Deciphering the Terminator TV Show's Biggest Mystery
What really happened to Derek Reese on "Sarah Connor Chronicles"?
Josh Friedman’s Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (TSCC, 2008-2009) is one of my favorite genre shows.* And like many genre shows that were prematurely canceled, it ended with a fair share of unresolved long-running mysteries and questions. Arguably the biggest revolved around the breakout character of Derek Reese (Brian Austin Green), brother to the first Terminator film’s protagonist, Kyle Reese.
*It’s also in my opinion the best Terminator sequel ever made. I’d argue that writing-wise, it even surpasses the movies it was based on.
In the course of the surreal puzzle film-like “Dungeons and Dragons,” viewers learn that Derek was taken prisoner by Terminators in the post-apocalyptic future and sent to a dilapidated house, where some off-screen event then occurred to him in the basement. By keeping exactly what happened undisclosed and ambiguous, the episode left many questions unresolved or open to interpretation.
For instance, why did someone leave a hatchet for Derek to free himself from his shackles, rather than killing him? Was Skynet attempting to brainwash Derek, turning him and the others into sleeper agents? Was it even Skynet that did this?
When I first saw this episode, I fully expected the show to eventually flash back to this event later in the season to explicitly answer these questions by allowing viewers to see precisely what happened and why. The show had demonstrated a tendency by this point to skip over certain key events and then flash back to them later.*
*Indeed, the ending of “Dungeons and Dragons” flashes back to the events of “Queen’s Gambit,” resolving the question of who killed Andy Goode. And an interview with Josh Friedman suggests that the question might’ve been explored in one of the Season 1 episodes cancelled due to the WGA Writer’s Strike.
However, I eventually came to learn that the writers had, in fact, left a lot of clues as to what was really going on with Derek in this and other episodes. After rewatching “Dungeons and Dragons” and paying close attention to onscreen details, I came to realize that there is indeed a logical and rational explanation for everything we see happen to Derek concealed within the text itself.
And this completely changed my understanding of what this episode is really about. All the answers are there, they are just not out in the open.
In this article then, I will lay out a comprehensive theory, as to why Derek was taken, who took him, what happened to him in the basement and why he was released. In the process, I will argue against the most common reading of the episode, which is that Derek was captured by Skynet and interrogated in the basement (possibly by Cameron) for vital information about the human resistance.
Please note that this relies on extensive knowledge of the series’ events and will likely not make much sense to those not versed in it.
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The Theory:
My theory is that Derek Reese wasn’t captured by Skynet.
Instead, he was taken by reprogrammed pro-Resistance Terminators and then interrogated in that basement by a reprogrammed Cameron under the orders of John Connor. His whole ordeal was really an elaborate test of loyalty, a mind game orchestrated by his own nephew to see how trustworthy he really is. Derek failed his test – he broke during the interrogation and revealed the location of Connor’s bunker, the one where he and Kyle were both stationed, to his interrogator Cameron.
The Resistance then left the captured Derek with a hatchet so he could free himself and faked the destruction of the bunker in order to maintain the ruse. Future Connor then decides to never reveal to Derek that he is his biological uncle and sends him back in time without even telling him the truth of what happened to Kyle, because he doesn’t fully trust him. It is not entirely clear, as to whether or not Derek ever learns the full truth behind his ordeal.
All this might seem rather outlandish, but as I will show, there is much evidence to suggest that this is indeed what happened.
Let’s go over this step by step, tackling the questions one by one.
What exactly happened to Derek in the basement?Derek was tortured into giving up the location of John Connor’s bunker.
It is not clear whether the torture was physical or purely psychological, but there are many indications that some form of enhanced interrogation took place. While Derek’s body shows no visible signs of physical damage, he is also clearly tired and weak after he is brought out of The Room. The fact that classic music is playing in the basement alludes to “music torture,” an interrogation technique used on prisoners of war, wherein individuals are subjected to loud music in combination with sensory or sleep deprivation to make them more open to revealing information.
Given the general context in which the event takes place, the use of music torture to psychologically prepare the prisoners to reveal secrets makes a lot of sense. The notion that Derek gave up critical information is supported by the fact that he and his cohorts are released from captivity shortly after he has been to The Room.
Later, when Derek and the others return to Connor’s bunker, it is abandoned, with signs of damage, presumably by Skynet’s forces. Sumner corroborates this, stating that neither Connor nor Kyle were there at the time Skynet attacked.
Altogether, this evinces that “Skynet” had apparently somehow learned the location of Connor’s bunker sometime between Derek being taken and his return. It is safe to assume that the interrogation of Derek in the basement and the destruction of the bunker (presumably) by Skynet are causally linked events. Supporting this reading are two key conversations that Derek has with other characters.
When John discusses his life with foster families with Derek in Episode 1.07, “The Demon Hand,” he mentions how Sarah gave up on being his mother and signed over custody to his foster parents while being locked up in a mental institution.
The following exchange then takes place:
D: Look, John… What can happen to a person inside four walls… um, screws with your head. Makes you do things you never thought you’d do.
J: Some people never give up. Some people always fight.
D (beat): Fewer thank you think.
During this moment, Derek is clearly relating to Sarah, because he too knows what it’s like to be “inside four walls” and “do things you never thought you’d do.” One can assume that he may be alluding to his murder of Andy Goode/Billie Wisher.
However, note that he also says “Fewer thank you think” in response to John’s claim that some people always fight. In effect, he implies that he too “gave up” after being inside four walls. This clearly indicates that he broke during his interrogation and believes he betrayed Future Connor and the Resistance.
Further corroboration is provided in a Cameron/Derek conversation in 2.20, “To The Lighthouse.” Cameron has just freed Derek, after he had been captured by human agents of Skynet.
D: Why’d you come after me?
C: You know the location of the safe house. John’s location. If they tortured you---
D: That would never happen.
C: It has before.
Cameron here strongly implies that Derek had apparently given up John’s location previously under torture, which fits perfectly with the events depicted in 1.06.
At the time, The Official Terminator Blog all but confirmed this to be the case:
Oh and speaking of returns — Derek and Cameron had a pretty important conversation in this episode, didn’t they? After Cameron rescued Derek he asked her why she came for him. “You know the location of the safehouse. John’s location.”
“But Derek responds, “That would would never happen.”
“It has before,” she reminds him.
But what exactly does that mean? Master of all things T:SCC (see: Josh Friedman) has given me permission to confirm that it indeed does imply that Derek was tortured and gave up John’s location some other time. Yes, then.
Finally, following the show’s cancellation, TSCC composer Bear McReary listed 15 favorite moments from the series on his site’s blog.
Note what he wrote about "Dungeons and Dragons":
…I’ll never forget being able to write music for the dark vistas of fallen Los Angeles, and Derek’s time spent incarcerated. My favorite moment is when he’s taken into the basement to be interrogated… and ultimately gives up the location of his friends.
Who interrogated Derek?Cameron, specifically the Cameron we know today.
Derek hates the specific incarnation of Cameron that we have known since the show’s beginning. Note his reaction when he first sets eyes on her in “Queen’s Gambit” and his claim that “everything she says is a lie.” Chronologically, the first time Derek sees Cameron in the flashbacks is when the pro-Resistance Cameron comes into his line of sight after he has returned from interrogation.
Derek yells “Metal!” the moment he spots her and pulls out a gun, which evinces that he had encountered Cameron previously. Also, he is surprised to realize that terminators at this point in time are working for the Resistance, meaning that this is not a well-known fact among the human fighters.
Another piece of evidence is the show’s use of music.
The classic music playing in 1.06 in the basement when Derek is brought there is “Chopin’s Nocturne.” This theme is reprised at the end of 1.07 when Derek sees Cameron dancing and practicing ballet. It appears there is no source for the music in the scene itself, making it non-diegetic. The association of Cameron with the music implies that she was present in the basement, making her Derek’s interrogator.
Several conversations also allude to Cameron having done something to Derek in the future. Noting how Derek has reacted to Cameron, Sarah asks her about this in 1.06.
S: Did you do something to him? In the future?
C: I don’t know.
S: You don’t know?
C: When they reprogram us, they scrub our memories. It increases the chance of success.
S: Success?
C: Of the reprogramming.
Cameron here claims that she may have done something, but if so, she doesn’t remember. Contrast this with what she says to Derek during their tense conversation at the breakfast table one episode later in “The Demon Hand.”
D: You might have them fooled, but not me. I know you.
C: I know you too.
Cameron here confirms that she knows Derek already, alluding to a shared past. This means she had lied to Sarah about not remembering doing something to Derek in the future. Once again, the most likely answer is that she had interrogated him, which is why he hates and distrusts her. This leads to another question.
Assuming Cameron remembers interrogating Derek, does this mean she had lied about the memory scrubbing as well? There are two possibilities.
Either Terminators’ memories are not scrubbed when they are reprogrammed or Cameron was already reprogrammed when she performed the interrogation.
Who was Cameron working for when she did this?The Resistance and/or Future John Connor.
There is a lot of evidence that the Terminators that took Derek captive and then inter-rogated him were all working for the Resistance, rather than Skynet. First of all, as mentioned previously, clues indicate that Cameron was the one who performed the basement interrogation. The fact that she remembers the events of Derek’s torture supports the possibility that she had already been reprogrammed.
Moreover, while we don’t see any follow-up to the exchange Derek and Cameron have in 2.20, the fact that Cameron knows suggests that Future Connor is also aware that Derek gave him up under torture. It is consistently shown throughout the series that Cameron is Future Connor’s close advisor and, as someone working for the Resistance, it is logical that she would communicate all information to him. So, it follows that if Cameron knows, then Future John does too.
Additional clues can be inferred from the depiction of the Terminators that Derek interacts with in his future flashbacks, especially The Rogue Terminator. Derek first encounters The Rogue when he goes after Kyle following an attack by a Hunter-Killer machine. At that point, he is grabbed by The Rogue, a T-888 Terminator clad in blue mechanic-like coveralls. Given that after this, Derek is seen in a prisoner transport bus, it is safe to assume that The Rogue is the one who captured him.
Later, after Derek is released and reunited with the Resistance, a Terminator begins shooting up the base. While the episode does not draw attention to this detail, it is clearly shown to be the Rogue Terminator. After Cameron destroys it, she states:
“Sometimes they go bad. No one knows why.”
This means the Rogue was already a reprogrammed Terminator and has only now gone bad, meaning it had to have been working for The Resistance when it captured Derek at the beginning of the episode. Now, one could argue that this not the same Terminator that captured Derek but merely the same model.
However, the “law of conservation of detail” – the trope according to which all the pie-ces of a plot matter and no detail should be extraneous – works against this. In other words, it would be a big coincidence for two identical-looking but different Termina-tors to both encounter Derek in the plot without there being greater significance.
Moreover, the uniform of the Rogue corroborates the idea that it’s the same Termina-tor. This is because the Resistance has a very specific fashion choice. During the scenes at the new Resistance base, multiple characters, including reprogrammed Cameron and Derek himself, are shown wearing dark blue coveralls or similar shirt-and-jean combinations. The consistency of these outfits indicates allegiance to the Resistance. In other words, Derek, Cameron, and The Rogue all wear Resistance-brand clothing, the same clothing the Rogue wore when he captured Derek.
From all this, it follows that Derek must’ve been captured and imprisoned by a friendly Terminator at the behest of the Resistance/Connor.
Couldn’t Cameron have been working for Skynet at the time?Not likely, as the overall series of events that occurs doesn’t fit with Skynet’s M.O.
Throughout the episode, we are reminded that Skynet takes humans to work camps. But here, they are taken to a dilapidated house, which is where Derek received his barcode tattoo. More importantly, it doesn’t make any sense for Skynet to release the prisoners after interrogating them. If indeed it was Skynet that interrogated Derek, why leave behind a hatchet rather than kill him or send him to a work camp?
One could theorize Skynet had ulterior motives, perhaps having brainwashed Derek and turned him into a human sleeper agent. But this conflicts with the fact that T-888 Vick had been given a mission to assassinate Derek, evincing that Derek isn’t working for Skynet, willingly or unwillingly. The logical conclusion is that Skynet isn’t actually responsible for Derek’s interrogation, which fits with the episode’s reveal that Future Connor has multiple reprogrammed Terminators fighting for the Resistance.
Additionally, there is the state of Connor’s bunker following an apparent attack by “Skynet.” When Derek and Wishes return there, Wisher states:
“Plasma burns. Secondary explosions. Skynet was here.”
Shortly thereafter, Sumner shows up and corroborates the idea that Skynet attacked:
“Skynet found it, four nights ago… Four Triple-8s snuck in around us… Killed most. Took some.”
But despite evidence of an attack, including a bloodstain on a wall, and the claim that most of the bunker occupants were killed, there are curiously no dead bodies to be seen anywhere in the bunker. This is a conspicuous absence. After all, Skynet Terminators don’t mind leaving bodies behind and it’s strange to think that the Resistance would remove all the bodies following the attack on the bunker.
So, there is no tangible proof of Sumner’s claim that Skynet Terminators killed most of the bunker occupants, which suggests the possibility that the Resistance faked an attack on the bunker after Derek had given up its location. Assuming this is true, Sumner lied to Derek about the attack, meaning he is in on Future Connor’s ruse.
Strengthening this possibility is the way the episode sometimes shows alternate pers-pectives in the future flashbacks outside of Derek’s POV. In particular, specific moments focus on Sayles, who notably was constantly testing Derek's faith in Connor. When Derek first receives his barcode tattoo, we see several shots from Sayles’ POV – he appears to be paying close attention to what’s happening to Derek.
Later on, Sayles is the one who questions Derek’s commitment to Connor’s cause. He says (among other things):
“Maybe Connor’s wrong. Maybe he’s crazy.”
Derek does not agree. When Sumner first appears, camera work accentuates Sayles’ gaze and the two exchange what appears to be a knowing glance. Altogether, this indicates that Sayles may have been there to monitor Derek up close, to see how he reacts to his predicament and whether or not he is able to remain committed to the cause under pressure. Thus, Sayles and Sumner were in on Connor’s mindgame.
Why would Future John Connor do this to Derek?To test how loyal and trustworthy Derek really is.
“Dungeons and Dragons” establishes some very interesting details about Future Connor. Though Future Connor is apparently friends with Kyle and to a lesser extent Derek, he has become reclusive and reliant on Reprogrammed Terminators to carry out his orders. Moreover, he has a penchant for keeping confidential information from many of his fellow Resistance fighters, especially when it comes to the truth behind the Topanga Canyon operation and Skynet’s Time Displacement Device.
Clearly, Future Connor has very few people whom he trusts. And a present-day scene between Young John and Sarah underlines the fact that Future Connor never trusted Derek enough to reveal to him the truth of their biological connection. When Young John claims that they have to tell Derek that he is John’s uncle, Sarah denies the possibility.
S: We don’t, and we can’t.
J: He’s family.
S: He’s a stranger.
J: I sent him back here, so I must trust him.
S: Not enough to tell him about Kyle. You didn’t trust anyone enough to tell them about your father. Anyone.
This is a good point.
We can also infer from Derek’s raving at one point that Future John never specifically told him what happened to Kyle or where he sent him, meaning he didn’t trust him with this information either. But it raises an interesting question: “Why didn’t Future John trust Derek enough to tell him the truth?”
What if it’s because he knew that Derek would give it up if he were ever tortured? What if he knew that Derek could potentially give up under duress, and reveal something that could cost Future Connor and/or Kyle his life? What if he had orchestrated Derek’s kidnapping and interrogation to test, just how much he could reveal to his biological uncle about their connection, about the need for Kyle to travel back in time to become his father, about everything?
After all, if Future Connor is anything like the present day John, then he probably wanted to believe that his uncle was one of the people, who never give up and never stop fighting. When you put all these pieces of information together, Derek’s predicament in the basement and his “escape” makes a lot more sense.
Derek failed his test. Had he managed to hold on and not reveal the info on Connor’s bunker, John would’ve released him and told him the truth.
Closing:
When we put together all these pieces, we can construct a solid causal chain of narrative events in regard to what happened to Derek and why. Basically, a reprogrammed Resistance Terminator captured Derek and took him with some other men to a Resistance black site. A reprogrammed Cameron then subjected him to psychological or physical torture to test his loyalty and trustworthiness. Sayles monitored Derek throughout and also posed questions to gauge his faith in Connor.
Derek eventually broke, giving up the location of Future John Connor’s bunker to Cameron. The Resistance then let Derek go, abandoning the house and leaving a hatchet behind for him to free himself. To keep up the ruse that this was all Skynet’s doing, the Resistance then evacuated Future Connor’s bunker while arranging it to look like Skynet had attacked it.
In reality, nobody from the bunker died, which is why there were no bodies left behind. Derek arrived at the bunker to find it abandoned and believed himself to be responsible, though he apparently did not confess about having been broken. He then joins up with the rest of the Resistance and learns that Connor has reprogrammed Terminators working for him.
Derek remains unaware, however, of Connor’s ruse. Because Derek had failed his test, Future Connor ultimately chooses not to be forthcoming with him. He doesn’t tell him, where and when he sent Kyle exactly, or what happened to him. Nor does he trust him enough to tell him the truth about their biological connection.
I believe that this is the truth behind Derek’s basement mystery. It is only a theory, of course, and unless Josh Friedman and others who worked on TSCC provide confirmation, we will never know anything for sure.
But the evidence speaks for itself, in my opinion. Some might argue that this way too convoluted to be possible, but I would counter that "Dungeons and Dragons" is a puzzle film and such an elaborate mindgame perfectly fits the genre.
But what about you?What’s your favorite genre television show with big, unresolved mysteries? Are there any theories you really like? Have you ever watched TSCC? If so, what do you think of it? Please,
This was fascinating. I've heard a lot about TSCC and keep meaning to sit down and binge it sometime and this really encourages me to do so.