Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles Ep2.08 Mr. Ferguson is Ill Today
The ep title seems totally random.
- I didn't like the experimental storytelling format. It was too jerky, broke up the narrative flow to backtrack for no discernible reason, and didn't seem to help the story they were telling. I've only seen that kind of format working when telling a Rashomon type story, with conflicting or differently interpreted narratives. Here, it seemed pointless.
- I did like how abruptly Cromartie entered the scene. Sarah was just doing carpentry, and then she's suddenly attacked. That feels more realistic than most action shows, which would have made it flashier or given warning like cuing the ominous music soundtrack before she was grabbed. I like how surprising, almost banal, it was and how it was shot without any fancy stylistic camera tricks.
- Sarah highlights: First, using a soda can to cut through her duct tape. You can't keep that woman down; she just gets back up to come back swinging. Second, the look on her face when Cromartie told her that her mercy on the bowling alley boy led him to her. We also get canon confirmation that Sarah's not a murderer, and has never killed. That changes my interpretation of the character. Third, the end where she calmly held a conversation with Ellison, and then went apeshit over Cromartie's chip. She's so repressed. It's interesting.
That said, Sarah could have been more active in this ep.
- I do not get John. As more episodes go on, the less I understand him. The show keeps going back and forth between treating him as a young adult and future resistance leader, and treating him as a rebellious kid who's upbringing as a resistance leader is screwing him up.
- This probably makes me dense, but I wasn't aware that John and Riley were dating until Riley referred to themselves as a couple. This is also the ep where I got the John/Cameron vibes, and it was off putting in an incestuous stepsiblings way. I couldn't follow the conversation between them.
I also couldn't follow along with what they were doing in terms of character and relationship* stuff; it was like I understood each sentence but not how they related to each other as a whole or what they were trying to say. The Cromartie storyline, and John being discovered by the authorities came as a relief.
*I don't mean just romance. I mean familial like Sarah and John, and the weird conspiratorial vibe between Sarah and Cameron in the beginning, and Cameron and Derek's interactions.
- I like how, while Riley was treated as an outsider/civilian, she was still capable and sensible. She doesn't know what's going on because no one's telling her anything, and earlier she operates under the assumption that John's a normal guy. A normal guy who doesn't tell her anything about himself, has weird eccentric requests, has a family that doesn't like her, is wary over the authorities, and apparently has some trigger happy guy who wants to kill him. Riley has bad taste in men. Although I've seen worse in fictional characters.
- The Cromartie death scene was pretty good, from using Ellison as bait to lure him into the church, and then ambushing him with gunfire when they had him. What's interesting was that a) they were in a church, b) Cromartie had his arms outstretched in Christ figure pose, and c) the Christ imagery for Cameron in Ep 2.01. So, what? The terminators are martyrs for Skynet's cause? I can be over reaching on the imagery here.
- I'll be lurking around TSCC fandom to find out what Spanish song they were playing during the death scene, and what the La Llorona mention was about.
- Cromartie said that Cameron was getting careless, and that her chip must be damaged. Very interesting. I wonder how else Cameron is affected by the chip damage.