Brian Austin Green made his triumphant return to the FOX network tonight on Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.  At the pilot screening for Terminator, we asked him at the after-party about his character.  He wouldn't say much, only offering that when he shows up “it's awesome.”  He wasn't lying.  Green plays Derek Reese, brother of Kyle Reese, John Connor's father.  It's cool to see even more synergy between the TV show and the first Terminator film (tonight, Sarah sported her trademark white tank top for much of the episode).  The Sarah Connor Chronicles just keeps on trucking – I've enjoyed every single episode and tonight was no exception. 

The episode starts with a flash back to Sarah and John Connor training in the jungles of Central America when John was younger.  Sarah says the most important part of his training was learning to play chess.  She ties it into learning about warfare and it taught him the most important thing – the importance of sacrifice.

Sarah gets a call from Andy, the chess-computer guy.  He is entering a computer versus computer chess tournament in Pasadena.

Cromartie, the terminator version, shows up at Sarah's old fiance's house dressed as an FBI agent.  He says he want to talk with him about Sarah Connor.  Dixon knows nothing and Cromartie leaves satisfied. 

Sarah shows up and meets Andy at the tournament.  Ever since his house burnt down, Andy worked night and day to build the Turk 2.  He's got a Russian partner named Dmitri.  The winner of the tournament gets rewarded with a government contract.  Sarah is not happy about this. 

At school, John tries to explain to Cameron why people write notes to dead people sometimes.  After school, John is working on cars at a garage.  He shows off a nice Spanish accent. 

Andy has made it to the finals of the tournament with the Turk 2.  And, we get our first Brian Austin Green sighting, as he ominously watches the chess match from off-stage.  John and Cameron shows up and tells John what's up – if Andy wins, Cameron will kill him. 

Dixon and his wife (Lost's Sonya Walger) discuss the earlier interaction with Cromartie.  She knows he was lying.  Dixon admits that he saw John Connor.  She wants him to go to the authorities with that info.  Dixon doesn't. 

Andy Goode shockingly loses the chess match.  The Japanese team won.  In the hallway, Brian Austin Green runs past Sarah. Moments later, Sarah finds Andy shot dead.  Sarah runs after the BAG. HE finds him, tackles him and the two fight.  Sarah wins.  She demands to know who he is.  He runs away, but is arrested by police. 

John is able to hack into the LAPD and find out about the identity of BAG.  He has a tattoo – he's a resistance fighter and one of John's best soldiers in the future, according to Cameron.  Meanwhile, we see a terminator hack into the same LAPD file. 

Agent Ellison goes to visit BAG.  He has connected the bar code tattoo to the dead men in the safe house.  His fingerprints were everywhere at that scene.  BAG asks what is the connection to all of these scenes – it's the blood, the fake synthetic blood.  BAG simply states that “We're all going to die.”  The terminator, meanwhile, has gotten himself incarcerated. 

Sarah Connor, in a minor disguise, goes to visit BAG in jail.  BAG says she shouldn't be here.  It was him that night on Andy's porch.  BAG says he didn't kill Andy – he just wanted the machine.  Someone else killed Andy and took the machine.  He knows that there's a terminator after him in jail – he tells Sarah that she should go find Andy's Russian partner.  He's Derek Reese, Kyle Reese's brother, the guy from the original Terminator movie.  Cool.  He and Sarah are siblings, kind of. 

Reese takes out a blade from under his skin and undoes his cuffs as he's being transported to a federal facility.  The Connors drive up behind the van and take it over.  They drive away with Reese inside.  The terminator from jail runs up and jumps in the back of the van.  He and Cameron fight it out.  Cameron eventually gets the better of the terminator, but not before he shoots Reese in the abdomen. 

Back at the house, Cameron determines that Derek's death is imminent.  Sarah wants to go kidnap a doctor.  John thinks that crazy, but the Sarah spills the beans – Reese is his uncle. 

Ellison surveys the police scene where Reese escaped.  He is a tad bit baffled. 

John returns from being out with Dixon, who attends to Reese.  In the promos for next week, we see that he lives.  So much for that cliffhanger.


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