T:SCC Season 2x02: "Automatic for the people" (spo

[Thanas]

Epsiode 2 called "Automatic for the people" starts today at 8:00 pm EDT. The episode is written by the consuling producer Natalie Chaidez, who previously wrote "Queen's Gambit".

Sarah, Derek, and Cameron investigate a nuclear power plant, and John makes a new friend. Meanwhile, Catherine Weaver continues her new project.

In other news, the premiere received lukewarm ratings (6.33m viewers, a drop of more than a quarter of the audience), yet held on to being the number one broadcast show in the demos (2.4/7 in 18-49). Sources speculate it could have been due to the early-starting season of "Monday Night Football" on ESPN which began at 7:05 p.m. ET instead of the usual 8:40. Nevertheless, the show got excellent demos, so we do not have to worry about it...yet.


Also, the premiere received an average raing of 4.38 on SD.net. Please post your rating in your thread.

[Anarchist Bunny]

Don't know why, but some little voice inside my head thinks that this friend of John is gonna turn out to be Cathrine Weaver the T-1000.

[Anarchist Bunny]

Whew. Hopefully its Battlestar Galactica's negative influences on me.

Next week however looks supremely interesting. We might get some insight on why Cromartie left Ellison alive. Also Cromartie is back in the game.

[Sabastian Tombs]

Well, Carmeron is still acting strange.

More importantly, either Weaver or Skynet had an exact duplicate to replace Greenway with. So that could mean Weaver isn't working alone, but is part of a network.

And, watching Carmeron in the bar, she has tan lines. Why does a robot have tan lines, and far do they go? Hopefully, that last question will get answered. Inquiring minds want to know.

[eyexist]

Well, Carmeron is still acting strange.

More importantly, either Weaver or Skynet had an exact duplicate to replace Greenway with. So that could mean Weaver isn't working alone, but is part of a network.

And, watching Carmeron in the bar, she has tan lines. Why does a robot have tan lines, and far do they go? Hopefully, that last question will get answered. Inquiring minds want to know.

Well she was standing pretty close to the flames when she melted Vick last season

[Xess]

I really got the feeling the Cameron was jealous of Riley. And it seems as though Weaver pulled the power plant into a possible future skynet control.

[SylasGaunt]

And, watching Carmeron in the bar, she has tan lines. Why does a robot have tan lines, and far do they go? Hopefully, that last question will get answered. Inquiring minds want to know.

Terminators use actual human tissue for their skin so why wouldn't she have tan lines?

[Stark]

Shhh leave the lamer nerds to their sadness.

[Anguirus]

Damn, missed it. Hope Fox puts it up soon.

[Thanas]

I really got the feeling the Cameron was jealous of Riley.

I didn't, really. She was pretty much passive-aggressive, but I wouldn't go that far. For all we know, she was making sure that one wasn't a threat.

As for the rest of the episode, a few observations:

- Cameron is still acting whacky. Also, she seems to not be up to her usual combat strength.
- Different terminator builds in size and weight are confirmed.


Now, for the negatives:
- Apparently, nuclear power plant security sucks, with guys wearing their badges even at bars.
- Also, Sarah was struck with a case of the stupid again. A) not using Cameron to hack into the database, despite her getting them into the program and b) Running through the waste room. Derek managed to go around with just a few seconds lost, but Sarah runs right through it.
- Too much gratuitious T&A. Which is fine if it serves a plot point, but this was such a flimsy excuse to show Summer Glau's breasts again....you know the episode is bad when they do a closeup for no reasons other than T&A.
- In other news, John is really PTSDing here. All the usual signs one would expect in a TV show, right even thrusting himself in relationships with total strangers and blowing off friends and family. Good performance by Thomas Dekker here.
- The T-1000 also was stupid - changing in a car without tinted windows, while being in a guarded area. If anyone had looked at that moment....

While usually the action is fast paced enough that one doesn't care about that....this time it wasn't.

So finally, a 3.

Plus, any bets on what that shack with the blood in writing was?

[eyexist]

I really got the feeling the Cameron was jealous of Riley.

I didn't, really. She was pretty much passive-aggressive, but I wouldn't go that far. For all we know, she was making sure that one wasn't a threat.

With the passive aggressive behavior I figured it was because of John re-activatiing her, and not being able to trust her 'programming' anymore (I'm a ticking time bomb [as well]). She also told John that she can't trust him, which is weird since she mentioned last season that Future John takes risks all the time; reactivating her shouldn't be any different. Maybe she is feeling 'guilt' for trying to kill the one person she's supposed to protect?

[Thanas]

With the passive aggressive behavior I figured it was because of John re-activatiing her, and not being able to trust her 'programming' anymore (I'm a ticking time bomb [as well]). She also told John that she can't trust him, which is weird since she mentioned last season that Future John takes risks all the time; reactivating her shouldn't be any different. Maybe she is feeling 'guilt' for trying to kill the one person she's supposed to protect?

Oh, quite possibly. However, I would explain it like this: Future John is surrounded by an army and knows how to handle himself. By all accounts he is a good and intelligent fighter. Future John takes calculated risks - and lives in a secluded bunker to which only Cameron has access as far as we know.

PTSD-John is currently acting not very intelligent. Reactivating her was because of his attachment to her ("She saves my life"), which was strong enough to make him pull a gun on his mother. Having such a strong attachment to someone who just tried to kill you...is not smart on any level. It was an uncalculated risk and Cameron said so in the premier ("next time, do not let him bring me back"). So in short, PTSD-John does not have the same level of confidence or abilities that let him take the risks.

[Strider]

I agree that John's actions in this episode were pretty wonky, but I think that reactivating Cameron was not a stupid risk. They are taking the offensive now, and that means you need assets to attack with. Cameron at this point easily makes up the majority of their combat strength, and without her the group's attempts to avert the apocalypse have a much lower chance of success. Reactivating her shows that stopping the apocalypse in the first place and saving the people he loves means more to John than his own life and the fate of post-apocalyptic humanity, should Skynet prevail in the end. I think it's justifiable on both a personal and worldwide level, and I would've made the same choice.

[Thanas]

I agree that John's actions in this episode were pretty wonky, but I think that reactivating Cameron was not a stupid risk. They are taking the offensive now, and that means you need assets to attack with. Cameron at this point easily makes up the majority of their combat strength, and without her the group's attempts to avert the apocalypse have a much lower chance of success. Reactivating her shows that stopping the apocalypse in the first place and saving the people he loves means more to John than his own life and the fate of post-apocalyptic humanity, should Skynet prevail in the end. I think it's justifiable on both a personal and worldwide level, and I would've made the same choice.

No...the smart move would have made to reconstruct the chip reader he built and do a system search. The smart move would be to thoroughly check for damage. With a microscope. Reactivating her without doing either one of the two was monumentarily stupid.

Also, I doubt that John was thinking much about the world at that point. I do not recall him making such an argument. I pretty much wager all he cared about was the risk of loosing her.

[Strider]

I concede that in a perfect world, caution would have been better, however, neither his mother nor his uncle would have allowed him to resurrect Cameron no matter what safety precautions he took. They were going to burn her then and there, and he had a binary choice of either throwing the dice or letting it happen.

I also concede that John was not thinking about the large scale ramifications of saving Cameron at that point, but at the same time I feel the cast would be in dire straights indeed without her.

[Shroom Man 777]

All he did was clean Cameron's chip with a cotton on a stick - if that 'miracle' hadn't happened, she would've just gone back to normal and slaughtered 'em all. Maybe someone would've popped a flare and she would've done so... while on fire!

[eyexist]

All he did was clean Cameron's chip with a cotton on a stick - if that 'miracle' hadn't happened, she would've just gone back to normal and slaughtered 'em all. Maybe someone would've popped a flare and she would've done so... while on fire!

Yeah so unless he rolled a 20 on repairing Cam's chip he didn't do shit to fix it. John said there was physical damage which a q-tip ain't gonna repair. I think they were trying to imply that Cameron 'fixed' herself when she overrode the Terminate command.

I agree with Thanas in that there may be an episode where John hooks up Cameron's chip just like Vick's. I also see them answering a lot of questions about Cameron's past in that episode as well.

[Peptuck]

Anyone else get the sinking suspicion that Riley might be another Terminator? Something about the way she just pops up and ingratiates herself with John for no apparent reason sets off alarm bells; its a lot like how John met Cameron the first time.

I'm also left wondering just how complex Skynet's plans are, and whether Weaver was behind the entire power plant operation or just capitalizing on it.

[Thanas]

All he did was clean Cameron's chip with a cotton on a stick - if that 'miracle' hadn't happened, she would've just gone back to normal and slaughtered 'em all. Maybe someone would've popped a flare and she would've done so... while on fire!

Yeah so unless he rolled a 20 on repairing Cam's chip he didn't do shit to fix it. John said there was physical damage which a q-tip ain't gonna repair. I think they were trying to imply that Cameron 'fixed' herself when she overrode the Terminate command.

I agree with Thanas in that there may be an episode where John hooks up Cameron's chip just like Vick's. I also see them answering a lot of questions about Cameron's past in that episode as well.

Spoilers:

The Episode description of Episode 4 reads: A software glitch causes Cameron to forget who she is. She goes missing from the Connors and is taken in by a street kid named Jody. Cameron and Jody end up at a halfway house where Cameron meets up with a social worker who uncovers some of Cameron's distant memories.

Anyone else get the sinking suspicion that Riley might be another Terminator? Something about the way she just pops up and ingratiates herself with John for no apparent reason sets off alarm bells; its a lot like how John met Cameron the first time.

Oh, C'mon. What is it with everybody who believes she must be a Terminator. Yes, she has a bit of a bulky frame. Yes, the way she and John meet have stronge paralels to he first meeting with Cameron. However, maybe that is why he confides in her. Going by future descriptions of the episodes, we expect to see more of her. If she was a Terminator, why not simply kill John? If she was freaking Weaver, why not do the same? Also, her behaviour is pretty much unlike Camerons.

So far, she seems like the "typical" outsider chick clicheé. She seems to be a bit of a loner as well. So yeah, I can see how John might confide in her. We'll see in the next episode what the writers intend to do with her.

I'm also left wondering just how complex Skynet's plans are, and whether Weaver was behind the entire power plant operation or just capitalizing on it.

Well, considering that the Resistance has to retake it from Skynet control in the future, we can safely assume that the proper timeline has been restored.

[Peptuck]

Spoilers:

The Episode description of Episode 4 reads: A software glitch causes Cameron to forget who she is. She goes missing from the Connors and is taken in by a street kid named Jody. Cameron and Jody end up at a halfway house where Cameron meets up with a social worker who uncovers some of Cameron's distant memories.

Oh, shit. I cannot wait for that one.

[Anguirus]

Saw it. Solid, but a few logical gaps and WTF moments hurt the score (most of which are mentioned above).

Despite it's wankery, I actually liked Cameron's bar-code ability. Creative way to get around a problem, and makes sense to build into an infiltrator. I also like some of her limitations--she couldn't magically sink every ball on the pool table, just play improbably well. (And she's a bit of a greedy little thing, as it turns out.)

I actually thought Fake Greenway was the T-1000 at first (which made that scene so much creepier). How the fuck did they make a T-888 with his exact appearance so quickly? Are they actually growing skin coverings in this time, or perhaps Weaver is manufacturing complete Terminators?

Speaking of Weaver, despite her totally unnecessary morphing (what threat does she present if she doesn't even have a lackey to spare to give a damn speech?) she set things up pretty well. Skynet actually had a win-win-win situation going, I suppose.

[Sabastian Tombs]

I actually thought Fake Greenway was the T-1000 at first (which made that scene so much creepier). How the fuck did they make a T-888 with his exact appearance so quickly? Are they actually growing skin coverings in this time, or perhaps Weaver is manufacturing complete Terminators?

If the show's creators realize the implications of having a fake Greenway it could mean there is a thought-out storyline for the show. If they just threw him in because it would be "cool" or a twist, I worry about the long term chances for the show.

[Anguirus]

If the show's creators realize the implications of having a fake Greenway it could mean there is a thought-out storyline for the show.

It remains to be seen how thought-out things are ahead of time. Regardless, an outline for four seasons supposedly existed as long ago as the pilot, for what that's worth.

Also yet to be explained: "Crewcut Man," how Derek knows Cameron, what the hell is the deal with Cameron anyway, if there's a real reason Weaver murdered some guy in the bathroom, how that resistance guy knew about Greenway, etc.

[Peptuck]

if there's a real reason Weaver murdered some guy in the bathroom

The guy in question was the head of a department in ZieraCorp who appeared to be resistant to Weaver transferring engineers to work on the Turk. That and she didn't like him.

[Thanas]

Saw it. Solid, but a few logical gaps and WTF moments hurt the score (most of which are mentioned above).

Despite it's wankery, I actually liked Cameron's bar-code ability. Creative way to get around a problem, and makes sense to build into an infiltrator. I also like some of her limitations--she couldn't magically sink every ball on the pool table, just play improbably well. (And she's a bit of a greedy little thing, as it turns out.)

I actually think she did the best mathematically feasible shot there. Four balls with one shot....

I actually thought Fake Greenway was the T-1000 at first (which made that scene so much creepier). How the fuck did they make a T-888 with his exact appearance so quickly? Are they actually growing skin coverings in this time, or perhaps Weaver is manufacturing complete Terminators?

Well, considering blowing up the plant deprived the resistance of its biggest power generator, what makes you think Skynet would not send a Terminator to make sure that the resistance cannot use it?

I think people underestimate how important that thing is to the resistance. Derek said they would loose the war without it.