''Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles'': Chess Pains

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Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

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No time to wonder what was next for Andy, sadly, as right after he lost, he got shot in the brain by what appeared to be a shadowy man-dude wearing a military jacket. But that's no ordinary dude! That is Brian Austin Green, so far from the 90210 zip code where he was born (but no less smirky) and starring as the heretofore missing fourth bar-code-arm guy! Nice to see you, Brian Austin Green! Do you mind if I call you Bag? I didn't think so. Anyway, so Bag's apparent involvement with the death of Andy led him to a massive alley beat-down from Mom and an arrest courtesy of the LAPD. It also led to the activation of a T-888 who'd apparently spent the last several years staring at a computer screen, waiting for Bag to show up so he could terminate him. (I am starting to think the resistance movement has one hardcore mole at this point. Plug that leak, Future John Connor, or we're all gonna die on the playground swings!) After waking up, the T-888 got into the prison where Bag was being kept, and when Mom et al staged a rescue mission for the former whitest rapping high school morning announcer in history, Eight Ball came chasing after.

Oh, did I mention that Mom cares about Bag's safety because he's effing Kyle Reese's brother? Yeah. Wow. Unh! Hot tub!

From this point on, the ep was pretty crash-boom-bang: They broke Bag out! T-Eight Ball chased! He and Cam slammed each other against the walls of the convict transport truck. They fought! The truck stopped, and they got out and fought! T-Eight Ball shot Bag just as Cam was hitting him with a metal pipe, so the shots sort of missed but also sort of took out Bag's kidney or something, because now he was bleeding badly! Meanwhile, Cam had subdued T-Eight Ball with said metal pipe, and she ripped out his CPU. That means, I believe, that he is dead now — unless Cam kept the CPU as a memento that she plans to store in a shoebox right next to the bar of coltan she snaked last week.

So Bag was bleeding to death, right? They needed a doctor, but John wouldn't let Mom go get one, until he learned it was his uncle dying on the kitchen table and took a risk and fetched Cute Cute Dean Winters with all of his EMT skills to come take care of things. This is an interesting turn, and I love the idea that Sarah and Charlie are going to get a chance to rekindle their romance on a more honest footing. (Sorry, Penny.) It seems, according to the voice-over, that Charlie = hope. He's very much the Barack Obama of this television show.

A couple annoyances tonight: John learned in auto shop — which he takes...why? and that school has an auto shop the size of an aircraft hangar...why? — that Cheri Westin, the Jessica Biel-if-you-squint emo girl who's been sniffing around him the last couple episodes, is bad news and has an overprotective father. Neat. This matters...why? And as much as I initially appreciated the emotional conflict brought about by John's inability to save Roof Jumping Girl from her splattery fate, I can't quite see where that ongoing story line — including the previously referenced grief counselor and his Christian-pop-artist good looks — is headed. Should I just let that go?

And of course, who gives a nut what Ellison was up to? I'm not even going to address it. He's FBI! He's on the case! Sniff sniff! You get the picture. As soon as that story line starts to have any resonance at all, I'll be sure to include it. But until that day, freedom fighters, I shall rely only on you and your wise comments below to get me through the night. Chime in!

And, PS, I am 100 percent certain I'm missing something tonight, as I am literally falling asleep at this computer. Don't hate. Help. If there's something huge I didn't mention, please do so below. You know you love me. XOXO.