The Sarah Connor Chronicles

[selenak]

So now I have another Fox show with a renewal to fret about. Let's forget dangerous precedents for the moment, though, and celebrate a splendid first season. Unspoilery, I can say that what impressed me most and hit my narrative kinks is the ensembleness of it all. This show has a knack for a) giving its regulars interesting personalities and

Comments

[ticketsonmyself]

The sinister explanation would be that this Terminator knows Ellison will in some way contribute (unwillingly, of course) to the rise of Skynet and therefore has to remain alive for the time being. I've seen people state that maybe he just ran out of ammunition, but really - he could have broken Ellison's neck, ripped his guts out, etc. That was a very deliberate action. Very dark horse theory: since this is the first time we see one of the Skynet-controlled Terminators spare a human life, and Sarah's voice-overs made a point about the lack of hesitation or pity in a Terminator, could it be that a Terminator other than Cameron is also making tiny steps to developing Skynet-independent awareness?

Yeah, I'm willing to subscribe to the sinister theory. Although - since the timeline has probably already changed, it's possible Ellison would have contributed to the development of Skynet in the timeline this Terminator came from, but things have already changed enough / will continue to change enough that Ellison won't in this timeline. But goodness knows I can't claim to be an expert in Terminator time travel theory. Then again, I think the show is already screwing around enough with that.

It's not the first time we've seen this Terminator spare human life, actually, though the circumstances are different here - at the bank, he sized up the armed police force and assessed them as "not a threat," so he just went on in. With Ellison, all the humans have already fired on him (including Ellison, since he was frantically reloading with the Terminator holding him at gunpoint) and he killed everyone else, so it's not the same situation. Which is to say I would love it if sparing Ellison is the first step toward independent consciousness. Again, who knows!