Last week the Connors were on the run from a damaged Cameron. This week she’s all better. What will happen tonight?

The show intro is well-done. It explains SkyNet and the Future War and what Terminators are as well as the importance of John Connor. It also explains who Sarah, Cameron, and Derek are. Looks great. Sounds like piss. The narrator just blows. I’d rather hear any of the regular cast read it or someone with a rad voice like Keith David.

The show starts off with one of those cool time bubbles and Scut Farcus from “A Christmas Story” stumbles out. What? No, it’s true. Actor Zack Ward stands up naked but he’s been shot in the chest already and is dying, even as he arrives in the present. He stumbles down the alley in the evening and steals some bum’s clothes. Take that hobos of the world!

John, Sarah, Uncle Derek, and Cameron are all patching themselves up at the Cathedral from last week. Oh yeah, their house burned down last week. Cameron’s scars are already fading. She heals quickly. Cameron warns John that HE can’t be trusted anymore because he brought her back online and that was just too risky. Sarah tells John he should go back to school. He does but finds himself staring at all the care-free students his age and you can tell he feels more out of place than ever. The bell rings and John is just standing there in an empty hall. He doesn’t go to class. Instead he sits outside on the grass and is approached by a blonde classmate.

He says he recognizes her from class and she asks for $20 so they can go eat. Her name is Riley.

Derek, Cameron, and Sarah check out a large house for rent. The lady renting it is the neighbor, played by “Freaks and Geeks” star Busy Phillips. Busy explains that the homeowner family had to go overseas on business for a few months so she’s renting it for them. She’s very pregnant. You can tell Sarah is remembering a simpler time by the way she stares. Cameron also looks and Busy asks if she wants to touch it, and lets Cameron place her hand on her belly. I have to say, last week helps remind me that Cameron is dangerous and seeing her touch a pregnant belly made me nervous, even though nothing happens.

Agent Ellison visits Charley Dixon’s wife at their house. Ellison introduces himself as being from the FBI but not being there for a case, and explaining he wants to help her. Charley walks into the room and Ellison says they need to talk.

Sarah is just settling into their new house when the mortally injured time traveler crashes through the glass into the house. He’s barely able to talk, but stammers out “Stop Greenway,” “the power plant,” and “two days.” Derek ran to see the commotion and after catching his fellow soldier’s last words says that he’ll handle this. Sarah says they both will because she’s seen how he handles things and it usually means someone dies. Derek argues that sometimes that’s what needs to happen, but Sarah counters with the other side of that argument being that sometimes it isn’t.

There’s a brief scene of the Future War. Resistance soldiers load a rocket launcher and blow up one of SkyNet’s flying attack thingies, guarding a nuclear power plant. Then we see the power plant in the present day as Sarah, Cameron, and Derek arrive. Derek explains that it’s a key Resistance stronghold in the future, providing all their power needs. He says it looks very different in his past. Sarah and Cameron enter the power plant as employee applicants, and after watching a cartoon squirrel talk about nuclear power, Cameron spots their target – a safety manager named Carl Greenway.

Charley’s wife has been told the truth – that Sarah is still alive and that there are killer robots. She’s pretty ripshit about that whole Charley’s ex being alive and him being in touch with her. She slaps him. Ellison tells them they need to leave. Guess he figures Cromartie will look for them next.

John and Riley talk talk talk. Riley is a wiseass but John’s just kinda out there and not quite connecting. He opens up a bit about the new house they got and invites her over.

Sarah has a job as a janitor. She works by the control room, observing. She manages to talk to Greenway as he exits the room and learns that the power plant is going back up tomorrow. It’s going to be a test of some sort. Greenway is approached by his boss and they head outside, across a catwalk into another room. Sarah follows them and the boss thinks he sees something but when he opens the door, no one is there. Sarah can be seen in a wide shot standing outside the railing on the other side of the door.

John and Riley head up to his new room only to see that it’s a toddler’s room, complete with toys and a little kid’s bed.

Sarah and Cameron hit the bar full of power plant employees. Cameron is all tarted up. Summer Glau fascinates me. Sometimes I think her head looks too big, and other times, most times, this time – she’s really pretty. Sarah sits next to Greenway at the bar and asks for what he’s having. When he says it’s tonic water, she says she won’t have what he’s having. It’s funny and she’s doing her flirting thing to learn info. She’s a good spy.

Cameron plays pool with two other guys and swipes one of their security badges. She also hustles them. Sarah asks Greenway about a scar on his arm and he reveals he had cancer but the doctors were able to go in through the same cut twice and remove it so he feels lucky. This obviously reminds Sarah that she was destined to get cancer herself, and the threat looms large.

While Sarah occupies Greenway, Derek sneaks into his car. Another truck pulls up behind and throws a brick through Greenway’s window. Was he attacking Derek?

Nope. Greenway explained it to Sarah. He had previously stopped the reactor from going online due to safety concerns. If he does it again, the plant might get shut down, so his boss is putting pressure on him. Also, the employees are mad at him because they don’t want their jobs at risk. That’s all the broken window was about.

Sarah and Derek debate the issue they now face. If the plant doesn’t get started up, the Resistance will lose one of their key assets in the future. But if they stop Greenway and allow an unsafe plant to start up, they could wipe out a good chuck of California.

Arriving back at home, Sarah is not happy to see John having a girl at their home and pulls him aside to tell him that now is not the time. But when would be the right time, John wants to know. Riley offers to leave if she’s causing a problem, but John says it’s ok and takes her up to his room. Cameron copies the swiped key card code onto a new card with perfect UPC code lines and a sharpie. Robots are cool!

In the morning, Sarah follows Greenway’s boss. He enters an area that requires a pass card and she now has one. She enters a room, wearing full contaminant gear, that’s full of nuclear waste barrels. She passes through quickly into the next room and the boss catches her. She lies that she was just looking for a storage closet, but he says she might as well clean up a mess back in the waste room since she’s there.

Sarah goes back in but freaks out and leaves. The boss tells her she’s contaminated and she goes through decontamination being hosed down while naked.

John wakes up and Riley (who has apparently spent the night) gives him a Lego robot she made. He accepts it (reluctantly at first) and she asks for his phone number. He gives it to her but says that if she wants to call him, she always has to say the date first and that’s just how it is. It’s weird, but Riley does agree.

The boss gives Sarah back her clothes and (smugly?) tells her he was wrong and that she’s clean of any contamination.

Charley Dixon and his wife are leaving and Ellison gives Charley a Bible.

Sarah is back at the plant as a janitor but she thinks Greenway seems different. He does. He’s moving forward with bringing the plant online. Sarah notices his missing scar and ducks down a corridor and calls up Derek. Derek is at Greenway’s hosue and comes across him, hanging by the neck in a room. He asks if Sarah has actually seen Greenway, but it’s too late. The countdown has finished and the reactor goes live.

Sarah follows Greenway out of the control room and through the plant. Sarah gets Cameron, who is mopping, and tells her that Greenway isn’t himself. Cameron doesn’t stop and Sarah asks if she’s functioning. She is, and tells Sarah she’s thinking of what to do. Since when does she think, Sarah wants to know.

Alarms begin to go off. Greenway has turned off the coolant and a reactor leak is imminent. Sarah orders Cameron to fix it while she goes for Greenway. The boss enters the control room only to see all the other employees lying dead except for Greenway.

Cameron is fixing the coolant when Greenway attacks her and the two terminators begin fighting.

Sarah knocks out a guard and steals his rifle. She has to go through the radioactive room to get to Cameron so she runs through without a suit. Sarah shoots Greenway, which makes him pause long enough for Cameron to knock him into some high voltage equipment, destroying him. The coolant is fixed and the plant is safe.

Cameron dismantles the terminator, stuffing his pieces into radiation barrels. Later, she examines Sarah for radiation, and says she’s clean. Sarah confirms that she originally died in 2005 if she hadn’t jumped forward in time. She wonders aloud if this is how she gives herself cancer, having trouble believing she’s clean.

Cameron asks John about Riley, and John tells Cameron not to worry and that he isn’t obligated to prove anything to anyone, even her. Riley calls John and does the correct date – she was just practicing.

Outside the house, Sarah notices blood and follows the trail to the basement. There’s writing on the walls in blood, including Greenway’s name.

A press conference is taking place outside the power plant. A spokesman notes that this plant and six others will be run by his company, AutoMit, which has technology that will automate the processes and prevent any future close calls. He enters his sedan afterwards and morphs into Catherine Weaver. He/she was the T-1001!

Overall, pretty strong. Sarah was definitely at the forefront this week and I appreciate that this show leaves things unsaid that we are more than capable of interpreting from the actors’ work. Sarah is still afraid of her cancer, but not because it means her dying. It ties into her other fear in this episode: being there for John, as a teacher and protector. And she’s also worried about exactly what that role will entail as John is obviously maturing a lot.

Good mystery, some cool action, good family dynamics, but the best episodes only try to tackle one or two of those elements. This one spread itself just a little. I liked it slightly more than last week but again give it 3 and a half out of five terminator heads.

photo credit: dklimke