"Sarah Connor" 1.05: A return to form
"Sarah Connor" 1.05: A return to form
"Queen's Gambit" gets things back on track after last episode's stumble
Episode 5: “Queen’s Gambit”
Original Airdate: February 11, 2008
Written By: Natalie Chaidez
Directed by: Matt Earl Beesley
Plot Summary: Sarah attends a chess tournament, where Andy Goode’s reconstructed Turk competes for a military contract. In the aftermath, Andy is found dead and a mysterious man flees the scene before being arrested. Sarah manages to get in touch with the man, who is revealed to be Derek Reese (Brian Austin Green), the last of the four resistance fighters and John’s biological uncle. Sarah then resolves to break Derek out, but Vick is hot on his trail.
Review:
As TSCC shows throughout the first season, a given episode can start out in one direction only to unexpectedly pivot into a different one. “Gnothi Seauton” used this to great effect, seemingly switching up its premise two or three times in the span of 15 minutes. The pivot in “Heavy Metal” from the “Get Cromartie!” plot to the Coltan plot didn’t feel very natural, because of the various characterization issues surrounding it. But the one in “Queen’s Gambit,” which concludes the first act of the season’s story arc, feels completely organic and fully in tune with the characters.
The episode begins by focusing on the outcome of a chess tournament attended by Andy Goode, who has rebuilt The Turk and is now hoping to score a military contract. Sarah again wrestles with the possibility of killing the young man, but she concedes it might be necessary, given the circumstances. Cameron waits in the wings like a sentinel poised to strike Andy down. Then come the twists.
First, the Turk loses, taking Andy off Sarah’s radar. However, just moments after, Andy is murdered anyway by an unseen assailant, creating a mystery for Sarah to resolve in the second half. But “Queen’s Gambit” then switches things up again: it turns out the man suspected of his murder is Derek Reese, John’s biological uncle and the last resistance fighter from the group of four introduced in “Gnothi Seauton.”
Suddenly, the episode turns into an action-heavy rescue mission, with Cameron and the Connors striving to break Derek out of FBI custody before returning T-888 Vick can kill him. Both halves could very well have sustained a full episode in a procedural series, but “Queen’s Gambit” manages to burn through their plots in one hour without feeling rushed, once again thanks to the series’ economic, process-oriented approach to writing. This makes for an exciting, legitimately unpredictable hour that organically ties a whole lot of disparate pieces together, while also featuring what is hands down the show’s best and most exciting action sequence to date.
Cameron and Vick’s fight on the truck is exhilarating, especially when she managers to pin his head to the asphalt. And like the best Cameron action scenes, it also helps advance the plot in significant ways, setting up Derek’s shooting and the ‘lost arm’ plot that will play out over the next two episodes.*
*Admittedly, some of the editing towards the end is funky, making it seem like Derek is just standing around and waiting to get shot, but that’s a minor issue.
The high-school subplot in many ways functions as a wrap-around for the other threads this time, crystallizing the idea that “Queen’s Gambit” is about dealing with the grief that arrives after death. Early on, John and Cameron see a memorial to the dead Jordon, and Cameron learns that letters are a way of expressing grief. Cameron doesn’t understand what grieving is, and she apparently tries to learn, because she recognizes that this is necessary for her to become a better infiltrator.
From that moment forward, Cameron tries looking for opportunities for writing letters to those who are dead or dying. I’ll be honest that Cameron’s quest doesn’t feel that well integrated into the story and sometimes makes serious moments come off as comical, such as when she proposes Sarah write a letter to the deceased Andy. Far better is when after pulling out Vick’s chip, Cameron appears to harbor some sort of regret. It is difficult to say if she’s grieving for Vick, if she’s merely trying to imitate human behavior, or what, but there is a sense that something about Vick’s “death” affects her, perhaps on a level she doesn’t quite understand.
Really though, the best thing about “Queen’s Gambit” is the introduction of Derek Reese. And what is clear by the end of the episode is that TSCC has a really firm grasp of who Derek is already. Whereas Sarah, John, and Cameron’s characterizations go through some growing pains over the course of S1, Derek’s feels more fully formed upon his arrival, and every interaction he has with the main characters is a delight.
The series, so far, depicts him as a mystery to both Sarah and the audience, and we discover things about him only gradually. The first time we even get a good look at him is about 24 minutes into the episode, when Ellison interrogates him. Derek mostly listens in silence as Ellison summarizes his case and shares some crime photos. He is then very careful and precise with what he says, making it clear he knows something that Ellison needs, but never giving up any actual information. There’s also a sense that Derek may be a little unhinged, at least from the way Brian Austin-Green portrays him.
The episode also has a brief, yet very efficient scene with Cromartie, which demonstrates how differently the series is now approaching the character after rebooting him with Garret Dillahunt. The Cromartie we see here — aka FBI agent Robert Kester — is a cunning manipulator in the vein of Robert Patrick’s T-1000. The show never spells this out but he was evidently inspired by Ellison to adopt a new guise, complete with handing out a business card at the end.
During his attempt to pump Charlie for information, he says a lot of the right things, but he’s also a little too blunt, too direct. When a cell-phone buzzes, he seems startled. The camerawork accentuates Cromartie’s gaze and confusion, a subtle indication that, like the Connors, he too is out-of-time in the 21st century and isn’t caught up with all the technological enhancements. Cromartie doesn’t ultimately have much to do here, but it functions as a good setup for both the show’s future and for Charlie’s reappearance at the end.
Overall, “Queen’s Gambit” constitutes a step up from “Heavy Metal” and works as a much better synthesis of the show’s dramatic, process-oriented side and the action-heavy side. It’s a sign that the show is maturing, working all its kinks out, and is about to become legitimately great.
Grade: B+
Notes and Annotations:
As I’ve mentioned previously, the series’ portrayal of Cameron seems really inconsistent with her depiction in the Pilot. However, I do believe the series on some occasions has attempted to subtly reconcile the different takes. The scene where Cameron imitates Jordon when talking to the counselor suggests that Cameron only seems emotional when she mimics someone else, which is in line with how Terminators mimic voices in the first two movies. In hindsight then, one could argue that what we see in the Pilot is Cameron directly imitating a pre-existing person, whereas in the post-Pilot she is being herself and speaking in her own voice.
I only noticed this on rewatch, but it’s a little farfetched that neither John, nor Sarah inquire more information from Cameron, as to who the resistance fighter is before Sarah takes off to see him. Had they done so, this would’ve of course spoiled the surprise twist that Derek was a Reese brother.
John’s attitude towards Jordon this time around seems far more realistic. He openly admits that he didn’t really know her.
The first time Sarah sees Derek mirrors her first glimpse of Kyle Reese in Terminator: he appears in long shot as a mysterious man in a green coat.
Avoiding exposition 101: Sarah apparently shows up in disguise to the lock-up as Derek’s lawyer, but this is never really explained or commented upon.
Derek’s first words to Cameron definitely suggest a personal history with her.
Given that Cameron showed up behind the stage, was her plan to assassinate Andy right in the auditorium, with all those people in attendance?
The high school subplot continues to unfold in the background, but the series unfortunately has little time to devote to it. A scene was cut, which revealed that Cheri Westin herself was apparently being blackmailed about some incident at her old school in Wichita. I suspect that, like Jordon, Cheri had an affair with a teacher, which became public and caused a huge scandal.
It is implied that the Grief Counselor, Mr. Harris, was the faculty member Jordon was involved with. Cameron catches on to the fact that something is shady about him.
I wonder if Morris was intended to be the mystery frescoe-maker/blackmailer. That would be quite a twist and in line with the law of conservation of detail/characters.
I don’t entirely buy that Charlie would show up when John comes calling. Clearly, Charlie trusts John a lot, but it’s still a bit of a leap, as the show never really delved into their relationship prior to the time jump. As in, we didn’t really get any scenes in the pilot to establish just how close John and Charlie are that he would still show up to help him despite everything. Maybe a scene was cut from the script where John has to convince him?
One of the things I admire is how the show’s premise suggests the possibility that Derek came into existence due to all the time travel shenanigans that have gone on in the films. If Kyle never mentioned him, it’s because he didn’t exist in the timeline that he came back from.
Is Cameron writing a note to Derek or to Vick at the end? Hmm….
Or check it out reviews of the other episodes at the TSCC Review Index.