Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles was the highest rated new show last season and this season looks to be even bigger and better. As the terminator, Cameron, Summer Glau truly won the audience over, even those who didn’t want a Sarah Conner without Linda Hamilton. In much the way Arnold Schwarzenegger won over fans in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Summer’s Cameron is both the action and the humor of the show. Watching her move is like watching music come to life: it flows and captivates you, pulling you in and along with it. Unlike Season 1, which was cut short to eight episodes by the writers’ strike, it will be a full 22 episodes this season. Additional cast members (Shirley Manson of Garbage) have been added and a main cast member will die!
During the San Diego Comic-Con panel, the producer dropped the bomb that someone would die, something that the cast did not know yet. Suddenly everyone was pleading, “Please not me! I promise to remember my lines!”
Here’s my theory: I think either Sarah Conner or Agent Ellison will die. Why, you ask?
Theory one: During the discussion of Season 2, Richard Jones was talking about the writers asking him questions about the book of Revelations because he was always reading his Bible on the set when he wasn’t in a scene. The whole “apocalypse” theme of Revelations is going to play a big role in this season as a man of faith (Agent Ellison) begins to question his beliefs as he witnesses the rise of the machines — are they a fulfillment of prophesy or was the Bible wrong? How do the terminators fit into Revelations? Richard, while speaking about it, mentioned that he is a very faithful, strong Christian and how thrilled he was that the writers were asking him so many questions. He also mentioned how he prayed for his castmates and crew and how much he loved his job. That could make people uncomfortable, and after milking him for apocalyptical knowledge and faith-based point of view of the end of the world, they might want him gone to make things easier on the set for those who do not share the same beliefs and may feel he’s too vocal for their comfort.
Theory two: An innocent fan stumbled upon a sore spot with the crew — he asked if we would get to see more sexy Lena Headey in tank top scenes, since Sarah Conner was famous for her tanks. Lena, with a glance at the director, hesitantly commented that “actors don’t belong in makeup chairs” and the director leaned into the mic and said, “you’ve stumbled into a family squabble” and changed the subject. Lena is famous for her tattoos. She has them all over her arms and back. She had them when she was hired for the position and apparently doesn’t like spending three or more hours in a chair getting makeup applied to her tats to cover them up. While they hired her with tattoos in place already, there seems to have been a dispute at some point over the tattoos and neither party was willing to comment on the details of it. The question now is, has the tension on the set about her tattoos become a big enough issue to kill her off? With Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and the events in Terminator: TSCC, we know that at some point Sarah died of cancer in the original timeline that has been altered by the events of TSCC. Will they take advantage of this “canon” event to get rid of her because they can’t resolve their “family squabble”, will she submit to the chair willingly to avoid the permanent death of her character, or will they begin writing her tattoos into the story as they have with castmate Brian Austin Green?
This is all speculation, but when the word “death” came up at Comic-Con, these were the two biggest targets that I saw on the panel, if only because they seemed to be ripples in an otherwise fairly calm pool. Also, Lena wasn’t “feeling the love” from fans’ underwhelming response to her. I felt that when she came out and the applause was not as loud as for the others, but no one received louder applause then Summer Glau. Linda Hamilton’s name was banned from the discussion, a suggestion that the biggest negative feedback from the fans is “not liking” Terminator without Linda Hamilton (but to be fair, the name “River Tam” was banned as well, even though a fan broke that rule by addressing Summer as River).
I know there has been some expression of dislike towards Lena Headey’s Sarah Conner, even within my circles. I didn’t expect to like her, not because I don’t like Lena but because of Linda Hamilton being the face of Sarah Conner for more then two decades, but, on the contrary, I have enjoyed Lena’s roles and unexpectedly warmed up to her interpretation of Sarah quicker then I expected to. Honestly, I didn’t plan on giving Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles more then four episodes to grab me. There have been too many cheesy sci-fi shows tossed together to get the geek fan base to switch networks, and hopefully latch on to other non-sci-fi shows while there, before quickly axing the show, but Fox surprised us with a strong showing and surprisingly well-produced show. Not only did they win me over, it’s the one show my entire family sits together to watch every week, and the newly released Season 1 DVD box set is now a part of our vast DVD library.
If you missed out on Season 1 of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, you can watch the recaps or full episodes on the official Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles website or pick up the DVD. Tune in on Monday, September 8th to catch the Season 2 premiere on the Fox network.