Sarah Connor Chronicles 1x03

[vaznetti]

I wasn't going to post about this tonight, but I have a few random notes

They need to keep Mrs. Dyson (whose first name has slipped my mind) as a recurring character, because I love that she's so reluctant to help, without that making her evil. Although if she and Sarah were to team up to fight crime, I would not object to that. And someday, they're going to have to show Sarah Connor killing someone she doesn't know for a fact is evil. Not that I minded the solution here, but someday it's going to have to happen if we're going to believe in who the character is.

I am perfectly willing to handwave science for the purposes of horror, so the skin-graft and stolen eyes Terminator subplot worked really well for me -- in the sense that I hugged my pillow and went "ew!" and "yikes!" a lot. Terminators are scary to me!

The high-school subplot interested me a little -- that is, I like that going to school is a real challenge for them, and particularly for Cameron. But the bullying subplot will need to be good, if it continues. I like how John is kind of growing into heroism in small steps, while laying the big burden on his mother.

"Don't kiss me. Or anyone else." Ha! oh, show, why must you tease me with the slash? Also, I like the brother-sister vibe that John and Cameron have in this episode, especially in the classroom.


I have a larger world-building question, though -- if they succeed, then Reese would never have come back, because there would be no time travel. John wouldn't exist, and Sarah would be back in her old life. So what I'm wondering is -- can they ever know whether or not they succeeded? Because success ought to undo everything about who they are: they would have no idea that the threat had ever existed.

Time travel paradoxes give me a headache, but I like the idea that they can never know whether or not they've won.

Comments

[radiotelescope.livejournal.com]

Really, I don't expect the time travel logic to be handled consistently. Truly erasing history makes for terrible narrative.

[vaznetti]

I know -- it's hard to impose logic on the time-travel plot, because in so many ways it defies logic! But it's still interesting to think about, I guess.

[sizequeen.livejournal.com]

That's sort of the point of T3. In the end, the world had to end in order for the events of the first two movies to even occur. I figure that everything their doing now was meant to happen in order to create the future they all know.

BUT they did manage to change one future event: Sarah's death from cancer in 1995, so maybe there's hope of re-writing the future, making the resistance stronger or preparing freedom fighters or in. Who knows what they're planning, especially since they're still coming out with more terminator movies and have to deal with that continuity.

[vaznetti]

I guess I'm going to have to see T3 at some point, since it seems to be important in the narrative!

Of course, it's always possible to change the future -- that's the point of the story -- but I've never been quite sure how the changes in the future affect the past, if they do.

[thepouncer.livejournal.com]

So with you on the horror aspect! Yikes.

[vaznetti]

OMG! Cutting through his eyelids! and then, the eyes! Wah!

[(Anonymous)]

Whose eyes were stolen? Was it the guy who took the Terminator skull and got whacked last episode? Because when skin graft Terminator opened his eyes, they were Terminator eyes, not people eyes, so are we sure it was him?

--Jessica

[radiotelescope.livejournal.com]

It was the skin graft scientist's eyes. That last scene was out of chronological order.

...Which is interesting, because it was a sort of third-person flashback. It was sort of framed as the scientist's memory of the terminator waking up -- except it was a memory that ends "And then I *died*!" A little weird, narratively.

[cofax7]

I *really* liked the scene with Ms. Dyson: and her pointing out that Miles may have died in vain.

I must say I'm also liking the fact that the other FBI agent is also not a white male. And that they're not antagonists, really: the white males in this universe are most present by their absence.

... now if only there were some Asians around? That would be cool.

Liked this ep a lot. And I suspect that the figure in the window at Andy's house was that mysterious 4th resistance fighter.

[rez-lo.livejournal.com]

Yes! With the dragon's-tail tattoo, or whatever it is, that we also saw in 1x02, right?

Also, is it just me, or does Lena Headey redline the chemistry gauge with absolutely everyone? I thought the phone-store/car-window scene was smokin'.

Terissa(?) Dyson really needs to be a regular, as you said.

[vaznetti]

Is it a dragon's tail?

I would but Sarah/Terissa (?) slash, too. Just saying. I mean, it would be hot.

[rez-lo.livejournal.com]

I actually finally figured out what the tattoo reminded me of, and it's this:



Hm.

Oh, and definitely, Sarah/Terissa. Definitely.

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

It's a bar code tattoo from the Skynet work camps, like Kyle Reese's. It may have looked like a dragon's tail in 1x03 because there was leaf-shadow dappling it.

[vaznetti]

I liked the scene with Mrs. Dyson, too -- Teresa? Tarissa? I've seen both.

(I'm beginning to feel like SCC will be my antidote for all the things that sometimes bother me about SPN canon -- I love Ellison, and how smart he is, and I liked his interaction with the other FBI agent and her tunnel-vision. I love that Ellison is still chasing them, and can't wait for him to catch them.)

[se-parsons.livejournal.com]

I don't know that there aren't multiple timelines spinning off from every event.

Whatever they're living is only one possibility. They can do what they can to prevent things in the timeline they're living, but once somebody comes back, to an earlier point a new timeline would be created. So I don't know that that doesn't prevent Reese coming back.

Especially as they've already changed the cancer.

Must get an icon.

[vaznetti]

I think that this is why time travel plots always end with me deciding not to think about them any more, because the fracturing of possibilities and timelines starts to overwhelm me!

They've changed the cancer, but it isn't clear that they've gotten rid of it entirely -- it'll be interesting to see how that plays out.