T:SCC 2x13: "Earthlings Welcome Here"

[Feil]

This episode was miserable. 2, narrowly escaping a 1 on the off chance that Riley's suicide will finally advance the Jessie plot arc.

[Thanas]

Hrm...

The reason why the first season was awesome was because it was grim, gritty and realistic. The whole hunting the Turk and everything, it was cool. Suspense, detective work, plot development. That stuff also worked for Season 2.

But I'm afraid this supernatural vision prophecy shit is going to be T:SCC's undoing. It detracts from the grim, gritty and realistic and it's also one of the reasons why shows like nBSG are a little bit iffy. This crap is total bullshit and I swear to god, Thanas, you should dissuade your T:SCC friend from going with it.

On that note, hopefully this crazy stuff is just a one-shot wonder and will be used to put the guys on the right track - after Weaver and in deep on the military-industrial complex. That'll give the show the direction it needs again.

But I swear, if they take this crazy prophecy vision nonsense overmuch, even this Robot River nut might take a hike.

Well, it is not like Sarah really has visions. It is more like she is so fixated on the three dots meaning anything plus a hefty dose of psychosis.

[lordofFNORD]

I actually thought the flashbacks, etc, provided some decent characterization. The whole "not adjusting" aspect was fleshed out more (and it was interesting to see Jessie have it, too, jumping at the dog bark). And trying to treat Jessie as a mother figure, despite Jessie basically drafting her into the mission and not caring about her. Though "why Riley?" is a good question, seeing Jessie seemed to just pick her at random, which was odd.

I was not a fan of the main plotline of the episode, though. Much of the "exploration of Sarah's Identity" was contrived, and she was being reckless and stupid, even compared to previous episodes about her obsession. Not too mention, her killing someone in self-defense doesn't seem like an huge issue, compared with things like getting Abraham and the hypnotist killed, or Cameron shooting the (helpless) burglars in Brothers of Nablus.

[PREDATOR490]

I can see them trying to play down Sarah's stupidity at going alone being the result of the others not believing her. Dosent make it any less stupid though because clearly she was on to something that would merit bringing them in. Of course, if she had done that, we wouldnt be able to get the un-dramatic cliffhanger of Sarah being fucked up while John is pissing about with Riley.

As for the future flashbacks, it looks like Jessie picked her at random but it is frankly retarded for her to have done it that way. Either she picked her at random with a set list of characteristics to look for, which she must have gotten from somewhere or she was looking for Riley for some reason. The idea of her being a loner / freelancer seems a unlikely from what we have seen so far and over the longterm it seems like a really poor way to keep the show running for an arc.
She clearly has an objective with regards to Cameron and John but that objective dosent require KILLING either of them yet.
Despite how strong Cameron is, Jessie should be more than capable of attempting to blow her head off if she was keen on removing Cameron completely. Instead she is playing Riley to get him AWAY from Cameron rather than go straight after her. Either Jessie dosent want to go after Cameron or she cant for some reason.

[Thanas]

Despite how strong Cameron is, Jessie should be more than capable of attempting to blow her head off if she was keen on removing Cameron completely. Instead she is playing Riley to get him AWAY from Cameron rather than go straight after her. Either Jessie dosent want to go after Cameron or she cant for some reason.

Well, if she wants to go after Cameron, she has to bring either high explosives or one of those nice sniper rifles. The high explosives are not an option due to obvious reasons. Sniper rifles...well, we do not know how good of a shot she is. And of course, if she misses, she might just be as good as dead. Furthermore, there is the risk of John getting injured.

So her plan makes sense - alienate John and Cameron first. If he pushes her away, Jessie can get to her far more easily. If he does not she still has the option of shooting her.

It actually is pretty smart, if it weren't for the fact that she picked out Riley from nowhere.

[tezunegari]

Maybe Jesse had to choose a tunnel rat because the "Save John Connor"-fellowship was to small within Tech-Com.
If she choose Riley because of her looks than where did she get the info about what john prefers?

Also it seemed that there had been no pre-jump briefing for Riley.

And Jesse told Derek that Johns decisions get good people killed. I'm not an expert on military but sometimes you have to sacrifice a few to get the job done? After all Jesse appears to be a grunt or at best a special ops but nowhere near the clearence to know what Connor knows.

I hope that Johns current behaviour will be explained with a ploy to unravel Rileys plans and that he knows that she has big secrets.

[Thanas]

Maybe Jesse had to choose a tunnel rat because the "Save John Connor"-fellowship was to small within Tech-Com.

Quite possible. Note that the other soldiers did not seem to mind Camerons presence in the control room, one commander even jumped at Derek when he pointed a gun at her.

If she choose Riley because of her looks than where did she get the info about what john prefers?

I bet she actually didn't, since if she is so convinced Connor boinking Cameron, why wouldn't she have picked up a brunette waif-like girl?

[Peptuck]

Okay, finally got around to watching this episode in detail. My personal rating is a 4, which is surprising for an episode where Cameron isn't prominient. I wasn't too thrilled with the primary plot (excepting Abraham) but all the secondary stuff and HOLY SHIT A HUNTER-KILLER at the end made up for it.

My opinion about Riley started to be revised when I first discovered she was from the future, as she actually had some depth to her. That was explored more here, and I actually started to feel some real sympathy for her. I'm actually impressed that she's able to integrate herself into normal society as well as she did and act like a normal - if a little quirky - girl when she's likely got the same arm-length list of neuroses that everyone else in the cast has. Interesting contrast between Jesse's treatment of her when they arrived and now.

Also, Jesse needs a mouthful of knuckles. I don't care if its Derek, Cameron, or even John who does it. In fact, I think it'll likely be John - I detect a bit of foreshadowing when he said he'd kick the ass of whoever hit Riley.

Also, totally called the suicide attempt.

Cameron again proves to be the smartest person on the crew. She's actually a little bit deceptive here, and I liked the almost teenager-like jealous reactions she showed. Those ultra-brittle smiles that passed between her and Riley sold that scene.

Also, I agree that I don't think Cameron was "satisfied" when she saw Riley dying, but rather looked almost ambivilant. "Oh, Riley is dying. That's nice."

Ellison's bits did a great job showing the contrast between firm machine logic and religion. Also, a good bit of background information that finally cemented the reasons why he divorced his wife yet remained so amiable with her. John Henry is still creepy as fuck, too.

For the main plot, it was decent, if predictable. I called Abraham's identity about five minutes in. This episode did have one of the better portrayals of a transsexual character I've seen - one of the things I've always liked about SCC is that the one-shot characters have been consistently good and well-rounded. In this case, when Abraham died, I actually felt down, because I liked him/her.

I'm in the camp thatdoesn't think Sarah's "visions" are supernatural in origin. She's just crazy, but then, everyone on the show has mental disorders, which is half the fun.

I agree that Sarah was stupid to have run off without any backup, but then again, she's insane and she's pissed off in her own bottled-up-raging-no-I'm-perfectly-fine way. She's not thinking rationally.

I suspected that the "drones" had something to do with Skynet, though I didn't expect to see the proto-HK at the end.

Whoever was on the motorcycle was definitely human, judging by their behavior. If they were a Terminator, they would have kept attacking instead of doing a drive-by. I'm on the fence as to whether it was the air-conditioning guy that Sarah killed or someone else, as we get no clear identification. Unless the pistol the killer used was the same as the one Winston had.

Finally,
Spoiler

HOLT SHIT KYLE REESE WTF

[Thanas]

^I bet it was the hippie-looking woman in the cafe. Note that she appears when Abraham and Sarah get back into town first and later she is seen walking towards the office of the hypnotherapist.


As for Cameron, I think she doesn't care either way. If Riley survives, nothing is gained or lost. If Riley is dead, John will most likely blame her, but then again, what's new in that regard?

[neoolong]

If Riley being from the future a retcon to give her some depth? Because I don't see it being foreshadowed until, bam, she's from the future. Of course, that could have been the plan.

[Thanas]

If Riley being from the future a retcon to give her some depth? Because I don't see it being foreshadowed until, bam, she's from the future. Of course, that could have been the plan.

It was revealed in episode 2x11. And no, it is not a retcon AFAIK.