T:TSCC Automatic for the People
We have a new title sequence and after two episodes, I can safely say we are voice-over free. Huzzah! I will say the title sequence bugs me a bit. After all the Sarah V-O's we've been exposed to, random creepy voice guy is somewhat random and creepy. However, just in case you forget who the stars are, he gives you a nice rundown on each character - which is nice once, but after a few more episodes will be ANNOYING AS HELL.
Who am I kidding, it already is. *sigh*
So here we go, two weeks late, but now we have: Automatic for the People. Which, um, OK title gurus, how much in rights did you pay for that little gem, hmmm?
As always, the previously reel tells us what we're going to be harping on this episode, namely: RiverCam got her switch flipped, told John she loved him, and presumably took it back once she was "normal." It made John sad (again, some more). The FBIminator (Cromartie/Kessler/Whatever) reminded Charlie that he was in love with Sarah, and Sarah reminded Charlie that he was a liability if he leads any bad guys to the Connor Clan. RiverCam tells Sarah she died of cancer in T3 2005(?), it makes Sarah sad (again, some more).
Plot A will revolve around Sarah, RiverCam and Derek investigating a nuclear power plant with the WORST security on the planet.
Plot B will be the John and Riley show, aka the new and improved sucky school sideplot.
Plot C is the adventures of Charlie and Ellison, now featuring Long-Suffering Wife (LSW) Whose Name I Can't Recall.
We start with none of the above, as a spherical crackle flash-bang heralds the arrival of another time-traveling thespian. This one appears human, as the gaping chest wound that followed him through from the future seems to be causing him a great deal of pain and bloodloss. As the obligatory street drunk looks on, Random Soldier grabs the conveniently located pile of discarded clothes and stumbles off. He is played by the adorable, Hey, it's That Guy Zack Ward, who would be really fun to watch on this show if he weren't about to die.
Oops, spoilers!
A&B
Plot A and B open back at the church, where Sarah's doing her stalker-mom bit from last season, which includes watching John sleep. He eventually wakes, and they have (another) mini-tiff about RiverCam, who just in case we forgot AGAIN, went Johnicidal. Derek arrives after doing...well whatever it is he's doing when they need him to make an entrance during which he can walk by and GLARE at Cameron. After he puts in his .02 about RiverCam, he's just kinda there. I don't mind, he's pretty scenery, but we've been pretty Derek-lite lately and Brian's looking bored.
Sarah has decided that John needs a little "boring" in his life, so it's back to school with him...minus RiverCam. For some reason Sarah wants to keep RiverCam under close adult supervision.
I can't imagine why.
However before he goes, he shares a moment with RiverCam where he asks (again) if she's OK, and she answers (again) yes. Like she's going to say anything else, idiot. My suggestion? Find the Terminator edition of PCDoctor and run a diagnostic scan. Don't expect the homicidal cyborg to be honest, especially since she already told you after the Vic's Chip thing LAST SEASON that she is a lying liar who LIES.
RiverCam adds (again) that John shouldn't have saved her, that it would make people upset. Thinking she means Mom and Uncle Derek, John brushes it off, until RiverCam foreshadows that he should be less worried about the family and more worried about the "others." Dun-dun-DUN! Ohhhh, others. Pity we get NOTHING on them this episode.
A
John dashes off to his new school, and Plot A goes house-hunting - luckily a very preganant landlord has a fully-furnished three bedroom (with nursery) available immediately with no credit/background check, and one would hope a large security deposit based on the fates of some of the Connor's previous residences. There's really not much in this scene, save the introduction of the injury cover story (car accident teaching RiverCam to drive) and a creepy/unintentionally hilarious bit where RiverCam gets to feel the pregnant woman's belly as the lady jokes, "You used to be inside [Sarah]." The look on Sarah's face? Priceless. Oh, and Derek was there, too, taking up space prettily.
C
Charlie's LSW opens the door to a weekend-attired Agent Ellison. She's looking kinda freaked, and Ellison, he notices. With a slight (and completely unsubtle) look over her shoulder, he spies a gun laying out on a counter. He convinces LSW to let him in as he's not there "as an FBI agent." Frankly, that would worry me more, but LSW is OK with that.
Ellison pours on the understanding puppy-dog eyes as LSW begins to recant her husband's new-found obsession with handguns. The audience collectively duh's and Ellison just nods as Charlie waltzes in the door with a "Honey, I'm home!" OK, not really, but more or less. He comes home, he shouts a hello, and he freezes in his tracks when he sees Ellison.
A
Zack Ward gets his big death scene, as he crashes through a patio door, interrupting Sarah's nap-time. If he wasn't already bleeding, methinks Sarah would have shot him. Sarah tells RiverCam to check the perimeter, which she does, big gun in hand. I hope they don't have nosy neighbors, because that - not so subtle. As she sees the obligatory prison barcode tattoo, Sarah calls for Derek, who also arrives, gun in hand. He called the 9mm this time around, in case you were wondering. Dying, Zach sputters, "stop Greenway," "two days," and "Serrano Point." Sarah and Derek ask for clarification, but Zach lost too much blood preparing for the final reveal. (Spoilers!) In the end, the messenger is killed, and Sarah and Derek have a mystery to solve.
Zack managed to injure Sarah (not that you notice after this scene) and Derek volunteers to go. Still not over her Andy issues, and aware that the audience loves a good Sarah/Derek pissing match, Sarah says, "No." She doesn't want any more unnecessary deaths. Derek disagrees, maybe "stop Gtreenway" means REALLY stop, but Sarah reminds him who the show is named after, and it ain't him, so it's her way or the highway. Derek pouts.
There's a flashy-forward to resistance fighters defending Serrano Point (a nuclear power plant, btw). Derek gets to exposit that it's a major resistance holding. Losing it would be BAD. Really BAD. Everyone clear on that? Good.
Sarah and RiverCam enter the facility, posing as new janitors. There's a amusing little safety/orientation video (apparently starring one of the Happy Tree Friends) and a supervisor comes in to tell them they've passed their tests with flying colors, and the gods of plot contrivance smote two of the janitors just that week, so they're in. And this is where I harp that this place has the WORST SECURITY EVER. After all, they just got walk-in job offers at a place that has (useless as we'll see) armed guards everywhere, and is a NUCLEAR POWER PLANT. If they've even heard of finger prints, they didn't run them, because I'm pretty sure Sarah's are still on file somewhere.
On the way to...wherever, the supervisor notes the injuries, to which we get a snappy in-unison reply "Car accident" not once, but twice. It's cute and it fills time so the super can further talk about accidents and make a point of dropping an anvil telling the ladies about radioactive exposure procedures. Smart money says Sarah gets a Silkwood shower scene. Just sayin'.
C
Apparently Ellison and Charlie decide to clue LSW into the reality of the Connors and homicidal Terminators from the future. She doesn't seem to be taking it so well, and is not helped by idiot!Charlie, who after all that, thinks the one thing that's bothering his wife is...Sarah. Screw the homicidal killing machines on his ass, Charlie is going to reassure his wife that "[He] doesn't love Sarah anymore, not like that."
Appropriately overwhelmed by both the situation, and her husband's constant denials (methinks the lady doth protest too much), she smacks him across the jaw hard enough to knock him off his stool (hee) and storms out. Ellison (who doesn't look like he bought the "I don't love Sarah" routine any more than Derek did last episode) more or less duh's, "That went well," before launching into his version of Sarah's, "you're not safe here so go," spiel. For the first time, Charlie gets his precarious situation and rightly points out that he's not all that safe anywhere, is he?
B
John watches his classmates scurry about like little schoolants as he leans against a locker, all angst and man!pain. The bell rings, and everyone scatters. Everyone except for John, that is, who apparently no longer cares about "absent gets you noticed." He cuts class and we find him out on the lawn, where Riley approaches. She is the outsider who stalks new students, um, is curious and friendly. After some REALLY awkward dialogue, she talks John into ditching the rest of the day and buying her some lunch. She also talks him into inviting her over to see the new house his Mom got that he hasn't seen.
Um, OK. I just hope Plot A fixed the patio door and got rid of the body, first, or that could be awkward.
Speaking of Plot A
OMG! It's Paul Schulze, everyone's favorite (and dead) bureaucratic asshat, Ryan Chapelle from 24! My dorky, 24-obsessed self fills with glee as I realize that the object of Sarah's current quest is good-ole Paul. Hi, Paul!
Anyhoodles, Chapelle Greenway is running tests on a reactor that don't seem to be going as well as he'd like. He steps out to take some vitamins meds and Janitor!Sarah is right there to pump him for information. She even has a backstory about living in his Texas 'hood to make him feel better. Long story short (too late), they're about to put another reactor back on line and that may/may not be safe. We also meet Greenway's asshat boss, who gives Greenway a piece of his mind behind a door Sarah can't open with her janitor-only access.
B
More awkward dialogue and a tour of the house lends John to realize that the aforementioned nursery is his bedroom, complete with Legos on the floor.
A
Not only does Serrano Point have lousy security, but apparently it requires it's employees to all drink at the same seedy bar after their shift, for as Sarah and a scantily-dressed RiverCam enter the bar, there are two security guards playing pool, the asshat boss is sitting in the corner, and Greenway is at the bar.
RiverCam pool sharks the guards, getting a look at and recording the snazzy all-access barcodes on their ID tags. This makes no sense to me, as the cards are run through magnetic-strip readers, not optical scanners, but whatever, show.
Sarah chats up Greenway, who has a nasty scar and no friends. The scar is from multiple cancer-related surgeries, which pushes Sarah's mortality buttons, and the no-friends bit is because everyone at work thinks he is going to shut down the plant.
Out in the parking lot, someone takes a crowbar to Greeway's rear car window, which scares the hell out of Derek as he had broken into the front seat to...read his mail or something.
After a quick pow-wow, our intrepid heroes realize that this could be a no-win situation. Sarah tells about the possible plant flaws - which River already knows about after hacking Greenway's computer - why she couldn't have saved Sarah the awkward flirting with this info, I don't know, but again, whatever, show. If the plant bows during the test, the Resistance loses it's power supply, if the plant gets shut down, the Resistance loses it's power supply.
Wow, that sucks for the Resistance, doesn't it?
A&B
Sarah, Derek and RiverCam arrive home to discover that John's brought a freind home. Sarah quietly loses her shit, John blows her off with his, "why can't I be normal," routine and RiverCam stares. A lot. Then goes off to draw perfect barcodes with a fine-line Sharpie. Like I said, it's useless, but it's kinda cool to watch.
John and Riley disappear up into his bedroom where she gets to ask the question everyone saw in the trailer, "Do you think about the future much?" The answer is about what you'd expect from an awkward teen/savior of humanity.
A
The next day, Sarah is following the asshat boss to a restricted area, where she totally gets busted and sent inside for a clean-up on aisle four. Suited up and surrounded by all that radioactive material, future cancer-stricken Sarah freaks right the hell out and bails. Outside the door, asshat is ready with a Geiger-counter which goes nuts, and Sarah gets her Silkwood shower scene.
See, I told you.
It's all a ruse, of course, the asshat boss claims the counters have a "mind of their own." Sarah? Is not amused.
B
Riley apparently spent the night (and where are her parents, you might ask) and before she leaves she makes a "scary-man" bad-ass Lego robot to protect John. Har-har-har. She asks for John's phone and he puts in his number, giving her the safety code to use so he knows it's not some freaky cyborg from the future.
She thinks it's cute. Now get off the damn screen, sweetheart, you're sucking up oxygen.
C
Ellison arrives to the sight of Charlie and the LSW packing up and leaving. He gives Charlie his bible, and wishes him well.
Yeah, like that's gonna happen.
A
The reactor's going on line and Sarah notices that Greenway's acting rather calm about the whole thing. It's lucky she sent Derek to Greenway's house, because right about the time she notices that Greenway's scar has disappeared, Derek finds Greenway's body hanging from the ceiling.
Oops.
Predictably the Greeninator causes shenanigans and the reactor begins to melt down. Sarah starts yelling at a very nonplussed RiverCam, who, when asked why the hell she's just standing there, replies, "I'm thinking." Sarah, and the rest of the viewing audience, exclaim, "Since when!?" and Sarah orders RiverCam off to fix the reactor.
Everyone is running out as Derek drives right up to the front door (um, security?) and runs in. He and Sarah stare blankly at the control room, and Sarah sees RiverCam fighting it out with the Greeninator...somewhere. Sarah seems to know exactly where it is though, because she takes off. Derek, who knows by now to just follow and ask questions later, does just that.
The quickest way to the fight (after taking down the ONLY guard left inside) is through the "hot room" from before. Emboldened, Sarah dashes inside, sans protective suit, nearly knocks over a container, and continues on. That's our girl, it's all safety first until the fate of the world is in her hands.
Derek gets to the outer door, sees the radioactive barrels inside, and decides to go around. Wimp.
RiverCam fries the Greeninator, stops the whatever-crisis that was causing the meltdown, and all is well. The leftover Greeninator bits and the security tapes (which must have been on the route Derek took, or security took one HELL of a long time to get back in the building) are sealed in a nuclear waste canister, presumable never to see the light of day again.
That night, RiverCam Geigers Sarah and pronounces her clean as Sarah begins badgering RiverCam with questions about her possible cancer-ridden future. "Will I still get it? Is this what causes it?" All RiverCam can say is, "I don't know." Which she does, repeatedly. Sarah finally asks if she's a ticking time bomb that will just go off one day? RiverCam counters, "Am I?" The answer, unsaid, is one hell of an "I don't know."
RiverCam goes back inside to find an increasingly defiant and dare I say bitchy, John. He feels the need to say he doesn't need to prove himself to his Mom, to those unknown "others," or to her.
Thanks for sharing, John.
Still outside, Sarah notices some blood on a post near the garage/shed. Glad John's grand tour earlier didn't take Riley out there. Following the trail, she enters said structure and we find out exactly why Zack was short so much blood when he came crashing through the patio. Written all over the wall (in blood) are names, partial addresses and some random numbers, none of which I'm repeating here (I'm not THAT obsessive). I will, however, mention that Greenway was at the top of the list.
Hmmm, looks important, maybe the Connor Clan should look into it. Should only take them...oh, the rest of the season, right?
Finale
A random Sarah shower scene blends into a press conference. No, it's not the police trying to figure out how a dead Greenway managed to make it to work that morning, or why Skynet waited until the LAST POSSIBLE second the replace the guy, it's some random security tech guy. See after the near disaster, Serrano Point and five or six other nuclear facilities are going to switch over to an automated system to eliminate "human error."
Skynet: 1, Resistance: 0 Thanks for playing.
The random security tech guy walks off to his car and quietly morphs into our darling T1000, Catherine, she who is currently smarter than everyone on this show.
So that's where we are, I'll have last week's episode up before tomorrow's ep airs (I hope).
Who am I kidding, it already is. *sigh*
So here we go, two weeks late, but now we have: Automatic for the People. Which, um, OK title gurus, how much in rights did you pay for that little gem, hmmm?
As always, the previously reel tells us what we're going to be harping on this episode, namely: RiverCam got her switch flipped, told John she loved him, and presumably took it back once she was "normal." It made John sad (again, some more). The FBIminator (Cromartie/Kessler/Whatever) reminded Charlie that he was in love with Sarah, and Sarah reminded Charlie that he was a liability if he leads any bad guys to the Connor Clan. RiverCam tells Sarah she died of cancer in T3 2005(?), it makes Sarah sad (again, some more).
Plot A will revolve around Sarah, RiverCam and Derek investigating a nuclear power plant with the WORST security on the planet.
Plot B will be the John and Riley show, aka the new and improved sucky school sideplot.
Plot C is the adventures of Charlie and Ellison, now featuring Long-Suffering Wife (LSW) Whose Name I Can't Recall.
We start with none of the above, as a spherical crackle flash-bang heralds the arrival of another time-traveling thespian. This one appears human, as the gaping chest wound that followed him through from the future seems to be causing him a great deal of pain and bloodloss. As the obligatory street drunk looks on, Random Soldier grabs the conveniently located pile of discarded clothes and stumbles off. He is played by the adorable, Hey, it's That Guy Zack Ward, who would be really fun to watch on this show if he weren't about to die.
Oops, spoilers!
A&B
Plot A and B open back at the church, where Sarah's doing her stalker-mom bit from last season, which includes watching John sleep. He eventually wakes, and they have (another) mini-tiff about RiverCam, who just in case we forgot AGAIN, went Johnicidal. Derek arrives after doing...well whatever it is he's doing when they need him to make an entrance during which he can walk by and GLARE at Cameron. After he puts in his .02 about RiverCam, he's just kinda there. I don't mind, he's pretty scenery, but we've been pretty Derek-lite lately and Brian's looking bored.
Sarah has decided that John needs a little "boring" in his life, so it's back to school with him...minus RiverCam. For some reason Sarah wants to keep RiverCam under close adult supervision.
I can't imagine why.
However before he goes, he shares a moment with RiverCam where he asks (again) if she's OK, and she answers (again) yes. Like she's going to say anything else, idiot. My suggestion? Find the Terminator edition of PCDoctor and run a diagnostic scan. Don't expect the homicidal cyborg to be honest, especially since she already told you after the Vic's Chip thing LAST SEASON that she is a lying liar who LIES.
RiverCam adds (again) that John shouldn't have saved her, that it would make people upset. Thinking she means Mom and Uncle Derek, John brushes it off, until RiverCam foreshadows that he should be less worried about the family and more worried about the "others." Dun-dun-DUN! Ohhhh, others. Pity we get NOTHING on them this episode.
A
John dashes off to his new school, and Plot A goes house-hunting - luckily a very preganant landlord has a fully-furnished three bedroom (with nursery) available immediately with no credit/background check, and one would hope a large security deposit based on the fates of some of the Connor's previous residences. There's really not much in this scene, save the introduction of the injury cover story (car accident teaching RiverCam to drive) and a creepy/unintentionally hilarious bit where RiverCam gets to feel the pregnant woman's belly as the lady jokes, "You used to be inside [Sarah]." The look on Sarah's face? Priceless. Oh, and Derek was there, too, taking up space prettily.
C
Charlie's LSW opens the door to a weekend-attired Agent Ellison. She's looking kinda freaked, and Ellison, he notices. With a slight (and completely unsubtle) look over her shoulder, he spies a gun laying out on a counter. He convinces LSW to let him in as he's not there "as an FBI agent." Frankly, that would worry me more, but LSW is OK with that.
Ellison pours on the understanding puppy-dog eyes as LSW begins to recant her husband's new-found obsession with handguns. The audience collectively duh's and Ellison just nods as Charlie waltzes in the door with a "Honey, I'm home!" OK, not really, but more or less. He comes home, he shouts a hello, and he freezes in his tracks when he sees Ellison.
A
Zack Ward gets his big death scene, as he crashes through a patio door, interrupting Sarah's nap-time. If he wasn't already bleeding, methinks Sarah would have shot him. Sarah tells RiverCam to check the perimeter, which she does, big gun in hand. I hope they don't have nosy neighbors, because that - not so subtle. As she sees the obligatory prison barcode tattoo, Sarah calls for Derek, who also arrives, gun in hand. He called the 9mm this time around, in case you were wondering. Dying, Zach sputters, "stop Greenway," "two days," and "Serrano Point." Sarah and Derek ask for clarification, but Zach lost too much blood preparing for the final reveal. (Spoilers!) In the end, the messenger is killed, and Sarah and Derek have a mystery to solve.
Zack managed to injure Sarah (not that you notice after this scene) and Derek volunteers to go. Still not over her Andy issues, and aware that the audience loves a good Sarah/Derek pissing match, Sarah says, "No." She doesn't want any more unnecessary deaths. Derek disagrees, maybe "stop Gtreenway" means REALLY stop, but Sarah reminds him who the show is named after, and it ain't him, so it's her way or the highway. Derek pouts.
There's a flashy-forward to resistance fighters defending Serrano Point (a nuclear power plant, btw). Derek gets to exposit that it's a major resistance holding. Losing it would be BAD. Really BAD. Everyone clear on that? Good.
Sarah and RiverCam enter the facility, posing as new janitors. There's a amusing little safety/orientation video (apparently starring one of the Happy Tree Friends) and a supervisor comes in to tell them they've passed their tests with flying colors, and the gods of plot contrivance smote two of the janitors just that week, so they're in. And this is where I harp that this place has the WORST SECURITY EVER. After all, they just got walk-in job offers at a place that has (useless as we'll see) armed guards everywhere, and is a NUCLEAR POWER PLANT. If they've even heard of finger prints, they didn't run them, because I'm pretty sure Sarah's are still on file somewhere.
On the way to...wherever, the supervisor notes the injuries, to which we get a snappy in-unison reply "Car accident" not once, but twice. It's cute and it fills time so the super can further talk about accidents and make a point of dropping an anvil telling the ladies about radioactive exposure procedures. Smart money says Sarah gets a Silkwood shower scene. Just sayin'.
C
Apparently Ellison and Charlie decide to clue LSW into the reality of the Connors and homicidal Terminators from the future. She doesn't seem to be taking it so well, and is not helped by idiot!Charlie, who after all that, thinks the one thing that's bothering his wife is...Sarah. Screw the homicidal killing machines on his ass, Charlie is going to reassure his wife that "[He] doesn't love Sarah anymore, not like that."
Appropriately overwhelmed by both the situation, and her husband's constant denials (methinks the lady doth protest too much), she smacks him across the jaw hard enough to knock him off his stool (hee) and storms out. Ellison (who doesn't look like he bought the "I don't love Sarah" routine any more than Derek did last episode) more or less duh's, "That went well," before launching into his version of Sarah's, "you're not safe here so go," spiel. For the first time, Charlie gets his precarious situation and rightly points out that he's not all that safe anywhere, is he?
B
John watches his classmates scurry about like little schoolants as he leans against a locker, all angst and man!pain. The bell rings, and everyone scatters. Everyone except for John, that is, who apparently no longer cares about "absent gets you noticed." He cuts class and we find him out on the lawn, where Riley approaches. She is the outsider who stalks new students, um, is curious and friendly. After some REALLY awkward dialogue, she talks John into ditching the rest of the day and buying her some lunch. She also talks him into inviting her over to see the new house his Mom got that he hasn't seen.
Um, OK. I just hope Plot A fixed the patio door and got rid of the body, first, or that could be awkward.
Speaking of Plot A
OMG! It's Paul Schulze, everyone's favorite (and dead) bureaucratic asshat, Ryan Chapelle from 24! My dorky, 24-obsessed self fills with glee as I realize that the object of Sarah's current quest is good-ole Paul. Hi, Paul!
Anyhoodles, Chapelle Greenway is running tests on a reactor that don't seem to be going as well as he'd like. He steps out to take some vitamins meds and Janitor!Sarah is right there to pump him for information. She even has a backstory about living in his Texas 'hood to make him feel better. Long story short (too late), they're about to put another reactor back on line and that may/may not be safe. We also meet Greenway's asshat boss, who gives Greenway a piece of his mind behind a door Sarah can't open with her janitor-only access.
B
More awkward dialogue and a tour of the house lends John to realize that the aforementioned nursery is his bedroom, complete with Legos on the floor.
A
Not only does Serrano Point have lousy security, but apparently it requires it's employees to all drink at the same seedy bar after their shift, for as Sarah and a scantily-dressed RiverCam enter the bar, there are two security guards playing pool, the asshat boss is sitting in the corner, and Greenway is at the bar.
RiverCam pool sharks the guards, getting a look at and recording the snazzy all-access barcodes on their ID tags. This makes no sense to me, as the cards are run through magnetic-strip readers, not optical scanners, but whatever, show.
Sarah chats up Greenway, who has a nasty scar and no friends. The scar is from multiple cancer-related surgeries, which pushes Sarah's mortality buttons, and the no-friends bit is because everyone at work thinks he is going to shut down the plant.
Out in the parking lot, someone takes a crowbar to Greeway's rear car window, which scares the hell out of Derek as he had broken into the front seat to...read his mail or something.
After a quick pow-wow, our intrepid heroes realize that this could be a no-win situation. Sarah tells about the possible plant flaws - which River already knows about after hacking Greenway's computer - why she couldn't have saved Sarah the awkward flirting with this info, I don't know, but again, whatever, show. If the plant bows during the test, the Resistance loses it's power supply, if the plant gets shut down, the Resistance loses it's power supply.
Wow, that sucks for the Resistance, doesn't it?
A&B
Sarah, Derek and RiverCam arrive home to discover that John's brought a freind home. Sarah quietly loses her shit, John blows her off with his, "why can't I be normal," routine and RiverCam stares. A lot. Then goes off to draw perfect barcodes with a fine-line Sharpie. Like I said, it's useless, but it's kinda cool to watch.
John and Riley disappear up into his bedroom where she gets to ask the question everyone saw in the trailer, "Do you think about the future much?" The answer is about what you'd expect from an awkward teen/savior of humanity.
A
The next day, Sarah is following the asshat boss to a restricted area, where she totally gets busted and sent inside for a clean-up on aisle four. Suited up and surrounded by all that radioactive material, future cancer-stricken Sarah freaks right the hell out and bails. Outside the door, asshat is ready with a Geiger-counter which goes nuts, and Sarah gets her Silkwood shower scene.
See, I told you.
It's all a ruse, of course, the asshat boss claims the counters have a "mind of their own." Sarah? Is not amused.
B
Riley apparently spent the night (and where are her parents, you might ask) and before she leaves she makes a "scary-man" bad-ass Lego robot to protect John. Har-har-har. She asks for John's phone and he puts in his number, giving her the safety code to use so he knows it's not some freaky cyborg from the future.
She thinks it's cute. Now get off the damn screen, sweetheart, you're sucking up oxygen.
C
Ellison arrives to the sight of Charlie and the LSW packing up and leaving. He gives Charlie his bible, and wishes him well.
Yeah, like that's gonna happen.
A
The reactor's going on line and Sarah notices that Greenway's acting rather calm about the whole thing. It's lucky she sent Derek to Greenway's house, because right about the time she notices that Greenway's scar has disappeared, Derek finds Greenway's body hanging from the ceiling.
Oops.
Predictably the Greeninator causes shenanigans and the reactor begins to melt down. Sarah starts yelling at a very nonplussed RiverCam, who, when asked why the hell she's just standing there, replies, "I'm thinking." Sarah, and the rest of the viewing audience, exclaim, "Since when!?" and Sarah orders RiverCam off to fix the reactor.
Everyone is running out as Derek drives right up to the front door (um, security?) and runs in. He and Sarah stare blankly at the control room, and Sarah sees RiverCam fighting it out with the Greeninator...somewhere. Sarah seems to know exactly where it is though, because she takes off. Derek, who knows by now to just follow and ask questions later, does just that.
The quickest way to the fight (after taking down the ONLY guard left inside) is through the "hot room" from before. Emboldened, Sarah dashes inside, sans protective suit, nearly knocks over a container, and continues on. That's our girl, it's all safety first until the fate of the world is in her hands.
Derek gets to the outer door, sees the radioactive barrels inside, and decides to go around. Wimp.
RiverCam fries the Greeninator, stops the whatever-crisis that was causing the meltdown, and all is well. The leftover Greeninator bits and the security tapes (which must have been on the route Derek took, or security took one HELL of a long time to get back in the building) are sealed in a nuclear waste canister, presumable never to see the light of day again.
That night, RiverCam Geigers Sarah and pronounces her clean as Sarah begins badgering RiverCam with questions about her possible cancer-ridden future. "Will I still get it? Is this what causes it?" All RiverCam can say is, "I don't know." Which she does, repeatedly. Sarah finally asks if she's a ticking time bomb that will just go off one day? RiverCam counters, "Am I?" The answer, unsaid, is one hell of an "I don't know."
RiverCam goes back inside to find an increasingly defiant and dare I say bitchy, John. He feels the need to say he doesn't need to prove himself to his Mom, to those unknown "others," or to her.
Thanks for sharing, John.
Still outside, Sarah notices some blood on a post near the garage/shed. Glad John's grand tour earlier didn't take Riley out there. Following the trail, she enters said structure and we find out exactly why Zack was short so much blood when he came crashing through the patio. Written all over the wall (in blood) are names, partial addresses and some random numbers, none of which I'm repeating here (I'm not THAT obsessive). I will, however, mention that Greenway was at the top of the list.
Hmmm, looks important, maybe the Connor Clan should look into it. Should only take them...oh, the rest of the season, right?
Finale
A random Sarah shower scene blends into a press conference. No, it's not the police trying to figure out how a dead Greenway managed to make it to work that morning, or why Skynet waited until the LAST POSSIBLE second the replace the guy, it's some random security tech guy. See after the near disaster, Serrano Point and five or six other nuclear facilities are going to switch over to an automated system to eliminate "human error."
Skynet: 1, Resistance: 0 Thanks for playing.
The random security tech guy walks off to his car and quietly morphs into our darling T1000, Catherine, she who is currently smarter than everyone on this show.
So that's where we are, I'll have last week's episode up before tomorrow's ep airs (I hope).