Writer: Ian Goldberg
Director: Milan Cheylov
Originally Aired: 11/03/2008
Grade: A-
Let me just say right up front that I have a major hate-on for Sarah in this episode.
When she told John that he couldn’t see Riley anymore, with that creepy, almost triumphant grimacing smile,* I was angry with her, not with John. She orders him around and expects him to… what? Say yes m’am? For one thing, she should’ve figured out that it doesn’t work a long time ago, and for another thing, the kid deserves better emotional care than that from his mother (and from Derek, too, but that’s another issue). Hormonal teenagers rarely turn into responsible adults with no emotional effort from the parents. I am not saying that Sarah doesn’t feel things, or that she doesn’t realize that John feels things, but she makes almost no effort to actually address anyone’s feelings--she's even worse this season than she was last season.
*(I don’t necessarily think that this was Headey’s intent with the smile—she may have been going for something more defensive, sort of like Roslin on Battlestar Galactica. Unfortunately, it still came off badly on the screen, at least for me.)
I might even go so far as to say that Sarah is a horrible parent. She’s a decent enough bodyguard in some ways, but she seems almost entirely incapable of talking to her son, and I don’t just mean about life-and-death stuff and emotional stuff, but just the normal, sometimes embarrassing things that you have to be able to talk to your children about.
Him being a future leader who’s had a crappy life doesn’t mean that he’s magically free of the pressures, insecurities, and biological urges of all other teenage boys! He’s still going to be insecure about being a social freak, he’s still going to like girls, and she just can’t seem to talk to him about these things like a good parent would. And that’s not okay. It comes off like she actually doesn't realize that he can't just flip a switch and turn off the normal teenager parts. On the one hand, she told Derek that John's "not a soldier," so she understands that much, but she can't just cauterize his hormones by bossing him around and giving him stern looks.
Derek could be helping in that regard, too, but all of these characters are so wrapped up in their own pain/personal issues that they’re completely incapable of supporting one another, and it’s just painful to watch. Granted, I think the writers are aware of this, because a lot of it seemed deliberately showcased in the last episode.
I would’ve been okay with the whole “You can’t see Riley anymore” exchange if Sarah had actually just lost her shit completely, bitched John out, and cried, because seeing his mom lose it like that might actually get through to John. But instead, we got I-told-you-so Sarah, which only pissed John off more.
I admit, I did want to bitchslap John for a few seconds there. He kills me, because on a different show, where he’s not supposed to be the future leader of mankind, where there are no killing machines and car chases, I’d actually like him more. There were scenes, even in this episode, where I liked John. If this were a show about socially awkward but still ridiculously cute John Baum and his high school misadventures... But on this show? This kid is supposed to be a leader someday? Pshaw.
I don’t hate him, though. I’m just mildly annoyed by this family of poorly-trained stoics who go to great lengths to avoid talking to one another but are practically bleeding their misery from their pores.
On a lighter note… is Riley supposed to be John’s girlfriend now, or is she still just his friend who’s totally into him but hasn’t made a move yet? I actually don’t mind her and John together in a sort of insular way that’s not tied to the main story. I think they’re kind of cute if you look at them like they exist in a bubble. But they don't, and every single time she’s in the picture, John acts like whiny, self-absorbed twit to anyone who isn’t Riley. And what makes it even worse is that it doesn’t even seem to be her fault, personality-wise. Usually with storylines like that, it’s the “good kid falling in with the wrong friend/crowd” formula, but she’s not really even doing anything horrible. She’s just hanging out watching TV with him, and somehow her mere presence brings out his emotional Mr. Hyde.
Also, they were drawing parallels between Weaver, Chromartie, and Ellison in this episode, right? Weaver yammered about faith, Chromartie said Skynet doesn’t have faith in Ellison but Chomeartie does, and Ellison is all about the faith. I always thought Chromartie was following fairly specific orders, but he does seem to be going off the grid nowadays, which means we have three different Ts exploring free will on the show now. I’m all for complicated sci-fi, but that seems a bit much…
And what was that SkyNet Ellison T going to do in Ellison’s place? How does it relate to Weaver’s storyline?
I wonder if there’s a connection between Jessie spying on John, and Cameron’s statement in 2x02 that John couldn’t be trusted anymore and that him risking his life to fix her “could upset people.” We have to find out what that meant at some point, so I wonder if Jessie is the beginning of that?
Finally, my biggest nitpick here, aside from my extreme hatred of Sarah as a mother, is that the subplot with Derek and Jessie and the fence was handled pretty poorly. I’ve seen this episode two or three times now, and I’m still not sure what that was about. Granted I didn’t pay much attention, but there also just wasn’t much to pay attention to. The guy tossed off Jessie's name, Derek asked Jessie about it, and then they both showed up to deal with him at the same time. What was the point? To show us that Jessie is ruthless? To show us that Derek knows this and is okay with it? I have no clue.
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