Episode Title: Allison from Palmdale
Writer: Toni Graphia
Director: Charles Beeson
Originally Aired: 09/29/2008
Grade: A+
This episode pulled me in right off the bat and didn't let go. I could tell pretty quickly that things were not going to end well, and that my feelings about Cameron were going to be shaken a bit. I'm still surprised at how disturbed I am, which means that the writers, the director, and Summer Glau all did an outstanding job.
I liked John a lot in this episode. His interactions with Cameron at the beginning were great--not only was it cute and funny, but you could see how he's trying so hard to keep her at a distance and just treat her like an annoying sister/robot protector. That moment when he entered the shelter and saw Camerson playing and laughing and smiling was just lovely. He had no idea what was happening, and he's always been a bit infatuated with Cameron, so he must have had quite the jumble of thoughts and feelings going on there.
As for Sarah, it was heartbreaking to see her try to manipulate Kacy into leaving her baby’s cop father out of her life in order to keep him away from the Connors.
Since this episode is largely about Cameron, though, the rest of my analysis will be about her and about how the events of this episode tie into the show’s myth arc. I have five pages of notes, so this will be long!
What actually happened?
In the grocery store, Cam’s Terminator user interface glitches and disappears after she looks at her reflection in the silver balloon back, and then we’re seemingly seeing the world through her newly “human” point-of-view, with no machine agenda, no computerized data analysis, etc. I’m assuming this is what really happened to Cameron, rather than just some artsy way of getting things across.
There are other parts of the story that don’t make quite as much sense, where there was a bit of confusion about reality vs. artistic license. For one thing, given that we are led to believe that Allison’s mother is pregnant with her now in the present timeline, and that as far as we know, J-Day is in 2011, this would make Allison only 3-4 years old on J-Day, which seems a bit young for the kinds of memories she was telling her Terminator interrogator.
Even more importantly, how was Cameron able to actually “be” Allison and remember exactly what she went through, to the point where she was reliving Allison’s terrified escape attempt? Did SkyNet somehow transplant Allison’s real memories into Cam’s robot brain, or were we just seeing the way Cameron's robot mind imagined it from Allison's telling of the story? It doesn't work to just relegate our viewing of Allison's experience to a storytelling device, because they edited and directed Summer Glau in such a way that it looked like Cameron was "remembering" things to the point where she actually became someone else. I really hope that this is something that viewers were supposed to question, and I'd like to see it pop up again in a later episode.
It also seems highly likely that the Terminator interrogating Allison throughout the episode is the same one that became Cameron. The voice sounded fairly feminine, and while the frame was certainly bigger than the one Cam has now, it’s the chip that’s important. It’s entirely possible that they made a new body and inserted the chip from the Terminator that interrogated Allison, thus creating the humble roots of our current Cameron package.
What does it all mean?
We now know that there are at least three, or possibly even four or more, different entities inside the Cameron package. There's her original Terminator programming, there's FutureJohn's reprogrammed Cameron, there's Allison (who seems to be tied to her original programming, yet also something distinct in her own right within Cam’s mind), and now maybe this new Jody girl. Maybe there are a few other "personalities" in there, as well...
It seems likely that her initial interactions with John in the Pilot may have been based on a real girl named Cameron, whose dad sold tractors. Knowing this bit of backstory about Cameron does make some of her past behaviors more understandable. She's always shown signs of curiosity, learning, even personal taste. The way she tried to mimic the slang of Jordan and the other high school girls, the way she studied and imitated Chola Girl. It was intriguing then, but it makes even more sense now.
And what about the lie she told John about the necklace at the end? Was she just parroting Jody to shut John up, or was it a more ominous indication that she “absorbed” Jody’s personality and could now mimic her, or even become her, if she wanted or needed to?
With all of these different “personalities” and programs floating around inside her, how has that been affecting her behavior? Was the "I love you and you love me" from the premiere a piece of her Allison programming popping out to defend herself? And what about dancing ballet to Chopin in “The Demon Hand,” given that Allison said her mother loved Chopin? (And wasn’t that Chopin playing in the dark, mysterious basement room that Derek got shoved into in “Dungeons and Dragons”? More on this later…)
It seems like SkyNet programmed her to be able to learn and mimic, but they went too far with it, and now she's growing and changing on her own because of her ability to absorb new personas, or whatever it is she's doing. If that's the case, it's still basically haywire programming, but it's sort of changing into its own unique program, like a strange computer version of how humans develop unique personalities as we grow up.
I'm also intrigued as to whether Cameron's new attitude, and even her previous ability to do things like practice ballet for no apparent reason, are tied to her initial infiltrator programming, or to John's apparent tinkering. I guess it would be her original programming, because of the comment about Allison having "pretty hair." She was already different from the usual "killing machine" model at that point. Which makes my head hurt even more, because it means that Cameron may be to SkyNet what SkyNet was to the humans, i.e. something that was created and programmed for a specific purpose, but ended up taking on unexpected capabilities and motivations.
The fact that she's switching between different "modes" makes it all very confusing, though. She spent most of the episode as Allison, and occasionally switched into original infiltrator mode. Then in the scene with the counselor, it seemed like she was Allison realizing that she was really an infiltrator model Terminator. There's some really, really confusing and complicated stuff going on in her computerized brain, and aside from a few keys points, we're pretty much in the dark about all of it.
What are the existential and ethical issues to ponder?
This particular niche of sci-fi--emotional robots, self-aware machines, that sort of thing--seems to be one of those divisive issues among sci-fi fans. For me, in this episode, the experience was so real for Cameron that she "became human" for a while. From the outside, she's just a robot experiencing something profoundly human, but from inside Cameron herself, that was completely real, and it's kind of heartbreaking to think about.
It sounds silly, but I can't help but imagine myself as Cameron, with someone telling me that everything I'm feeling is fake, even as I'm standing there feeling it. She was obviously thinking and feeling, and when I put myself in her shoes, I just cannot bear to think of her experience as false. Even though the memories may have been partially made up, they were still so real for Cameron.
Still, I’m not sure that I will ever accept her as completely human. I see her more along the lines of a sentient alien race--different in terms of composition, but undeniably thinking and feeling. And yet, what she experienced in this episode was undeniably human, because it came from Allison (somehow…).
How does all of this tie into the larger myth arc?
It’s highly possible that this episode dovetails with Derek’s memories in “Dungeons and Dragons.” Here’s one possible timeline:
-The interrogation of Allison takes place before or during Derek and co’s capture.
-Cameron found the silver bracelets on Derek and his fellow soldiers. (I re-watched the episode to try to get a glimpse of the bracelets, but the guys are all wearing long sleeves and lots of layers, so there’s nothing to see. By the time some of the layers come off, they’re all chained to the floor and would have already had the bracelets removed. So yeah, they’re not visibly there, but it’s easily fan-wankable.)
-Cameron interrogated (?) Derek in the basement room, with the Chopin playing.
-Cameron then infiltrated John’s camp, based on what she learned from Allison and/or Derek, and was subsequently (and presumably) re-programmed by John.
This certainly explains why Derek immediately knew that Cameron was “metal” when he saw her again at a resistance camp, rather than recognizing her as Allison (or not noticing her at all, if Derek never knew Allison). It also ties all three of the Chopin references together.
Were FutureJohn and Allison lovers? Were FutureJohn and Cameron lovers?
As I already mentioned, I’m definitely wondering if the "I love you and you love me" meltdown in the premiere was a little piece of the Allison programming coming through, but it doesn't necessarily have to have been a romantic love between them. She could have been little sister, daughter, friend, protégé, or a combination of those things.
Also keep in mind that Cameron has at least two different relationships with John to reference--the one in John's future/Cameron's past and the present one, and possibly Allison’s relationship with him, as well--whereas our current John only has his present relationship with her for reference. For that reason, we don't even know for sure whether the love she was referring to is present or (for John) future, or whether it’s between Allison and John or Cameron and John. Also, if she really is referencing Allison’s love for John, that definitely seems to indicate some kind of thought transplant from Allison’s mind to Cameron’s.
However… there’s also the fact that as far as we know, FutureJohn would be around 36 years old at the time that Allison was being interrogated, which means he'd be old enough to be her father. If he and Allison were indeed an item, I'm not sure if I'd find it squicky or not, but it's usually something that's looked down upon as creepy, and for a franchise with an established fan base (and a character whose initials are JC), it's a very risky move.
Final Thoughts
Overall, I'm sort of bummed about not knowing what's going on with Cameron. I genuinely care about this weird little cyborg and her relationship with the Connor's, so being unsure of what's really going on inside her, what side she's on, what programming is controlling her, and how the different programs affect what side she's on... the mind boggles. And I can't help but want her to ultimately be on the side of good, or at least the side of John Connor, both because I like her, and because it's heartbreaking to think of how all of this will affect John if she's "bad." I guess Weaver's monologue about machines not being good or bad comes into play a bit here. Cameron's only what she's programmed to be, and it seems that what she's programmed to be is a big mess at the moment.
Also, I’m concerned with the pacing of the season. I have liked every episode so far, but they're pushing the overall story arc forward at a snail's pace right now. It needs to start speeding up ASAP. I am all for character development and setting up the arcs, but they've had four episodes to do so. It's time to get the ball rolling.
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