescue the bird if need be? Was it more of a symbol...an understanding that she needs to reconcile her conflicting desires--her kung-fu grip hand not being so much a mechanical malfunction but an "emotional" one. (Not that I'm suggesting Cameron has human emotions, just that whatever she has that isn't pure programing that
she'd describe as emotions.)
And I'm sure there is much more to say, and will be said in follow-up, but this post has already stretched to an unwieldy length. At any rate, between this post and my blog entry, I think I've covered what was on my mind.
Overall, I very much enjoyed this episode. It was nice to finally meet John Connor.