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Terminator 1.5: "Queen's Gambit" |
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Thursday, 14 February 2008 |
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By John Keegan
Visit Critical Myth for an archive of John's TV Review archives, with more than 1100 entries.
| Now that the introductory phase of this short season is over, the complications take hold, and several previously established elements come into play. Sarah must deal with the threat that Andy and his “Turk” poses, John and Cameron continue to adjust to their new school, and Charlie Dixon finds himself at the center of the storm.
Like so much of the series to date, the full impact of this episode’s plot twist is reserved for fans of the overall franchise. Kyle Reese looms large in the “Terminator” mythos, and it’s an interesting move to make such a solid connection to the established continuity through the introduction of his brother. That connection was justified, however, by the previous revelation that future revolutionary forces had been sent into the past.
Since Kyle and his brother Derek are both close to the future John Connor, among his very best soldiers, one would naturally wonder how much they know about Cameron. Derek doesn’t seem to recognize Cameron as anything other than a threat, but considering the context of the scene, much could have been hidden as misdirection. There may be a very good reason for Derek to hate Cameron.
John’s previous visit to Dixon’s house now makes sense as a plot point, and Cromartie’s presence should remain a problem for everyone, especially now that Dixon is deeply involved. Dixon is particularly vulnerable, given his intersections with Cromartie and Agent Ellison. For his part, Ellison now has more evidence than ever in hand (no pun intended), and that makes his subplot a lot more interesting.
Right now, the “Turk” is missing in action and Ellison has possession of yet another terminator arm, which presented such an issue in “Terminator 2”. Add to that the presence of SkyNet assets in the past anyway, and there’s no end to the possible targets for fighting the future. If anything, the presence of terminators in the past, even just to ensure that SkyNet has an infrastructure in place, makes it very hard to believe that Judgment Day can ever be avoided. There’s simply no way to cover all the contingencies.
I beginning to wonder if that’s tied to Cameron’s mission objective, or one of the reasons why the future John Connor sent back his resistance squad. Sarah is focused on stopping Judgement Day, but sooner or later, the gears must switch to preparing the resistance. Maybe that was the intended point of the first season, now shortened by the writers’ strike: to shift Sarah’s perspective slowly but surely.
That speculation assumes that the series has a future at all, which is apparently in doubt. Because of the timing of the strike, the first season did not complete filming, so there is little or no chance of a resolution at the end of the initial run. Despite the relative lack of new show material for the fall, Fox is wary of picking up the series for a second season. That is unfortunate, because while the show is still far from perfect, it is definitely gaining momentum. |
