SCC rewatch: 1X04, "Heavy Metal"
I'm back! I'm writing part of this post; gemfyre wrote part of the text as well. (It's indented.) Also, thanks to emmiere for this banner.
We start with a plastic surgeon using a mini-recorder. He's interrupted in his work by Cromartie, now 'wearing' a layer of skin. Cromartie wants a face. The surgeon doesn't seem inclined to go along with this plan, but we all know how this will end.
Sarah's voiceover is about storytelling. The Wizard of Oz isn't the only book she read to John; she also told him about golems, specifically one that turned on its maker.
His nightmares as a child after hearing the story echo his silence and preoccupation now. John is still upset over Jordan's suicide, but he's not talking about it. Sarah tries the gentle probing tactic; it doesn't get her very far.
Cameron interrupts to inform Sarah and John that Cromartie is here now. Let's all practice our handwaving on how Cromartie managed to get here. The key information in this (other than Cromartie's ongoing existence) is that there's a shipment of Coltan.
Sarah's reaction is immediate and strong. She's ready to run. (Always south. Always Mexico.) I wonder if John's reaction to school so far plays a part in how quick Sarah is to leave. John argues that they should go on the offensive rather than run away.
So they do. (It's family fun times! Mother, son and robot sister!) This involves driving and sneaking around and spying on people.
John breaks an order. Possibly this is the first time it has happened when it truly matters. He ends up trapping himself in the truck carrying the coltan, hiding in the back. Sarah and Cameron have to find a way to track and rescue John, while John will be stuck dealing with a guard and an off-dutyTerminator.
"Have you seen a daschund puppy?" Hahahaha, oh Sarah.
Sarah initially offers to beat a driver to death, but later revises it to "You can go, if you can get past her." Wisely we aren't shown what happens next; instead we jump to the scene in the truck cab, where the driver looks scared but is taking them to where John will be.
Then Sarah Connor leaves the driver in a mine field. It's simultaneously horrible and humane, and possibly a cheat to avoid a purposeful killing. I'd love to hear some opinions on this; I'm constantly revising my own.
John arrives in a sort of bunker, where the unnamed Terminator quickly finishes his task (including killing a man) and goes into sleep mode. John tries to convince one of the men there to stay away from the Terminator, without success.
Here's another part where we get to see John's fears and his courage; he's able to move past the immobile Terminator to use a phone.
Sarah and Cameron have arrived outside the bunker. They're arguing about blame for John's choice; it's put to an end when John manages to call them.
"Open that door and run," Sarah tells him after getting information about standby mode.
Even more nerve-wracking than the phone call: John retrieving the key from around the 'sleeping' Terminator's neck.
Again John doesn't follow the exact instructions. He tries to drive the truck with the coltan, but has trouble getting it in gear. Cameron and the other Terminator fight. It tries to push the truck backwards. Amazingly enough, John doesn't stall the truck. (Hey, I remember when I was first learning to drive a stickshift. I stalled it constantly.)
They finally get away. With Cameron's help, they drive the coltan-filled truck into the ocean.
Sarah in the voiceover tells us of other versions, other endings to the golem story. She goes on to say the following:
"The pride of men--of parents as well--makes us believe that anything we can create, we can control. Whether from clay or from metal, it is in the nature of us to make our own monsters. Our children are alloys all, built from our own imperfect flesh.
"We animate them with magic. And never truly know what they will do."
John's hand is shaking as he starts to do his homework.
The B storyline comes through Ellison's viewpoint: he's examining the connection of the not-quite-right blood between multiple crime scenes. We see him working with Greta Simpson again (love her!) and with Agent Stewart who may well be an echo of what Ellison used to be before he lost some of the fire that he's now regaining.
Simpson: "This case is a dog." Yes, it is. Actor George Lazlo has the face that Cromartie has chosen. This doesn't bode well for Lazlo.
Our only glimpses of George as himself: he has a weird affect, but is willing to give a blood sample when Ellison asks. Then we see him at home, right before Cromartie kills him. Cromartie uses the moments just before Lazlo's death to practice mimicking facial expressions. It's very creepy.
Ellison presents his case to colleagues, but Agent Stewart points out the problems with the case. It's a clear defeat in front of Ellison's superiors; they're not listening, but instead looking for ways to avoid any repercussions.
After this debacle, Ellison stops by to chat with 'Lazlo'. He admits that he's not supposed to be there, but he wants to warn Lazlo that someone might be trying to steal his identity. He gives Lazlo his business card. Eeeeep!
gemfyre's thoughts about John:
John is getting tired of Sarah's instructions to always run. Sarah's concern is John's welfare. Here we have a woman who lived a regular humdrum life until the age of 19, where she found herself pregnant to a dead man who hadn't even been born yet, and knew she was to give birth to not only a son, but the saviour of the human race. Mary must have felt similar when the angels informed her what Jesus would become. She now not only has the worry of her son being taken from her at any moment, because Skynet has planted Terminators throughout time with the default objective to kill him on sight, she also has to worry about the fate of the entire world because it is intrisincally linked with John's fate.
John is now 15 however and starting to become the General. Whilst Sarah is a technophobe - really, can you blame her? - John seems to be a born hacker, with an innate understanding of the computers and machines that are trying to destroy him. He knows he will become a great leader because that's all Sarah has told him from day 1. And now he's had enough of her hypocrasy. If he is going to be the General, he must stop running and learn to fight.
You can perfectly understand where each is coming from, and it's the tension between them and the tipping of the balance as the series progresses that causes the development of the John Connor that Cameron and Derek know.
So, against Sarah's instructions to the contrary, John dashes off to plant his mobile phone in the truck full of Coltan. To both his and Sarah's shock the workers return quickly and John has is forced to hide in the truck as the door is closed and the truck moves off.
Oh. Shit.
It gets even worse when the phone falls from it's position and breaks, so Cameron and Sarah can no longer track the truck. Luckily John is stuck in there with a mere human, rather than a Terminator and he has the presence of mind to disable the guy AND dispose of the body.
Later however John is faced with the powered down Carter Terminator. To escape he needs the key hanging from it's neck, but one wrong move, one knock, will reactivate the Terminator and almost certainly result in death.
So here he is, staring death in the face. And not just his death but that of the entire world. It's a moment of sheer terror for John. But despite all this, he manages to keep a steady hand and remove the key without reactivating the machine.
Random observations/questions for y'all:
I love the poetic feel of Sarah's last voiceover. It amazes me to report this; generally I'm not a big fan of voiceovers but SCC is a big exception.
Ellison is being forced to rexamine some of the ideas he was able to ignore for seven years. What brings about his reawakening from the slump he was in? (I tend to think of it as a weird sort of hibernation that gradually ended.)
Tell me about Sarah, the truck driver and the minefield!
Ellison has a slow progression of learning; John starts to feel his way around as the future leader of humanity. I like the echoes in their storylines.
Sarah and Cameron arguing is always interesting to me, especially for the glimpses of what future John is like. Plus I'm just amused at the idea of arguing with a machine.
If everything the Connors do affects the future, what did the plot points in this episode change?
Speaking of the future, how does Cromartie choose his "helpers"? I've wondered if he has information stored about key humans in the future, and if he's careful to select only those whose lives don't appear to positively impact the plans of the machines. (If a plastic surgeon eventually helped to create the very successful human skin that covers the metal, for example, would Cromartie know this information and stay away from him in 2007?)
We start with a plastic surgeon using a mini-recorder. He's interrupted in his work by Cromartie, now 'wearing' a layer of skin. Cromartie wants a face. The surgeon doesn't seem inclined to go along with this plan, but we all know how this will end.
Sarah's voiceover is about storytelling. The Wizard of Oz isn't the only book she read to John; she also told him about golems, specifically one that turned on its maker.
His nightmares as a child after hearing the story echo his silence and preoccupation now. John is still upset over Jordan's suicide, but he's not talking about it. Sarah tries the gentle probing tactic; it doesn't get her very far.
Cameron interrupts to inform Sarah and John that Cromartie is here now. Let's all practice our handwaving on how Cromartie managed to get here. The key information in this (other than Cromartie's ongoing existence) is that there's a shipment of Coltan.
Sarah's reaction is immediate and strong. She's ready to run. (Always south. Always Mexico.) I wonder if John's reaction to school so far plays a part in how quick Sarah is to leave. John argues that they should go on the offensive rather than run away.
So they do. (It's family fun times! Mother, son and robot sister!) This involves driving and sneaking around and spying on people.
John breaks an order. Possibly this is the first time it has happened when it truly matters. He ends up trapping himself in the truck carrying the coltan, hiding in the back. Sarah and Cameron have to find a way to track and rescue John, while John will be stuck dealing with a guard and an off-dutyTerminator.
"Have you seen a daschund puppy?" Hahahaha, oh Sarah.
Sarah initially offers to beat a driver to death, but later revises it to "You can go, if you can get past her." Wisely we aren't shown what happens next; instead we jump to the scene in the truck cab, where the driver looks scared but is taking them to where John will be.
Then Sarah Connor leaves the driver in a mine field. It's simultaneously horrible and humane, and possibly a cheat to avoid a purposeful killing. I'd love to hear some opinions on this; I'm constantly revising my own.
John arrives in a sort of bunker, where the unnamed Terminator quickly finishes his task (including killing a man) and goes into sleep mode. John tries to convince one of the men there to stay away from the Terminator, without success.
Here's another part where we get to see John's fears and his courage; he's able to move past the immobile Terminator to use a phone.
Sarah and Cameron have arrived outside the bunker. They're arguing about blame for John's choice; it's put to an end when John manages to call them.
"Open that door and run," Sarah tells him after getting information about standby mode.
Even more nerve-wracking than the phone call: John retrieving the key from around the 'sleeping' Terminator's neck.
Again John doesn't follow the exact instructions. He tries to drive the truck with the coltan, but has trouble getting it in gear. Cameron and the other Terminator fight. It tries to push the truck backwards. Amazingly enough, John doesn't stall the truck. (Hey, I remember when I was first learning to drive a stickshift. I stalled it constantly.)
They finally get away. With Cameron's help, they drive the coltan-filled truck into the ocean.
Sarah in the voiceover tells us of other versions, other endings to the golem story. She goes on to say the following:
"The pride of men--of parents as well--makes us believe that anything we can create, we can control. Whether from clay or from metal, it is in the nature of us to make our own monsters. Our children are alloys all, built from our own imperfect flesh.
"We animate them with magic. And never truly know what they will do."
John's hand is shaking as he starts to do his homework.
The B storyline comes through Ellison's viewpoint: he's examining the connection of the not-quite-right blood between multiple crime scenes. We see him working with Greta Simpson again (love her!) and with Agent Stewart who may well be an echo of what Ellison used to be before he lost some of the fire that he's now regaining.
Simpson: "This case is a dog." Yes, it is. Actor George Lazlo has the face that Cromartie has chosen. This doesn't bode well for Lazlo.
Our only glimpses of George as himself: he has a weird affect, but is willing to give a blood sample when Ellison asks. Then we see him at home, right before Cromartie kills him. Cromartie uses the moments just before Lazlo's death to practice mimicking facial expressions. It's very creepy.
Ellison presents his case to colleagues, but Agent Stewart points out the problems with the case. It's a clear defeat in front of Ellison's superiors; they're not listening, but instead looking for ways to avoid any repercussions.
After this debacle, Ellison stops by to chat with 'Lazlo'. He admits that he's not supposed to be there, but he wants to warn Lazlo that someone might be trying to steal his identity. He gives Lazlo his business card. Eeeeep!
gemfyre's thoughts about John:
John is getting tired of Sarah's instructions to always run. Sarah's concern is John's welfare. Here we have a woman who lived a regular humdrum life until the age of 19, where she found herself pregnant to a dead man who hadn't even been born yet, and knew she was to give birth to not only a son, but the saviour of the human race. Mary must have felt similar when the angels informed her what Jesus would become. She now not only has the worry of her son being taken from her at any moment, because Skynet has planted Terminators throughout time with the default objective to kill him on sight, she also has to worry about the fate of the entire world because it is intrisincally linked with John's fate.
John is now 15 however and starting to become the General. Whilst Sarah is a technophobe - really, can you blame her? - John seems to be a born hacker, with an innate understanding of the computers and machines that are trying to destroy him. He knows he will become a great leader because that's all Sarah has told him from day 1. And now he's had enough of her hypocrasy. If he is going to be the General, he must stop running and learn to fight.
You can perfectly understand where each is coming from, and it's the tension between them and the tipping of the balance as the series progresses that causes the development of the John Connor that Cameron and Derek know.
So, against Sarah's instructions to the contrary, John dashes off to plant his mobile phone in the truck full of Coltan. To both his and Sarah's shock the workers return quickly and John has is forced to hide in the truck as the door is closed and the truck moves off.
Oh. Shit.
It gets even worse when the phone falls from it's position and breaks, so Cameron and Sarah can no longer track the truck. Luckily John is stuck in there with a mere human, rather than a Terminator and he has the presence of mind to disable the guy AND dispose of the body.
Later however John is faced with the powered down Carter Terminator. To escape he needs the key hanging from it's neck, but one wrong move, one knock, will reactivate the Terminator and almost certainly result in death.
So here he is, staring death in the face. And not just his death but that of the entire world. It's a moment of sheer terror for John. But despite all this, he manages to keep a steady hand and remove the key without reactivating the machine.
Random observations/questions for y'all:
I love the poetic feel of Sarah's last voiceover. It amazes me to report this; generally I'm not a big fan of voiceovers but SCC is a big exception.
Ellison is being forced to rexamine some of the ideas he was able to ignore for seven years. What brings about his reawakening from the slump he was in? (I tend to think of it as a weird sort of hibernation that gradually ended.)
Tell me about Sarah, the truck driver and the minefield!
Ellison has a slow progression of learning; John starts to feel his way around as the future leader of humanity. I like the echoes in their storylines.
Sarah and Cameron arguing is always interesting to me, especially for the glimpses of what future John is like. Plus I'm just amused at the idea of arguing with a machine.
If everything the Connors do affects the future, what did the plot points in this episode change?
Speaking of the future, how does Cromartie choose his "helpers"? I've wondered if he has information stored about key humans in the future, and if he's careful to select only those whose lives don't appear to positively impact the plans of the machines. (If a plastic surgeon eventually helped to create the very successful human skin that covers the metal, for example, would Cromartie know this information and stay away from him in 2007?)