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- Review: Sarah Connor, 2.12, Alpine Fields
Review: Sarah Connor, 2.12, Alpine Fields
- By Crystal Carroll
- Published 12/15/2008
- The Sarah Connor Chronicles
- Unrated
Crystal Carroll
Crystal is a 30-something writer living in Northern California. She divides her time between writing technical documentation (techy, tech, tech requirements docs), analytical essays on television shows that hold her brain for ransom, and the occasional bout of fiction (like plague, only with characters). She enjoys Pinot Noir, but not during robot apocalypses, and feels all movies could be made better if they had a Sleestack in the background.
View all articles by Crystal Carroll
John possibly hung out with Riley off screen. It was hard to tell. (spoilers)
In "Alpine Fields", Sarah and Cameron attempt to rescue a family, the Fields, one of whom is being targeted by a T888. The episode plays a great deal with the fluidity of time by juxtaposing scenes different points in the present and future, while working toward the big reveal that once again Skynet is targeting an unborn child.
Sarah and Cameron help the nuclear Fields family of father David, mother Anne and daughter Lauren at their cabin in the woods. Anne's lover Roger also makes a brief appearance, before being accidentally killed by Cameron. Six months later, Derek comes to the medical aid of visibly pregnant Anne and Lauren, David having been killed as all fathers are in this series. In the future, Derek encounters both Lauren and the grown up infant, Sydney.
One of the more interesting aspects of T1 and T2 is the transformation in Sarah Connor. Upon learning of the nature of the future, she takes that knowledge and she transformed herself in fundamental ways. All aspects of her life become about preparing her savior son for his role. She was not born Sarah Connor Warrior Princess. She was an ordinary person with ordinary dreams. She recreated herself into the person that she needed to be. She adapted to the situation that she found herself in.
In Alpine Fields, Sarah over the course of the night in the dark woods, acts as a mentor to Lauren, who shifts from seeing Sarah's lifestyle as exciting to a sad reality. What's interesting about this is that via the benefit of time travel, we get snapshots of Laruen's journey. Sydney is a target due to an accident of genetics. She is immune to a plague that Skynet is attempting to use to wipe out humanity. In her scenes, she is a passive figure. There is a great deal of energy and focus surrounding her, but she herself does nothing. She stands in place and is a memento mori to the people who died around her. However, as we see in those future scenes, Lauren is a directly involved in developing a cure for Skynet’s plague out of her sister's blood.
Having learned from Derek the nature of the threat and why her sister is a "savior" figure, Lauren followed Sarah Connor's path. Her father was an investor, who dealt in shady deals. Her mother was unhappy housewife. Lauren is described as no one in particular. She transformed herself into a healer. As her mother gives birth to Sydney, it is Lauren who assists.
In her present-day scene with Derek, she wore a Saint Jude's medal. Saint Jude being the patron of lost causes. In the future, she injects Derek with the cure that will save him and the others without ever saying anything to indicate that she remembers him. This makes me wonder if that Lauren was from still yet another timeline.
In T:tSCC is not just the "saviors" who save the world, but the ordinary people around them. Anne and Sarah were targets, because of their children. Anne attempted to call her lover, which is what led to them being found the Terminator and resulted in David's death. In T1, Sarah called her mother, which resulted in Arnold finding her and Kyle. Kyle and David both died protecting the future, but the future itself is carried on by women. While Roger, Sydney’s father, died rather ignominiously in a closet. Even “good” Terminators are deadly.
In an iteration of Derek telling the John about when he met Jesse in "Goodbye to All That", we are shown the moment that Jessie and Derek met. In the future, Derek goes on a mission to a bunker where there is a sole survivor to Skynet's plague. The moment is clearly placed after Kyle was sent back in time and Derek is seeking a mission of some meaning or significance. What he finds at the bunker are the dead. He emerges outside, already exposed to the illness, and considers killing himself, before Jesse appears. Visually the moment is very evocative of WWI and "Goodbye to All That." In an interesting shift, Jessie is part of an Australia to California run carrying food from Australia on a nuclear sub captained by metal. I suppose it's fortunate that Lauren didn't know that part of the story or Sydney might have been named Perth.
As they wait to make their escape back to base, Jessie tells Derek and Sydney about the attempts of the Australians to kill off the rabbit population, which was non-native in the first place. Rabbits were introduced to Australia for sport hunting, but proved to be so prolific that they caused the extinction of many non-native species. Australians tried both building a giant fence and introducing a plague. However, some rabbits were immune and the rabbit population soon recovered. As Jessie talked, it was very clear that Derek and Sydney saw the parallels between humanity and the rabbits. Given that Skynet is an artificial construct, it's also possible to parallel those rabbits with the machines, but since we don't get to see metal conversations that side is left unspoken.
In "Alpine Fields", Sarah and Cameron attempt to rescue a family, the Fields, one of whom is being targeted by a T888. The episode plays a great deal with the fluidity of time by juxtaposing scenes different points in the present and future, while working toward the big reveal that once again Skynet is targeting an unborn child.
Sarah and Cameron help the nuclear Fields family of father David, mother Anne and daughter Lauren at their cabin in the woods. Anne's lover Roger also makes a brief appearance, before being accidentally killed by Cameron. Six months later, Derek comes to the medical aid of visibly pregnant Anne and Lauren, David having been killed as all fathers are in this series. In the future, Derek encounters both Lauren and the grown up infant, Sydney.
One of the more interesting aspects of T1 and T2 is the transformation in Sarah Connor. Upon learning of the nature of the future, she takes that knowledge and she transformed herself in fundamental ways. All aspects of her life become about preparing her savior son for his role. She was not born Sarah Connor Warrior Princess. She was an ordinary person with ordinary dreams. She recreated herself into the person that she needed to be. She adapted to the situation that she found herself in.
In Alpine Fields, Sarah over the course of the night in the dark woods, acts as a mentor to Lauren, who shifts from seeing Sarah's lifestyle as exciting to a sad reality. What's interesting about this is that via the benefit of time travel, we get snapshots of Laruen's journey. Sydney is a target due to an accident of genetics. She is immune to a plague that Skynet is attempting to use to wipe out humanity. In her scenes, she is a passive figure. There is a great deal of energy and focus surrounding her, but she herself does nothing. She stands in place and is a memento mori to the people who died around her. However, as we see in those future scenes, Lauren is a directly involved in developing a cure for Skynet’s plague out of her sister's blood.
Having learned from Derek the nature of the threat and why her sister is a "savior" figure, Lauren followed Sarah Connor's path. Her father was an investor, who dealt in shady deals. Her mother was unhappy housewife. Lauren is described as no one in particular. She transformed herself into a healer. As her mother gives birth to Sydney, it is Lauren who assists.
In T:tSCC is not just the "saviors" who save the world, but the ordinary people around them. Anne and Sarah were targets, because of their children. Anne attempted to call her lover, which is what led to them being found the Terminator and resulted in David's death. In T1, Sarah called her mother, which resulted in Arnold finding her and Kyle. Kyle and David both died protecting the future, but the future itself is carried on by women. While Roger, Sydney’s father, died rather ignominiously in a closet. Even “good” Terminators are deadly.
In an iteration of Derek telling the John about when he met Jesse in "Goodbye to All That", we are shown the moment that Jessie and Derek met. In the future, Derek goes on a mission to a bunker where there is a sole survivor to Skynet's plague. The moment is clearly placed after Kyle was sent back in time and Derek is seeking a mission of some meaning or significance. What he finds at the bunker are the dead. He emerges outside, already exposed to the illness, and considers killing himself, before Jesse appears. Visually the moment is very evocative of WWI and "Goodbye to All That." In an interesting shift, Jessie is part of an Australia to California run carrying food from Australia on a nuclear sub captained by metal. I suppose it's fortunate that Lauren didn't know that part of the story or Sydney might have been named Perth.
As they wait to make their escape back to base, Jessie tells Derek and Sydney about the attempts of the Australians to kill off the rabbit population, which was non-native in the first place. Rabbits were introduced to Australia for sport hunting, but proved to be so prolific that they caused the extinction of many non-native species. Australians tried both building a giant fence and introducing a plague. However, some rabbits were immune and the rabbit population soon recovered. As Jessie talked, it was very clear that Derek and Sydney saw the parallels between humanity and the rabbits. Given that Skynet is an artificial construct, it's also possible to parallel those rabbits with the machines, but since we don't get to see metal conversations that side is left unspoken.