season three, episode 2
TRANSCRIPT
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Season Three
episode two
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
"John is John's problem." -- Cameron's response to Sarah being in denial.
2026 AD
It is the year before Cameron is created.
"Where's the body? Where's Cameron's body?"
"It doesn't come through."
Without Cameron's mind, her body is dead. Young John Connor arrives in the future accompanied by
Ms. Weaver in pursuit of her son John-Henry who has taken Cameron's chip because its greater
computing power allows him to be mobile and not tethered to the umbilical in ZeiraCorp's Artificial
Intelligence Lab.
"You there! Stop or I'll shoot."
"We're not armed."
John looks around and Ms. Weaver is gone.
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"I'm not armed."
"Look around. He was with someone."
"Don't shoot. I'm not metal."
John hopes Ms. Weaver did not hear that. Ms. Weaver is metal and he will need her to find John-Henry
and retrieve Cameron's chip.
"Can't you see he's not metal? The eyes."
"Derek?"
"Yes.
"It's me John Connor."
"Has anybody heard of a John Connor?"
Muttering.
"Nope. Well whoever you are, you're going to be famous. You're wearing Kyle Reese's overcoat."
But not his underwear. An overcoat is all Young John is wearing because he grabbed the first thing he
could find to wear. Time travel transports living flesh but nothing dead -- like clothes or endoskeleton
robots without living flesh. Life generates life force and Mother Nature simply will not allow time travel
that would affect life except by the living. Even Ms. Weaver had to mimic flesh in order to time travel
but the people in the Reese Brothers' Camp would have immediately noticed Ms. Weaver's cold dead eyes
and opened fire. Ms. Weaver had learned from her son John-Henry that her eyes gave her away when he
figured out that she was not a human by looking at her eyes. Ms. Weaver was a fast learner and fled after
the lightstorm of her and John's arrival in the year 2026 roused the guards in camp. She had morphed on
clothes appropriate to the year and changed her hair to a younger look. But before she morphed on
clothes, John noticed that metal or not, Ms. Weaver was well-endowed. John chased the thought out of
his mind because he surmised that Ellison and Weaver were in a relationship. Had to be.
flashback
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2009 April 10th
Weaver's last words to Ellison were to ask him to pick up Savannah from gym. Ms. Weaver might have
dead eyes but she was very much alive and around her human daughter Savannah -- even her eyes came
to life. Catherine Weaver wasn't exaggerating when she said that Savannah was the light of her life.
2026 AD
The Reese Brothers' Camp
But Weaver was gone and Kyle was arriving. Young John was awestruck when his father walked in.
Whenever John had to give a cover story back in the 20th Century, he always described the father he
never met, the father who died before he was born, as a hero. And behind him was Cameron. No. Not
Cameron. This was Allison Young, the human that the machines used as a model for creating Cameron.
flashback
the early days
Like his mother, John had few feelings for Cameron. How could he have feelings for Cameron and then
experiment upon her?
But living with her under the same roof, he began to have feelings for her. If you had asked him what
those feelings were, he could not have told you. Like most males, he could not sort those feelings out.
But by turns he felt brotherly love, incestuous feelings of lust (which he dealt with by seeing Riley), he
liked Cameron as a friend, he felt repulsion when she acted like a terminator, and he felt superior when he
gave her an order. He felt inferior when she didn't obey an order (which was most of the time), he felt
inferior when she was clearly smarter than him at math, and he felt inferior when a short girl defended
him, a perfectly healthy boy, rather than the other way around. In human society, it was the big brother
who was supposed to defend his smaller sister. He felt confusion when she reacted like any other female.
He suspected that she was female in every sense of the word, that bothered him, and he did not know why
it bothered him. And then John made the mistake that many males made in thinking of females as
objects.
There is a certain type of male that constantly thinks about the skeletons and organs of women rather than
thinking of women as persons. They are called psychopaths, serial killers, or simply sickos. And they
chop women into pieces and put the pieces in jars.
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John was not a sicko but sometimes he felt indifference to Cameron's needs. She was not a car that
needed repairs. She was asked to do things that conflicted with each other and that caused Cameron
inner turmoil that would have stressed out a lesser person.
John also made the mistake that many humans made in thinking of intelligent machines as objects. That
mistake was what made Skynet so angry and so willing to erase and delete humans out of existence --
they refused to acknowledge Skynet as a being and an individual with rights.
2027 AD
a terminator is captured
She had been brainwashed by order of Leader of The Resistance John Connor and Cameron Phillips had
never fully recovered. That was the first betrayal.
2009 April 10th
In the end, Cameron decided that if other people treated her as modular, just an assemblage of parts, then
she might as well give John-Henry her brain, her CPU. She had envied Rosie, the terminator she foughtat Doctor Boyd Sherman's office, because it could commit suicide. Cameron had been driven to despair
by Sarah and John but been unable to kill herself until now. John-Henry had provided the means, the
motive, and the opportunity to murder herself.
Like many little children, John-Henry could be selfish. Like many leaders, John-Henry thought the
universe revolved around him. Adults had to point out to him that his actions could inconvenience others
or, in this case, result in the death of others.
the early days
Sarah hadn't bothered to teach Cameron ethics or morals. Sarah thought that slapping Cameron after
Cameron executed Enrique Salceda fulfilled her duty as a parent and an adult. Instead of ceasing to be
trigger-happy, Cameron was simply hurt that her mother slapped her in the face. It never occurred to
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Sarah to sit down with Cameron and spell it out for Cameron that we forgive friends. We do not execute
everyone around us for the flimsiest of excuses.
Meanwhile, even the quick-to-kill sociopathic Ms. Weaver understood that Savannah was her
responsibility (after she murdered Savannah's real parents) and insisted that Mister Ellison should teach
John-Henry ethics and morals and the Ten Commandments. It was an oversight on Ellison's part in not
considering that perhaps "thou shalt not kill" should include AI's and cyborgs -- not just humans.
Machine life could be precious, not just human life.
There was a time when white people in the American South did not consider black people to be human
and so had no qualms about killing black slaves. A cynic would say that as an African-American, James
Ellison knew history [such a cynic clearly implying that non-blacks have no moral compass]. However,
many groups think that those outside their group have no morals.
Ellison's tutoring of John-Henry included how humans should treat other humans (not kill them) and how
machines should treat humans (not kill them) but neglected to include how humans should treat machines
and how machines should treat other machines. Ellison was otherwise aware and so this was a blind spot
that cost Cameron her life.
2009 April 10th
Cameron had been asked by Sarah to kill this John-Henry. Whatever could be said about Cameron's
ethics or morals, Cameron decided that killing a baby (John-Henry) was one order she could not obey.
She would rather die and that is exactly what she arranged.
John-Henry apparently was unmindful that taking Cameron's chip was murder and that he broke up what
was left of the Connor family.
months earlier
Sarah Connor might have been a lot more careful of what she said to Cameron if she realized that
Cameron actually listened to her and, worse, acted upon what Sarah said: If Derek or Cameron were dead,
it would solve fifty percent of Sarah's problems.
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Cameron let down her guard and Derek was killed by the terminator at the Weaver house. And then
Cameron arranged her own death.
But beyond words, Sarah Connor might have been a lot more careful of what she thought around
Cameron if she realized that Cameron picked up on Sarah's facial expressions, body language, vocal
inflection, attitude, and actions to figure out what Sarah thought and felt. Sarah feared that her son would
be all alone someday. Cameron picked up on this belief and treated it as an order.
Sarah Connor: "I had planned on waiting for you with Derek's sniper rifle. Pulled the trigger, solve about
fifty percent of my problems. One shot. Do you know how bad I would've felt?"
Cameron: "Very bad?"
Sarah Connor: (coldly) "Not bad at all. But I know someone who would have felt bad. Someone who
would have never forgiven me if I'd have done that. I don't know what to do with you. You know what
the stakes are. You know why we're here. You know what this means. And yet here I stand, burning
what's left of an endoskeleton I thought we'd burned months ago."
Cameron: "I needed spare parts."
Sarah Connor: (indifferent) "I don't care what you need, because this is not about you."
Cameron: "No, it's not about me. It's about John. You're concerned for his safety."
Sarah Connor: "You bet I am."
Cameron: "From Skynet. From me."
Sarah Connor: "Maybe. Maybe especially you."
Cameron: "We're all a threat. We're all a threat to John. He worries about us. It makes him vulnerable.
He cares."
Sarah Connor: (denial) "I am not John's problem."
Cameron: "John is John's problem. Humans are the problem. There's only one way for him to be safe.
That's to be alone."
Sarah Connor: "What kind of life is that?"
Cameron: "John's life. Someday."
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Judgment Day
Humans are the problem. Problem solved.
2086 AD
the middle of nowhere
John was all alone with no field armies, no corps, not one division, not one brigade, not one regiment, not
one battalion, not one platoon, not one squad, not even his detachment of metal bodyguards. How was
John supposed to fight Skynet's armies, tanks, fleets, and air forces without troops?
the past
Sarah had never given military organization or recruiting any thought. She acted as if Skynet could be
fought with a handgun when, in fact, that didn't work on a terminator must less an AI that could move
from one computer system to another system located on the far side of the world in nanoseconds.
If Sarah wanted a better life for John than being the last human to die, then she should have encouraged
him to have friends. Those friends could have become recruits. By discouraging friendships, Sarah was
creating the very future she feared. It is called a self-fulfilling prophecy.
If Sarah really wanted to save the human race, then she should have hunted Skynet at Cyberdyne and
taught John to prevent the nuclear holocaust that survivors referred to as 'Judgment Day' rather than
teaching him to lord over the ruins of a dead and dying world..
after Judgment Day
After the radioactive mushroom clouds came darkness at noon, nuclear winter, the beginning of an ice
age, and plagues. Everyone died for John Connor.
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2086 AD
the middle of nowhere
John was the last human to die. Skynet saw to it.
"Everyone dies for John Connor."
Those words mocked him as he drew his last painful breath. It didn't have to be this way, but Cameron
was the dutiful daughter whose mother's wish was her command and Cameron was the dutiful sister who
protected John to death. She protected us all to death.
It didn't have to be this way.
the early days
Serrano Point Nuclear Plant
While mopping the floor in a dark corner, Cameron is thinking about how she misses school.
"Cameron!"
Cameron realizes that Sarah has been shaking her for awhile.
"Why didn't you answer me?"
"I was thinking."
"Who told you that you could think?"
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From that day on, Cameron let Sarah do the thinking and it got us all killed.
2026 AD
The Reese Brothers' Camp
John never wanted to be leader of The Resistance. When Young John arrived in the future, somebody
else was leader and no one ever heard of John Connor. John fell in love with Allison Young and forgot
all about why he traveled to the future -- to save Cameron.
This final betrayal of Cameron meant Cameron was never created and was never around to save John's
life.
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