The Sarah Connor Chronicles 2×14: The Good Wound
The new episode of The Sarah Connor Chronicles picks up where the show left off in December and, while it does not provide any definite answers to the questions raised in the first half of the season, it certainly doesn’t lack in major hints about where the story is going.
We learn that Sarah (Lena Headey) is definitely on Skynet’s trail and her obsession with the three dots is likely not just paranoia, that Catherine Weaver, the shapeshifting head of ZeiraCorp (Shirley Manson), is stocking up on coltan and her plans are not limited to developing the AI that eventually turns into Skynet, and that John Henry (Garret Dillahunt) is developing faster than his parental figures Weaver and Ellison (Richard T. Jones) can keep up.
Also, in an unexpected twist, we see John Henry channel his curiosity about intelligent design through Bionicles and not the Old Testament, as planned. Which means that yes, somewhere between Garret Dillahunt‘s baby Skynet getting himself into trouble by learning to Google, the show’s Wicked Witch spouting lines straight out of Bryan Adams’ songs, and a nice meditative shot of urinals introducing the episode’s snuff sequence, The Sarah Connor Chronicles has definitely got its sense of humour back.
The best thing about “The Good Wound” is that it puts the show back on track in terms of storytelling in a very big way. After an uneven first half of the season, where plot, characters and symbolism were often brilliant at each other’s expense, the new offering from Ashley Miller and Zack Stentz lets us see all the elements work together – and work together very well – with the three stories in the episode all showing how far the major characters – human or metal – would go to cover their tracks and protect their missions: Sarah keeps a doctor at gunpoint, Derek (Brian Austin Green) is off blowing stuff up and burning evidence, Jesse (Stephanie Jacobsen) shows little sympathy for Riley’s (Leven Rambin) predicament, Cameron (Summer Glau) points out to John (Thomas Dekker) that finding Riley is not something they need to do, and Weaver leaves a bloodbath behind her as she blows up an entire coltran plant.
There is some excellent character stuff going on with Sarah, who is mainly working through her hesitation to rely on others for help, and this works exceptionally well in her interaction with Derek and to a lesser degree with the two guest characters, Dr. Burnett (Laura Regan) and Kyle Reese (Jonathan Jackson). Sarah is definitely at her most relatable this season and Headey gets huge props for her performance in this one.
All in all, more than a promising start to the back nine.
The next episode of The Sarah Connor Chronicles, “Desert Cantos,” airs on Friday, February 20 at 8 pm on Fox.
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