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- TV Series: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
- Episode: The Good Wound
- Starring: Lena Headey, Thomas Dekker, Summer Glau, Richard T. Jones, Brian Austin Green, Shirley Manson, Garret Dillhunt, Levin Rambin, and Stephanie Jacobsen
- Written By: Ashley Edward Miller, Zack Stentz
- Directed By: Jeff Woolnough
- Network: Fox
- Series: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
Sarah Connor Chronicles: The Good Wound
That Shirley Manson sure is creepy, isn't she? By
Rob Vaux
February 14, 2009
Sarah (Lena Headey) abducts female doctor Burnett(Laura Regan) in TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES: THE GOOD WOUND(2009).
© Fox
The Sarah Connor Chronicles went into its midseason break on extremely shaky ground, marked most notably by a cross-dressing UFO theorist reminiscent of The X-Files at its worst. Add to that a multiplying series of time travelers, numerous rehashes of the "unstoppable machine hunting us" motif and some truly embarrassing surprise twists (Riley's from the future?!), and this show needs some damage control but quick. Apparently, we'll need to hold on for at least another week to get it.
Sarah (Lena Headey) wakes up in the hospital after being shot last episode, then busts out under the hallucinated admonitions of One True Love Kyle Reese (Jonathan Jackson). She gives Derek Reese (Brian Austin Green) a call, revealing the high-tech warehouse she found in the desert and ordering him to dispose of the evidence she left behind there. He's sitting in the waiting room of another hospital with John (Thomas Dekker) and Cameron (Summer Glau), waiting for news on Riley (Leven Rambin) who tried to kill herself last episode. They stay, Derek goes.
Sarah abducts a female doctor (Laura Regan) named Burnett in the hospital parking lot and takes her to a hotel room to work on her wounded leg. The woman can't remove the bullet, however, and convinces Sarah to head back to the hospital for proper care. After sneaking into the morgue using an ambulance gurney, Sarah surrenders her gun and allows Dr. Burnett to put her under.
Down in the bowels of Zeira Corp, John Henry (Garret Dillahunt) tells Ellison (Richard T. Jones) how much it has learned about its new body--its arrival in 1999 as Cromartie, its imitation of actor George Lazlo, its massacre of the FBI agents at the end of Season One--which it obtained by Google-searching Ellison's name. When Weaver (Shirley Manson) speaks to John Henry, it reveals that it knows what she really is. She tells it that everything she does, she does for it, then high-tails it to the warehouse in the desert and proceeds to butcher everyone in sight before blowing the place sky high.
Back in the other hospital, Jesse (Stephanie Jacobsen) arrives to take Riley away, then gives her considerable grief for trying to off herself. The police are hot on Sarah's tail but they don't count on Derek, who blows up her Jeep in the impound yard and burns the other evidence to cover her tracks. (The police still have an audiotape, however, revealing the location of the warehouse.) He then heads to the hospital to pick up Sarah, resulting in a three-way stand-off between Derek, the chief of police and Dr. Burnett. The latter two apparently have a history, which is probably why she shoots him instead of Reese. Sarah wakes up and she and Derek flee the hospital together.
The Good
The juice of this show mainly lies with Zeira Corp at the moment, both in terms of cerebral concepts (John Henry's halting progress towards sentience) and visceral action (Weaver's massacre of the warehouse personnel, which was this week's ass-kicking high point). The police in pursuit of Sarah are shaping up to be interesting foils (barring, you know, the one who got shot) and may lend some urgency to the series if they're allowed to develop properly. As always, Headey is damn tough to dislike in the lead role, and SCC can avoid full-bore disaster as long as she's around.
The Bad
The whole doctor/police chief subplot remained forced and poorly executed while leeching energy away from the already-shaky central plotline. Jackson doesn't fit Kyle Reese especially well (the patchy beard isn't exactly helping) and his presence consists mostly of regurgitating lines from the first movie. For that matter, a number of tropes come straight from the Cameron films (Weaver walking calmly out of an explosion, the hotel room Sarah briefly hides in, etc.), providing unwelcome reminders of how good this material is supposed to be and how less-than-good it has become. In addition, Glau--Headey's ready equal and Reason #2 to tune in every week--spends most of the episode on the sidelines, and the Riley/Jesse subplot continues to spin its wheels. There but for the grace of God goes the remainder of the show.
The Prognosis
As things stand now, SCC is a Mack Truck vehicle with a motor scooter engine. The elements are all in place for something truly great, and yet its purpose has become blunted by too many characters, too many subplots and a confused notion about where it's all supposed to go. Streamline the cast, focus on the essentials, and re-inject a sense of urgency into the protagonists and their mission. Where are they headed, how can they get there, and what precisely is standing in their way? The faster SCC answers those questions, the better off it will be.
The Weaver scene were brilliant. And Dillahunt still proves no one can do creepy like he does. His scenes invovling his growing sentience are some of the best scenes on the show. Yeah, Kyle Reece does look a little back street boy, not to mention a bit young for Sarah, but Lena always delivers brilliantly and mae the scenes wiorth watching. Agred they need to give Summer Glau more to do and they need to pixck up the ace in terms of story. This is about the pont in last season where this really became a can't miss show, they need to get some of that back. Streamline hell yeah. Find the plots that matter and move them forward