Your burning questions for season 2.

[roseredscare]

I love this show a great deal but I will admit it gets confusing often and the writer's strike this season didn't do it any favors. Here are some questions I want answered in the second season to clear things up...

1) Why did Derek lie about killing Andy?

2) Why did Cameron lie to Sarah about destroying all of the T-888?

3) What exactly was Derek's team's mission when they were sent into the past?

4) Why didn't John tell Sarah that Derek figured out they were related?

5) When Derek and his crew were captured by Skynet, why were they let go alive?

6) What was happening to the guys who were taken down into that basement?

7) What's Cameron's model?

8) Where did Derek know Cameron before he saw her in the resistance bunker?

9) Does Derek still think he can save his brother?

10) What's Ellison going to do now that he knows Sarah has been right all along?

[tzigone]

Nice list of questions: I'll second your request for answers on 2, 4, 5, 6, and 10. I feel like we have strong indications (though nothing solid) on a couple of the others.

2) Why did Cameron lie to Sarah about destroying all of the T-888?

Good question. There is no reason for Cameron to lie about it if all Cameron wanted to was review the data, as we saw them do. There has to be something more - I think. The coltan thing could tie in with this, I think.

4) Why didn't John tell Sarah that Derek figured out they were related?

I think we'll see that one handled fairly quickly next season. He was a bit miffed thinking Sarah had forgotten his birthday and didn't seem too chatty. Once we get past the "Cameron's been blown up" thing next season, I think we'll probably get an answer.

5) When Derek and his crew were captured by Skynet, why were they let go alive?

Please. I really want the answer to this one. Besides head games, I can't think of a reason they'd be let go in this fashion - you'd think their captors would want to make their release look like an escape instead of a release.

6) What was happening to the guys who were taken down into that basement?

Yes, I definitely want details on this. It's just set up too mysteriously to be straight forward torture, I think.

10) What's Ellison going to do now that he knows Sarah has been right all along?

I don't really consider this one to be an unanswered question. I'm dying to know what's going to happen, but I don't feel like it's something we really needed to know this season. I think he was left a logical point for a break between seasons.


While there are lots of things I want to know more about, I'm going to limit myself (in this thread, anyway) to the areas where I think this season suffered because of the writer's strike.

1) John never finding out that Derek killed Andy, knew about Barbara being followed (I definitely think so, anyway), what his plans were (I think to kill all the members of Andy's future team, but we don't know for sure). That conflict, that letdown for John in the kind of man Derek is, that would have been fabulous to follow up into the finale. Same goes for John finding out about Cameron killing Enrique. Those had high potential for drama, and I really felt like they needed to be dealt with within one season (especially Enrique, since his death was earlier and less prominent for the audience/storyline). You don't want the audience to have forgotten about the deaths or for them to have been "so long ago it's not relevant" to the audience. It needs to be a big deal (esp. after the letdown of how Sarah handled it - very anticlimactic).

2) Wrap up of the Cheri/guidance counselor/graffiti artist storyline. Really, everything associated with the high-school storyline. Including what seemed (in the deleted scene) to be John investigating Jordan's reasons. This storyline was totally neglected. Understandable, since the Skynet/Derek/Andy/etc. storyline is much, much more important. But we only got glimpses of this one. And it's 99% likely to have nothing to do with the Skynet/A-Plot thing (though I'd like a tie-in between highschool and Skynet storylines if possible). It's not really memorable and big enough a story-line to stretch well between seasons. And now, with the finale, it's seemingly been like 5 months since Jordon killed herself, so it being followed up on now seems weird.

3) Charley never mentioning or referencing that Sarah and John themselves traveled through time and hadn't aged. It's just glaringly weird that he didn't comment. I mean, I understand endoskeletons is bigger news, but I'd have been happy with just one "you haven't aged a day" line. Which brings me to the second point: what exactly does Charley know about J-Day? Presumably he knows it's going to happen since Sarah told him a story and Cameron mentioned it in front of him. But it would have been nice to see him dealing with or realizing there were only 3 years left or something.

[roseredscare]

I completely forgot about the whole Cheri/high school plot line probably because they hadn't really touched on it much when they introduced Derek. I would like to know what that was all about and how it relates to Skynet.

I'd also really like to know what kind of timetravel plotting the writers are using: moebius, alternate universes, what?

ETA: Oh here's another one: Why did Cromartie not kill Ellison?

[allergygal]

Great question list, roseredscare. I'd like those answers too, especially #1 (why did Derek lie about killing Andy). And that leads me to one of my burning questions:

What's the truth about Andy Goode? Sarah's still pretty broken up over his death, which leads me to believe we're not supposed to forget about him -- his story isn't done yet.

What is Cameron's mission? I believe she's there to protect John first and foremost, but she is clearly at work on a larger mission.

How did Sarkissian find out Sarah's real identity? Presumably, all he had to go on was her cell phone number and a webcam picture.

What is Charley going to do now that he knows everything and understands the real dangers? Sarah and John trust Charley, but Derek and Cameron think he's a liability. So I think Charley's going to be a more important character next season.

What the heck is Ellison's report about the slaughter at the motel going to say?! He certainly can't report the truth to his boss.

How badly is Cameron going to be damaged? And more importantly who's going to get John's birthday cake now?!

Will we see gang girl again? I hope so. And will she ever speak? I hope not

Will John get that hair out of his face? I hope so.

tzigone said:

1) John never finding out that Derek killed Andy, knew about Barbara being followed (I definitely think so, anyway), what his plans were (I think to kill all the members of Andy's future team, but we don't know for sure). That conflict, that letdown for John in the kind of man Derek is, that would have been fabulous to follow up into the finale. Same goes for John finding out about Cameron killing Enrique. Those had high potential for drama, and I really felt like they needed to be dealt with within one season (especially Enrique, since his death was earlier and less prominent for the audience/storyline). You don't want the audience to have forgotten about the deaths or for them to have been "so long ago it's not relevant" to the audience. It needs to be a big deal (esp. after the letdown of how Sarah handled it - very anticlimactic).

Yes! I really hope this issue gets addressed more dramatically next season.

[Big Brother]

roseredscare said:

ETA: Oh here's another one: Why did Cromartie not kill Ellison?

I think I've figured this one out. Recall that near the start of the episode, Cromartie/Kester went looking for the FBI's file on Sarah Connor, and learned that Ellison had checked it out.

Cromartie has to know that, what with the SWAT team and all, his cover as an FBI agent is blown. He can't use that to track Sarah any more. But Ellison is still a real agent, and surely now is gonna stop at nothing to find her and make contact. So all Cromartie has to do is use whatever hacking skills got him into the FBI database in the first place to follow Ellison's progress, and that will lead him straight to Sarah and John.

Ellison couldn't hurt him with that puny handgun. And he could still be useful to flush Sarah out. So Cromartie let him live.

[roseredscare]

But we saw no indication that Cromartie even knew that was Ellison in the raid. And if he had wanted to use Ellison like that wouldn't he have done the same thing he did with the plastic surgeon and the blood scientist? Hold him captive and make him work for him?

Oh, and something else I want cleared up. In Vick's Chip, did Vick kill Barbara's real husband and copy his face by having surgery Cromartie style? Or was Vick a long term sleeper agent who was sent back in time with the mission to fall in love with this woman, marry her and then kill her once she had developed the city traffic program? And why bother to kill her in the end anyway?

[allergygal]

roseredscare said:

But we saw no indication that Cromartie even knew that was Ellison in the raid. And if he had wanted to use Ellison like that wouldn't he have done the same thing he did with the plastic surgeon and the blood scientist? Hold him captive and make him work for him?

Oh, and something else I want cleared up. In Vick's Chip, did Vick kill Barbara's real husband and copy his face by having surgery Cromartie style? Or was Vick a long term sleeper agent who was sent back in time with the mission to fall in love with this woman, marry her and then kill her once she had developed the city traffic program? And why bother to kill her in the end anyway?

I agree about Cromartie not knowing who Ellison was. I rewatched that moment and there's no name tag on Ellison's vest. He was wearing his badge, but Cromartie never looked down at it. I think he let him live because Ellison lowered his weapon, which meant he wasn't a threat, just like he ignored the cops outside the bank in the pilot.

About Vick... On his chip, we saw that image of a whole bunch of Vicks, so he was manufactured to look that way. I doubt Skynet would have known what Barbara's husband looked like, so I think it makes more sense that he met Barbara and got her to fall in love with him and marry him.

It didn't make a lot of sense to me why he killed her at the end, though. What if there was a problem with the traffic program at some point? Who would fix it? You'd think Skynet would have wanted to keep her around. I think maybe having Vick eliminate her was a convenient way for us to know that once John/Cameron caused the program to go haywire, Barbara wouldn't be there to try to save it.

Either that or Vick just wanted out of the marriage and divorce wasn't in his mission parameters

[tzigone]

allergygal said:

Either that or Vick just wanted out of the marriage and divorce wasn't in his mission parameters

Who can blame him? Divorce might have taken some time and he no doubt had other people to seduce, marry and manipulate.

What the heck is Ellison's report about the slaughter at the motel going to say?! He certainly can't report the truth to his boss.

I'm looking forward to that one, too.

Another question: Does Sarah plan to get a job? I wouldn't mind if she didn't - after all, fighting Skynet could take up way too much of her time. But we just found that the diamonds aren't really that much money (when you're buying the type of supplies they are buying, anyway - I'd think those things would be expensive) and won't last forever. Of course, they could always steal more. I'm more in favor of her not working. It'd either get in the way of her being where she needed to be or it'd be like watching all those teen shows where you go "do these people ever go to school?"

[allergygal]

tzigone said:

Another question: Does Sarah plan to get a job? I wouldn't mind if she didn't - after all, fighting Skynet could take up way too much of her time. But we just found that the diamonds aren't really that much money (when you're buying the type of supplies they are buying, anyway - I'd think those things would be expensive) and won't last forever. Of course, they could always steal more. I'm more in favor of her not working. It'd either get in the way of her being where she needed to be or it'd be like watching all those teen shows where you go "do these people ever go to school?"

She has more important things to do than try to scrimp by on waitressing money, so I also think it's better if she just doesn't work. In Heavy Metal, she says they still have money from the safe house (and we know they still have the diamonds). We don't know how much they still have or how long it'll last, but as long as they address the issue of money periodically, we don't need to see her slinging hash for tips. Of course, they are going to need a new Jeep now!

[t101]

I'm sure if you come from the future there are a few things you can do to get money. Like betting on sports or investing in the stock market. Seems like a sensible thing to do to provide Cameron and those Resistance soldiers with some "insider" tips on making easy money.

[roseredscare]

I'm in favor of Derek getting a job! That could be interesting.

On a completely unrelated and off topic note, I noticed that when the cell rings in the truck in What He Beheld only John and Sarah checked their cells, neither Cameron or Derek had none. It probably would be a good idea to get Derek one at least.

[shmi]

t101 said:

I'm sure if you come from the future there are a few things you can do to get money. Like betting on sports or investing in the stock market.

Not unless the records fared better this time around. In the orginal timeline they didn't know Sarah Connor's full name. And I doubt Derek remembers most of the race results.

[t101]

Sarah bought three phones in The Turk, right? I don't think Cameron would need to check her phone anyway, she would be confused like the humans.

I'm pretty sure Derek would remember a few baseball games. Pretty sure they could find a whole bunch of people who remember that sort of stuff. And apocalypse or no, I think they'd still have some historical records.

[roseredscare]

One broke in Heavy Metal though.

Since the safe house where they got all the money was Derek's to beginning with, it's probably safe to assume he knows how to get money the fast way through untraditional means.

[shmi]

roseredscare said:

One broke in Heavy Metal though.

Since the safe house where they got all the money was Derek's to beginning with, it's probably safe to assume he knows how to get money the fast way through untraditional means.

True. Mostly likely theft. Acceptable in a emergency, but doing it too often could be dangerous.