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By Daniel

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The Connor Crew needs to get back the severed hand of the T-888, lest authorities reverse-engineer the technology involved to create Terminators, in that awesome time-loop paradox, wherein it's the technology from the future that causes the actual invention of the technology, one of those things that if you think about too much, you will start to bleed from your ears.

The hand, though, isn't part of Agent Ellison's official investigation, because everyone already thinks he's crazy enough, so he's investigating this more or less on his own. He tracks down Dr. Silberman, who is now known as Dr. Silverman (and Earl Boen's streak comes to an end), and -- this is nice for him -- his hair has grown back! He's gone kind of cuckoo for cocoa puffs, and ties Ellison to a chair and jams a knife in Ellison's leg to make sure the unlucky agent isn't actually a Terminator. Ellison shows him the severed hand, and Silverman is all, "Great -- this means I have to kill you to death," and sets fire to his own house. Sarah's the one who saves Ellison from the fire -- he sees her, but judging from his bible-study group participation during the denouement, it's possible he thinks it might have been a hallucination. Whether he's coming around or not, you don't screw with Agent Ellison: he has Dr. Silverman thrown in the nuthouse.

Meanwhile, Cameron tracks down Dmitri Shipkov via his sister, who's a ballet teacher. In an amazing coinicidence, Summer Glau is a ballet dancer herself, which must have come in handy. Dmitry owes some men some money, and Cameron gains her ballet teacher's trust, and then finds out from Dmitry that he stole the Turk and sold it. After getting the contact info, she reneges on her promise to help, and Dmitry and his sister are killed. So she's not exactly the Terminator version of The A-Team.

Oh, and John discovers that while his mother was incarcerated in a mental institution for her anti-Skynet activism, she signed away her parental rights, and he cries like a baby about it, because I guess she hasn't demonstrated time and time again what a ferocious mama bear she is. Fortunately, they work it out by the end of the episode, which I hope means he won't be sniveling all through week's finale. Want more? The full recap starts right below!

Ellison wants to talk to anyone else who might have worked there at the time of Sarah's escape, but there's nobody left -- not even a janitor: "How long would you work here if you could find another job?" says the doctor. Well, with that kind of shining team spirit, I'm amazed anyone could tear themselves away.

Using a knife, Sarah breaks into Ellison's house. Our FBI agent is not much into home security. Sarah notes the pictures on the walls, the open bible on a table, and an envelope (marked "Hand Delivery," naturally). She makes her way into the living room where, on the end table she spies her case file and records from Pescadero State Hospital. Stacked in front of the television are several VCR tapes. Sarah picks one out, looks at it and frowns.

Meanwhile, Cameron is already leotarded up and taking lessons from Shipkov's sister, and acquitting herself quite well. Either her model was programmed with iBallet 7.0.2, or Cameron's just mimicking the actions of the women around her. As the class disperses, Cameron watches one graceful dancer twirl. Maria, Shipkov's sister tells Cameron that it's a pas de chat -- literally, "totally graceful spins and ballet shit." "Will you show me?" asks Cameron, and Maria says that's for the advanced class, while Cameron's a beginner. So Cameron gets all, "I'll show you 'beginner'" and busts a ballet move all up in Maria's grill. Maria says, "It appears I have been served," and critiques Cameron's moves, saying that her lower body was nice, but that her upper body was rather mechanical. "Remember, you are a cat," she says. "I'm a cat," says Cameron, in the chapter of her Metaphor Befuddlement. Maria invites her to come back week so that they can develop her flexibility and imagination, which I have to say I am in favour of. "Dance is the hidden language of the soul, no?" Maria then walks past Cameron to speak in Russian to a burly man with a ponytail. "Stop coming here," she says. "I don't know where he is." "He owes me money," says the guy, who I'm starting to suspect isn't here for the arabesques. "Give him the message or he'll be sorry," says the guy, and walks out. Cameron watches it all.

Back at the Connor Compound, John comes home from school, surprised to see Derek in his mom's room, sitting on the floor, polishing an M-16 (not a euphemism). "Looks like you're loading guns that I know for a fact are already loaded," says John. He knows this because he loaded them. Derek says that he doesn't like firing any guns he hasn't loaded himself. Fine, says John, but he should take it into the kitchen: "Mom wouldn't like you doing that in her bedroom." "Why?" says Derek.