Air Date: Friday, March 27 on Fox

Fearing for her life, Sarah stashes John in a safe house. Cameron and Derek struggle to work together after she reveals a big secret. John Henry becomes compromised in the “To the Lighthouse.”

Guest Cast: John De Vito as Young John; Dean Winters as Charley Dixon; Mackenzie Smith as Savannah; Gina Gallego as Dr. Martinez; Luisa Vitor as Receptionist; Massi Furlan as Delivery Man #2; Dominic Flores as Male Nurse; Shane Edelman as Matt Murch

© 2009 Fox Broadcasting Co. Cr: Adam Taylor/FOX

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They’re saying FOX may not even use some existing episodes as they begin retooling the schedule in an effort to save Prison Break, which has long been a lynchpin of their lineup. Readers, what have you thought of Sarah Connor during her short run on FOX? Does the network have the right idea or are they way off base?

In a development that may or may not be related, a  press event with Summer Glau scheduled for today didn’t take place. FOX contacts blamed a location problem and an inability to reach Glau by cellphone.

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Now that the mind-blowing season premiere is in the rearview mirror, we can talk more about some of the things Terminator’s second season is throwing at us. Here’s the second part of our interview with Lena Headey and Josh Friedman.

Shirley Manson= Liquid Terminator. Um, whoa. Didn’t see that one coming at all.

©2008 FOX Broadcasting Co. CR: FOX

“Did we try it out earlier than we wanted to?  No.” Friedman said. “I mean, I think it’s exactly when we wanted to.  It sort of was serendipitous.  We were working on this character and wanted to introduce somebody who was more of an antagonist, and I didn’t want to do just the basic evil corporate type, so it was a natural progression, and it’s done.”

Has Friedman blown the special effects budget for entire season on this one? Not so, he explains.

“It’s expensive to do, but it’s not necessarily anymore expensive to do than an endoskeleton,” he continued.  I mean, morphing technology and GI is something that’s been kind of streamline, I think, in terms of cost over the years since it was first done.  It’s still time consuming.  It’s more just sort of, it’s just the art of it, just sort of getting it right in terms of the rates of change and kind of what it looks like and the texturing.  We went back and forth quite a bit in this first episode because it was the first time that we’d done it.”

I can say I was certainly shocked when she showed up in the men’s restroom. Would we call this model the Urinator?

And Cameron is definitely moving in new territory for a Terminator, playing on John Connor’s perceived “love” for her and even engaging in theological discussions with Sarah. Wassup with the religious themes, Josh?

“It’s something that’s always been in the franchise,” he said. “I think that Sarah as a very, very radicalized Mary figure and John as sort of a Jesus figure has always been in the franchise, and it’s stuff that, thematically, is interesting to explore.

And I’ve kind of become fascinated with it through the Ellison character, and part of it was just because Richard T. Jones is quite religious and I’d spent some time talking to him about it, and I figure it seemed like a really natural place to sort of explore some of those themes.  And especially with him, regarding whether or not his faith is either confirmed or challenged by, you know, with the things he’s seen.

I think it’s easy to assume, oh, because there are terminators in the universe that that means that God doesn’t exist or something, but I don’t think that that’s necessarily true. So it’s interesting just to see people with particular ideologies have to try to fit radical world views into it.”

Sarah Connor is definitely off to a rockin’ start. What did you think, readers?

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SFUniverse participated in a recent conference call with Sarah Connor herself, Lena Headey and Sarah Connor Chronicles showrunner Josh Friedman about the show’s second season.

There has been some criticism that this John Connor seems like he’s “too emo” to ever become the hard-edged savior of mankind he’s been billed as. Headey said this season we’re going to see John man up, so to speak. As a mother, it’s naturally going to be hard for Sarah Connor to step back and let that happen.

“It’s been an interesting season,” Headey said. “I feel that Sarah has taken kind of a backseat in terms of being proactive and taking care of business.  I think that we’re going to see a lot more of John taking control and then becoming, making steps towards becoming the man he has to be to take on his tasks.  And I think this season for Sarah is kind of her losing slight control over everything pretty much, and my feeling is that I think there’s a slow madness sort of happening in her because she feels that everything’s kind of out of reach right now.

Headey said that’s been an interesting shift for a character that always seems in control of everything. At San Diego Comic Con they dropped the hint that this season someone is going to die. Friedman said no, Cameron does not count. And let’s face a robot technically isn’t “alive” to begin with. But that’s a completely different sci-fi debate.

“Well, I mean, you’ll know it when you see it,” Friedman said.” It’s certainly not, it’s not, you won’t have to ask about it.  I definitely don’t count, I mean, I do think there’s obviously some stuff in the first episode kind of thematically about dying and resurrection and reorientation of all the relationships, but when the character dies, I think we’ll know.” 

Many fans and writers alike have speculated that things like character death are mandated by “the suits” upstairs, whether they call for a specific head to roll or simply cut the acting budget by – one actor’s salary. Friedman said this upcoming death and all such plot developments come as the story dictates.

“No, it’s pure storytelling,” he explained. “It’s painful to say good-bye to actors.  It’s painful, especially this show.  Everyone’s wonderful and they’re all lovely people, and going to an actor and saying, “Here’s the script and this is what’s going to happen,” is extremely difficult, and it’s never driven, at least so far, for us, it’s never been driven by economics or anything extracurricular.  It’s … writer’s room and you’re, all of a sudden you’re having this dawning realization that you have a really good idea for something story-wise, but it’s going to end up costing somebody a job.  And it’s not easy.  These are people, and most of them will, they’ll go on and get other work, but it’s not a fun thing to do really.” 

One of the most debated changes is this second season is the casting of Garbage lead singer Shirley Manson as the CEO of a major corporation. Yes, this is Manson’s first acting job and yes Friedman realizes there is skepticism. Friedman added to that debate by mentioning that Manson is a friend of his wife’s. The scrutiny on Manson just got cranked up another notch.

“I’ve known Shirley, I’ve known her well for a couple of years, and I’ve known her off and on for many years,” Friedman said. ” She’s a friend of my wife’s.  Personally, I’ve always enjoyed her, and I’ve known her as a performer, and last year, when we were doing the show last year, whenever I’d see her, I used to joke with her about coming on the show to do one episode or something like that because she never acted.  And we’re like, “You know, you should come, do one thing, come be a scary terminator for an episode or do something like that,” and she always said, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, you’re never going to do that.” 

And then this year, when we started casting, I actually wasn’t thinking about her for this part.  We’d just started casting this part, and then somewhere about a week into casting, I thought I want to bring Shirley in and see if she’s up for it, see if she wants to do it, and she was actually in Europe, I think, for a funeral.  And I e-mailed her and said, “Do you want to come in and audition?”  She said, “Well, yes, I’m coming back in town on Sunday.”  I said, “Well, we need you in on Monday,” and she came and she did it, and she’s just got an incredible charisma. 

And also, she’s just very professional.  She’s always prepared, and her learning curve in terms of the craft part of it has been very high so far, so I don’t know.  It sort of just happened organically, but she also had to go through the entire audition process just like any other actor.  She was given no extra points for being Shirley Manson.  I think, in some ways, she was given minus points by people who thought maybe she couldn’t do it.”

Rest assured Terminator fans will be watching Manson closely. Some of the rest of this interview is a little spoilery, so we’ll show you more tomorrow. SFUniverse readers will be knee deep in Sarah Connor Chronicles coverage this week as another press event is coming up Wednesday.

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Demon Hand

Air Date: February 25

Sarah finds a dossier from her stay at the mental hospital in Agent Ellison’s apartment, which leads her to psychiatrist and doomsday convert Dr. Silverman (guest star Bruce Davison); John learns what it took for his mom to escape the hospital; Cameron enrolls in a ballet class on her hunt for the Turk; Agent Ellison’s endo-arm discovery puts him in danger.

Dean Winchester would be proud!

Love the look on John’s face.

Does anyone look at him and think Hendricksen?

Lovely Lena.  Lovely lighting.

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Monday, February. 4

TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT)

Heavy Metal

Sarah and Cameron separate from John while tracking down stolen cargo, leading John to discover that the future isn’t as safe as he had hoped; and Agent Ellison’s murder investigation leads him to an interesting suspect. Garret Dillahunt guest-stars as Cromartie, and Brian Bloom as Carter.

Monday, February. 11

TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT)

Queens Gambit

When Sarah’s friend Andy submits his computer into a chess competition, she worries about the computers capabilities and comes face-to-face with a stranger whose history is closely tied to hers; Cameron gets called into grief counseling; John makes a new friend in shop class; and Agent Ellison discovers remnants from a Terminator battle. Brian Austin Green guest-stars as a Stranger, and Garret Dillahunt as Cromartie.

Monday, February 18

TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT)

Dungeons & Dragons

While in and out of consciousness and fighting for his life, a Stranger (guest star Brian Austin Green) flashes back to the year 2027, remembering his life in the future and his personal battle against the machines; meanwhile, Sarah finds herself trying to explain the past to Charley (guest star Dean Winters).

Monday, February 25

TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT)

The Demon Hand

Sarah finds a dossier from her stay at the mental hospital in Agent Ellison’s apartment, which leads her to psychiatrist and doomsday convert Dr. Silverman (guest star Bruce Davison); John learns what it took for his mom to escape the hospital; Cameron enrolls in a ballet class on her hunt for the Turk; Agent Ellison’s endo-arm discovery puts him in danger.

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