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While Derek Reese is dying on a kitchen table in the present, twenty years in the future he's just another resistance fighter with a brother named Kyle who likes to tell stories about busting out of prisons with John Connor. Then he's captured with the rest of his squad, where scary and confusing things happen. One of his squad members is an unrecognizable (thanks to his beard) Andy Goode, who confesses that he's responsible for building the computer that gained consciousness and then took over the world. After escaping (well, more like being let go), Derek discovers that the resistance is reprogramming the Terminators; this can be good (like when they look like Cameron), but it can also be bad (like when they go all haywire and kill everybody, which is much worse than when your computer crashes in the middle of a game of Minesweeper). He also finds out his brother has accepted a time-travel mission. Kyle's going back too, with his men, to correct humanity's mistakes before they're ever made. He also comes into contact with either Cameron or a Terminator who looks exactly like Cameron. And so, that is how a young Andy Goode ended up with a bullet in his forehead: from the end of Derek Reese's gun.
And after a blood transfusion from John (whose blood type is either quite a mistake on the part of the writers or HE'S NOT REALLY SARAH'S SON), Charley and Sarah are free to have one of those awkward discussions where you run into an ex-girlfriend and let her know that you never really forgave her for running out on you eight years ago, and then supposedly dying in a bank explosion. Charley is told the truth about who Sarah and John (and Cameron, on T-888 endoskeleton disposal duty this episode) really are. The most implausible thing all episode may be that Charley didn't wind up on the floor in the fetal position. Want more? The full recap starts right below!
We pan through the empty rooms of the Connor Compound, while Sarah's voice-over babbles about the night she met Kyle Reese, and he told her of the apocalypse to come. The Pandora's box opened by humanity, and how Kyle's unborn son was bequeathed what was left in the box after the nightmares escaped: hope. You want to talk about hope? My hope is that eventually this show leaves off with the damn voice-overs already. Hope. Shit.
We move into the kitchen, which has become an ersatz operating room, with Charley the torch-carrying EMT frantically trying to save a bloody and dying Derek. Charley thinks it would be wise, at this particular time, as he tries to extract a bullet that nicked Derek's left lung, to get someone to explain exactly what's happened. I'm hoping he means what's happened to Derek, and not what's happened to the Connor Crew since eight years ago when Sarah and John supposedly blew up a bank. Despite death riding its pale cow right up outside the Connor compound and hitching it to a post outside, Derek is lucid enough to yell that Cameron is metal and a liar. "Sedative, my bag, now!" barks Charley, and Cameron readies a syringe. This only makes Derek spazz off even worse, but Cameron ignores this and is about to plunge the syringe in, when she's stopped by Charley, who seems to be of the opinion that it's probably best not to agitate the bullet-riddled patient. "Do you want him to die?" asks Charley. "If I wanted him to die..." begins Cameron, who is quickly ordered to shut her non-rhetorical-question-understanding hole.
Derek sends John out to his truck for a manual aspirator. Then he inventories all of Derek's problems: bullet wounds, punctures, burns...let's just slap a picture of Derek on the Worst Case Scenario handbook and be done with it. Again, Charley starts to ask what happened, but then thinks better of it, and asks for more light. Sarah brings a lamp over to the table, shining it right in Derek's eyes, which must be nice for him.
What it does is send Derek's mind reeling back to another time when, um, there were lights around. We're underground in what looks suspiciously like the human resistance hideout we first saw way back in the first movie. It's dingy and dark, and there are dogs (like canaries in the coal mine). A mural on one wall reads, "Hang In There, Baby!" but instead of a cute widdle kitten desperately clinging to a tree branch, it features a lion with a Terminator head in its jaws. Well, that's something; the lions are on humanity's side! That's awesome!
Crouched along a corridor are Derek Reese and his compadres, one of whom notices Derek straining his water through a cloth into his canteen and says that doesn't work, calling it an old wives' tale. "I don't do it, and I haven't been sick for years," he says. Which doesn't, I should point out, prove that what Derek's doing doesn't work. At the very least, it probably removes nasty floaties from the post-apocalyptic water supply. Derek says that's because his buddy's guts are metal like his head, and if he were any smarter, he'd be a tin can. "When I was in Century..." begins Derek's buddy, as they're joined by a bearded fellow whom Derek calls "Wisher," and sarcastically asks Wisher if he'd heard that his brother Kyle was at Century work camp, and everybody busts on Kyle Reese for the exaggeration of rescue tales involving John Connor.
The good-natured joshing is interrupted by a rumbling that shakes the entire corridor. "Centaur patrol," says Derek. Kyle fishes a photograph out of a jacket pocket. It's an updated version of the photo he held in the first movie, and Sarah disappointingly looks a lot less like Olivia Newton-John than she used to, and stares at it until the rumbling stops. A light bulb pops. In the future, humanity has given up on compact fluorescents and gone back to incandescents. "I hate that thing," says Derek. "It's just a picture," says Kyle. "It's Connor's mother. I don't get why he'd give you that." Wisher watches the exchange. "She's my lucky charm," says Kyle. Yet he mocks his brother for straining his water. Another soldier lets them know Connor wants them topside, to track where the Centaurs came from.
The soldiers reach topside up some stairs and through a trap door covered by the detritus of a junkyard. They climb out to the sound of laser fire in the distance, and then close the doors and pile junk back on top of them, and move out.
The squad takes cover behind some rubble having lost the trail. Kyle thinks the Centaurs went north-northeast. He thinks this, because that is what he'd do if he were a cyborg. This is what he says. And who can argue with that? "I smell jet fuel," he says. Derek points out that they found a tank factory the last time Kyle smelled jet fuel. Well, at least that's something. Wisher says he thinks John is after bigger fish than factories, like some kind of Skynet secret weapon, but John's best bud Kyle says John hasn't said anything to him about any secret weapon.
Suddenly, the squad spots a small team of Terminators dragging a jet engine over the ground. Nice recon, guys. You're on the lookout for your deadly enemies, and they manage to practically sneak up on you while dragging a MASSIVE JET ENGINE. Kyle scoots forward just after the Terminators go by, only to be targeted by a couple of Hunter-Killers. You know, those large, droning airships used by the Terminators. Guess the recon squad DIDN'T SEE THOSE EITHER. The HKs fire on Kyle, who takes cover. Derek chases after him, fires off a couple of shots at the HKs, and gets shot at himself, getting separated from his brother, and winds up in the hands (literally) of a Terminator, who holds Derek at arm's length, choking him. That's for cheating on Donna, you bastard!
Back in the present, Charley removes a bullet from Derek, while Sarah, rocking a blood-soaked white tank-top, helps. Charley quietly tells her that it's been eight years since his fiancée left him, eight years since the FBI told him she was a homicidal paranoid schizophrenic with "an acute dislike for anything mechanical." He looks at her. "For what it's worth, I didn't believe them." Sarah doesn't say anything. "Then you blew yourself up," continues Charley. God, okay, Charley. I think eight years is plenty time to get over that. time, just put on Disintegration, have a bottle of wine, be hungover the day, and the day after that you're over it.
In the adjoining room, John watches the surgery and paces. Noting his nervousness, Cameron helpfully suggests a sedative from Charley's bag. "You know who that is in there, who's dying on that table?" says John. "Yes. That man is first lieutenant Derek Thomas Reese with the 132nd S.O.C. Operational specialty: tech comm," says Cameron. "No, I mean on a personal level. You understand who he is?" asks John. Cameron says records indicate his only blood relative is his brother, Kyle Reese, adding that Kyle was imprisoned with John Connor in Century work camp in 2015, escaped with John Connor in 2021, and went MIA after being assigned to protect Sarah Connor from Skynet in 2027. "Is that all?" says a very grouchy John. "Seems like a lot," says Cameron. Kind of defensive, isn't she?
Back in the kitchen, Charley is washing his hands (let's hope not for the first time) and STILL going on about Sarah leaving him. He says it was all over the news, so he hopped on his bike and drove to L.A., to see the big hole in the ground where the bank used to be. And then he couldn't go home, for some reason. And that reason is "convenience for the sake of this series." "I didn't want to leave you," says Sarah. Charley wants to know if she had a gun to her head. "More like gun in my head. It's, um, it's complicated," she says. "Then uncomplicate it for me," says Charley.
Derek, who is presumably STILL DYING, GUYS, flashes back (well, forward, I suppose) to being shackled in a futuristic prisoner transport. He's with a couple of his men (including Wisher, but not Kyle) sitting to him. Sitting across from him is another soldier, slumped over to one side, seemingly out of it, gripping a canteen. Derek asks if he minds sharing the water. No response. Derek asks his buddies if the guy's still alive. No response from them, even though they ARE still alive. So Derek reaches over for the canteen. Suddenly, the soldier grabs Derek's arm and turns to face him. It's a Terminator with half his face blown off, who slugs Derek, knocking him out. Way to help Derek out there, guys. Little warning probably would have been appreciated.
After commercials, Charley Dixon stands in the living room looking at the inert body of the T-888, laid out on the dining room table. Cameron and Sarah watch him. "So. Skynet. Robots...from the future," he says. He points at Cameron. "And you're a..." "Yes. I'm a..." she says. Sarah asks him if he needs a drink. Yeah, that's a big ten-four. Sarah asks Cameron if she doesn't have an endoskeleton to dispose of. Cameron said she's already got the thermite ready. Charley's all, "Thermite?" And Cameron, zipping the T-888 back up in a body bag explains that thermite is an incendiary chemical that burns at 2,500 degrees, hot enough to incinerate the endoskeleton. She effortlessly hoists the T-888 over her shoulder, and walks out. Sarah follows her. "There's beers in the fridge," she tells Charley, like, sorry I walked out on you eight years ago only to pop back in when we need sketchy surgery done on my brother-in-law from the future, and now I can't even be bothered to get you a damn beer myself. Fortunately, John's already at the fridge, and he brings Charley a beer, and unlike any other 15-year-old ever, doesn't ask for one himself. "Are you mad at me for...getting you mixed up in all this?" asks John. What, reuniting him with Sarah, his long-lost love, who's aged literally what, two weeks over the past eight years? (Side note: Charley is I think supposed to look older because his hair is a quarter-inch longer than it used to be.) Charley says no. "I guess I wish I would have known back then. I wish you could have trusted me." "I do," says John.
Back to the future: Derek and the other soldiers are chained to the floor in an empty house. A Terminator splashes one of them awake with a bucket of water, and then burns one of those bar-code tattoos into his forearm with a little hand laser. It's apparently as painful as that sounds. Still, this could just be Hell Week at Delta Tau Chi. Derek swims in and out of consciousness, asking for Kyle. Later, he watches as an unconscious (presumably dead) woman get unshackled and dragged from the room by the Terminator guard. Yeah, this still could be a frat house, though.
Now that the guard has gone, we can talk freely! Okay, let's go around the circle and introduce ourselves, and you have to say something about yourself that starts with the same first letter as your name, like, "My name is Reese, and I like to rock!" and then you have to repeat everyone's names and the things they said about themselves, okay? A groggy dude who introduces himself as Timms (also known as "Corky" from The Sopranos) says he thinks he just got here, and Derek says, "No, you were here when I got here." Well, time flies when you're chained to a floor and awaiting imminent death. Derek introduces himself, and Timms says there was a Reese who busted John Connor out of Century work camp. "Mad dogs, could lead a pack," is what I think Timms said, which is semi-coherent. Derek simply says that it wasn't him. "Too bad," says Timms. Nice to meet you too, Timms. What did you ever do that was so awesome?
Suddenly, the ground starts rumbling and a circle of light is illuminated on the floor. It's a Hunter-Killer, hovering overhead, shining its light through some stained glass in the ceiling. You resistance fighters keep it down in there! It flies off.
Later, one of the soldiers whispers to Derek about what the Terminators are up to, not really buying that Connor didn't say anything to Derek about a secret weapon. "What if Connor's wrong? What if he's crazy?" Derek says he hears music. Real music (by "real" music, I assume he means CCR, and not this rap music that all the kids are into these days). The other guys listen for it. "There's a room in the basement," whispers Timms. Derek asks what happens there, and Timms' mouth twitches. Derek repeats his question. "Maybe our friend will tell us," says Timms. Derek looks behind himself, at the empty shackles on the floor. One of his men is gone. Wisher? We also hear footsteps, but don't see anyone.
Back in the present, Cameron seems to be deciding between smothering a sleeping Derek with a pillow or using it to prop his head up. Sarah strolls in. She hasn't changed her blood-soaked shirt, possibly because she likes the way the red accentuates her stain-free chest. She says Cameron should "get the hell out of here" and then asks if Cameron did something to Derek in the future. "I don't know," says Cameron, explaining that when the Terminators get reprogrammed, their memories are scrambled, which supposedly increases the chances for success of their new programming, not to mention provides a convenient plot point. She places the pillow under Derek's head. He thanks her by immediately starting to spit up blood. While Sarah moves to help him, Cameron watches dispassionately. "His lungs are hemorrhaging. He's drowning in his own blood," she says. Sarah yells for Charley, since Cameron's going to be no help whatsoever.
After the commercial break, Charley tells the Connor Crew that he stopped the bleeding and drained Derek's lungs, but he's going to need a transfusion. Cameron offers up Sarah, the universal donor with O-negative blood. Doesn't matter, says Charley. Derek needs at least three pints of his own blood, AB-negative, which only one-half of one percent of people have. "We don't find one, you're going to have a serious problem." Sarah suggests dropping him off at the hospital anonymously. Cameron points out Derek's still wanted by the police. She's got a better idea: let him die. John, less than enthusiastic towards that idea (look, we're just brainstorming, people; there are no wrong answers), asks Charley to test him. "You heard the odds, Johnny, two-hundred to one." It's considerably less than that, considering, I'm told, O-negative parents can't have AB-negative children. I didn't know that. I can forgive the writer for not knowing that. But it's sorta something I'd think Charley would know. So it's either a mistake, or John's not really Sarah's son. Since she presumably knows whether or not she expelled him from her uterus, let's call this little plotline a "boo-boo." Not a deal-breaker for me, really.
In 2027, Derek is wasting his time trying to use his fingers to unscrew the metal plate he's handcuffed to. A catatonic Wisher is dragged back across the floor and reshackled. After the guard leaves, Derek calls Wisher's name, but he doesn't respond. Again, the lights of a Hunter-Killer bathe the room in light, but this one flies overhead instead of stopping, and through a door open to the outside, Derek can see this one is hauling a jet engine.
Back in the present day, Sarah and John huddle up for a mother-son conference; looks like John's a match, but Sarah warns him this isn't going to be like donating to the Red Cross; Derek needs a lot of blood. John jokes that it's no big deal if he doesn't get a sticker and a cookie. Sarah then says he took a hell of a chance bringing Charley here. John thinks she's busting on him, but she's only leading up to saying that it worked out. John smiles at the motherly approval. Then he asks if his father looked like Derek. Pretty much, right down to the blood and bullet wounds and everything. "A little bit, yeah. Same build, same complexion. Not the eyes, though. Even when your father was screaming about the machines, he had such kind eyes." Sounds like Visiting Day at the hospital's dementia wing. John wants to tell Derek the truth, but Sarah doesn't think Montel Williams is available on such short notice. "He's family!" says John. "He's a stranger," corrects Sarah. John says he apparently trusted Derek enough to send him back in time, and Sarah points out John obviously didn't trust Derek enough to tell him Kyle was John's father.
Back in 2027, Derek is still futilely scrabbling at the metal bolts. Wisher watches him. "Can I confess to you?" he asks. "I'm not a priest. Far from it," says Derek. "I'm a liar. And the devil," says Wisher, who says his name isn't Billy Wisher. "It's Andy. Andy Goode," he says. Man! I didn't recognize him at all. Even now that we know, I still can hardly see the chess-playing computer geek under the toughened soldier exterior. Not yet really knowing who Andy Goode is, Derek finds this far less interesting than the bolts in the floor. "I did this. All of this. It's my fault," continues Andy. He says he built Skynet. Derek tells Andy he needs to rest, but Andy pushes himself up onto his elbows and reaches for Derek's hand. "I was part of a team. A group. Ten of us. Fifteen, I don't know. We used names. We were liars." Andy says he built a computer: "A mind. It became angry. And scared. And I couldn't reassure it." Derek stares at him, and doesn't say anything. And even when a Terminator comes and picks him up to take him to the dreaded basement, Derek keeps turning back to look at Andy.
The Terminator opens the door to the basement, and leads him down the stairs. Golden rays of setting sunlight stream in through broken slats in the windows. Adding to the overall creepiness is the sound of classical piano, used in television or film either to signify a) creepy or b) British. The Terminator leads Derek to a door, and opens it. The piano gets louder. Derek steps in through the door, into darkness. The door closes behind him.
After the commercial break, we're back in the present day, Cameron's in a shed with the T-888 laid out, cinderblocks forming a makeshift crematorium, I presume. But before she gets to that, she pulls out a giant knife and starts cutting off the skin in giant chunks, putting them in plastic bags.
Inside, John watches his Unky Derek sleep while the blood goes from John's arm into Derek. In the living room, Charley tells Sarah that it's some kid she has there. "You have no idea," she says. No, he really doesn't, because Charley's putting two and two together and coming up with five. He points out that John has the same rare blood type as Derek, who just happens to have the same last name as Sarah was using back in their time together. So...he thinks Derek's the father? Which means, Sarah left out that part of the story? She tells him about the killer time-traveling robots, but is worried that Charley can't handle hearing about John's father? "He's not John's father. I'm not sure I'm ready to explain it," says Sarah. "Let me guess: it's complicated," says Charley, not without some humour. He says Sarah could have told him. "Would you have believed me?" asks Sarah.
Charley's saved from having to say, "Well, of course not," by John, who yells because he needs help. On the kitchen table/operating slab, Derek's struggling. He's yelling for his brother. "Where's Kyle? Where'd you send him? You owe me the truth!" he screams, clearly not completely lucid. He goes quiet when Charley sedates him, but John seems rattled.
Back to the future, where a groggy Derek is being carried back up the stairs by a Terminator, and chained again to the floor. From their own pieces of the floor, the other soldiers watch him. Another H-K hovers overhead, shining its light in through the stained glass. Derek struggles to his knees and reaches up towards the light.
Later on, the soldiers are all sleeping, exhausted from trying to figure out just WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON. Timms wakes up, and looks around. "I think they're gone," he says. The other soldiers wake up, and sit up. In the centre of their circle, on the floor, lies a hatchet. "What is this, a game?" asks one of them. Derek grabs the hatchet. "Yeah. It's always a game," he says, and uses the hatchet to smash his chain.
The soldiers stumble their way back to the hideout. It's sunny out, but that really just means it's easier to see the skulls scattered across the landscape. Arriving at the entrance to the hideout, they're dismayed to see the trap doors flung wide, smoke billowing from the opening. Don't panic just yet; maybe one of the soldiers made microwave popcorn and cooked it for too long, and they're just airing all the chemical butter stink out of the place.
Back in the present, Charley asks if this "Kyle" is from the future too. Sarah is still wearing her disgusting blood-soaked shirt. "...and he's John's father," figures Charley. Sarah admits it. The only thing about their history that wasn't made up was that John's father is dead. "It was because of all this," says Charley. Yep, says Sarah. "We never had a chance," says Charley. No, but let's talk about it AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE, Charley. That's what we want to see.
Back to the future: Derek and the other soldiers grimly make their way through the carnage of the underground bunker. Blood-spattered walls. Even the lion mural has taken a hit. "Plasma burns. Secondary explosions. Skynet was here," says Andy, as though anybody needs to be told that. "Maybe Connor and the others fell back, to the bunker downtown," suggests one of the other soldiers. Derek finds Kyle's foot-locker amidst the rubble, and opens it. It's empty, save for the good-luck photograph of Sarah, or what's left of it; it's been burned. He slams the locker closed. "Please, God, please," he says. Andy moves to comfort Derek, like maybe Andy could keep his SKYNET-CREATING HANDS TO HIMSELF.
The sound of movement startles them, and they take cover, but it's more resistance soldiers, led by none other than the amazing Andre Royo, also known as Bubbles from The Wire. This new character of his seems to be a lot more hale and healthy. He definitely has better teeth. Derek knows him -- his name is Sumner -- and they greet each other. Sumner says four T-888s took out the bunker four nights ago, but John and Kyle weren't there when it happened but at a Terminator complex in Topanga Canyon and "decided to put all the firepower we had into it. We lost a lot of men." Sumner doesn't know what it was, just a research lab or factory or something. Connor took a small group, including Kyle, deep into the place, and left everyone else outside to guard. "A couple days later, he came out. Ordered us to blow the place to hell." What about Kyle, Derek asks. "No one ever saw your brother again," says Sumner, after hesitating. "Take me to Connor now," says Derek.
Back to the present, where Cameron has finished stripping the T-888 down to its endoskeleton, and is dusting it with thermite. Charley strolls in, because Sarah thinks he might find more gauze out there. Yeah, people always store their gauze in the shed and not the BATHROOM. Naturally, the sight of the Terminator stops him cold. Then, for some reason, he asks if it's really necessary to destroy it, since it's dead or "powered off" or whatever. Cameron affectlessly explains that every component has to be destroyed beyond repair lest it influence technological evolution, thus hastening Judgment Day. Sounds reasonable, although Cameron might consider at least CLOSING THE SHED DOOR while she has the skeleton laid out, so that anyone CAN'T JUST WANDER IN, like Charley here. "You know, little girl, you freak me the hell out," he says. He adds that on the outside she's just "as pretty as a picture" and he actually uses his hands to describe an hourglass shape in the air, like thanks, Bob Hope. "But on the inside, you're just a ..." He trails off. "Hyper-alloy combat chassis," supplies Cameron. Charley asks if that's a complicated way of saying "robot." Well, it beats just trailing off, Charley. Cameron explains the difference between robot and cyborg, which goes right over Charley's head, so he calls her "scary robot," since he can't believe she's just carving this guy up like he's chum. "He's not a guy, he's a scary robot," says Cameron. Yeah, really. I think it's fine that Charley's rattled by Cameron (although I think it's rude to remind everybody that she's not just eye candy), but should he not be even more rattled by the bad Terminator lying there? Guess not, as his comeback is if the T-888 is a scary robot, then Cameron is a very scary robot. She's also on your side, Charley. Or at least on the side of people who care about you.
Cameron actually finally seems offended, and tells Charley he should go, as it's not safe for him to be around while she does this. She lights a flare and holds it above the T-888. Charley doesn't move. Cameron drops the flare in, and the T-888 lights up. Charley stares at Cameron a few more moments, and then walks away before the thermite melts his face. And since the point of the thermite is that it burns hot enough to destroy Terminators, shouldn't Cameron stand a little farther away from the fire?
In the year 2027, Derek is now in some sort of underground command bunker, getting nowhere with one of Connor's underlings, who says Connor doesn't have any friends and isn't talking to anybody. "Fine. I'll find him myself," threatens Derek. And that's when Derek sees Cameron, or a Terminator who looks just like her, in a blue jumpsuit. "Metal!" he yells, drawing his gun. Yeah, maybe an automatic pistol will work one of these times on a Terminator. Cameron calmly draws her weapon too, but Derek's shot is sent wild when he's tackled by the other soldier. "She's one of ours!" he says. Derek's stunned.
He's still not believing it later, either, after getting the explanation of how Terminators get reprogrammed, and he doesn't understand how the Terminators are allowed to just walk around like that. "It's Connor's show, and that's the way he wants it," is the (non)explanation. Derek's objection is mainly that all the machines do is kill. "Now they do it for us," says the other soldier.
Or do it to us: Later, Derek is resting, when he's awoken by the sound of gunfire. He runs out into the hall, where a Terminator is mowing down soldiers with automatic weapons fire. Derek fires off a few shots from his handgun, which is about as effective as a squirt gun, and then ducks for cover as the Terminator heads his way. Derek manages to trip up the Terminator, and then fires off a few more shots, which don't have any more effect at close range. "Do it! Kill me now, you son of a..." he yells, when in steps Cameron, who shoves the Terminator through a wall, and then takes care of it with -- I want to say a grenade launcher.
She turns to Derek. "Sometimes they go bad. No one knows why." Sometimes? How often does this happen? Derek, I think you may want to renew your objection to having the Terminators walking around. This time, make sure your objection is strenuous.
Sarah strides into the shed, presumably to give Cameron hell for disposing of the T-888 with the shed door wide open...oh, no, she demands to know what Cameron said to Charley. "I freak him the hell out," says Cameron. "I'll bet you do. I'll just bet," snaps Sarah. I'm confused; is Sarah pissed at Cameron because Charley's freaked out? Because I don't think that's Cameron's fault. I also think it's entirely understandable on Charley's part.
But wait, there's more: Sarah she doesn't know how Cameron thinks, but she knows what she's thinking. "And what you're thinking about right now is exactly what you should not think about," she says. Joey? Do they know that we know that they know that we know? Joey? ["...They know you know." -- Joe R] Sarah says she and John didn't leave Charley because he was a threat to them; rather, they were a threat to him. "You were right to leave him," says Cameron. "You don't go near him. You don't touch him. You swear to me you'll leave him alone or so help me I will find a way to take you apart piece by piece," says Sarah. "I swear," says Cameron quickly. "So do I," says Sarah.
Now that she's got the "Bitch, stay away from my man" speech out of the way, Sarah asks if the T-888's taken care of. Cameron says there's one missing component: his left hand. But she'll find it. Sarah stresses that every last little bit, every bolt, needs to be destroyed. "Get it done," she says. "I swear," says Cameron. Sarah leaves. Cameron looks down at the chip she pulled from the T-888's head last episode. Then she gives a decidedly shifty look in Sarah's general direction. Well, now we know what a promise from Cameron Baum is worth.
Charley and Sarah take a stroll in the Connor Compound backyard, and Charley says they need to keep giving Derek painkillers, and restrict his movement. "Absolutely no gunfights," he jokes. Sounds like he's come to grips with the whole thing.
Then they get all awkward and squirmy with each other over fate and the future blah blah blah. Eventually, Charley gets round to tell her about the visit from "Agent Kester". "I didn't tell him anything, but if you ask me, it's just a matter of time," says Charley. A matter of time before you tell him something? "It always is," says Sarah, then they sort-f hug, and Charley kisses her on the forehead, and he strokes her hair a little bit and they exchange gloomy looks.
They unclench. Charley looks up into the sky. "There's a storm coming," he says, not at all contrivedly, and walks back into the house.
So Sarah goes back to cleaning her gun. With quiet intensity. John comes in. She glances in his direction, then goes back to her gun. He starts to walk out, and she gets up and hugs him, much to his relief.
And we're back in the future. Derek's resting. AGAIN. No wonder the machines almost took over the world, damn. He's startled by Cameron, who says John wants to see him.
Cameron's brown eyes flash blue as they're read by a retinal scanner. The door opens, and she opens it for Derek. Mouth agape, he walks into an empty room. Well, this room is empty. But a window looks out into a room with several jet engines in a ring around a crackling ball of energy.
As Derek takes this in, a decidedly fifteen-year-old-looking John comes up behind him. "Derek," he says. Derek turns, and...
...we're snapped back into the present day, with John telling Derek everything's going to be all right. And I think Derek is still laid out on the kitchen table. It might have been nice if Charley had helped move him to a bed. "What is all this?" asks Derek.
And right back to 2027, where Derek and his men survey the battle-scarred landscape. Timms says, "So this thing, it works?" "He said it does. I don't know how he knows, but he said so," says Derek. The plan is for them to go back 20 years. The other guys are skeptical about going back to set up a safehouse and then hang around for 20 years, waiting for orders. And what about Kyle? "All that and not a word about Kyle?" "We can save Kyle. We can save everybody. We can fix all the mistakes," says Derek. Timms asks how they're supposed to do that. Derek doesn't answer, but he exchanges looks with Andy.
The crackling ball of energy brings four more naked bodies into L.A.: Derek, Timms, Sumner, and Sayles. They gawk at their surroundings, at the towering buildings and sky free of Hunter-Killers. They should probably try to put some clothes on, but this being L.A., if anybody sees them, it'll just be, "Oh, look. It's the Red Hot Chili Peppers."
John's sitting up with Derek, telling him the story of one Kyle Reese, who came across time to protect him. "He died fighting the machines. He was a soldier, and he was ..." John struggles. His mom comes in, which doesn't help matters. "...he was a hero," he finishes. Derek smiles, and closes his eyes.
Sarah voiceovers again, recounting when Kyle told her that the machine is out there, and can't be reasoned with. We flash back to a young Andy Goode, alive in his hotel room at the chess tournament. The door bursts open. It's Derek. He raises his gun, and fires. He leaves, Andy Goode dead on the floor behind him. Which would mean that Wisher is now not there in 2027, which means he wouldn't have been sent back, which means...aw, screw it. None of it means anything.