Sarah Connor: Season Two, Everything Changes

Our own b5Media Entertainment Editor Arieanna Schweber delivers this early review of the season premiere of Sarah Connor.  Look sharp, me hearties, there be spoilers ahead!

#    #    #   #

I’ve had the chance to watch the screener of the first episode of the new season of The Sarah Connor Chronicles and can say that a lot of changes are coming – and they look good!

The second season opens to reveal what happened after the explosion that was the cliffhanger in Season 1. Of course, Cameron Phillips (Summer Glau) is fine – being a robot is handy that way. So, not only does Cameron’s Jeep explode, but John Connor (Thomas Dekker) & Sarah Connor (Lena Headey) face troubles on their own and Agent Ellison (Richard Jones) and his SWAT team have attempted to take down Cromartie (Garret Dillahunt). Derek Reese (Brian Austin Green) finds an unexpected ally in Charley Dixon (Dean Winters) and we’re introduced to a new character, Catherine Weaver (Shirley Manson) the CEO of ZeiraCorp, who is part of the mystery of the Turk.

If you recall, all of this is taking place on John Connor’s 16th birthday. Unfortunately, some of the emotional context of the day & its terrors has been lost between Season 1 and Season 2. Therefore, I found I was less empathetic with John in the situation. Thomas  Dekker describes the situation as having caused a serious break for his character – one where he is forced to change a great deal and to move away from the comfort and trust he had placed in his relationship with his mother. I didn’t think that came through clearly in the episode, nor did I think that the complexity of emotions between John Connor and Cameron was explored as much as it could have been. There is a scene in the episode that Summer Glau thinks to be crucial to this shift in dynamics, but my interpretation of the scene found it to be too soft – again missing that depth of empathy for the situation.

Criticism aside, the action in the Season 2 opener of The Sarah Connor Chronicles was what we’ve come to expect of the show, and thoroughly enjoyable. The opening action sequence is fabulous. I think the terminator aspect of the show is being explored in a great deal more detail – we’re seeing all sorts of different layers to the complexity of the relationship between humans and terminators and to what extent each party is willing to go to save the future.

The first episode is entitled “Samson & Delilah”, a reference to the Biblical figure of Samson who is granted tremendous strength to combat his enemies and perform heroic feats unachievable by “ordinary men.” One must therefore wonder if the reference to Samson is meant to represent John Connor or the terminators.

Joining the cast this season is Leven Rambin as Riley, a girl that John Connor meets when he returns to high school. Riley is meant to serve as a reminder to John that there can, and should be, normal elements to his life. As he tries to overcome his feelings of guilt and responsibility for what happened on his birthday, to the deaths that happened in his name, Riley will become an important factor in his life.

Season 2 of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles begins Monday, September 8th at 8pm on FOX.

Photos: Frank Ockenfels/FOX