'Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles' Episode 2 - Gnothi Seauton

The intensity continued tonight on episode 2 of ‘Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.’

Sarah Connor is back, well back to the future at least. She’s jumped ahead to the present day from 1999 and still can’t escape the wicked grasp of the Terminators.

Sarah orders John to stay home, while she and Cameron hunt down Enrique, her former fake-id chef extraordinaire. Cameron has an idea of her own. It seems Future John Connor sent back others to past in case John was ever in need of help. Cameron and Sarah decide goes to their safe house first in search of new identities.

When they get there, they learn that everyone in the safe house has been murdered. While examining the dead, one of the bodies springs to life and attacks Sarah and Cameron. It’s Terminator vs. Terminator as Cameron battles her evil counterpart. The two heroines narrowly escape, and decide it’s best to approach Sarah’s contact Enrique.

Unfortunately, for them Enrique now calls himself “El-Finito” because he’s finished with being on the wrong side of the law. Enrique sends the two to his nephew Carlos who has taken over the family business. Too bad for Sarah that Carlos charges 20k for new identities. Sarah learns about the World Trade Center attack, an event she was fortunate to miss during the seven plus years the world assumed she was dead.

If Sarah didn’t have enough to worry about, she also finds out from the heartless Tin Man Cameron that, eventually she’ll die of cancer.

During the time Sarah and Cameron are out, John Connor gets claustrophobic and decides to go out for a little walk. I’ll get back to this later.

Upon returning, Sarah and Cameron realize that John’s been out. Instead of confronting John they take him with them back to the safe house. Sarah believes that her son’s now deceased allies from the future probably were guarding some extra cash and guns. They return to the safe house and find a safe. Cameron tries to open it, but a jolt of electricity shocks her body sending her into shutdown. John figures out that the numerical combination is the date of Judgment Day and they’ve got the goods.

But, who’s waiting for them? Another damn Terminator - who else. Instead waiting for Cameron to reboot or carrying her, Sarah tosses Cameron’s docile body out the window. The trio escape with the prize - a bag with guns, cash and diamonds.

Sarah goes back to Carlos and scores three new identities. Before Sarah leaves, she overhears an exchange between Carlos and his friend that concerns her. She goes back to Enrique and confronts ‘El Finito.’ It seems that Carlos and his friend don’t call Enrique ‘El Finito,’ instead they call him ‘La Rata.’ Enrique has become the rat, a police informer. Enrique pleads his case to Sarah hoping that she won’t shoot him. Before Sarah has the chance to decide on Enrique’s judgment, Cameron puts two bullets in him.

‘Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles’ is shaping up to be the breakout new show of the year. And, it’s well deserved and needed especially with the writers’ strike delaying other shows from making their way back on the air. Lena Headey’s excellent performance still reigns supreme in my book. Her job as Sarah Connor will surely push ‘Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles’ to the next level.

There are only two things that concern me on the show’s delivery.

For starters the dialogue could use some tweaking. I’m speaking particularly about Cameron’s line in premiere episode. “Come with me if you want to live.” That line said in the original Terminator movie amidst all out bullet blazing action was ok. Terminator was part of the ‘Action’ movie genre, and we had come to expect heavy-handed one-liners. Since then, lines like “come with me if you want to live” and “hasta la vista baby” have just become cliché. I am definitely all for callbacks and paying homage to the original, but sometimes it can be overdone.

My second point of contention is John Connor. He’s just dumb. Let me explain. He knows he’s on the run and he does two things that just cry out ‘Idiot.’ Mistake number one (which is actually a multi-part mistake), he gets bored waiting at home and decides to go out for a stroll. Where does he go? The most crowded place he can think of - the Valley Square Mall. I guess in his 1999 he never heard of “security cameras.” Then he makes sure he goes into the one store in the mall that probably has the most security - the high-priced computer/electronics store.

Does John Connor, future leader of the resistance, stop there? No. He goes on the Internet and searches for “John Connor.” Wow! That’s all I can say. Is this guy just screaming out “Here I am Terminator, kill me if you want to live.” Your fighting computers and don’t want them to know you exist. So, the first thing you do is go around searching for yourself on the Internet. Dumb. I had to laugh when the sales rep called out his stupidity by telling him to clear his history.

Then to top everything off John breaks into his old house and injures Charlie, the man who wanted to Mr. Sarah Connor back in 1999. John Connor is obviously suffering from A.D.D. and is screaming for attention. But I guess if Cameron is the Tin Man (from the Wizard of Oz) without a heart, then John Connor is the Scarecrow who is in dire need of a brain transplant.

If you missed any of episodes of “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” be sure to go to Fox.com for replays. And, be sure to tune back into Buzzfocus.com for the recap.