The McGuffin Review: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles Episode 16

Posted by Cory Johnson on 10.26.2008

Psychoanalysis of a Terminator turns into the darkest joke of the year....plus another visitor from the future

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Episode 16, “The Tower is Tall, But the Fall is Short”

Sarah and Cameron rummage through Dr. Boyd Sherman’s, Child Therapist and Family Counselor, house because his name was on the wall written in blood by the soldier from the future. They can’t figure out what he means to Skynet and Cameron debates whether he needs protecting.

Catherine Weaver is being photographed; she looks great but doesn’t quite get the smile right. Her daughter Savannah wets her pants when asked to pose with her mom. Later, Catherine calls her daughter an “it” and asks her assistant what to do. The assistant mentions that she took her boy to a therapist, a “real miracle worker”, and we immediately cut to Sherman’s office where therapy is in session with Sarah, John, and Cameron. Sarah gets Sherman to open up about his past by pulling the stranger card. Sherman used to work in Silicon Valley treating military types before he switched to private practice. Sherman is rocking a great Mr. Roger’s sweater and doesn’t notice Cameron placing a bug. John seems eager to start therapy.

Ellison tries to get a word with Catherine, but her bodyguards c-block him. In a lab, the scientists show her that the AI they have been working on has been performing unpredictably-showing random images, and taking more time to do less.

Sherman tries to get Savannah to open up to him while Catherine shoots her icy stare at them. When Sherman asks if she would like to learn how to tie her shoes, Catherine quickly swoops in and ties her shoes. Sherman offers therapeutic play toys and takes Catherine outside to inform her that this is going to take time. Savannah is holding onto a deck of emotion cards. Sherman finds her holding onto the “scared” card and looks up to see Catherine staring at them through the glass of the office.

Derrick returns from a “run”, but Cameron notes that he was gone six hours. Sarah is trying to find a way that they can get Sherman’s files. A gunshot suddenly goes off and everyone races to John’s room. John is unhurt but shaken as a gun he was cleaning was not empty, even though he thought he cleared it.

Cameron is listening outside Sherman’s office to Savanna’s session. Through a doll, Savannah tells Sherman that she wants her old mommy back. Catherine keeps turning her head back and forth while she watches the session, like she can’t quite figure it out. John walks by Cameron on his way to his session. Sherman escorts Savannah out and Catherine in and she JUST misses John arriving for his appointment. Sherman explains how powerful the death of Savannah’s father is to her, to which Catherine asks if they can make her grow faster leaving Sherman perplexed. Sherman tells Catherine that she needs to reassure Savannah that she did not lose her mother as well as her father. Outside the office, Savannah tries to tie her shoes and John shows her the “squirrel in the tree” method. Catherine breezes by, calling for Savannah over John’s back, never knowing who he was.

Derek grabs a hot dog in the park, something rustles the wildlife behind him and he begins chasing after a girl in running gear. He grabs her just before she gets into her hotel room and he obviously recognizes her, because he says, “Jesse” then lets go of her stunned. Jesse goes all Butthead on him, saying “Hey baby” and kisses him. Inside the room, Derrick asks why Connor sent her back. She turns the question on him as she strips down to her underwear. I swear she is trying to distract him. Derek’s mission was to set up a safe house and wait. Jesse says that Connor didn’t send her back and shows Derek a new scar on her back, which is from a Terminator they thought was working for Connor turning on them and taking out most of their base. Jesse is AWOL and out of military. She just wants to be with Derek when everything ends. Derek isn’t going to let everything end.

Sherman notices that John checked the exits when he came in, just like the vets Sherman used to treat. John notes that vets are the ones that came back, so his dad isn’t a vet (no he dadn’t). Sherman notices the burn on John’s face. John doesn’t know how to answer the question about his role in the family. John clearly wants to keep his guard up with Sherman, but you can feel that he just wants to blurt everything out. John secretly wants to escape from his family, but before he can say more he remembers the bug they planted. John tells Sherman that nowhere is safe.

Cameron is reading literature on teen suicide and notes that the first attempt often appears to look like an accident. Sarah blows her off, wondering why the session is taking so long. Sherman wants to see John again alone. Sherman gives Sarah his assessment including that Cameron has a social disorder and possible Asperger’s (now that’s just wrong, funny, ironic, and completely wrong). John reminds Sherman of the Vietnam veterans he used to treat. When Sarah tries to walk away, Sherman tells her that talking to her isn’t going to be enough for John. Both John and Sarah flashed back to the season opener where Cameron’s chip was broken and she went after them. Hmmm.

Catherine watches old home movies from when “she” was pregnant while occasionally glaring over at Savannah. The lab interrupts her to say that the AI has stopped responding to their commands and keeps running equations and images. Savannah is watching the home movies and wrenchingly wonders if “daddy was trying to hug me”. Catherine observes how “she” was behaving in the video and reaches out to Savannah, gently rubbing her arm and smiling at her.

Sarah is whacking the hell out of a punching bag when John asks when they are going back to Sherman. Sarah says that they aren’t, and all his files are in code and useless. John offers to draw him out, and Sarah doesn’t know if why or when Skynet wants Sherman. Cameron appears out of nowhere (was she lurking?) to offer that maybe Sherman helps John. Sarah bristles, asking why John would need help. John suddenly asks why she thinks he doesn’t. Sarah tenderizes, and tells him that he can always talk to her. John looks defeated and says that he is fine before doing the sullen teenage walk away.

A time bubble appears in an empty bus. I should seriously not be this excited. It’s a girl and she reveals what side she’s on by immediately smashing the bus driver’s face and walks away with his bloody uniform. I think Jesse’s run on the show will be short.

Derek finds Sarah deep in thought. He tells her about a friend of his who blew his head off suddenly. Sarah will not even consider that John is suicidal. Great line from Derek:

“What is he, he’s not a boy, he’s not a man, not a soldier. He has changed-he saw his mother kill a man.”

A girl that I don’t think we have met before walks to her car and when she adjusts the rear view mirror, the Terminator that just arrived is waiting for her and quickly kills her, complete with horn honks from her head hitting the steering wheel.

Ellison rides the elevator with one of the lab guys, who kicks Ellison off the elevator before they hit the lab level. Catherine has Sherman in her office now. She wants Sherman to help with the AI. Sherman looks at the images the AI has been replaying over and over and begins to laugh. He says that the computer is like a bored gifted child, now telling jokes to amuse itself. The AI asks why a math book is so sad? Because it has so many problems. Catherine does not get the joke.

Sarah listens to the tape of John’s session with Sherman. John tells him that Sarah does not want him to feel safe, and reveals that she has taught him that fear will keep him alive on a bad day. Sarah looks concerned, tortured, and conflicted while she listens.

Derek goes to Jesse’s room, and reveals that Jesse saved him from killing himself (that Derek was the soldier in the story he told Sarah). Derek bursts into the room he and Jesse make sweet love down by the hotel. Jesse wants Derek to come up with a new word for what they just did, before Derek leaves her. She coyly asks Derek to go get her something to drink and when he leaves, she quickly pictures of John and Derek under the bed. She, or someone, has been tailing them for a while because there are a LOT of pictures.

Catherine shows Ellison a massive toy she has made/gotten for Savannah. When Ellison asks what happens in the basement, Catherine tells him that they are building something and wishes him good luck on his robot hunt.

John visits Sherman again and asks him what he meant by a safe place while subtly taking out the eavesdropping transmitter. Cameron doesn’t understand why she can’t hear anything and gets up to investigate. As she walks in, the OTHER TERMINATOR WALKS IN SIDE BY SIDE WITH HER! They share an elevator, and look over to appraise each other at the same time.

John tells Sherman that Sarah doesn’t want him coming here. Cameron and the Terminator reach for the door to Sherman’s office at the same time. In a second Cameron throws a wicked kick and IT’S ON. John reveals that Sarah forgot his birthday, and that a man broke in, and took what he wanted and left (when actually Sarah killed him). Sherman tries to make John see that he is not a vet, and that he gets to be a kid. John says no.

Cameron and the Terminator wreck up an elevator. Cameron mashes her face into the elevator, revealing that she definitely is a machine. In a cool scene, Cameron traps the Terminator face first to the elevator wall and bends her arms all the way back, criss-crossing them behind her back. The Terminator turns her head 360 degrees and fights out of it. The elevator stops and so do the machines, as a family with a little boy gets on, halting the action until they get off on another floor. Cameron manages to twist the Terminator into a ball, bending and breaking her legs, while using the heels of the Terminator’s shoes to finish her off.

Cameron dumps the Terminator on the floor of the living room. Cameron says that the Terminator’s chip had a self-destruct feature. John says that Skynet must not want him reprogramming them in the future and muses that Skynet must be getting smarter.

Savannah plays while Catherine talks to Sherman. Catherine asks Sherman to be a consultant on her project.

In a montage, John examines the shattered mirror in his room, Cameron reads the suicide pamphlet while holding the other Terminator’s chip, and Derek eats a hot dog in the park.

Sherman has a patient. It’s Sarah. In a flashback, we see that John, not Sarah, killed the intruder in the season premiere.

Analysis

Another strong, solid episode from the Terminator crew. The revelation that John made his first kill in the season premiere explains and makes perfect sense of all of his behavior this season.

Dr. Sherman was a great addition to this episode; I can’t wait to see what his character brings, both to Catherine and her project, as well as John and Sarah.

Speaking of Catherine, the way they handled her character was absolutely perfect in this episode, with the stunted interpersonal skills and inability to realize what makes people attach to each other. Her dialogue was spot on in displaying this trait.

Lena Hedley does an amazing job of understated acting with Sarah, displaying all of her conflict about trying to be protective mother and protector of John.

Cameron remains the biggest mystery of the show, since all of her motives and actions are suspect and questionable at this point-adding a great “anything can happen” feel to the episode.

John remains the most isolated and tortured character in the universe with nobody else to turn to, he could have a great insightful relationship with Sherman if they choose to develop it.

They seem to be finding a role for Derek in the show, while the whole Jesse thing was a little quick and random, him looking for peace in the park with a hot dog makes perfect sense and is one of those great little moments in the show.

Things I wonder
Why did the Terminator come back to kill Sherman when Catherine was using him?
Did the Terminator’s chip really have a self-destruct or did Cameron do something?
Why hasn’t Cameron killed John?
Did you expect Catherine to come out the elevator wall to kill the lab guy after Ellison got out?
How would Jesse have found them?
What is with the pictures?
Jesse is working for Skynet isn’t she?
Jesse is good for what, two more episodes?
They teased that somebody dies, is it going to be anyone other than Cameron?
Would Catherine recognize John if she saw him?
Catherine killed her “husband” didn’t she?
Ellison is a little too bright for all this, isn’t he?
John was thinking about killing himself, right?
The time bubbles things really add another dimension to the show, don’t they?

Thanks for reading. As always, comments, feedback, and emails appreciated. I'm Cory and I'll be back next week and all of November with new reviews of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Until then, keep watching.,

The 411: Thankfully this show was picked up for a full season, because this episode feels like a launching point for the rest of the season (including the death foreshadowing). Strong new characters, new plotlines, a great fight scene, and tons of unanswered questions help deliver a great episode. This show thrives on surprises and right now it feels like anything could happen.

Final Score:  8.0   [ Very Good ]