T:TSCC 0201 – Samson and Delilah

The second season premiere happened with a LOT of jaw-dropping events. Key…despite Cameron being all Terminator-y for most of the episode, John sides with her instead of his human allies because “She saves my life!”

Cameron, to her credit, after she returns from the dark-side tells Sarah, “Don’t let him do that again. If I ever go bad again, don’t let him bring me back.” — always the Protector (or is it guilt/shame).

As for the T-1001 making a leak-inducing appearance…I’m still sort of wondering at what point in the future it is sent back? This seems like incredibly advanced technology, even for Future-John’s time.

There is the question of whether or not Cameron, upon waking up with her “fixed” CPU, overrode the Terminate order on her own or if it was part of the changed programming Future-John installed. I’d not sure at all about that, but some point to the T-1001’s line: “You know what’s extremely rare in the world of computers? Finding one that will cross against the light,” (i.e., go against its programming and make its own choice). Is Cameron that computer?

This obviously raises the question that Derek posed in “Vick’s Chip” about whether or not Cameron might actually be the first step in the evolution of Skynet. Because there’s not causal evidence to think the previous incarnations of Skynet evolved from her, I’m not buying it.

Lately, does Cameron love John? Is she capable of it? Terminator boss Joss Friedman isn’t saying…though the T800-101 in T2 sort of gives that away…yes, they can have their own cyborgy feelings. And that is something else that has been said…Cameron isn’t a reinacarnation of ST:TNG’s Data, she’s not trying to be human, but she is exploring what it is to be cyborg, and that might be very complex, indeed.

If the show survives (please Fox, give ONE well-done cult-ish show a break and let it survive past the scheduling train-wreck that is MLB pre-emption season), then it should be one heck of a ride. This episode wasn’t full of a lot of thought-provoking items, and that’s fine with me. Every now and again, I think the series requires having a movie-esque action-heavy episode. If it tries to get too thoughtful, then I think a lot of the core audience will wander off.