"Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" Born to Run (2009)

Director:

Jeffrey G. Hunt

Writers:

Josh Friedman (developer)
Josh Friedman (written by)

TV Series:

"Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" (2008)

Original Air Date:

10 April 2009 (Season 2, Episode 22)

Genre:

Action | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Plot:

Sarah is in police custody, but John and Cameron disobey her orders and help her escape. The three then go to Zeira Corp so that Sarah can confront Catherine Weaver, and Cameron can confront John Henry.

Plot Keywords:

Black Brassiere | Bra Removing | Unresolved Final Episode | Series Finale | Cliffhanger

Cast

Lena Headey	...	Sarah Connor
Thomas Dekker	...	John Connor
Summer Glau	...	Cameron Phillips
Brian Austin Green	...	Derek Reese
Garret Dillahunt	...	John Henry / Cromartie
Shirley Manson	...	Catherine Weaver / T-1001
Richard T. Jones	...	James Ellison
Joshua Malina	...	Agent Aldridge
Jonathan Jackson	...	Kyle Reese
Carlos Sanz	...	Father Armando Bonilla
Shane Edelman	...	Matt Murch
Sabrina Perez	...	Chola
Jeffrey Pierce	...	T-888
Cooper Huckabee	...	Salesman
Linden Goh	...	Fuller

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Spanish

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:TV-14

Trivia:

This is the second of two consecutive episodes, the other being _Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" (2008) {Adam Raised a Cain (#2.21)}_, named for a song written/performed by Bruce Springsteen. "Born to Run" appears on his 1975 album of the same name.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: John Henry says he throws 20 when confronting the Mind Flayer, but on screen a 1 is visible. 20 is opposite to 1, so 1 cannot be seen on screen.

Quotes:

James Ellison: [looking at John Henry's surveillance monitor] What is this?
Catherine Weaver: Sarah Connor is talking with a priest - Father Armando Bonilla.
James Ellison: I can see that. Why is it here? Why are you watching it?
Catherine Weaver: John Henry monitors all law-enforcement channels. Seems prudent.
James Ellison: It seems illegal.
Catherine Weaver: So is lying to the FBI.

Not entirely convinced

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Suspension of disbelief aside to time travel (conservation of energy violated) or even logic (A clearly is not A) this kind of plot device leaves a writer with deuces wild! Sack an actor, actor storms of set, bring 'em back with a plot twist 'cos the future's what you make it. Yeah, right.

So we are to believe the lovely sexy Weaver is a good 'un all along with the plot twist (probably because she honed her acting skills and the writers wanted to factor her in to the next series). What then of all the slayings and disregard for human life (she was only killing the bad humans in the chain of building skynet?) or did she suddenly turn good when the Turk got hacked, or did John Henry's ethos and Weaver's do the switcheroo? - John Henry afterall released the prison gates. What of Cameron, playing John as a patsy all along to track down Weaver and John Henry building a counter-attack? She seemed to be concerned about not killing the prison guards and then rescuing Sarah too? All these agents coming from future (take the case of Riley and Jesse) having cloaked missions and intentions that require them to be double agents - it's a wonder they can keep track of what their supposed to be doing. There's no method in the madness. Do deep undercover agents/sleepers lose sense of their mission or purpose in life? Or what of the submarine episode, Jesse and this episode 'will you join us?', elements of which surfaced in S2.E22? Are we to believe there is some fifth column in robot world? Besides, just what is their problem with humans, their raison d'etre? Hardly explained in the series or the films.

I'm not entirely convinced that the whole concept is not being made up as they go along much as a programmer might hack a piece of unstructured code poorly maintained by many hands before him.

Who knows what the script writers' visions are? If the war between man and machine in the future is in deadlock, agents sent back to cross and double cross resulting in deadlock in the past (or is the whole thing fatalistic/preordained?), may be they could be realising that each race has attributes and rights and some kind of fifth column of peaceful co-existence or even symbiosis is emerging but that sounds way too sophisticated for Hollywood.

You know, George Lucas had the whole Star Wars Universe/Mytharc mapped out pretty much mid-seventies even though budgets changed, actors stayed on, sequels were made, then sequels to the sequels, then prequels, it all scanned correct with an overall vision.

I'm not entirely convinced that the whole project is not kept alive by the fickle ebb and flow of primetime ratings and the merchandise people. Not great SF.