Sarah Connor Chronicles “Samson and Delilah” Off and Running Again

Fox is getting an early start with its new season. Last week we got the disappointing premier to Prison Break. Yesterday, the season premier of "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" aired, titled “Samson and Delilah.” It was an improvement over the premier of Prison Break, that’s for sure. The only think that is of concern to me is that I wonder how long the series can sustain interest in the repetitive chase and attack scenarios. It tends to become predictable after a while.

The voice over opening using a man’s voice rather than Sarah’s had a bit of a cheesy quality to it and I found that it detracted from the whole feel of the introduction of the episode. The slow motion struggle (with its musical accompaniment) involving Sarah (Lena Headey) and John (Thomas Dekker) and the bad guys du jour was a little drawn out for my tastes and also seemed to ruin the atmosphere for me as well.

Also a mystery is why James Ellison (Richard T. Jones) was spared by the massacre at the hands of terminator Cromartie (Garret Dillahunt). I suppose that Cromartie thinks that he will be able to use Ellison somewhere down the road. And since Cromartie is from the future, he may already know that he needs Ellison for some reason to help bring down John.

An interesting twist was Cameron’s (Summer Glau) programming getting a little confused, and she seems to forget that her charge is to protect John Connor and instead thinks she has to terminate him. And, when she’s trapped between two trucks, one being driven by Sarah, she uses every trick in the book to get John not to pull out her programming module. Still, John yanks it anyway, but later, to the horror of his mother, takes a chance and puts it back in. It seems Cameron is back to “normal” – at least for now. Again, this is one stunt that the show can only do so many times before it becomes and overused plot device. The question lingers, though, is Cameron more than just the sum of her programming, or can she really feel and rationalize her importance to John’s cause?

I also found myself wondering how Charley Dixon (Dean Winters) could go so long with having his ambulance, and himself, out of commission for his work without it creating a problem for him. And one good thing – yet also a bad thing – was when John cut his hair. I was glad he cut it but yikes, the new cut wasn’t a big improvement.

The real story is the pursuit of the “Turk” which is supposed to be the eventual key to the computers – Skynet - being able to take over in the future. And Catherine Weaver (Shirley Manson) is in charge of a company who plays a big part in it. When she tells her staff that she’s starting a new division called Babylon that will change the world, and will be pirating people from their teams, not everyone is happy about it. Who two of the department heads are in the men’s room talking about Babylon - one of them very vocal against it – we see that Catherine Weaver is really a T-1000, who morphs from the form of the urinal, into a her liquid metal form, then into her human looking form. Of course, one of her fingers forms into a pointed knife, which spears her disgruntled employee in the head.

While the Sarah Connor Chronicles runs the risk of being repetitive and predictable, the twist at the end was just enough of a tease to create more interest and excitement for next week. One things is for sure…men will be watching their urinals very closely.


Check out my blog home page for the latest information, here.