Cromartie takes a different tack in his pursuit of John
Connor.
This episode takes place on November 18, 2007.
Didja Notice?
A country-western song plays over the opening scene, but I
haven't been able to identify it. The discernable lyrics
are "If today the sun should set, and never rise again,
if the world should turn upon me, and take my every friend,
if all the flowers withered... but safe within your arms,
I'd never feel the cold, but safe within your arms, I'd feel
no cold."
The gas pump at the desert station where Charley fuels his
Land Cruiser is an old Smith Geosource pump.
The truck Cromartie drives in his pursuit of the Dixons
through the desert is a 1985
Dodge
Power Ram.
An old tow truck at the gas station has "Cal-Rod Motors" in
faded paint on the side. This may be from a former car
dealership of that name in Oxnard, CA around the 1960s-70s.
The truck itself is a 1947 Nash 3148 Haul Thrift.
The gas station scenes were shot in the Mojave Desert at a
"for rent" movie set of the Easy Rest Inn, originally built
for the 1991 film Eye of the Storm.
After John wires cable TV into Kacy's bedroom for her, they
flick through the channels, landing on KZPZ (seen in a few
previous episodes) and find a scene from Beast Wizard 7,
starring George Laszlo (the facial template of Cromartie's
current face). The title, scene, and costuming in the movie
suggest that it was based on the Beastmaster films
starring Marc Singer.
When Sarah guesses that John stole cable TV for Kacy, he
tells her, "No one that pregnant should be forced to watch
network television, it's bad for the baby." Of course,
The Sarah Connor Chronicles originally aired on
network television, the Fox Network!
As Sarah unpacks the groceries she bought at 6:48 on the
Blu-ray, a box of Nutty Nuggets cereal is seen. This is a
generic brand of Post
Grape Nuts cereal.
Charley calls John's cell phone and opens with the code the
Connors' set up for identification, the current day's date.
From this, we know that this episode takes place on November
18, 2007. This episode seems to take place the day after
"Automatic for the People",
so that episode must have taken place on November 17.
During their phone call, Charley tells he Sarah is somewhere
off the 14, just south of the
California City turnoff. This is a roughly accurate
description of the location of the
Easy Rest Inn movie set, with Highway 14 running near both.
The vehicle Sarah and Derek take to go help Charley rescue
Michelle is a 1970
Ford
Bronco. It's CA license plate is 1E49983.
At 12:17 on the Blu-ray, a 2003
Toyota
Tundra is parked outside the store where John and Cameron
buy computer equipment.
The pick-up truck John drives here is a 2009
Dodge
Ram 1500 Crew-Cab Laramie.
At 12:53 on the Blu-ray, Vitae magazine is seen on
a magazine rack. As far as I can tell, this is a fictitious
periodical.
Riley tells John on the phone that she is "captivated by the
Lohan." I'm not sure what she means by this but, since she
is looking at a magazine rack, she may be referring to a
cover featuring actress/model Lindsay Lohan.
The truck that drives by at 14:35 on the Blu-ray is a 1987
Dodge Dakota.
When Michelle manages to call Charley, she tells him that
Cromartie has taken her to a building just outside of
Mojave.
Mojave
is a desert town about 14 miles southwest of California
City.
While setting his trap, Cromartie tells Michelle that James
Atkinson invented the mousetrap in 1897. Though Atkninson
did invent a variation of the mousetrap at that time, most
historians currently agree that the original spring-loaded
mousetrap was invented by William C. Hooker in 1894.
Cromartie goes on to remark that it is "hard to build a
better one," a reference to the popular American idiom,
"Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to
your door."
At 19:11 on the Blu-ray, the magazines Healthy Man,
Luciano, and The Classic Man are seen.
As far as I can tell, these are fictitious periodicals. John
and Riley also mention US, People, OK,
Popular Mechanics, Guns and Ammo, and Cat
Fancy, all
real magazines. John jokes about Yarn Collector,
but this is a fictitious magazine.
Sarah carries a
Remington 870 shotgun, Derek an M79 grenade launcher,
and Charley is given Sarah's
Glock 17
during the Michelle Dixon rescue attempt. Cromartie also
carries a Glock 17 later on at the pier.
Catherine Weaver shows Agent Ellison photos from the
wreckage of a commuter jet that crashed in the eastern
Sierras on a flight from
Sacramento to
Portland five years ago. "Sierras" refers to
the Sierra Nevada mountain range in California.
The Red Valley incident mentioned by Weaver occurred in
"No One is Ever Safe".
The pier Cromartie sends John to is the
Santa Monica Pier.
The van commandeered by Sarah and her crew is a 1997 Ford
Econoline E-350 from High Desert Cellular with license plate
3PCI499; the license plate was seen on two different cars in
"Samson and Delilah"
and will be seen again in "Desert Cantos".
There was a company based in Nevada at the time called
High Desert Cellular, though the company in this episode is
probably intended to be fictitious.
At 37:08 on the Blu-ray, a visitor to the pier is seen
wearing a
Dinosaur Bar-B-Que t-shirt, a restaurant chain on the
northeastern seaboard of the U.S.
When John and Cromartie jump off the pier into the sea, John
is able to escape Cromartie's grasp and swim away, but
Cromartie's metal endoskeleton weight causes him to sink to
the bottom (he is able to walk out later, having lost John's
trail). A Terminator sinking into the ocean also occurs in
TIMELINE TT-1 in "One-Shot"
and in TIMELINE TT-3 in "Secondary
Objectives", parts
1 and
2.
The corner of Santa Monica Boulevard and Ocean Avenue is
seen at 41:02 on the Blu-ray, with
Sushi Roku, Portofino Plaza, and
The
Georgian Hotel visible.
Charley tosses a Bible on top of Michelle's coffin
as it is lowered into the ground. It is the Bible
given to him by Agent Ellison in
"Automatic for the People".
Unanswered Questions
Weaver explains to Ellison that in the airplane wreckage
from a 2002 jet crash a damaged chest frame and
arm from a Terminator was found. What was it doing on a plane five
years ago (2002)? There are no story points that tie back
directly to 2002.
Weaver tells Ellison that she and her "late husband"
attempted to reverse engineer the robotic technology found
in the plane crash from 2002. Her "late husband"
is later named as Lachlan Weaver in
"Allison from Palmdale". We will learn still
later that Lachlan was killed in a helicopter crash, while
Catherine "survived" it (actually the T-1001 taking
Catherine's place) in "The Tower is Tall But the Fall is Short".
The description here would seem to suggest that the human
Weavers were the ones who came into possession of the
robotic technology and tried to reverse-engineer it before
the T-1001 arrived in the future. What repercussions would
there have been on the world if the real Weavers had
continued their reverse-engineering attempts instead of
begin killed and Catherine being replaced?
Michelle Dixon dies from an injury suffered in the explosion
set by Cromartie in this episode and we see her funeral at
the end. What explanation did Charley give to the doctors
and authorities for her injuries?
Memorable Dialog
this town can screw you up.mp3
forced to watch network television.mp3
people like me.mp3
yarn collector.mp3
Cat Fancy.mp3
they never let you have a good day.mp3
Back to Terminator Episode
Studies