T:TSCC Allison From Palmdale
This week the writers say, "Screw you previouslies, we wanna get to the acting!" And the audience says, "Um, OK?" It's like they want us to forget that Cameron is a little odd these days. Whatever, show.
I'd Plot A, B, and C this, but it's the Summer-Glau-can-act-WE-SWEAR show this week, so we'll set those aside for the recap.
There's screaming and running as a woman runs through darkened hallways like the hounds of hell were on her heels. We're supposed to wonder if it's now or the future, but since it's all dark, dirty and metal it's a safe bet that its the latter. Screaming, the woman breaks to the surface so the fx department can put one of those H-K flyers in the air to let us know we were right about the whole "future" thing. There's a bang behind her and she's enveloped in a giant net. Turning to the sky the woman screams and cries hysterically - and she's revealed to be our darling RiverCam, acting much more River than Cam.
Buh?
The sick realization that I know EXACTLY where this is going crashes into a cut to the family product placement truck where John and RiverCam are apparently shopping - again. Because it worked so well last time, no? Anyway, RiverCam's completely spaced out and John has to try multiple times to get her attention. Once gotten he asks his wool-gathering guardian to please give him a "heads-up" if she's going to flip again. RiverCam is about as sure of that happening as we are. John's phone rings.
It's Riley, and before you know it John's talked RiverCam into doing the shopping alone and on foot so he can play hookey with the car. He even reminds her to pick up the Cheetos, crunchy not puffy, and dear god - he's starting to sound like Dean Winchester, isn't he?
Back at the Ponderosa, Sarah's leaving the ranch when she stops to chat with TMI Landlady...who promptly begins having labor-like pains. Predictably, Sarah offers to take her to the hospital.
RiverCam's wandering aimlessly and doing her thinky-bit some more as she walks the grocery aisles, obsessively looking at barcodes. (So the reason for the completely ridiculous bar-code reading magnetic card readers last week was so we could pass off this gag? OK.) As she's walking RiverCam starts to have flashbacks/forwards, or glitches, or whatever we're going to call it. We flash to the future where her arm is pulled out and a barcode tattoo is applied.
Completely lost in the memory, RiverCam totally plows into a pile of watermelons. She's so out of it, she can't answer the stockboy, EMT, or the wonderful cop who arrives on the scene. She does, however flash a wad of cash when asked for an ID. All the while, the cop's voice and a disembodied, metallic voice both start asking questions in a twitchy then and now smash of scene-snippets, "What is your name?" 'Where are you from?"
Finally, Future!RiverCam answers, "Allison." Ladies and gentlemen - meet Allison. Hi, Allison. Bet she's from Palmdale, isn't she?
The Now!RiverCam, still more or less uncommunicative, is arrested. Great. More police files on the Connor crew. Finally, the distracted RiverCam coughs up the name Allison as her own and she's locked in a cell with a nice street urchin by the name of Jody. Hi, Jody.
Back at the hospital, Sarah and TMI Landlady are listening to the Dr. say the that TMI Landlady will live to TMI again, but the baby still needs some tests. Since there's no Father around, Sarah opts to say, knowing all about the no-daddy issues. Yup, it's filler, but its our filler, no?
John's back at the grocery store, having finished whatever it was he was doing with Riley. He's looking for RiverCam, but she seems to have wandered off. Seeing all the watermelons all over the floor, he asks what heppend. Getting a description of the young womak who was arrested, John makes a panic face. The audience nods sagely and murmurs, "Yes, John, it is as bad as you think it is."
The store has opted to not press charges so my newly-christened AlliCam is free - it's her last get out of jail free card. Coincidentally, Jody is being released at the same time and sees the wad of cash being returned to AlliCam. Her eyes light up like Christmas and she talks the still waaaaaay out of it AlliCam into going out for a treat.
Predictably enough, the next shot is of John rushing into the police station AlliCam was just released from. So sorry, John. He gets Jody's name, though and a few and common haunts from the well-informed desk cop and rushes back out. Bye, John.
Back in the hospital, it's all about pregnant mothers' wishes for their unborn sons. TMI wonders aloud, "If you can't protect him when he's inside of you, how can you protect him when he's out?" Dodging the well-aimed anvils, Sarah spins a semi-true story about going into labor on a jungle path and having to hitch a ride on a chicken truck. The not true part is the part where the Dad was right there. Yes, writers, we all feel sad for Sarah, but before we can drown in our sorrows, TMI's baby-daddy (her words, not mine) arrives and it's TMI and Trevor and ANGST for the rest of the filler.
John's on the street running up to random people, asking about Jody. It's about as interesting as it sounds. Then Mom calls, but it doesn't get much better. She's still at the hospital, looking wistfully into a room foll of babies (and I suddenly know why Derek's made himself scarce for this episode. Wow, that's a loud clock ticking in the distance), Sarah wants to make sure that John and Cameron are OK. John, LYING like the LYING LIAR WHO LIES that he's become, says they're fine. Sarah...does not look convinced, but it's not enough for her to leave TMI Landlady. John has now passed panic and is approaching hair-whitening terror.
Hey, Ellison's back! Hi, Ellison! He's in the Cat1000's office, but he's back. Yay! After Catherine spins a sob story about her husband dying in a tragic helicopter crash, Ellison's heart-strings are pulled. See, Cat1K just wants a Terminator to make smarter machines to make better decisions, unaffected by panic and fear. The whole speech is full of ironic nods and about as subtle as a sledgehammer to the forehead. But Ellison's starting to buy the hype and Cat1K's last words about not finding evil inherent in technology are starting to sink in.
Flash-forward, Allison's in a cell and is being fed. She will have none of it, though, and tosses the food at the wall. Meanwhile, Jody and AlliCam are having lunch. (See what the writers did there?) AlliCam admires Jodi's necklace and Jodi mentions she got it at, "A thrift shop in Echo Park." I have yet to see a thrift shop carry something that a) modern and b) large (if it's real) so I call an early round of shennanigans. After a quickie-version of the "tortured artist" backstory is applied to Jody's character, a random dude accosts the pair and chases them behind the store. He slams AlliCam into a wall and since we're really pushing the "I think I'm human" aspect tonight, AlliCam freaks out and hands him the money instead of kicking his ass. He leaves. Jody's not amused.
Jody takes AlliCam to a shelter for the night, with AlliCam signing up as, what else? Allison. Jody's telling her that losing the cash was bad, "sometimes you have to take a hit." Up in their room AlliCam is vague enough about her own backstory that Jody begins to think she's been abused. Since she obviously is needing AlliCam for something, she takes back the "taking a hit" thing and begins to give AlliCam tips on how to BS your way through your psych eval.
Psych eval? Oh, yeah, that's gonna be fun.
We cut to Ellison, who's dropping by the office to speak to a co-worker about an background check on Cat1K. The woman's just back from a honeymoon and is surprised that Ellison's considering not returning. She also calls him on not wearing his cross anymore. The audience (and Ellison) are surprised she caught that, him wearing a buttoned-up shirt and all, but she says she could tell by the way he was carrying himself. Um, OK. Long scene short (too late) she's Ellison's ex-wife. It's a long story.
AlliCam's in the shrink's office as her psych eval is intercut with flashes-forward to a holding cell where Allison is being interrogated as well. The whole thing's a cross-cutting recapper's worst nightmare, but hey - I like a challenge:
In the past, AlliCam doesn't remember who she is or where she's from. In the future Allison asks why it matters. The shrink of the past says that people often repress painful memories, and the tinny voice of the future presses, "Tell me about your life." AlliCam would never hurt anyone, but the shrink is calming and supportive, claiming memory is associative. Sights, smells and sounds can trigger memories. AlliCam remembers Jody drawing at lunch and remembers her father was an archetict and taught her to draw, her mom was an music teacher and loved Chopin. The tinny voice asks about her bracelet, and Allison says it was a gift from her sister. There was a party and there was another gift she wanted. Her parents promised she could have it next year, but we all know that there was no next year, was there? AlliCam admires a picture of a tiger, the shrink tells her it's extinct. Allison wants to go home, and when the shrink asks, AlliCam tells us home is in Palmdale.
John FINALLY get directions to the half-way house.
TMI Landlady feels the need to tell Sarah that she and Trevor have been on and off, she wants life to be perfect for her son, and just incase the knife sticking out of Sarah's heart wasn't painful enough, TMI twists it by pointing out "How long until he figure's out how hard can it be." Scene.
The shrink has had the wonderful inspiration to have AlliCam call Allison's mom, who of course, has NO IDEA who she's talking to. She is, however, hugely pregnant and thinks Allison's a nice name, thanks for calling. Back with Jody, AlliCam appropriately freaks out. Jody decides AlliCam needs to have some fun and drags her off.
Trevor returns with food for all, and he and Sarah go out into the hall to have a chat. Trevor seems nice, says it's his job that's ruining his relationship with TMI, but he's working on it. SInce they might end up neighbors, he hopes to get to know Sarah better, maybe take John out to the range if he's stressed. Sarah mentions that golf's not quite John's style, but he's not talking golf, he's talking guns. See, Trevor's a cop.
Awkward.
Ellison's ex says the Cat1K's clean and not-so subtley suggests therapy. That was the FASTEST background check EVER. That, or the Ellison plot is on a completely different timeline as the rest of the stories this week - which for this show wouldn't be surprising. Ellison gets his panties in a twist at the therapy suggestion, but he ah-ha!'s at a note in Cat1K's file - see, that crash that killed her husband? Mechanical failure, not people error. She LIED.
Meanwhile, Jody apparently believes that foosball is the cure for all ills, so she and AlliCam are going at it when John (finally) shows up. AlliCam maintains she's Allison from Palmdale, and gets real scared when John offers to "fix" her. John's REALLY confused now, but he keeps trying to convince AliCam she's RiverCam, robot and all. The stress causes another flash-forward.
Allison's running through halls again, eventually reaching an open area full of human-filled cages. Also, there's a monkey and a random tiger. Yes, tiger, I don't get this episode's obsession with tigers either - unless there's a "they can't change their spots" reference coming up. (Which there isn't - NON!SPOILER!) Allison reaches the surface and realizes she's on a ship. Desperate, she jumps into the water and since she's not a machine, she doesn't sink. Her captors, smarter than Cromartie, know they will sink and use a net to pull her up instead.
We flash back to the present where John and AlliCam are struggling. AlliCam insists she doesn't have a brother, and she asks John if he hurt her. Confused (again, some more) John reaches out to grab her. AlliCam headbuts him impressively and John's finally escorted out by the brute squad. Bye, John.
Coughing, Allison shakes on the deck as the tinny voice stands above her. As she looks up her captor's body, the voice clears and by the time we get to its face, the voice is Allison's voice. Alli, meet Cameron. Hi, Cameron.
Cameron's as evol as we'd like, telling Allison how pretty she is, how pretty her hair is, how they work so hard to get the hair right. Cameron understands why John chose Allison. Chose? (Dear God, that's a horrible thought, are we supposed to believe that John sent Allison out as a sacrificial lamb, to be copied and probably killed?) Cameron continues that she admires John, and she'd like to meet him. Allison's stunned beyond words as Cameron continues, "Some of us want peace."
AlliCam's back with the shrink where she lays it all on the line, "I think I'm a machine from the future...blah-blah-blah, find John Connor, blah." The shrink asks what AlliCam's going to do when she finds this mythical, "John Connor."
"I'm going to kill him and put his head on a pike for all to see." Well, she did ask.
AlliCam's outside after the interview, channeling her inner Cameron and interrogating talking to Jody. "Tell me about your life, I'd like to get to know you." She likes Jody's hair, maybe they should leave, Cameron could go with, they could re-invent themselves. Jody thinks this is a good idea, after all, she has plans of her own. They take off and John follows.
The cops arrive and get bubkis at the shelter, but in other cop news, Trevor's grilling Sarah. He friendly about it, but he's still curious. Wait 'till he meets Uncle Derek and Sister RiverCam. Sarah's hemming and hawing and finally let off the hook when Trevor gets a call. He asks Sarah to stay with TMI sine he has to go to work. Since the writer's don't have anywhere else for Sarah to be right now, she's OK with that.
Ellison arrives back at Cat1K's office and there's a mini!Cat on the couch. Cat1K introduces her daughter Savannah, and all bets are on as to whether the kid is a human who will need a LOT of therapy later on or really a mini!Cat1K. At any rate, Ellison goes aside to talk with "Mommy" and he calls Cat1K on the crash. She uses about a thousand more words than necessary to say the report was faked to protect her child, that she knows what Ellison saw, and he knows what he saw, too. Ellison's convinced and asks when he can start. Please tell me he doing it to spy, I don't like my Ellison that dumb.
John's still following AlliCam and Jody as the latter tries to pick a lock on a house. Jody lies about working there years ago and AlliCam points out that previously, Jody had said she hadn't been in town that long. AlliCam's not buying it anymore, but busts in the door anyway, much to Jody's surprise. Jody opens a hall closet and then a hall safe and as she begins to clear it out, AlliCam sees a familiar-looking piece of jewelry. Busted, Jody admits it's the earrings that go with the necklace she wears. Pressed, Jody finally admits that they've just broken into her own family's house.
Back to the future we go for our final crossover scene. Allison's back in the holding room, looking dejected as Cameron enters. Allison wonders why Cameron's still there, after all she gave up the location of the camp already. Cameron ignores the question and tells Allison that she lied to her. Allison, and anyone in the audience who hasn't clued into the jewelry theme of the episode, is still confused. Cameron asks again about the bracelet, where did she get it? Allison sticks to her story, until Cameron dumps a dozen or so identical bracelets on the table in front of her. Seems Cameron's been finding them on all sorts of people from John's camp. Allison's frozen as Cameron continues, "Why are you wearing them?" Why did you lie?" Logic clicks in and Cameron grabs Allison by the neck. The bracelet is a pass, and sending Cameron into John's camp without one would have been a nice little Terminator-trap. Allison, choking, claims she'll never betray John. Cameron snaps her neck. "You already did."
AlliCam's just as upset as her future self at Jody's lies. Not only is Jody not the "tortured artist" AlliCam took her for, but she's also set AlliCam up to take the fall for the silent alarm they just tripped. Cameron grabs Jody by the neck.
John bursts in on cue. (What the hell was he waiting for, anyway!?) He's shocked at the crumpled Jody on the floor. "Did you kill her!?" RiverCam looks down as Jody gasps feebly for air, "Apparently not." And that's all for Jody, bye, Jody.
Sarah's back in TMI Landlady's room explaining that Trevor had to go. TMI Landlady admits she's the one that freaked out. She was just a gal who made the donughts (hee), and the idea of breastfeeding next to the walkie-talkie and 9mm was not her idea of a happy ending. Sarah pretty much agrees with that assessment, but to make TMI feel better, she admits she lied about John's father being there. He died before John was born. When asked, Sarah says she lied out of wishful thinking, but if she can do it alone, so can TMI; besides, Sarah will be right next door. Methinks Sarah's not going to be happy if/when Trevor moves in.
John's driving home and RiverCam asks if that was her last get out of jail free card. John says DAMN RIGHT, and you know he's going to cover up for her. Idiot. After a stony silence, John admires the necklace, "Where'd you get that?"
"A thrift shop in Echo Park."
Next time: Goodbye to All That and the official Terminator death watch begins - Fox has said that unless ratings improve, they won't order anything beyond the 13 episodes that are already on tap. Darn. Call your friends, get them to watch.
I'd Plot A, B, and C this, but it's the Summer-Glau-can-act-WE-SWEAR show this week, so we'll set those aside for the recap.
There's screaming and running as a woman runs through darkened hallways like the hounds of hell were on her heels. We're supposed to wonder if it's now or the future, but since it's all dark, dirty and metal it's a safe bet that its the latter. Screaming, the woman breaks to the surface so the fx department can put one of those H-K flyers in the air to let us know we were right about the whole "future" thing. There's a bang behind her and she's enveloped in a giant net. Turning to the sky the woman screams and cries hysterically - and she's revealed to be our darling RiverCam, acting much more River than Cam.
Buh?
The sick realization that I know EXACTLY where this is going crashes into a cut to the family product placement truck where John and RiverCam are apparently shopping - again. Because it worked so well last time, no? Anyway, RiverCam's completely spaced out and John has to try multiple times to get her attention. Once gotten he asks his wool-gathering guardian to please give him a "heads-up" if she's going to flip again. RiverCam is about as sure of that happening as we are. John's phone rings.
It's Riley, and before you know it John's talked RiverCam into doing the shopping alone and on foot so he can play hookey with the car. He even reminds her to pick up the Cheetos, crunchy not puffy, and dear god - he's starting to sound like Dean Winchester, isn't he?
Back at the Ponderosa, Sarah's leaving the ranch when she stops to chat with TMI Landlady...who promptly begins having labor-like pains. Predictably, Sarah offers to take her to the hospital.
RiverCam's wandering aimlessly and doing her thinky-bit some more as she walks the grocery aisles, obsessively looking at barcodes. (So the reason for the completely ridiculous bar-code reading magnetic card readers last week was so we could pass off this gag? OK.) As she's walking RiverCam starts to have flashbacks/forwards, or glitches, or whatever we're going to call it. We flash to the future where her arm is pulled out and a barcode tattoo is applied.
Completely lost in the memory, RiverCam totally plows into a pile of watermelons. She's so out of it, she can't answer the stockboy, EMT, or the wonderful cop who arrives on the scene. She does, however flash a wad of cash when asked for an ID. All the while, the cop's voice and a disembodied, metallic voice both start asking questions in a twitchy then and now smash of scene-snippets, "What is your name?" 'Where are you from?"
Finally, Future!RiverCam answers, "Allison." Ladies and gentlemen - meet Allison. Hi, Allison. Bet she's from Palmdale, isn't she?
The Now!RiverCam, still more or less uncommunicative, is arrested. Great. More police files on the Connor crew. Finally, the distracted RiverCam coughs up the name Allison as her own and she's locked in a cell with a nice street urchin by the name of Jody. Hi, Jody.
Back at the hospital, Sarah and TMI Landlady are listening to the Dr. say the that TMI Landlady will live to TMI again, but the baby still needs some tests. Since there's no Father around, Sarah opts to say, knowing all about the no-daddy issues. Yup, it's filler, but its our filler, no?
John's back at the grocery store, having finished whatever it was he was doing with Riley. He's looking for RiverCam, but she seems to have wandered off. Seeing all the watermelons all over the floor, he asks what heppend. Getting a description of the young womak who was arrested, John makes a panic face. The audience nods sagely and murmurs, "Yes, John, it is as bad as you think it is."
The store has opted to not press charges so my newly-christened AlliCam is free - it's her last get out of jail free card. Coincidentally, Jody is being released at the same time and sees the wad of cash being returned to AlliCam. Her eyes light up like Christmas and she talks the still waaaaaay out of it AlliCam into going out for a treat.
Predictably enough, the next shot is of John rushing into the police station AlliCam was just released from. So sorry, John. He gets Jody's name, though and a few and common haunts from the well-informed desk cop and rushes back out. Bye, John.
Back in the hospital, it's all about pregnant mothers' wishes for their unborn sons. TMI wonders aloud, "If you can't protect him when he's inside of you, how can you protect him when he's out?" Dodging the well-aimed anvils, Sarah spins a semi-true story about going into labor on a jungle path and having to hitch a ride on a chicken truck. The not true part is the part where the Dad was right there. Yes, writers, we all feel sad for Sarah, but before we can drown in our sorrows, TMI's baby-daddy (her words, not mine) arrives and it's TMI and Trevor and ANGST for the rest of the filler.
John's on the street running up to random people, asking about Jody. It's about as interesting as it sounds. Then Mom calls, but it doesn't get much better. She's still at the hospital, looking wistfully into a room foll of babies (and I suddenly know why Derek's made himself scarce for this episode. Wow, that's a loud clock ticking in the distance), Sarah wants to make sure that John and Cameron are OK. John, LYING like the LYING LIAR WHO LIES that he's become, says they're fine. Sarah...does not look convinced, but it's not enough for her to leave TMI Landlady. John has now passed panic and is approaching hair-whitening terror.
Hey, Ellison's back! Hi, Ellison! He's in the Cat1000's office, but he's back. Yay! After Catherine spins a sob story about her husband dying in a tragic helicopter crash, Ellison's heart-strings are pulled. See, Cat1K just wants a Terminator to make smarter machines to make better decisions, unaffected by panic and fear. The whole speech is full of ironic nods and about as subtle as a sledgehammer to the forehead. But Ellison's starting to buy the hype and Cat1K's last words about not finding evil inherent in technology are starting to sink in.
Flash-forward, Allison's in a cell and is being fed. She will have none of it, though, and tosses the food at the wall. Meanwhile, Jody and AlliCam are having lunch. (See what the writers did there?) AlliCam admires Jodi's necklace and Jodi mentions she got it at, "A thrift shop in Echo Park." I have yet to see a thrift shop carry something that a) modern and b) large (if it's real) so I call an early round of shennanigans. After a quickie-version of the "tortured artist" backstory is applied to Jody's character, a random dude accosts the pair and chases them behind the store. He slams AlliCam into a wall and since we're really pushing the "I think I'm human" aspect tonight, AlliCam freaks out and hands him the money instead of kicking his ass. He leaves. Jody's not amused.
Jody takes AlliCam to a shelter for the night, with AlliCam signing up as, what else? Allison. Jody's telling her that losing the cash was bad, "sometimes you have to take a hit." Up in their room AlliCam is vague enough about her own backstory that Jody begins to think she's been abused. Since she obviously is needing AlliCam for something, she takes back the "taking a hit" thing and begins to give AlliCam tips on how to BS your way through your psych eval.
Psych eval? Oh, yeah, that's gonna be fun.
We cut to Ellison, who's dropping by the office to speak to a co-worker about an background check on Cat1K. The woman's just back from a honeymoon and is surprised that Ellison's considering not returning. She also calls him on not wearing his cross anymore. The audience (and Ellison) are surprised she caught that, him wearing a buttoned-up shirt and all, but she says she could tell by the way he was carrying himself. Um, OK. Long scene short (too late) she's Ellison's ex-wife. It's a long story.
AlliCam's in the shrink's office as her psych eval is intercut with flashes-forward to a holding cell where Allison is being interrogated as well. The whole thing's a cross-cutting recapper's worst nightmare, but hey - I like a challenge:
In the past, AlliCam doesn't remember who she is or where she's from. In the future Allison asks why it matters. The shrink of the past says that people often repress painful memories, and the tinny voice of the future presses, "Tell me about your life." AlliCam would never hurt anyone, but the shrink is calming and supportive, claiming memory is associative. Sights, smells and sounds can trigger memories. AlliCam remembers Jody drawing at lunch and remembers her father was an archetict and taught her to draw, her mom was an music teacher and loved Chopin. The tinny voice asks about her bracelet, and Allison says it was a gift from her sister. There was a party and there was another gift she wanted. Her parents promised she could have it next year, but we all know that there was no next year, was there? AlliCam admires a picture of a tiger, the shrink tells her it's extinct. Allison wants to go home, and when the shrink asks, AlliCam tells us home is in Palmdale.
John FINALLY get directions to the half-way house.
TMI Landlady feels the need to tell Sarah that she and Trevor have been on and off, she wants life to be perfect for her son, and just incase the knife sticking out of Sarah's heart wasn't painful enough, TMI twists it by pointing out "How long until he figure's out how hard can it be." Scene.
The shrink has had the wonderful inspiration to have AlliCam call Allison's mom, who of course, has NO IDEA who she's talking to. She is, however, hugely pregnant and thinks Allison's a nice name, thanks for calling. Back with Jody, AlliCam appropriately freaks out. Jody decides AlliCam needs to have some fun and drags her off.
Trevor returns with food for all, and he and Sarah go out into the hall to have a chat. Trevor seems nice, says it's his job that's ruining his relationship with TMI, but he's working on it. SInce they might end up neighbors, he hopes to get to know Sarah better, maybe take John out to the range if he's stressed. Sarah mentions that golf's not quite John's style, but he's not talking golf, he's talking guns. See, Trevor's a cop.
Awkward.
Ellison's ex says the Cat1K's clean and not-so subtley suggests therapy. That was the FASTEST background check EVER. That, or the Ellison plot is on a completely different timeline as the rest of the stories this week - which for this show wouldn't be surprising. Ellison gets his panties in a twist at the therapy suggestion, but he ah-ha!'s at a note in Cat1K's file - see, that crash that killed her husband? Mechanical failure, not people error. She LIED.
Meanwhile, Jody apparently believes that foosball is the cure for all ills, so she and AlliCam are going at it when John (finally) shows up. AlliCam maintains she's Allison from Palmdale, and gets real scared when John offers to "fix" her. John's REALLY confused now, but he keeps trying to convince AliCam she's RiverCam, robot and all. The stress causes another flash-forward.
Allison's running through halls again, eventually reaching an open area full of human-filled cages. Also, there's a monkey and a random tiger. Yes, tiger, I don't get this episode's obsession with tigers either - unless there's a "they can't change their spots" reference coming up. (Which there isn't - NON!SPOILER!) Allison reaches the surface and realizes she's on a ship. Desperate, she jumps into the water and since she's not a machine, she doesn't sink. Her captors, smarter than Cromartie, know they will sink and use a net to pull her up instead.
We flash back to the present where John and AlliCam are struggling. AlliCam insists she doesn't have a brother, and she asks John if he hurt her. Confused (again, some more) John reaches out to grab her. AlliCam headbuts him impressively and John's finally escorted out by the brute squad. Bye, John.
Coughing, Allison shakes on the deck as the tinny voice stands above her. As she looks up her captor's body, the voice clears and by the time we get to its face, the voice is Allison's voice. Alli, meet Cameron. Hi, Cameron.
Cameron's as evol as we'd like, telling Allison how pretty she is, how pretty her hair is, how they work so hard to get the hair right. Cameron understands why John chose Allison. Chose? (Dear God, that's a horrible thought, are we supposed to believe that John sent Allison out as a sacrificial lamb, to be copied and probably killed?) Cameron continues that she admires John, and she'd like to meet him. Allison's stunned beyond words as Cameron continues, "Some of us want peace."
AlliCam's back with the shrink where she lays it all on the line, "I think I'm a machine from the future...blah-blah-blah, find John Connor, blah." The shrink asks what AlliCam's going to do when she finds this mythical, "John Connor."
"I'm going to kill him and put his head on a pike for all to see." Well, she did ask.
AlliCam's outside after the interview, channeling her inner Cameron and interrogating talking to Jody. "Tell me about your life, I'd like to get to know you." She likes Jody's hair, maybe they should leave, Cameron could go with, they could re-invent themselves. Jody thinks this is a good idea, after all, she has plans of her own. They take off and John follows.
The cops arrive and get bubkis at the shelter, but in other cop news, Trevor's grilling Sarah. He friendly about it, but he's still curious. Wait 'till he meets Uncle Derek and Sister RiverCam. Sarah's hemming and hawing and finally let off the hook when Trevor gets a call. He asks Sarah to stay with TMI sine he has to go to work. Since the writer's don't have anywhere else for Sarah to be right now, she's OK with that.
Ellison arrives back at Cat1K's office and there's a mini!Cat on the couch. Cat1K introduces her daughter Savannah, and all bets are on as to whether the kid is a human who will need a LOT of therapy later on or really a mini!Cat1K. At any rate, Ellison goes aside to talk with "Mommy" and he calls Cat1K on the crash. She uses about a thousand more words than necessary to say the report was faked to protect her child, that she knows what Ellison saw, and he knows what he saw, too. Ellison's convinced and asks when he can start. Please tell me he doing it to spy, I don't like my Ellison that dumb.
John's still following AlliCam and Jody as the latter tries to pick a lock on a house. Jody lies about working there years ago and AlliCam points out that previously, Jody had said she hadn't been in town that long. AlliCam's not buying it anymore, but busts in the door anyway, much to Jody's surprise. Jody opens a hall closet and then a hall safe and as she begins to clear it out, AlliCam sees a familiar-looking piece of jewelry. Busted, Jody admits it's the earrings that go with the necklace she wears. Pressed, Jody finally admits that they've just broken into her own family's house.
Back to the future we go for our final crossover scene. Allison's back in the holding room, looking dejected as Cameron enters. Allison wonders why Cameron's still there, after all she gave up the location of the camp already. Cameron ignores the question and tells Allison that she lied to her. Allison, and anyone in the audience who hasn't clued into the jewelry theme of the episode, is still confused. Cameron asks again about the bracelet, where did she get it? Allison sticks to her story, until Cameron dumps a dozen or so identical bracelets on the table in front of her. Seems Cameron's been finding them on all sorts of people from John's camp. Allison's frozen as Cameron continues, "Why are you wearing them?" Why did you lie?" Logic clicks in and Cameron grabs Allison by the neck. The bracelet is a pass, and sending Cameron into John's camp without one would have been a nice little Terminator-trap. Allison, choking, claims she'll never betray John. Cameron snaps her neck. "You already did."
AlliCam's just as upset as her future self at Jody's lies. Not only is Jody not the "tortured artist" AlliCam took her for, but she's also set AlliCam up to take the fall for the silent alarm they just tripped. Cameron grabs Jody by the neck.
John bursts in on cue. (What the hell was he waiting for, anyway!?) He's shocked at the crumpled Jody on the floor. "Did you kill her!?" RiverCam looks down as Jody gasps feebly for air, "Apparently not." And that's all for Jody, bye, Jody.
Sarah's back in TMI Landlady's room explaining that Trevor had to go. TMI Landlady admits she's the one that freaked out. She was just a gal who made the donughts (hee), and the idea of breastfeeding next to the walkie-talkie and 9mm was not her idea of a happy ending. Sarah pretty much agrees with that assessment, but to make TMI feel better, she admits she lied about John's father being there. He died before John was born. When asked, Sarah says she lied out of wishful thinking, but if she can do it alone, so can TMI; besides, Sarah will be right next door. Methinks Sarah's not going to be happy if/when Trevor moves in.
John's driving home and RiverCam asks if that was her last get out of jail free card. John says DAMN RIGHT, and you know he's going to cover up for her. Idiot. After a stony silence, John admires the necklace, "Where'd you get that?"
"A thrift shop in Echo Park."
Next time: Goodbye to All That and the official Terminator death watch begins - Fox has said that unless ratings improve, they won't order anything beyond the 13 episodes that are already on tap. Darn. Call your friends, get them to watch.