By Kofi Outlaw

After time-traveling eight years into the future, Sarah and John are having a hard time adjusting to the change. The most immediate problem is establishing new false identities for the Connors, and Terminator-protector Cameron, to adopt. To that end, Cameron reveals to Sarah that a cabals of resistance fighters, sent back from the future, live nearby, charged with the task of bailing John and Sarah out of just this kind of dilemma. However, when Sarah and Cameron arrive at the safe house to meet the resistance fighters, they find three out of the four men have been slaughtered by a new, killer Terminator that curiously retreats, rather than do battle.

Cameron later explains that this new Terminator isn’t programmed to hunt down John or Sarah. The future war between man and machine is an intricate chess game, spanning time, with many pieces. Terminator ‘sleeper-agents’ stationed in 2007, have been programmed to hunt and kill resistance fighters, and have no knowledge of John and Sarah’s time-jump. Cameron warns that should the machines learn of John’s presence in 2007, every Terminator stationed in that era would come gunning for them. (Crucial plot point alert!)

Meanwhile, the Terminator assassin Sarah blasted with the ion cannon back in 1999 rears his head in 2007. Literally. A highway worker finds the cyborg’s skull beside the same roadside where Sarah, John, and Cameron landed from their time jump. The worker, thinking he’s found a new paperweight, takes the skull home. A curious cat inadvertently activates the machine, which sends a signal out to its body, which has been buried beneath eight years worth of scrap metal. The body locates the head, manages to reattach it, and begins the hunt for John all over again.


Forced to go to plan B to secure new false identities, Sarah pays a visit to Enrique, the Mexican freedom fighter who first trained her and John in combat (he’s the guy who stashed all the guns in T2). Enrique claims he is out of the illegal life, but refers Sarah to his nephew, who is equally skilled in the art of forgery. But time has changed things; in a post 9/11 world, false identities are a risky enterprise. Enrique’s nephew’s price is no less than $20,000. Once Sarah is brought up to speed on what 9/11 is, she agrees to come up with the cash.

While Sarah and Cameron handle business, John, tired of being cooped up in the house, sneaks out to look in on Sarah’s old EMT husband, who has conveniently re-located to the area. The EMT discovers John in his home and is dumbstruck by the fact that the boy hasn’t aged a day in eight years. John runs off, scared to drag the poor man’s life through the mud any more than he has already.

On the way back from Enrique’s, Sarah pumps Cameron for information about her mission parameters, and why it was necessary for them to time-jump, if there are Terminators still around anyway. Cameron in tells Sarah that one tragic event they avoided by time jumping was Sarah’s surrender to cancer in 2005. This sets a clock off in Sarah’s head. She knows that time travel won’t stave off cancer, and that eventually, down the road, the disease will likely find her.

To get money for the new identities, John, Sarah and Cameron decide to return to the safe house of the dead resistance fighters. They figure the group must have had weapons and funds, and the gambit pays off. The trio escapes with loot and guns in tow, before the newest Terminator returns, looking for the surviving resistance fighter, a mysterious figure watching from the shadows as John, Sarah and Cameron make their escape.

Sarah pays Enrique’s nephew, and new identities are established for her, John and Cameron. On the way out of the deal, Sarah overhears Enrique’s nephew and a cohort exchange a vile joke about Enrique, one that leads Sarah to put a gun to her old friend’s head. Enrique is exposed as a snitch—an unfortunate life he began after doing a prison stint. When Sarah can’t execute Enrique, Cameron does the job for her. It’s a good move; Agent Ellison shows up a day later, lured by Enrique’s promise of the snitch of the century. Ellison feels that his lost quarry has resurfaced after eight years, and begins to sniff around for the trail.


The second night of TERMINATOR: TSCC really set the stage so that the series can run for years to come. What I enjoy most is how the plot devices play directly into the lore first established by the films, while taking that story in new, yet totally logical, directions. After seeing first seeing T2 as a kid, I remember wondering such things as why would Terminators only strike at John Connor a couple of times, why not everyday? Or why only send one protector, why not a bunch of them? T3 did little to answer any of these, or any other questions, so I’m glad that THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES is tying those threads together into a cohesive bit of story. I’m interested to see what other clever turns come out of the next few episodes. Hopefully the momentum of the show’s two-night premiere won’t get bogged down. Right now I’m digging it, just like 28 million other viewers.