Carter (Brian Bloom) has a mission to accomplish in Terminator The Sarah Connor Chronicles: Heavy Metal(2008).
© Fox Network

Mania Grade: B
Episode: Heavy Metal
Starring: Lena Heady, Summer Glau, Thomas Dekker
Produced By: Mario Kassar
Network: Fox

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SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES: Heavy Metal

With the last episode, we saw John trying to take control of his life and embrace his destiny. It’s interesting to see him making this move but a lot failed for me in the execution of that evolution. The evolution continues this week and it was much better executed this week. John’s ready to stop running and fight Cromartie, the Terminator that’s been chasing them through time. At the same time, they learn that another terminator has been tasked with stealing a shipment of a core element used to build the Terminator skeletons. This hidden supply will be used to build replacement Terminators during the upcoming war. Sarah’s instinct is to run, or at least step back and consider their options but John has a plan and he wants to go forward with it. Sarah reminds John that if he dies it’s all over. I think the creators of the series need to make sure that John himself remembers this. He should take more of a leadership role in the group rather than throwing himself in the middle of dangerous situations. This would be interesting: imagine that a mission arose where John would be forced to send his mother into a dangerous situation realizing that his survival is more important to the future of the world than his personal relationships. John is you though, and he still sees himself as invincible so I can buy a situation like the one in this episode where he thinks the plan is no big deal and that he’ll be fine. A good arc for John would be for him to throw himself into a dangerous situation and get severely hurt. It might take a something like that to make him reconsider his actions. At any rate his character is finally getting more to do. The actor is doing an OK job but his emo sensibilities are really irritating, almost offensive.

At the same time, Cromartie is putting the finishing touches on his new face and leaving a bloody trail behind him for our slightly more than a cameo FBI agent to follow. Cromartie needs a face lift and he digs through a surgeon’s database to find an acceptable face to steal. This sets the stage for the secondary plot. The FBI agent conveniently scores an image from a security cam of the new Cromartie and tracks down the guy, an actor, whose face Cromartie now wears. So, we get walked through the confusion and the blood test that proves the actor innocent of being involved in the murders. I like that the FBI agent is still curious enough to visit the actor again and put on a little pressure. By the end of the episode Cromartie is finally back in business and ready to resume his hunt for John Connor. I’ve mentioned before that Cameron doesn’t seem to be the advanced Terminator that you’d expect from this series and neither do the villain Terminators. All the bad guys seem to very easily get their skin blown off. Isn’t it odd that Cameron doesn’t seem to have this problem? Could this be her real advanced ability? Wow, that’s amazing! Seriously though, if her skin is tougher and able to regenerate that would be a good ability for her to have it’s just not that much fun. It just helps Summer Glau always look cute. Also, is there some utilitarian reason for Cameron to be showing so much skin? You could say she dresses the way she does in order to try and fit in but her primary mission is to protect John and you’d expect her to dress in a way that protects her fake skin and benefits her in an action situation. Seeing Arnie in a leather jacket, of course, looked cool but that kind of jacket is really durable and it protects his skin allowing him to maintain some level of a stealth existence in many situations. It didn’t help his face very much though. Luckily, he found cool glasses and had some bandages!

One final complaint; the attempts at humor and sarcasm form Lena Heady feel forced. She doesn’t deliver them very well and they don’t fit the character. Sarah is the super serious one the dark stoic character with the weight of the world on her shoulders. The comedy always came from, and should continue to come from, John and from the Terminator trying to exist in a world she isn’t familiar with. We got a great bit of that Terminator comedy when Cameron couldn’t get the VCR to work. This complaint is pretty minor because overall Heady is still great, just not at these few lines every episode. I have to say this is the best episode in the series so far and it gives me high hopes for the future of the series.