Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles 2.17 “Ourselves Alone” Recap

Cameron’s still in the shed when John enters. Before he has a chance to ask why she’s peeled her forearm, she launches into the story of the chimney bird and it’s experiencing of an ‘involuntary movement of my fingers.’John takes a look and notes some damage — not surprising she wasn’t really built to be fighting other machines, just humans. He mentions that he might be able to swap out the affected parts if he had spares but they don’t just keep those lying around. Or do they? Cameron gets up and rummages through some boxes, coming up with a handy box of bits and things. John’s flummoxed — Sarah’s rules say they don’t keep anything, it all get burned. Non-plussed Cameron says she was just following a different set of orders. After all, ‘Future John has better information than you do.’To which the audience replies, ‘Well, duh,’and John just looks like he wants to kick his future self’s ass for not including that in a memo to self.

Somewhere secluded, Riley’s pacing and waiting for Jesse. When the latter arrives, Riley commences her freak-out about Cameron seeing her seeing Cameron’s metal arm. As much as I hate to admit it, Jesse comes up with a point when she says that if Cameron was going to kill Riley, she would have done it then and there. Of course she turns around and loses the point when she starts musing that there must be something wrong with the metal if Cameron didn’t kill her. Either or, Riley still has to go back and keep to the plan, but Riley, unsurprisingly, is rather unenthusiastic about that plan. Somehow, Jesse still manages to convince the terrified girl to stay the course and picking up her shovel, she goes back to digging her hole.

Sarah’s at Riley’s foster family, interrogating the dad — with a complete lack of subtlety I might add, pretty much accusing him of child abuse. He shoots back by telling Sarah that it’s Riley who’s dangerous, Riley who’s freaking-out about the end of the world and bleached skulls. Alarm bells start going off in Sarah’s mind, about three weeks too late. But wait, the dad’s not done, going on about Riley dropping out of school and that pesky guidance counselor showing up…Guidance counselor? The one that had some stories to tell about the Connors, er, Baums. With a forced casual tone, Sarah asks for the counselor’s contact info.

John’s finishing his repairs and he asks Cameron if she’s all fixed. With brutal honesty, she answers that she doesn’t know. Refusing to acknowledge the cryptic nature of the comment, he begins putting tools away. ‘You’re ahead of schedule,’she mentions. John looks as confused at that statement as I feel as Cameron continues that he’s ahead of what he should know. So, old before his time, or wise beyond his years? And wait – what was that about Future John having the better intel, again?

In a little café, Sarah’s engaging in another pissing contest with Derek via phone as a women’s business suit walks up. Sarah gets off the phone and welcomes Miss Wilson, the guidance counselor. The camera pans around and Jesse shakes her hand. Uh-oh. As an aside, don’t get me wrong, for as much as I dislike Jesse, I’ve really liked Stephanie Jacobsen’s portrayal of her, except for this horrible attempt at shedding her native accent we’re subjected to in this scene. It sounds really awkward and it’s like she’s trying to be vaguely southern by way of Minnesota. I just wanted to get that out of the way. Kinda like the fake back-story small talk Sarah and ‘Miss Wilson’are engaging in at the moment. The long and the short of the scene is that Jesse begins hinting around the edges that the Baum home isn’t what it seems to be and maybe, just maybe, someone should look into it. The longer Jesse talks, about no adults being there when Riley tried to commit suicide, about nice single Derek being around fragile attention-seeking Riley, about illicit trips to Mexico, the deeper the hole she’s digging gets and the closer it gets to the Connors. She eventually leaves Sarah, looking like she’s resisting the urge to choke someone.

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