Sarah (Lena Headey) and Derek (Brian Green) in SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES:What He Beheld(2008).
© Fox

Mania Grade: B-
Episode: What He Beheld
Starring: Lena Headey, Summer Glau, Thomas Dekker, Richard T. Jones, Garrett Dillahunt, Brian Austin Green
Written By: Ian Golberg
Directed By: Mike Rohl
Series: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

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TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES: What He Beheld

So, here we are at the season finale of The Sarah Connor Chronicles and while it’s far from perfect, I have to give it points for trying to connect itself to nearly every episode of the entire season in some way. Cameron and crew have found the man with the Turk and they are working a deal to buy it from him using the diamonds from Derek’s old base. At the same time, Agent Ellison is back on Sarah’s trail but this time for a different reason. That leads to questions; what does he hope to do when he finds her? Is he going to help her or does he still intend to bring her in? It’s John’s birthday and he’s depressed. Cromartie is getting close now searching the school system for John and Cameron gets invited to the prom. There’s a lot happening in this episode and that’s a double edged sword.

I know the show creators have tried to build some energy behind the fact that Derek doesn’t know that John is his nephew. I always believed that Derek knew the truth and was just waiting to see when his knowledge would be revealed. They blow it off in this episode as familial intuition but it could just as easily have been explained that Derek learned this vital information at some point in the future. Derek gives this reveal to John as part of a birthday present. The scene was something that felt predictable and was definitely inevitable but it led to a strong scene in this episode. Derek takes John to the park for an ice cream which at first seems lame for a kid with the weight of the world on his shoulders but when John actually gets a moment to make eye contact with his father, who is a young kid in this time period and playing ball with his older brother Derek, the whole build up seemed worth it. Now if this scene happened on Star Trek where Derek sees a younger version of himself we’d be in for a major distortion in the space time continuum. It was a nice subtle scene that could have easily been overdone with swelling music and many tears but fortunately it wasn’t. 

Now to Agent Ellison and his new approach to the Sarah Connor case. He stumbles onto Cromartie and doesn’t know it. Ellison believes that he has found a simple mass murderer, not one of these “robots” that he now believes in. He decides to raid the mans apartment which leads to a completely disappointing scene that’s built up in a way that feels out of place in this series. Having a major scene like this raid happen to the soundtrack of some hip, but not too hip, song is something that was done phenomenally in the under appreciated series Homicide: Life on the Streets not this show. So, the whole thing kicks in slowly paced and cut to a Johnny Cash song. When this build up started I thought, first that it felt out of place and secondly, that the scene better pay off in a way that deserves this kind of build up. In the end, we get next to nothing, just a bunch of officers in flack suits getting hurled into the swimming pool. I’ll give you this; the bloody water makes an impact later but the lack of any real scenes of conflict here feels like a budget cut. Cromartie and Ellison eventually do come face to face after everyone else is dead and Cromartie just walks away. Does Ellison end up helping SkyNet in some way in the future? That’s a story left to unfold next season; if the series comes back for a second season.

I won’t spend much time on the cat and mouse between Sarah and the gang and the thug who claims to have the Turk because this character and his story is just plain boring. I know the gang wouldn’t be getting the Turk in this episode and was happy to see that the guy we’ve been dealing with was just a decoy. The closing cliffhanger was so poorly executed that I just didn’t care. There’s a real trick to making a scene like this one have some impact and this one did not. There are three ways to do it. The first is to divulge the fact that Cameron’s truck has a bomb in it and build to the explosion and the second is to make it a complete surprise and the third is the one the creators went with, to let Cameron see the bomber but not realize he is dangerous. What follows though is a bit of a mess. The explosion happens and there’s no extra beat to soak in what happened and what the repercussions of the explosion mean. Instead, we get kicked immediately to a loud promo for New Amsterdam and closing credits for the show. This may seem like a minor quibble but we are supposed to be stunned, to be completely freaked out and excited now for the series to return. Shows that do this sort of cliffhanger right include BSG, LOST, and Prison Break. Complaints aside, I really hope this series gets to come back for a second season because it’s made great strides in storytelling and character development. I think given time, it’ll just keep getting better.