Thursday, November 13, 2008

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles - "Mr. Ferguson is Ill Today"

Now, isn't that funny? Here I was just saying how I liked stories that retold things from different perspectives, and the next thing I watch is this episode, which is entirely done by retelling the previous bit of the story from a different character's perspective.

If this is really, honestly the end of the Cromartie story arc, then it's a good ending. The fact that his chip was smashed to pieces gives me hope. If it's a fake out and he rises out of the grave then I'm going to be disappointed. The fact that he's in a grave and not melted down like the other Terminators they've beaten does not inspire me with confidence.

Oh, in case anyone else was wondering "What the hell does that title mean?!?" like I was... I looked it up on TV.com, and apparently it was what Cromartie said in his first scene when he came into the class as John's substitute teacher. Another good indicator that this episode is intended to bring closure to his story.

Poor John. He can never have any friends. His trying to have a relationship with Riley does make me wonder about how this series has changed his timeline. By having Cameron jump John forward in time, they've now messed up the timeline for John to meet Kate, who was his wife in the future in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. So apparently Future John (or at least Cameron) was willing to sacrifice meeting his wife (and potentially having her survive) so that his mother could survive a little longer.

That or the makers of this show just really wanted to ignore Terminator 3. (Which would be a shame, because I really loved T3. Hey, Blue Man Group does the ending titles? What's not to love?)

I seem to have gotten off on a tangent again. My point being that I realize that John can never have a normal life, but it's sad to watch him suffer through it every week. You just want the poor kid to be able to have a chance to be a kid once in a while, but his future keeps coming back to haunt him.

And lastly... since this takes episode takes place in Mexico, as I watched John Conner run out of the Mexican prison with bullets flying all around him, I thought to myself, "Well, that's probably what Frank's up to right now..."

3 comments:

greatplaidmoose said...

When they announced the Sarah Connor Chronicles, I read in an interview that the makers of the show were going to ignore the events in Terminator 3 so that seems to be the plan. I liked the movie too but I know it wasn't as well received as the first two with critical reviews.

Fer said...

True, but they haven't completely ignored it. They still acknowledged that Sarah Conner had died of brain cancer before Judgement Day, and this was how Future John intended to remedy that.

Production wise, it means that they're going to ignore Kate, but storywise, it implies John was willing to risk Kate to bring back his mom.

Of course, with time travel stories like these, we can say that these are all alternate timelines. Time War!!

Are the Future War movies going to ignore T3 too? I seem to recall hearing they weren't worrying about being consistent with the TV show.

greatplaidmoose said...

As I understand it, T4 is going to ignore the TV show but then with alternate timelines is it really ignoring it? lol I'm not sure if its acknowledging T3 but I think it should especially with how it ended.