Monday, February 23, 2009

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, 2x15, “Desert Cantos”

Episode Title: Desert Cantos
Writers: Ian B. Goldberg and John Wirth
Director: J. Miller Tobin
Originally Aired: 02/20/2009
Grade: B

Yawn. I love this show, but with lackluster, painfully slow episodes like this one, no wonder it’s bleeding viewers. Maybe part of the problem lies with me—I know the show is named after her, but Sarah bores me to tears. I usually enjoy the painfully slow episodes about Cameron, though…


Not only was this episode boring, it just wasn’t particularly well-crafted. The act titles—Vigil, Service, etc—added nothing at all to the storytelling. I could find no connection between the titles and the content of the acts other than the obvious funeral connection. Maybe they tied into the episode title, but I’d guess that went way over most viewers’ heads, obviously including mine.


Also, Ed’s wife just happening to have a voicemail recording of Sarah killing her husband felt very contrived. And the flashbacks were overkill; we didn’t need to see it again that many times.


On the plus side, at least John wasn’t annoying in this episode.


The Weaver portions were much more interesting than the Connor family hijinks. Why is Savannah so important to her? Is it just about maintaining her cover? Because her desire to comfort the girl seemed to go pretty far beyond that. It’s not like there were witnesses to their time together, and she seemed to genuinely want to ease Savannah’s suffering. The way she clutched the girl after she sat on her lap was downright creepy, though.


As for the myth arc aspect of this episode, the guy who survived the factory massacre stole the HK drone? I’m assuming he’s the one who shot the guy Weaver sent to look for him. Could this be a good thing for the Connors? Past experience tells me probably not, but it’s interesting that this man has chosen to betray the company (which is basically Weaver) and take the drone away. Is he planning to sell it to someone else? Destroy it? Is it his killer flying robot friend?

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