"Strange Things Happen at the One Two Point"

Episode Rating: B+

WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS

Is anyone else thinking that Terminator is starting to feel like... Lost? The mythology is getting richer, the timeline is becoming more confusing, and startling revelations are occurring every few minutes (only to be answered in the next episode or two). In tonight's episode alone, we learned that Riley was a spy, Jesse was trying to undermine John, Weaver's Babylon project had grown to the point of killing people, and finally, Cromartie had been rebuilt.

Umm...yeah...wow.

Those mind-blowing revelations were centered around a storyline involving Sarah's obsession with finding the Turk, the supercomputer that was the focus of season one, which the audience knows is now in the hands of Weaver and is the basis of Babylon. Sarah and Cameron pretended to be investors and help a father and son fund their computer program, though they were duped by the father. This storyline was exciting and intriguing, but when we ultimately learned that it was all a trick, it felt very disappointing. The rest of the mythology took leaps and bounds forwards, but the main storyline of the episode didn't add anything to the overall plot of the season. This could have been an opportunity to have Sarah discover Weaver, and while I'm sure they're saving that for later, I wouldn't have complained if we had seen it now. Overall, this main storyline was a bit disappointing, though on the other hand, Cameron did look good in that dress.

Because this show, and especially this episode, has become so complex in its own mythology, I thought I'd just run down the list of 'revelations' on tonight's episode and do a good old fashioned analysis. Consider it a warm-up for when Lost returns in January.

Riley

Poor John. Poor, poor John. I mean, that kid has the worst life imaginable. Riley has been a great character this season because she's brought out a happy side of John we haven't seen before, and their scenes together were heartfelt and added a lot to John's character. When we found out that Riley was from the future and working for Jesse...well, that was just a huge bummer. I did not see that one coming at all, though I did think her behavior in the last few episodes (including a surprisingly small amount of surprise at the presence of a Terminator) indicated something strange.

So, who is Riley? Well, we know she's from the future, and is haunted by the past in the same way Derek and Jesse are. Her outburst at her foster family, where she proclaimed that the world would 'burn,' was a terrific Linda Hamilton impression; by that, I mean it was the same kind of paranoia Sarah showed in Terminator 2. We can assume Riley lived through the apocalypse, and is with the human resistance in the future, though not as a soldier. I would guess that when Jesse went AWOL, she tried to find a teenager who could help her spy on John; beyond that, it's hard to guess Riley's origins. All I know is, it's a damn shame for John.

Jesse, Cameron, and Future John

Yeah, we all knew she was up to no good; turns out Jesse went AWOL to return to the past and separate John and Cameron, because the two are so close in the future, and she believes that Cameron is pulling the strings. There have been other implications this season that Cameron is John's number-two in the future, and there was another bit of dialogue in the episode that gave me enough pieces to (roughly) put this puzzle together.

First off, I think 'Future John,' the John we haven't yet seen, is like Jacob on Lost. He's the one pulling all the strings, the one who has put into motion almost every major event in the series. He seems to know what he's doing, because Sarah and co. have consistently been nudged in the right direction. Furthering the similarity to Lost's Jacob, he has become the man behind the curtain, controlling things from a distance, using Cameron as his viceroy.

So, what does Cameron have to do with all this? The Japanese son was talking to Cameron and Sarah about the chip, and said that a human personality could theoretically be encoded onto a super-advanced A.I. I think Cameron is just that; a personality put into robot form. My guess is that future John apprehended Cameron the Terminator at one point, wiped her A.I., and rewrote the code from the bottom up instead of simply re-programming her. He created a Terminator in the image of the person he most trusted, a Terminator who could help him achieve his goals for humanity. Who is the person John trusts most? Sarah; in the pilot, Cameron told Sarah that Future John believed her to be the best soldier he knew. It makes sense that he would replicate Sarah's psyche into a robot to help him out in his darkest hour. Because of that, he relies on Cameron entirely in the future.

As for the timeline, he probably sent Cameron back after Derek and everyone else, as evidenced by Jesse's rage at Cameron's involvement in the future resistance. When all else failed, he decided to send his most trusted soldier to the past to help stop the war from ever happening.

Now, this is all just speculation, but it sounds accurate to me, especially given tonight's hints.

Weaver, Babylon, Ellison, and Cromartie

Babylon is Skynet; that has become apparent. In fact, the presence of Weaver and the Babylon project gives insight into why Sarah didn't stop Judgment Day in T2. What if, when sending back the first T-1000, Skynet also kept a second T-1000 in the wings in case the first failed, and sent it to 2007 when John didn't disappear in the future, all to ensure its own survival? It makes sense to me, though thinking about it is a bit confusing. Weaver seems to be making progress very quickly, which would make sense if the blueprints are in her head.

Where does Ellison come into all of this? He obviously has a larger purpose, and it's possible that Weaver intended for him to help her finish Skynet all along. At the end of the episode, a rebuilt Cromartie appeared, ready to help Ellison teach Skynet rules, starting with the ten commandments. Cromartie insisted time and time again that Ellison would be of use to Skynet...is this what he meant? Does it mean that he was talking to Weaver before his demise? It's all possible. We'll have to wait and see how it turns out.

Terminator SCC has quickly become one of the most intriguing head-scratchers on television, and I'm excited to see where they'll go with all of tonight's revelations. If I'm not mistaken, the show has three more episodes to air (which will take us to mid-December) and will then go off the air until February, when it will move to Friday nights for the last nine episodes of the season. Fans need to keep supporting the show so that it makes it to season three, because this is the kind of show I could follow for years.