Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, 2x12, “Alpine Fields”

Episode Title: Alpine Fields
Writer: John Enbom
Directors: Charles Beeson and Bryan Spicer
Originally Aired: 12/08/2008
Grade: B

This was easily my least favorite episode of the season. I was confused within the first 5 minutes by the tag that told us it was "6 months ago." I kept expecting the episode to un-confuse me as it went on, but that never happened.

So according to this episode, over 6 months have passed in this season thus far, despite the fact that we've only been watching the season for 3 months? And the fact that this was originally supposed to be episode 7 only makes it more confusing--I'm going to assume that when it was episode 7, the time elapsed between the flashback and the present was less than 6 months.

In any case, way to clue us in on the passage of time, show. (Not!) I am now utterly confused and had no clue until this ep that time was supposed to be passing quicker within the show than the pace at which I am watching it. I guess last week's episode, with finding out Cam had odd nighttime activities, could have hinted at this, too, but none of it has been handled particularly well. I love the overall character arcs and the complex storyline this season, but this ep really threw me for a loop as far as how time is passing in the Connor-verse. The writing did a very poor job of establishing where these events took place in the timeline we've been watching.

They just really dropped the ball with this. I could accept it if they'd made the passage of time throughout the season more clear, simply because the last date we knew was Nov. 2007 (I think? Right?), which was almost a year ago for us real folks. It makes sense that the writers might try to speed up the show's internal timeline to catch it up to our present, I just wish they'd done a better job of it, if that’s what they’re trying to do.

I loved all of the characters in this episode--Sarah and Derek were in top form, Jessie was charming, and Lauren was quite likable--but somehow the overall story didn't quite work for me. That, and as likable as Lauren was, she was also a bit too much of a Connor-verse Mary Sue character. She was spunky, she followed Sarah’s orders, she fought hard, she accepted her lot in life seemingly without much bitching and moaning. Definitely a little too perfect. Introducing a one-off character that’s going to have a significant portion of viewers wishing John would start acting more like her seems unwise to me. Unless John is going to start acting more like her in the very near future.