Terminator

[hils]

I spent the first half of this episode wondering what the hell was going on and the second half thinking it was awesome.

I wasn't particularly keen on the John/Riley stuff but I loved Cameron's storyline.

Did anyone else notice that the stars she scanned to calculate the dates bore a startling resemblence to Sarah's three dots?

And I think this is the first episode where Sarah herself has had pretty much no involvement whatsoever.

It was just a really nice character building episode and I liked it a lot

Comments

[agdhani.livejournal.com]

I found it interesting that Cameron seems to be trying to 'make friends'...with people who doesn't know what she is. Even though she has other motives, like gathering information, I wonder if she 'feels' lonely with the Connors...

[hils.livejournal.com]

I definitely think she's trying to learn about what it means to be human, including what it means to have friends

[lex-a-like.livejournal.com]

I've not commented on TSCC for a bit - and I'm going to, at some point do a massive round up of the TV I've caught up on, this included. However, I've no choice but to include elements of other episodes in this comment.

For the first time in this series, we got a sense that the future can be changed the other week when Derek, and that other girl, come from two different futures. I have to say, the shows needed it for along time, the main driving force behind the show is time travel, and trying to change the future. They were at risk of becomming Terminator 3 (which is an awesome film I love, but a different entity to TSCC, so dangerous ground), in so far as it was becomming just an excuse to develop the characters to their future tenses, and move them in a situation where they can fulfill a destiny.

Of course destiny doesn't exist, time travel renders that assumption moot, only the appearance of destiny exists. As I've commented before, the cycle of past/future is now on an going thing, SkyNet is constantly altering it's plans to fit with changes in the future that it is affected by. I think I'm confident in saying that SkyNet is in fact communicating with itself in multiple re-distributions of history. SkyNet knows far more than simply being from the future, it knows the alternative futures it's created.

Obviously so far, none has led to the end of the resistance, and we can mutter over a basic stumbling block on an obviously pwoerful artificially intelligent being, not being able to work out how to snuff a few humans, who should really pose no threat, another time. For now, we'll assume the general moral guidance of the whole Terminator series is correct, no machine can truly beat the human heart, and desire for survival. Soppy I know, but even though it's rarely said (though there have been references in TSCC), it's the altruism from which the show is derived.

In this episode, we saw a Terminator changing the past, and then having to change the past further to put it back. That in itself is revealing, the Terminator took on a human character, albeit an severly warped one, to do so - I doubt very much if that were a situation for which it was programmed, but the Terminator thought for itself. The first T800/101 we come across, Arnie's first incarnation, could only think for itself within the parameters of it's mission. It made no effort to blend in beyond acquiring clothes. It merely blew things up, and fired guns, the only time it goes undercover, is to repair itself, a time when it is vulnerable.

The second and third Arnies (though the third does not exist anymore since Cameron altered time), have a higher ability to think for themselves, but that's still within the parameter of their missions. Obviously their mission is a defensive one, the ultimate defensive line backer, as Claire would say (show cross over in comment?). That said, John manages to convince Arnie's second incarnation to take on a more aggressive role, hunting down Cyberdine systems, and halting that incarnation of the future (the accelerated doomsday situation - and a completely different future to SkyNet). That was with John's orders though, and both the second and third incarnations of Arnie are designed to follow orders from people who exist in the past.

Back to TSCC, we saw a Terminator creating it's own orders, to fulfill a mission objective. It's not the first time, Cromartie is the same, the level of independance which he had, is largely unprecedented.

Now, Cameron is completely seperate from the whole of this. Her mission is unclear, or she's been given so many possibly mission objectives, that she effectively has free reign. However, I suspect, it's actually that she has no actual digital orders, just a request from future John. Because it now seems clear to me, that Cameron and John were lovers in the future, even if she wasn't quite feeling love then, but a simulacrum that bordered on the verge of artificial intelligence realisation.

[lex-a-like.livejournal.com]

These machines can feel, Arnie version two and three showed that, the T-1000 got angry, and lost it's cool. Which does in many ways tie in beautifully with TSCC, because he we see a precursor, or an early version of (I'm not sure if this is actually it, or the basis for the actual thing), the SkyNet AI. It has emotions, though being effectively an infant with a superior IQ, it has no understanding, and can not relate it's emotions with the real world. This would indicate that in the current future that's affecting the present, SkyNet in fact builds in a sense a scaled back version, of it's AI into Terminators. Hence the one from the 20's in this episode, and Cromartie, and ultimately Catherine Weaver.

Catherine, I actually think, as a new generation T-1000, she has a less scaled back version of SkyNet in her head, she is in fact SkyNet's back up plan - SkyNet 1.1 so to speak. I do believe that her cover has infiltrated her conciousness, and that she can no longer remember the future - which is entirely possible what SkyNet wants. She knows she's not human, she knows that there are other robots, but she's not really aware of what's going on. Deep inside her is the programming that will unleash her as SkyNet - but timing is everything. That's my theory anyway, and explains why she's even more odd than the others I've explained. Also, it's worth noting, Catherine Weaver is a double blind, the Terminators sent someone to kill the psychiatrist, that she was using, ergo, SkyNet's 1.1 existence is a secret from all other Terminators, and possibly from an estranged future - thus the ultimate wild card.

Back to Cameron, so she loves. Her simulacrum is growing into the real thing. The version of SkyNet inside her was corrupted, and reprogrammed by future John, maybe because he felt so alone in the future, leader of the resistance, near god like to the men and women who follow him, possibly after all he's been through with machines (and remember he's loved two before, the second and third incarnations of Arnie (it's possibly this version of John is the one who went through the events of Terminator 3, and survived his wife after - armed with foreknowledge of his own death), and felt on some level they loved him, so believes that the machines can be more than killers), he knows that at least for a while,he can find comfort with one.

Also, the identity of Cameron is ripped from a real person. SkyNet applied a character profile that was meant to mimic the real Cameron, and of course SkyNet doesn't understand love, other than it's own existence, so it doesn't realise the effect of a truly human character would have on it's own AI.

God help us if SkyNet tries to do something similar with John, SkyNet would probably lose it, and rather than having a small string of hope for the future, the future would simply cease to be as it destroys itself, and the world. However, a complete character deconstruction, and absorbtion into SkyNet, may ultimately be something SkyNet desires, looking back at what I said about it not being able to snuff humans. It may decide it's best chance for victory lies in understanding the altruism of it's own existence.

This is part three (go back two if you read it in your emails Hils)

[lex-a-like.livejournal.com]

The stuff with Riley is interesting for other, but related reasons. The girl Derek is seeing comes from either a completely new, or an old incarnation of the future. It matters little which is current, other than when it reaches back to affect our time, and the order of magnitude of it's future is less important than it's affects here. I get the feeling that she comes from a future where John is not only beaten, but goes over to the robots. She fears John's plans to realise a bridge between man and machine, when really they should be destroying all machines, and SkyNet (which is something John must realise A) can not actually be achieve and B) must never happen, or everything becomes undone, and the whole cycle restarts again from the first Terminator film or alternatively, the universe explodes).

Anyway, she is seeking to introduce a blocking mechanism to John's plans, by making him love Riley. An ultimately infantile, and futile attempt at altering the future. It will just create a new instance, without any actual control. John will discover the truth at some point, and that will introduce the idea about a bridge between humans and machines at a different point, ultimately he will realise this is the only true way for the future to play out. Much like in the ending of the new ending for the Dune series.

In fact, Riley is more likely to push John that way, than distract him from that path. Once he finds out, he will be hurt, and there's Cameron with her naieve, and uneducated love, waiting for him, trying to ensnare him, much in the way he does to her in the future. She's trying to recapture that, because emotions are ultimately addictive.

All in all a brilliant episode, and a brilliant few episodes. I'm glad I got to watch them all in a short space of time. Saving up episodes is fun.

Re: This is part three (go back two if you read it in your emails Hils)

[lex-a-like.livejournal.com]

For the record, I do believe that's my longest comment yet, it though it maybe something like equal - I can't remember if I'd had to break a comment down into three comments? Anyway, it was more words than I've managed in my fic so far - okay by about 18, but still... TV is bad if it can distract you like this.

I need more.

Shame I may have to give it up for a bit - boo

Re: This is part three (go back two if you read it in your emails Hils)

[hils.livejournal.com]

Good lord! Yes, that is the longest comment I have ever received. YAY!!!

Re: This is part three (go back two if you read it in your emails Hils)

[lex-a-like.livejournal.com]

Yep - and I realise I may have missed bits i meant to say too. Oops.

It is a long arse comment, probably a tad over board for a series I'm at best mildly hot about :-s