Does anyone know what that animation of the fighting biker monsters on the tv was? It was the coolest thing EVER.

I must say, despite some cheese, that these last two hours were more steps up.
And the EVERYBODY IN THE POOL scene was great.

and CJA- no mention of the explodinatin' Glaubot?

I thought this season finale was very entertaining. Unlike the BSG Season 3 finale which was pure garbage. I, too strongly hope Terminator gets a season 2. This show has a great deal of potential.

I would like to thank Jezebel for watching this garbage so we do not have to. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.

Though show has its share of ridiculous moments and predictable plot lines (queue the Terminator Drinking game), I find that I'm completely addicted to the show--it's become my essential Monday night 'senseless violence on TV' replacement for 24.

Here's to season 2.

Whoever thought of using that obscure Johnny Cash song to give religious overtones to the dreamy sequence (where have I seen this before? Dukes of Hazzard?) where the terminator takes on a whole swat team and kills them off one by one, must have been on shrooms or something. Just twisted enough to be interesting.

I think Summer Glau will have to look gruesome for awhile after that car bomb though.

@gabelle: We love Jezebel, but io9 watches this so you don't have to. So think of it as Jezebel outsourcing to their nerdier sisters.

Did I mention yet that the season finale was awesome? I will be so sad if this show gets canceled.

Darn! SOrry - I didn't realize I switched websites. Thank you, io9. You make my life easier:)

It doesn't take a Terminator to fake a marriage. Many of the loving couples I know have been phoning it in for years. I'm willing to bet close to half of those don't involve robotic killing machines. That being said, I thought the two episodes were pretty good. I'm a bit disturbed by where they're going with the, dare I say, sexual tension between John and Cameron. Not necessarily because Cameron's an animate object. No, I just don't believe John is squarely in the hetero camp if you know what I mean...nudge-nudge, wink-wink.

Man, I was worried you weren't going to talk about the episode from last night. I've been checking in all day.

I really liked John's dad moment...it was genuinely touching. There were a few good moments, but much of the show is heavy-handed.

I have to admit, the explosions are cool. So, in the end, I hope there is a second season. If not, the first season had a pretty lame ending...

Really, you all liked that crap? I hated it!

I don't know which part was the most ridiculous... the fact that it's a show about killer robots from the future, yet they turn to the tired cliche of Russian gangsters. Or the potentially awesome scene of the Terminator kicking an entire FBI squad's asses, but the fucking camera cuts away the entire time! Perhaps worst of all, the Terminator's chip just seamlessly inserts into an open PCI slot on a motherboard? I haven't seen that level of stupidity in science fiction since Independence Day.

This show is lame, lame, lame. Cancel it.

I watched the finale too... and even if they only get one more episode, I'd have to see Cameron trying to fit in at the prom...

I liked the second hour much better than the first. Both the exceptional scenes you listed (John's dad and Pool > CIA) were absolutely fantastic. I'm starting to get worried though that Chromarty is stepping up his homicide levels and they aren't going to do much about it.

Ohhh man, after gettin blown up, how is the Terminator gonna go to the prom all lookin like Carrie after the bucket of pig blood has been dumped on her? Thats it!! Shes so totally dark and goth she could pull it off! I gotta see a Terminator at a prom, this show CAN'T get canceled.

Fail terminator is fail for not killing all FBI agents.

that said, the episode was further proof that water in L.A. is actually toxic enough to kill people thrown in it.

I liked the season, but I thought the finale was weak.

Isnt John Connor the one kid who really should be home-schooled? Get off the grid man.

Doesnt anybody at the high school think its strange that a 30yo woman is a student there?

The FBI agent knows that he's looking for an unstoppable killer robot, so he sends his men after it? Gets them all predictably killed including the awesome woman from "The Shield". (Almost as sad as when Fisher Stevens was killed in Lost - actors I like, with tiny parts, killed too soon) - but the underwater swimmingpool shot was very very cool.

A computer virus? Seriously? The best they could think of? Was it the same virus from "Independence Day"? Or maybe from "The Net"?

good thing he had that Korean friend to get him a terminator brain compatible motherboard with a 5 teraflop graphic bus or whatever. South Korea has the coolest tech.

@Xanthur: I think you might be thinking of the opening title sequence from the remake of Dawn of the Dead. And yeah, it was a fucking great choice of music.

Loved the music for the pool party!

Loved the scene at the park!

Didn't get anywhere enough of the Glaubot in the little mini-dress and knee-high boots!! Man that chick is hot.

Second hour was really quite good. It's pretty evident the creators aren't just phoning it in - anyone notice when BAG mentioned John's foster parents (oops, sword through the milk carton people. "Your foster parents are dead."

The show is great, I'm going to be pissed if they cancel it.

i'm trying to ignore all the fuck-ups about last night's finale. the story was cool. i woulda shot it differently.
as for the action: i've watched all season, so i wasn't surprised or disappointed. at first, i thought all the SWAT guys falling in the pool was gay as shit. but now, i think they did well by the music and the slo-mo cannonballs. best they could do, and they did it with creative flair. i bet it was a hard sell.

What a difference having the writers back makes. I bet there was a whole bunch of reshoots and updates and tweaks on these last two and it shows.

By blowing up Cameron at the end, the producers have given themselves an out if they want to replace Summer Glau.
While her skeleton is indestructible, her skin isn't.
The question is, has Glau made some sort of salary increase demand?
They could reconstruct Cameron with a new look, a new actress if they want.

I am hesitant to start watching this show. My friend in the states keeps trying to convince me of its merits, but I am still hesitant for two reasons.

One being that the show does not seem to have continuity with the films (or coming film) or so I have heard.

The other being that with the exception of The Simpsons, FOX has been notorious at cancelling shows that I loved (Futurama, Space Above and Beyond, Millennium, etc) and I am hesitant to have them kill a series in mid stride once again.

Is it worth the effort despite my hesitations?

The thing I have NEVER understood about this mythos is that, despite fighting robots that are varying degrees of bulletproof (ranging from "VERY" to "Absolutely"), all the resistance fighters are carrying around conventional weapons. What's the point? Are the robots that attached to their skin that they go home and weep if it gets superficially torn?

I'm willing to suspend disbelief, but I need fiction to meet me halfway and follow its own rules.

Aside from that, the show really does look like it has a lot of potential and hasn't been overreaching itself to follow predictable plot points. If it gets picked up for a second season, I'll still watch it.

I still don't like softer kinder Sarah. I want Linda Hamilton "they're already dead any way" bad ass Sarah.
That being said, this two hour was some of the better TV I've seen in 2008.
I hope they get another season to really stretch their legs.

i hope this isn't just the equivalent of a one-shot story. a vignette into a possible futurepast for the terminator universe. i hope it comes back.

if people had a half a brain, they'd rewrite t4 to take up this storyline. christian bale as this future john connor with a lot of back fill-in to bring us up to date. fuckyeah.

Am I missing something here? The promos for this episode talked about a surprising betrayal. I didn't notice one, was that the surprise?

@extracrispy: No, the most ridiculous thing was that a few short weeks ago BAG took a nearly unsurvivable bullet wound in the lung, ( and subsequent kitchen table surgery ), yet there he is bare - chested in the shower and not a mark on him.

also, james "doctor venture" urbaniak as the cafe manager guy.

any show that has rusty venture getting his face smashed on a counter can't be all bad.

@mattclary: I couldn't agree more. =)

I also liked the bit where Sarah was trying to be a cool mom who reads the newsletter, but she still gets pizza day wrong. It was cute.

@Amalas: I agree, I liked that scene.
I do have one question though: who was the lucky winner of the caption contest? Did they announce that?

That would be three shower incursion scenes. There was also the Terminator-vision one, when the shoe finally dropped, and the incursion turned to actual violence.

The John Connor meets his father scene was so incredibly gratifying. They brought up the possibility of a meeting by establishing that the Reese's grew up in the same area, and then after only a short period to let the idea build they just went for it.

@ blorp - "Isnt John Connor the one kid who really should be home-schooled? Get off the grid man."

Absolutely! I've been yelling this exact sentiment @ the screen from ep. 1! It's not like boy-genius is learning anything substantial in Auto Shop, and if he is such a brainiac, wouldn't he have tested out and be enrolled in some meaningful classes @ some local college by now?

But the biggest question I've been scanning the web for an answer for: WHAT WAS WITH THE KID'S RED BACKPACK?!? I mean it was obnoxiously IN frame and IN focus for every angle of her exchange w/J Connor, like a bad product placement (as if there were such a thing as a good product placement).

I was just sure the TURK was in that bag, and maybe it was in the draft before the writer's strike ended the season early.

Perhaps I'm giving them too much credit.

It bothers me that Cameron (and the other terminators too) regularly does things like punch through walls without doing any damage to her skin.

Anybody notice the cheesy camerawork where it zooms in and out on the wall being blown?