Sarah Connor Chronicles 2x01 Samson and Delilah

[oyceter]

(Is it reasonable to assume that any post about the show will also contain spoilers for the movies?)

Spoilers (for movies too)

Random notes, in no particular order:

1. Cameron turning evil was awesome, particularly her stomping around in combat boots with the terminator music and the contrast between her doing that vs. the T-800s doing it in the movies. I think she stayed evil until John replugged her in; the pleading and emotional manipulation gave it away. Especially the "I love you." I also like how the series is continuing with John's emotional connection with the terminators; in the background, there's always the "death" of the T-800 from T2 and the knowledge that future!John is killed by the T-800 he loves and trusts.


2. Yay movie call outs! John sticking the knife in the table echoing Sarah doing so in T2, possibly foreshadowing his decision to reactivate Cameron (Sarah carves "No Fate" in the table in T2), the new T1000 appearing out of the tiles like the Robert Patrick one with the guard and the snack machine.


3. I like that in the end, John is swayed by his emotions for Cameron, which feels like a more typically feminine hero thing to do. I half like and half mock his assertion of strength (or possibly weakness, given the way the Bible story goes) via cutting off emo hair; how many shows is it that do that now? Though the buzz cut is intended to look more manly or heroic or adult or whatever, I'm wondering if the title is trying to foreshadow that this is a bad move for John, or if it's just trying to comment that Cameron is his Delilah. I like my first reading better; I am a little tired of stories about the emo white boy becoming all manly and heroic ("manly" being used ironically) and would like the narrative to go against that. Also, if Cameron is Delilah, that is just the same old woman-bringing-down-great-leader thing.


4. I want more Sarah and am still worried that the show will lose its focus on her, even though the title is "Sarah Connor Chronicles" and Lena Headey has top billing. I have very little faith in TV and its ability to center a narrative on women. I'm particularly worried given that all the people allying themselves with the Connors are all... white guys!


5. I cheer on the appearance of the T1000! Though I wish more women (and especially women of color) would appear on the side of the Connors.


6. Ellison and Richard T. Jones = still made of win. I am slightly worried that he will become a "villain," insomuch as he could, with the nuanced performance. Mostly I am just hoping he does not become yet another Dead Brother Walking. But really, I just love the character and the performance and am dying for him and Sarah to meet.


7. I think John killed Sarkissian, although I hope it will turn out that Sarah did. John killing him ties in more with the hair-cutting-masculine-turning thing, whereas Sarah killing him would have her actually kill people and give her more of an edge. Also, while I love the scene where she's outside his door wishing him happy birthday, the reading would be so much more interesting if she were deliberately softening herself up because her son watched her kill someone versus becoming as motherly as Sarah gets because he killed someone.


8. I am being politically picky even though I love the show and thought the episode was made of win and squee- (and squeal-, when I seriously thought they would set fire to Cameron and bring in another Cameron model from the future to keep Summer Glau in the credits) inducing.

Comments

[desdenova.livejournal.com]

3. Hair cutting: I think it's the other way 'round (or more accurately, it's both ways 'round): John is Delilah to Cameron's Samson. Between the two of them, which is the bad-ass superstrong killing machine who can knock down walls with her bare hands, etc? Which one subverted the other from her original loyalties (twice, now)?

I have next to no evidence for this, but I think that Reactivated!Cameron didn't miraculously switch from "terminate" mode to "don't terminate" mode. I think she issued the override herself--she exercised free will, probably for the first time. (This parallels John's moral agency in electing to not destroy her, contrary to the wishes of the adults.)

Either way, though, the hair-cutting is a subversion of the legend: John is both Samson and Delilah, and he's gained strength through making himself vulnerable.

4. I agree that the show needs more characters of color but: Agent Ellison is allying himself with the Connors (albeit indirectly), and he's not a white guy! *has great love for Ellison and hopes he doesn't die*

6. Dead Bro Walking: isn't it terrible how we're conditioned to expect the Black guy to die? Even on a show where, statistically speaking, being a white man actually increases a character's chance of dying a violent death in the service of plot? I am at least as worried about Charlie as I am about Ellison. (Speaking of Charlie: yay for making the healing & nurturing figure a man?)

(edited to fix my numbering)

[oyceter]

Ooh, I didn't even think of Cameron as Samson, despite the completely obvious music bits in the beginning! I blame sleep deprivation?

I also really really really want to read the hair-cutting as gaining strength via allying with a woman and being emotionally vulnerable and going against the story, but I am also so unsure! I blame Heroes for my complex. Half the time I feel like I am deliberately reading against the text to get to an interpretation that I like, and the other half of the time I feel I am just gloomily resigned to having my heart broken. Again.

Ditto with Agent Ellison! I am really excited to see what he does! I love him so much! I want him to meet with Sarah!

I really do love how the show has huge mortality rates for their white male characters though. I was getting annoyed at Random Corporate Drone, but then I was like, Oh, he's probably just canon fodder!

[fialka.livejournal.com]

I think I read the haircut quite differently, maybe because I didn't know the ep title in advance. But I was thinking of two things -- John signifying himself as accepting the role of soldier by cutting his hair short as soldiers do. And/or mourning -- many cultures have a tradition of cutting off the hair as a sign of mourning, particularly males in cultures where hair signifies virility and power. Who he's mourning for...well, I guess in his emo-teenaged way, the John-that-never-really-was, the one that wasn't going to have to grow up to be a soldier in an unwinnable war.

What I found immensely amusing is that while I agree about the haircut signifying a Giant Step into manhood, it made him look about 12 years old :)

[desdenova.livejournal.com]

Heroes is my abusive TV relationship, so I totally get where you're coming from! But so many bits of SCC turn on subverting and inverting standard metaphors and tropes, that I'm inclined to credit the show's creators with taking a more complex approach than simply using the default "woman is the ruin of man" interpretation from the original Samson & Delilah story.

I rather like how Ellison has his own story, which is separate from the Connors', even though it overlaps. Plus, I don't want him to be textually responsible for leading Cromartie to the Connors!

Dead white men: it's only fair that if they get to have the majority of roles, they get to be the majority of casualties!

[oyceter]

I knoooow! I was totally thinking of Heroes as I was typing this up! I mean, I do think SCC is doing a better job, but still. *clings* Bad things have happened before! I am afraid to trust the show!

[maerhys.livejournal.com]

Did you watch season one? I can't get a hold of season one yet and I am confused at to Sarah was engaged???? I though the whole mythology was built around she and Kyle being OTP 4eva?

[oyceter]

Yup! She's shown as being engaged in the pilot of S1, though I think it's partly because she liked the guy, partly because she was never planning on following through, and partly just for security.

Btw, I have S1 if you want ;). Email me at oyceter at gmail.

[maerhys.livejournal.com]

I just found it but thank you!

I am loving 2x1 but I don't know if I can get on board with this engagement.... but I'll try. At least I can have the other Reese boy around. Twenty years later and I still cry when Kyle dies.

[oyceter]

Heeee! I am more of a T2 girl and have only seen T1 twice or so, so I don't quite have the same attachment. FWIW, I do read Charley as being much more into Sarah than she is to him; I think she still has Kyle on her mind as well.

[maerhys.livejournal.com]

T1 is what brought me to sci-fi as a genre. I had decided I hated it for some reason and one day I rented T1 for 50 cents or something from the grocery, I was about 13 or so, and I LOVED it so much. And since then I keep finding myself liking sci-fi more and more even though I adamantly denied it. *lol*

After seeing the entire season, I agree on Kyle v. Charley, but I think the first few eps are "off" as if they were not sure how much Kyle to mention, etc. I liked it much better after Sarah was jolted when Derek arrived. At my core I am a romance consumer.

[seraphcelene]

I'm going for complexity. I think that all the characters can be exchanged between being Samson and being Delilah. Even Sarah whose strength is, I think, John. In a way, his cutting of the emo hair is his attempt at stripping her of power. It ties to that transition into adulthood thing, but we see him become more aggressive and combative with her in this episode. When he tosses the gun to her after re-booting Cameron, when he lights the car shell on fire and then the trailers for the next episode seem to really play on that.

7. I totally agree with you about Sarkissian. There was just something in that scene when Cameron breaks down the door that made me think of John being the murderer. The stain, I think, would have a greater impact on him than if he were just to watch Sarah kill someone on his behalf. The scene outside the door read awkward to me, like Sarah is losing control of John and she knows it, but doesn't know how to respond. He was so defiant in ways during this episode and she's used to being the head. Of course, there has to be a transition at some point where he becomes the leader because he IS the savior, blah blah blah.

8. I totally thought that was what they were going to d.

[seraphcelene]

Oh, and one other thing that I thought was pretty cool about Cameron as Samson was how John has to, very literally, go through her hair in order to take her down because of the location of her processor/chip.

[oyceter]

Oh, that is cool!

[ticketsonmyself.livejournal.com]

Via lifeonqueen: "According to the podcast at the official blog (http://fox.com/blogs/terminator/), Sarah kills Sarkissian while John watches... which makes rather more sense from John's reaction than the reverse."