“Samson and Delilah”

Fumbling a bit to open up a second season, it seemed as if the writers strike kind of gave the writers an opportunity to reboot a bit.  Of course that means that a lot of the season two opener had to clear off some things that appeared to be heading in a different direction while laying new groundwork for the real direction.  The best thing I can say about this episode, is it pays homage to the original film in a way in that it is basically one long chase sequence.  So if you like action, you should enjoy it, but to me I was hoping for a bit more.

We open where we left off, Sarkissian having blown up the car with Cameron in it and going into the Connor household.  Unsurprisingly, Cameron has survived, although there is some definite damage going on.  As Sarkissian and thug take the Connor’s prisoner in a very Godfather-like slow motion sequence that screamed to me that the writers were really proud of the Cromartie killing off twenty federal agents in slow motion to Johnny Cash sequence at the end of the first season, that they wanted to do something similar.

The big reveal happens when Cameron kills the one thug and gets to the Connors…and we learn that her new mission is to terminate John, sending them back on the run.   Now this I enjoyed.  The flip of the switch and turning River into Terminator I Arnie from Terminator 2&3 Arnie could make for interesting tension during the beginning of the season.

Unfortunately though we also see the first effects of reboot as we meet the lead singer of Garbage who has bought the Turk from Sarkissian.  Now during the end of Season 1 we had a whole episode where the big reveal was that who our heroes thought was Sarkissian, was not really Sarkissian..instead it was this other guy and that was going to be important.

Yeah important enough to get friend ten minutes later.

And speaking of Shirley Manson.  She was forgettable at best and annoying at worst.   Her reveal at the end was slightly surprising…but done in an awful way.  If we’re going to see a T-1000 type…do we want to see her morph from a toilet?

Silver and Sarah’s “husband” had little to do this episode but ride around trying to find the Connors and really served absolutely no purpose whatsoever.

In a separate sequence, Agent Ellison also doesn’t have much to do but try to explain what happened without sounding like a lunatic.  He opts to keep the truth from the feds, instead blaming it on the young actor Cromartie replaced, whose body was still in the apartment.  Fortunately Richard T. Jones is able to make the most out of his sequences as usual and make this filler still seem very intriguing.

We learn the reason Cromartie kept Ellison alive and it is a bit anti-climactic…Cromartie figured Ellison would lead him to the Connors…and he does lead them to their old burned out house, but another confrontation between the two leads to a great showdown.  What’s better is that Ellison is on six week leave due to the tragedy and that will allow him to catch up with the Connors.

The real story of the season though is the emergence of John as leader.  The only problem is that while actor Thomas Dekker does a good job performing, his physicality is just all wrong and when he’s supposed to look badass, I end up laughing thinking my four year old daughter could look just as bad ass.  But worse is that Sarah Connor looks even weaker.  The whole show I kept thinking…ok..is season 2 the John Connor Chronicles?  Because that’s where it’s going.  That is not necessarily a bad thing though at least on paper.  John has to develop into the future leader of the resistance so it has to start somewhere.

And here it starts with John defying everyone and not destroying Cameron after they are able to get her chip out.  Instead he chooses to fix her and to everyone’s surprise…it works and we get our “family” back together again.  My initial thoughts were “way to ruin a positive direction the show could have gone…:”  But as I watched, I saw the potential of is she or isn’t she….or when does she snap?

Overall it was not a bad beginning to the season, there just was a little too much tidied up and not enough execution.  However, there is enough groundwork and enough supporting roles doing their job to keep this intriguing.

C+

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