This episode was a good start to the series as a whole. It gave back-story to those who weren’t already familiar with the Terminator universe. As someone who got their first real look at the Terminator universe through this show, I can tell you that it really helped. Now that I know the Terminator universe much better, it doesn’t detract from the series. Every bit of back-story is given through dialogue that fits the scene. It never feels like you’re being given a big exposition dump.
One of the continuation errors in this episode is how Cameron is able to express/fake emotions. When we first meet Cameron she appears human. Not just in looks but in mannerisms also. You could talk to Pilot Cameron and be totally convinced that you’re actually talking to a living, breathing human being. That’s what Terminators are supposed to do. Terminators are supposed to blend in and gain a human’s trust so that they can later kill them. Pilot Cameron can do that type of acting.
However, once she saves John Connor from Cromartie she never shows that level of emotion ever again. Why wouldn’t she? Summer Glau tries to reason, in the commentary for this episode, that now that she has the trust of John she doesn’t need to pretend to be human. But that doesn’t make sense and even Glau admits that Cameron’s show of emotions during this episode confuses her. Even if Cameron has gained the Connor’s trust then why not pretend emotions to fool other people? Other people that might talk to others about Cameron.
One of the things that was in this episode but was later dropped was the location names. At a new location there tended to be the name of the place. I can understand why this was dropped as there was really no great purpose to it. It was interesting but not something I missed during the rest of the series.
A big pairing of this series is between John Connor and Cameron. The nickname for this pairing is Jameron. From the very first meeting between the two you can see that John likes Cameron, at least physically. Even when he’s mad at both her for lying to him and himself for falling for her tricks, he still likes her.
Having John like Cameron helps bring tension to the three main leads. It shows how John isn’t as harsh with Terminators as other Resistance fighters will be, it shows how Sarah Connor hasn’t stopped hating Terminators, and it expands the Terminator mythology with Cameron.
Another relationship in the series that is equally important, if not more important, than Jameron is John and Sarah Connor. Sarah Connor is now played by Lena Headey and still has a very strong connection to her son. John is very important to her and can be said to be the center of her universe. She reminds him that he is never safe and to run to safety even if she is in danger.
The episode starts off with a dream of Sarah’s fear of John being killed by a Terminator. The fact that the series starts off with that sequence of events shows Sarah’s priorities and even gives her a reason to leave her fiance.
As with a Terminator movie, there is a big bad Terminator of this series.. Anyways, Cromartie is sent back in time to find and kill John Connor. He is a very menacing threat as our band of heroes are never able to disable him for any amount of time. All they can do is delay him.
I like that the show has a tough, emotionless Terminator to go up against John, Sarah, and Cameron.
This show still has time traveling in it and the Pilot even shows the three main leads, and Cromartie, using time travel. On one hand I really enjoyed seeing them going through time. But on the other hand I don’t know if them time jumping makes sense. Why go into the future and have less time to stop SkyNet? Cameron does have a date and location, but she admits she doesn’t know how exactly SkyNet is started.
Time travel in this show becomes highly complicated, but that comes during the show. For now it is relatively simple. It turns out that the Engineer, for lack of an actual name, built a time machine so that no Resistance fighter would become stuck in the past. That there would always be a way back. This is why they go to the bank.
I find that clever as the Resistance should have a backup plan just in case. This is one of those cases of an addition to the series actually making sense.
Overall this was a great start to the series. It allowed the viewers to get a little taste of what was coming ahead in the future of the series.
If you disagree, or have your own opinions on the episode, please feel free to comment below.
