Episode Title: Automatic for the People
Writer: Natalie Chaidez
Director: Jeffrey Hunt
Originally Aired: 09/15/2008
Grade: B+
For better or worse, this episode introduced a young new female character. I can only say that I don’t hate Riley so far, but the only thing I like about her is that she’s actually a normal-shaped girl, maybe even a size 7 or 8, which is refreshing. I kind of feel sorry for her, though, and not just because John might be endangering her life by being her friend. The beginning of their relationship came across as John going, "Man, I need a life. With girls in it. Hey, you'll do." Okay, so maybe it wasn’t that bad, but it takes a lot of work to realize that it wasn’t that bad.
Here's what I think his thought process looked like: John went to school, saw all the normal lives around him, and felt alienated and alone, like maybe he should just give up on that side of life. He decided to go brood about it instead of going to in English class. Then this perfectly nice girl shows up right at that moment and forces herself into his train of thought. And there it is. He makes the decision to not give up on the more "normal" side of his life, because this girl just shows up at exactly the right time, so maybe it's fate.
So on the one hand, it comes off kind of badly because he doesn't choose her. It seems like he latches onto the first girl who throws herself at him because he's so lonely. On the other hand, it's great that she's assertive and it pays off--that's nice to see from a female character.
However, there were a lot of clues that hint that something weird is going on with her. She spent the night with a boy she’d just met, and there was no mention of her calling her parents or even a “My parents are gonna be so pissed.” Her slang was also odd, with John questioning her use of “check out” and “full of carrots and apples.” Her question about thinking about the future and the Lego robot protector were also highly suspicious. If those things were all supposed to be red herrings, rather than red flags, then there were an awful lot of them.
I loved John’s response to her question about preceding phone calls with the date—that was pretty much the best he could do in that situation and it came off as confident, and even slightly, dare I say, sexy. (And speaking of John being attractive, can they magically stick his hair back on? I was able to resist thinking Dekker was cute when he had the emo hair, but not so much now. He's a few years too young for me...) Also, given John’s frequent annoying behavior so far this season, it’s easy to miss how well Dekker played this entire scene. He said every single line to perfection, and the barely-there smile at the end of the scene was just beautiful.
I don’t know where to start with Cameron, as usual. The exchange with John at the beginning of the episode was certainly intriguing. Who is going to be upset about John’s relationship with Cameron? The human resistance in the future war?
As for Cameron herself, she’s definitely experimenting with free will and enjoying life. She got a kick out of hustling pool and counting her winnings. I’m still a little hesitant about attributing emotions to her, but methinks her malfunction in the previous episode has had some unpredictable side effects. Her “Girls are complicated” line is also questionable. Did she mean girls in general, or was it more along the lines of “Girls are complicated. I’m a girl, therefore I’m complicated.” Was that a warning, of sorts, about her own “feelings” for John? That’s just… unsettling. As it should be!
Ah, Derek. I think he’s trying to cut Sarah some slack because he believes she just killed a man for the first time. The season finale, in which Derek brought up to John that she’d obviously never killed anyone before, was only a day or two ago in the show’s timeline. And now she’s done it, and he knows it was huge deal for her, hence him backing down quickly re: killing another human. In my head, he thought it was kind of a stupid philosophy at first, but once she actually had to do it, he ended up empathizing with her and regretting that she was the one who had to do it.
As for Sarah, all I can say is, the poor woman needs a break. The words behind her couch—“Enjoy. Relax. Dream.”—are so cruelly inaccurate when it comes to her life.
Wow, for what seemed like a filler episode, there was quite a bit to digest.
Other Thoughts
-I could swear Derek was getting a little schmoopy over Sarah in the scene where he asked about her arm. Something about his expression was different from anything I’ve seen from him before, almost softer and sort of admiring. Which is okay, and understandable.
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