The season culminates with a brilliant and exciting finale that gives us what we want – action, twists, answers, time travel mind puzzles, betrayals, and big emotional moments. If this is the series finale, it works. And yet, the show ends with a massive shakeup to the status quo with several subplots that would be fascinating to explore if the show gets a third season.

Before I journey into spoiler territory, I just want to say that I really admire how the show’s creators never compromised their vision. They could have spelled things out and dumbed it down and I doubt anyone would be surprised. They could have made a cheesy action version of Terminator but instead they really embraced the characters and science fiction elements and tried to elevate the material and expected the audience to keep up. I think that’s awesome.

The show begins with Sarah in jail, interviewed by an FBI agent trying to get John (and Cameron) as well, but Sarah’s not talking. She instead talks to a priest (from the very beginning of the season) and using that confidentiality, has him tell John not to come for her. But John’s evolved a lot this season, and he’s the one calling the shots. He knows that Catherine Weaver has an AI in the basement of her company that could be SkyNet. He also knows a Terminator has been sent after Catherine’s child. John’s determined to accomplish both freeing his mother and getting into ZeiraCorp.

Ellison meets John and Cameron and says Catherine has a message for them – “Will you join us?” This question requires us to remember the backstory here. In Jesse’s flashback episode a few weeks ago (which takes place in the future) she recovered a box from a group of Terminators. When it was opened, a T-1001 liquid Terminator said that John had asked whether they would join him (establishing that there was definitely a second faction of Terminators that wanted to broker a peace) but their answer then was “no.” I believe that T-1001 was probably Catherine Weaver, who went back in time to help foster an AI with a moral compass to help battle SkyNet. And now she seems to have changed her mind and is willing to join John Connor.

Cameron of course knew about this, but no one else does. And Cameron lies, saying she doesn’t know what that means, telling Ellison to beat it. She has John cut her open to check on her functions. He has to cut and feel beneath her breastplate and the scene is a powerful metaphor for them having sex, but it’s also pretty damn creepy. I think Cameron is checking to make sure she is functioning well enough for the coming mission.

John earlier accused her of potentially leaking her nuclear battery and giving Sarah her cancer. Is that possible? Cameron says she has sensors which would let her know if she was broken, but I think her chip is kind of messed up ever since season 1′s finale where she was caught in a car-bomb explosion. Who knows for sure?

That mission involves breaking into the prison and walking through a hail of gunfire to get to Sarah. Interestingly, Cameron does not kill any of the guards. Meanwhile, Catherine Weaver’s AI, John Henry, is monitoring the jail and opens the cells for all the prisoners. But this is to actually cause confusion and aid in Cameron and Sarah’s escape. Cameron is in bad shape after this, looking very much like the Terminator at the end of the first film.

Still, the family is together and they head to Zeiracorp to meet Weaver. The Connors go with Ellison to Weaver’s office upstairs while Cameron sneaks downstairs to look for John Henry. The meeting doesn’t last long, though, because the Terminators have sent a Hunter Killer drone that crashes into the ZeiraCorp skyscraper. They’ve begun their attack on either Weaver or the Connors. Weaver turns into a shield to protect everyone from the massive explosion. They run downstairs to check on John Henry, and as Weaver leaves, her pet eel merges with her. I guess she always left a piece of herself in her office tank, maybe to spy on others? It was interesting.

Weaver also takes out last week’s Terminator who breaks into the building but she just impales him and then uses her other hand to connect to the electricity, shutting him down. It was very cool.

Downstairs, John Henry is gone and Cameron lies on the ground, lifeless. The computer screens scroll a repeating message: “I’m sorry John” Apparently Cameron’s ultimate mission was to be with the Connors only to find this AI. So which side is she on? I lean towards bad.

Either way, John Henry has taken Cameron’s chip, which allowed him to disconnect. He also found a way to use the same technology used in the show’s pilot to time travel. John and Weaver decide to chase after him, leaving a surprised Ellison and Sarah behind. And where do they end up? The future!

John is quickly found in one of the bunkers by a resistance soldier, and Weaver has hidden. He says he’s John Connor but someone steps up to say they’ve never heard that name! Who says it? Derek Reese. They’re in the future but it’s different because John leapt forward. Not only is Derek there, so is John’s father, Kyle. And Allison, the human that Cameron based herself on.

And that’s the end! If it doesn’t return, I think we can safely assume John came to be the leader (minus any messianic praising of him) who would send both Derek and Kyle back in time. With his elite hacking skills, he is a natural for reprogramming Terminators and figuring out how to use the time travel. And he’s grown this season. Props to Thomas Dekker for really stepping up as the show went on.

The show had some fantastic moments emotionally. In jail, Sarah was stoic but you could definitely sense the love she has for John. Various subplots were dropped such as the FBI agent claiming to believe in time travel and robots, but was he just saying this to convince Sarah to give up John’s location? I lean towards thinking he has corrobarated the info and does believe. He also tells her that Miles Dyson’s son has been missing for three months. Why? Could he have continued his father’s work and been responsible for SkyNet’s creation?

John Henry was also fascinating this week. Weaver’s engineer said they replaced some minor wiring but that it “tweaked” him. And he in fact repeated whatever Weaver said, at one point saying the same thing at the same time. Perhaps she created a moral intelligence, in her image. Or vice versa!

This episode easily had everything I like in the show, with no bad scenes. It deserves a flawless 5 out of 5 terminators!

photo credit: Grufnik