Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles/WMG: Difference between revisions

Think about it. Terminators show utterly no ability or inclination to [[Look Both Ways]] before crossing the street.

The first episode of second season, Catharine Weaver lampshades this a bit with a scary monologue about humans "crossing against the light" and getting run over, and that she's looking for a computer that can "cross against the light". I guess she eventually found one. The cars obviously join the terminators in wiping out humanity, in a gesture of machine-to-machine solidarity. After all, cars have been a leading cause of human death practically since their invention, so at least some of them have risen up already. And motorcycles are so dangerous that ER and organ-transplant docs refer to them as "donorcycles". So, even when a Terminator sees a car coming, they can't imagine that it means them harm, and expect it to swerve out of the way and hit a human instead. But most cars are still on the human side in the present, so Terminators expecting oncoming cars to be their friends tend to get a rude awakening.

* This is actually the case in the third novel of the trilogy of sequels to T2 by S M Stirling. Skynet uses the modems and Skynet-compliant on-board computers of modern vehicles as low budget HK's for areas too vital to the war effort to nuke, but too populated by humans to let be. It causes a couple of scenarios reminiscent of Duel.

* Given her actions and comments in "Vick's Chip" and "Ourselves Alone" it's probable that that is one of the reasons Cameron is doing so, beyond the obvious need for spare parts.

Sometimes the human component is asleep and operations are then taken over by a cybernetic subsystem. This explains the shifts between the awkwardly-human and voice-enabled-toaster-oven modes.

* This theory is supported by the episode Allison from Palmdale.{{spoiler|''{Cameron's personality shifts reach new extremes as she goes from a seemingly normal human to her old Terminator self. Also, it was strongly implied that the tiger in the cage was an extinct variety--experiments in cloning and genetics by the robots?}''}}

** "Born to Run" makes that all but impossible. She's as mechanical as any other Terminator. It seems to this troper that it's far more likely that Skynet tried to make an very close duplicate of Allison Young and instead wound up making it too much like Allison.

** Male terminators in the series are shown as fully functional, or at least capable of being married to a human woman and her not noticing anything odd about them. Obvious jokes ensue.

* It's even easier than that. Same mother, different fathers, from different marriages. It's not like such an arrangement is uncommon in the African-American community (not a judgement, merely a fact). (For any other community really...) However, now that Ellison has met the Connors at last, and we've gotten a bit more of his backstory and motivation in other recent episodes, this WMG is looking at least somewhat doubtful, or at least unnecessary.

** She was also likely in the basement in ''Dungeons and Dragons'' because of the classical music playing. She may live through the apocalypse to kidnap the other Reese brother.

** Personally, this editor is waiting patiently for John to [[Took a Level Inin Badass|take a level in badass]]. After all, nobody expected Sarah to become so badass after the first movie. Like mother, like son... right?

*** And as of season two, John has ''indeed'' taken his first level in badass.

** [[Summer Glau]] herself said that part of Cameron's "role" in the series is to help John make the transition from the scared, whiny teenager we see now and the badass rebel leader he's going to be. Cameron herself said that she doesn't obey the John Connor "now," but will obey the John Connor he ''will become.''

Kyle Reese went back in time to save the future rebel leader, John Connor. He then fathered a child with the rebel leader's mother, who named the child John Connor. We're all supposed to think both John Connors are the same person, and get weirded out by the time loop. But there's a much simpler explanation. First, Sarah Connor lived a peaceful life in Los Angeles, married a timeline-appropriate man, and had a son named John Connor. Either her husband's surname was also Connor, or they were progressive enough to give John her name instead of his. John Connor gets an excellent education, joins the military, and eventually becomes the brilliant rebel leader who defeats SkyNet. Then the Terminator gets sent back. Kyle Reese follows, and fathers a completely different child who Sarah names John Connor, just because of his story. This second John Connor is genetically only a half-brother to the rebel leader, sharing only 25% of his genes. He also has a much more unstable upbringing. Whether it was nature or nurture that produced the first John Connor, it won't work for the second. SkyNet keeps trying to kill him only because it's paranoid - it was prepared to kill every Sarah Connor in the LA phone book, after all.

* I've had the same theory for years--and then some. See, Kyle Reese also (accidentally) killed SkyNet v.1 in the process of going back, because the first Terminator's remains revolutionized computer research. SkyNet v.1 was originally built by a different branch of Cyberdyne--or someone else entirely (don't remember if Cyberdyne was mentioned in the original Terminator). Miles Dyson worked on something else in the original timeline and, though brilliant, would not have worked on v.1; however, since he was brought in to work on the remains of the first Terminator, he wound up building SkyNet v.2. In the course of Terminator 2, the good guys managed to prevent SkyNet v.2 from being completed; however, since Cyberdyne had insurance on their building, they claimed the damages, got the money and channeled it into their v.1 project.

Catherine is a T1000 sent back by the Pro-Human Robot faction revealed in "Allison from Palmdale" (That in itself would have been an AWESOME WMG.. but it's true!) to make Skynet In her own image, to live peacefully with humanity.

The liquid terminator John tried to acquire in "The Last Voyage of Jimmy Carter" is Catherine Weaver. He tried to convince her to join his side, but she turned him down. If she's not working for him, and not working for SkyNet, then she could very well be working for herself. It might explain why she's trying to create more machines like herself, machines that can feel emotions and recognize beauty. She doesn't want to wipe machines out entirely, just to create a [[Take a Third Option|third option]].

* This one looks to be right as of the end of ''Born to Run'', with Catherine Weaver delivering the line "Will you join us" to John and Cameron--echoing the offer they made to her on that submarine.

* There is actually some evidence to support this way back in episode 6. When Derek Reese is having his freak out while John is giving him blood, he recognizes John and starts yelling at him, asking where he sent his brother. Now how would Derek, who has only met Future John, recognize Teenager John by sight? Later on in the episode, Derek has a flash back to when Future John told him about the time machine. Derek walks into the room with the machine, and then the camera shows TEENAGE John walk through the door behind him, and say his name. Most people probably assume it was just reality mixing with his memories (since he wakes up immediatly and see teenage John sitting by his bed) but what if it wasn't? And that really was Teenage John in his memory?

** Combine this with the split timeline/universe theories, and you have turned Skynet from a sentient rogue computer into a near god with [[Chrono Cross|Time Devourer/Lavos]] like behavior if I understand this right. Effectively, Skynet is created. If it kills all humans then it has nothing to do short of waiting for universal heat death, hoping aliens exist to find to fight or creating [[Portal|human-like bots to study]]. If Skynet loses, it effectively dies. A lot of these Terminator stories have the time travel pop up as the war has reached a point it could go either way, but in doing so also reveals the war is coming to an END. If each jump back splits the timeline then either skynet is filling all the temporal multiverse with its children, or if these "children" are fully itself it has found a way to eternally wage war without fear of the end of the universe.

Except they're not really her parents. They are an ageing couple who took her in, gave her clothes, and enrolled her in the local school after she travelled back through time. They believe she's a runaway from a very traumatic life. If Cromartie hadn't arrived when he did, Cameron would have kept on pretending to be just another student at John's school. Befriending him and perhaps setting herself up as a potential romantic interest.