Tonight's episode of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles felt like the third act of an action movie.  This is a compliment.  The episode is the reason why loyal viewers have kept watching Terminator.  I feel rewarded.  In last week's episode of Terminator, Cromartie was hot on the Connors' trail.  He's been searching for some time, and though it appeared to be coming to a head, the swiftness with which Cromartie appeared tonight was wholly unexpected, though not unwelcome.  Fans will likely be discussing the narrative structure of tonight's episode, which took a cue from Pulp Fiction/The Rules of Attraction, though it wasn't as pronounced as the title cards may have led us to believe. 

Sarah is abducted by Cromartie.  John and Riley decide to take a little impromptu vacation down to Mexico.  That's your story in a nutshell.  John is brought in by Mexican police after a scuffle in a restaurant, James Ellison is alerted, and he heads down to see if it really is John Connor.  Cameron and Derek catch wind, and make their way to Mexico as well. 

The structure was pretty inspired, I must say.  The different title cards allowed the episode to go backwards and forwards in time to suit its needs and, without those cards, the pacing would have been quite confusing.  It's possible that this was all done in editing, but it felt meticulously planned, so I'll give the Terminator writers the benefit of the doubt.  Most of the episode took place in Robert Rodriguez's Mexico, in a village decimated, in the end, by gunfights aplenty.  There were no shortage of great scenes in this episode, my favorite being Sarah Connor hearing the fracas going on outside from inside the trunk of Cromartie's car. 

The episode was all climax.  Terminator, an action-drama based on a series of action movies, has done an exceptional job keeping the pace up.  Logically, you'd think that the TV show would be prone to deadly story lulls, but the series has clipped along at an entertaining rate, especially here in season two.  The final ten minutes weren't as good as the rest of the episode (the song choice during Cromartie's execution was suspect), but the pay-off was satisfying nonetheless.

The involvement of Ellison tonight was long in the making, as well, paying off two season's worth of his story.  How it moves forward, I don't know, but surely Weaver will learn about the Connors, and then things should get really interesting.  Also, thanks to the promo at the end of the episode, we know that Cromartie is still in the picture.  It's not that I wanted him to die, it's just that tonight felt like a reasonable farewell.


-Oscar Dahl, BuddyTV Senior Writer
(Image Courtesy of FOX)