"Last Voyage of the Jimmy Carter".
I was rewatching S2 of the Sarah Connor Chronicles on the weekend, which reminded me of just how much I love that show, and noticing some new things, particularly when it comes to Riley and Jesse.
That whole storyline, which reached its emotional climax in the two-parter "Today is the Day" (aka "The Last Voyage of the Jimmy Carter"), was always difficult to watch, not least because it was impossible not to feel sympathy for Jesse and her not-unjustified convictions, but also because Jesse represents the thing that John is most afraid of: the possibility of his future failure in the war against Skynet. In making himself invulnerable, unavailable to human connection and human contact, in turning Cameron into his mouthpiece, John put too much pressure on the Resistance to trust the metal, more than they were ready to take. When the T-1001 saw that lack of trust on display aboard the Jimmy Carter (Jesse shooting the T-888), it refused the alliance which the Resistance was psychologically unable to accept, but which John and Cameron were counting on.
What I think I missed the first time - either because of problems in the plotline's execution, or because I didn't have enough emotional distance - was what Jesse (and, to a lesser extent, Derek and the other rebels from the future) implied about the nature of John's fight. It is a game in which the past and futures is continuously adapting. A never-ending game where the precise means, resources, and strategies change with every man and woman and machine sent back from the future. What Jesse's story teaches us is that it is possible for learning to occur across timelines; because when you start to see it the way that Skynet and John have to see it, that's when it hits you that, in addition to all the other things that Jesse was (Resistance soldier, sub officer, partner of Derek Reese, mother of their child hopefully in some future we will never see, deserter, murderer), what she also was is feedback. Data. Her behaviour and her emotional state conveys invaluable information to John about what he has done, the mistakes that he has made, and what he must now seek to avoid. That is the essence of learning, of adapting.
What Jesse intended for John, her commanding officer, was to influence him, to make him see "the truth" by turning him against Cameron, the machine that got too close. But what Jesse told John was not that he couldn't trust Cameron, but that he was going to have to do more to make the Resistance trust Cameron; he had turned into someone that his own soldiers doubted, and he was going to have to do more. And while John is too human to ever see Jesse as just a packet of useful data, he is also too smart and too experienced by now to not understand the message that she brought back.
Cameron has memories of the Jimmy Carter, Jesse's miscarriage, and the attempt to negotiate an alliance with the T-1001 (or Catherine Weaver, or whatever liquid metal model that was), so I assume that the future timelines that she and Jesse travelled back from are not greatly dissimilar. Cameron, then, is also aware of what has gone wrong in that future. It occurred to me for a second that perhaps John is already dead in that future, and when Cameron tells Jesse that "telling me is the same as telling John", it is because Cameron is trying to continue John's mission after his death, using his reclusiveness to make the Resistance think he is still alive. However, I then remembered that Derek had a face-to-face with John, shortly before Jesse left on her mission, so that decreased the changes that Cameron was covering for John.
From Cameron's reaction to Weaver's "Will you join us", and her actions at the end of "Born to Run" - leaving John unprotected in the past in order to help John Henry travel (escape?) to the future - I think we can speculate that, in addition to protecting John, Cameron had a more explicit mission when she travelled back in time, and this mission was future!John's counter-response to what happened in the timeline that Jesse came back from. This Cameron, and her John, has information about the future, and is actively trying to change not only it, but potentially John himself. I find that a fascinating idea.
The pride of man, of parents as well, makes us believe that anything we 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.
Like Skynet, the myth of John Connor is defined by the One Thing he does. In the case of Skynet: Judgement Day. In the case of John: lead the Resistance against Skynet. But one of the overarching themes of T:SCC is the malleability of people, particularly of children, the importance of instruction and guidance, molding them into the right shape. The mystery at the heart of the show is how Skynet and John (and John Henry, wherever he fits in) become who they become - their parents and their teachers, all the people trying to influence their development, for good or for ill, for reasons selfish or selfless. Sarah is the central teacher in John's life, but the show also gives us others: Derek, Cameron, Charlie. Jesse also had something to teach John, and that thing is his own fallibility.
This entry was originally posted at http://the-grynne.dreamwidth.org/978082.html and has
comments.
That whole storyline, which reached its emotional climax in the two-parter "Today is the Day" (aka "The Last Voyage of the Jimmy Carter"), was always difficult to watch, not least because it was impossible not to feel sympathy for Jesse and her not-unjustified convictions, but also because Jesse represents the thing that John is most afraid of: the possibility of his future failure in the war against Skynet. In making himself invulnerable, unavailable to human connection and human contact, in turning Cameron into his mouthpiece, John put too much pressure on the Resistance to trust the metal, more than they were ready to take. When the T-1001 saw that lack of trust on display aboard the Jimmy Carter (Jesse shooting the T-888), it refused the alliance which the Resistance was psychologically unable to accept, but which John and Cameron were counting on.
What I think I missed the first time - either because of problems in the plotline's execution, or because I didn't have enough emotional distance - was what Jesse (and, to a lesser extent, Derek and the other rebels from the future) implied about the nature of John's fight. It is a game in which the past and futures is continuously adapting. A never-ending game where the precise means, resources, and strategies change with every man and woman and machine sent back from the future. What Jesse's story teaches us is that it is possible for learning to occur across timelines; because when you start to see it the way that Skynet and John have to see it, that's when it hits you that, in addition to all the other things that Jesse was (Resistance soldier, sub officer, partner of Derek Reese, mother of their child hopefully in some future we will never see, deserter, murderer), what she also was is feedback. Data. Her behaviour and her emotional state conveys invaluable information to John about what he has done, the mistakes that he has made, and what he must now seek to avoid. That is the essence of learning, of adapting.
What Jesse intended for John, her commanding officer, was to influence him, to make him see "the truth" by turning him against Cameron, the machine that got too close. But what Jesse told John was not that he couldn't trust Cameron, but that he was going to have to do more to make the Resistance trust Cameron; he had turned into someone that his own soldiers doubted, and he was going to have to do more. And while John is too human to ever see Jesse as just a packet of useful data, he is also too smart and too experienced by now to not understand the message that she brought back.
Cameron has memories of the Jimmy Carter, Jesse's miscarriage, and the attempt to negotiate an alliance with the T-1001 (or Catherine Weaver, or whatever liquid metal model that was), so I assume that the future timelines that she and Jesse travelled back from are not greatly dissimilar. Cameron, then, is also aware of what has gone wrong in that future. It occurred to me for a second that perhaps John is already dead in that future, and when Cameron tells Jesse that "telling me is the same as telling John", it is because Cameron is trying to continue John's mission after his death, using his reclusiveness to make the Resistance think he is still alive. However, I then remembered that Derek had a face-to-face with John, shortly before Jesse left on her mission, so that decreased the changes that Cameron was covering for John.
From Cameron's reaction to Weaver's "Will you join us", and her actions at the end of "Born to Run" - leaving John unprotected in the past in order to help John Henry travel (escape?) to the future - I think we can speculate that, in addition to protecting John, Cameron had a more explicit mission when she travelled back in time, and this mission was future!John's counter-response to what happened in the timeline that Jesse came back from. This Cameron, and her John, has information about the future, and is actively trying to change not only it, but potentially John himself. I find that a fascinating idea.
The pride of man, of parents as well, makes us believe that anything we 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.
Like Skynet, the myth of John Connor is defined by the One Thing he does. In the case of Skynet: Judgement Day. In the case of John: lead the Resistance against Skynet. But one of the overarching themes of T:SCC is the malleability of people, particularly of children, the importance of instruction and guidance, molding them into the right shape. The mystery at the heart of the show is how Skynet and John (and John Henry, wherever he fits in) become who they become - their parents and their teachers, all the people trying to influence their development, for good or for ill, for reasons selfish or selfless. Sarah is the central teacher in John's life, but the show also gives us others: Derek, Cameron, Charlie. Jesse also had something to teach John, and that thing is his own fallibility.
This entry was originally posted at http://the-grynne.dreamwidth.org/978082.html and has
comments.