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Cromartie was a Series 888 Terminator initially sent to the year 1999 to assassinate John Connor. Through a series of events, Cromartie was able to resume his mission in 2007 before being destroyed in Mexico. His body was used to give John Henry an interactive form.

Personality[]

"I like him. They're really not bad guys - they're doing their job. He has no hate in him. He's like: 'Look, it's my job, sorry... Gotta snap your neck.' "
- Garret Dillahunt.

Cromartie was an advanced infiltration unit and therefore possesses the ability to mimic human behavior, which suggests that the T-888s are allowed to learn instead of "Read-only". Unlike Vick, however, Cromartie has little interaction with people and therefore displays basic human behavior without a sense of personality. This was best displayed when Mary Buoy sarcastically asks him: "Is that your only name, like Madonna?" to which he answers "Madonna, why? No", not knowing that he was being teased. His conversation with Charley Dixon in "Queen's Gambit" also annotates this. He does, however, display rational (and possibly merciful) behavior when confronted by threats.

In the pilot episode, he spares the students' lives instead of removing them as witnesses with comically quipping "Class dismissed" and later ignores a stunned SWAT team despite them being armed with machine guns. In "What He Beheld", Cromartie holds Agent Ellison at gunpoint but decides to spare him for unknown reasons. These acts of mercy are countered on many occasions when he unnecessarily murders several people. For example, the garbage man who recovers his skull in "Gnothi Seauton", the scientist who regrows his skin in "The Turk", the plastic surgeon in "Heavy Metal", and the desk officer who refuses to help him search the school database for John Connor in "The Demon Hand". His deadly demeanor was also evident in "Mr. Ferguson is Ill Today" when he eliminates the officers of a Mexican Police Station.

Cromartie was a relentless assassin, and pursued his target at all costs, even going to such lengths as countering Skynet's own wishes. This is evident in "Brothers of Nablus" when he terminates a Terminator sent to kill and replace Agent Ellison. Though Ellison had been targeted for termination for unknown reasons, Cromartie saves his life because he thinks Ellison will lead him to the Connors. This event and the events in "What He Beheld" suggest the possibility that Cromartie was capable of independent thought, and could have potentially been a danger to Skynet.

Cromartie also appears to possess a very limited emotional range. In "Brothers of Nablus", Cromartie displays annoyance and frustration towards Jody to the point of comically booting her from his car and leaving her in the street. He also shows mild shock and perhaps even fear during his termination in "Mr. Ferguson is Ill Today". Cromartie has also been shown to possess a dry sense of humor and often makes witty remarks for no apparent reason. It is worth noting that he killed the desk officer who refuses to help him search the school database out of anger or annoyance in "The Demon Hand".

Biography[]

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles Season One[]

T-Cromartie

Cromartie chasing after John in the Pilot

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Cromartie reactivates himself.

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Cromartie in Clothes

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Cromartie obtains new skin

Cromartie first appeared as a replacement for John's science teacher, Mr. Ferguson, in the guise of a substitute teacher called Mr. Cromartie at Crest View High School in New Mexico. While taking attendance in a class including John Connor and Cameron Phillips, Cromartie identified Connor. He cuts open the flesh covering his leg in order to get at a hidden pistol and shoots at John. Unknown to Cromartie, however, Cameron is also a Terminator sent back from the future, and she shields John from the bullets with her body. John escapes the classroom, but Cromartie tries again to kill him in the school's parking lot. Cameron is able to prevent that assassination as well by running over Cromartie with a car. "Pilot"

Cromartie then tracks down the Connors at their home, and holds Sarah at gunpoint. Cameron poses as John, prompting Cromartie to shoot her. The two then engage in a brutal battle with Cameron finally stunning Cromartie with an electrical cable. The Connors, with Cameron in tow, escape. Cromartie then reboots 120 seconds later, and resumes his pursuit. "Pilot"

Cromartie chased John, Cameron, and Sarah Connor for several days, eventually finding them at the Security Trust of Los Angeles bank where they are breaking into a vault. Just as Cromartie was about to break down the vault door, the trio used a stashed time machine to travel to 2007. Just prior to chronoportation, Sarah blasted Cromartie with a plasma weapon which reduced him to fragments, with his head being transported into the future. After arriving in the future, Cromartie's CPU communicated with the rest of its body which was stored in a junkyard (evidently recovered from the destroyed bank back in 1999). The headless body killed the junkyard's attendant and beheaded him, proceeding to wear his victim's lifeless head until he reunited with his original skull. "Gnothi Seauton"

Cromartie was able to find a scientist, Dr. Fleming who was willing to make living tissue to cover his body (Cromartie took his eyes to cover his mechanical ones and killed him) "The Turk" and also underwent plastic surgery from Dr. David Lyman to replace George Laszlo, an unemployed B-Movie actor. "Heavy Metal" Once he recovered from this regeneration, he took on the identity of FBI agent Robert Kester and used this disguise to try and track down John Connor. He has yet to make direct contact with Sarah, John or Cameron in 2007, although he did visit Sarah's former fiancé, Charley Dixon, to ask him questions about Sarah. Cameron recruited one of John's classmates (a student who is passing out fliers) to play decoy in order to throw Cromartie off of John's trail when he visits their school. The ploy was successful, and Cromartie leaves the school; convinced that John Connor did not attend the school.

"Kester" was eventually tracked down by Agent James Ellison, who was put in charge of an FBI strike team in order to apprehend him. In the season one finale, "What He Beheld", Ellison led an assault on "Agent Kester's" hiding place; the home of George Laszlo. 20 or so fully armored and heavily armed FBI agents (including Agent Greta Simpson) infiltrated the apartment complex. The assault was unsuccessful: Cromartie himself suffered only moderate damage to his skin in the process, but managed to kill the entire FBI team; with the exception of Agent Ellison, whom Cromartie spared as an asset in tracking Sarah Connor.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles Season Two[]

Following the massacre, Cromartie disappeared. Ellison was able to convince the authorities that the real George Laszlo, whose body Cromartie had kept in the apartment, had been the one responsible for the deaths of the FBI agents. When Laszlo's body was wheeled out of the apartment complex, Agent Ellison, in the presence of Charley Dixon, apologized to Laszlo's body for having to take the fall.

Cromartie is met once again by Agent Ellison. Ellison announces that he refuses to help him locate Sarah Connor, while Cromartie's reply is a wry "We'll see."

Days later, Cromartie made an expected rendezvous with Charley Dixon and his wife who were stopping to gas up their car. Cromartie stole the vehicle while Charley was trying to buy a soda from a dispenser, taking his wife to an abandoned house and wiring her to a non-explosive trap. This ruse would serve to distract her rescuers from the real bomb which was wired to the cell tower outside the house. Before destroying the tower, Cromartie used a tapper to listen in on Sarah and John's cell phone calls, successfully intercepting the code they used to talk back and forth to each other.

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After destroying the tower, Cromartie contacted John, using Sarah's code and imitating her voice, telling him to meet up at the Santa Monica Pier. At the pier, Cromartie pursued John to a dead end of the pier where John jumped off into the water. Cromartie followed, grabbing John by his jacket, attempting to drag him to the bottom of the water, but John slipped off the jacket, swimming to the surface while Cromartie sank to the bottom, eyes visibly glowing as he sank into the dark depths. Later, Cromartie walks up from the shore, drenched, but with no visible damage to his systems. "The Mousetrap"

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Later, Cromartie makes his presence known by terminating a T-888 sent to replicate James Ellison. He then "teams up" with Jody at a homeless shelter (while showing a photo of Cameron) to find the Connors. Cromartie comes dangerously close to John Connor in a grocery store, but is distracted by Jody's actions; causing him to look towards her while John walks by, out of his view. Later in the episode, he becomes frustrated by Jody's accusations that he is a stalker and comically "ejects" her from his car. When she lands, she yells "FREAK!" and he drives away. "Brothers of Nablus"

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Cromartie then finds the Connors' actual residence through a conversation with Kacy Cotton and pays a visit. He is thwarted by Riley Dawson's tactics, but manages to enter the house. He is unsuccessful, however, and does not see John hiding in the shadows (shotgun-ready). He then leaves, undaunted, quipping the usual "Thank you for your time". "Brothers of Nablus"

In a certain point, Cromartie shows up again at the Connors' hideout, attacking Sarah and demanding John's whereabouts. Sensing that Sarah doesn't actually know where John is, Cromartie kidnaps her, putting her in the trunk of his car while he drives to the Mexican police station where John is being incarcerated. After massacring every police officer in the station, Cromartie briefly pursues John, who is escaping with James Ellison and Riley in his car. "Mr. Ferguson is Ill Today"

Later, Cromartie returns to the police station to pick up more ammo for his guns. He is then lured into a church by Ellison, who tells him "all things are possible to him who believes." He is then sniped by Derek, and continuously fired upon by he and Sarah. Cromartie, wielding a Glock 17 and an MP5K, fires back at both of them. Cameron then appears behind him, wielding a Benelli M1 Super 90 shotgun, and fires into his head repeatedly. Her shots, as expected, are accurate and effectively disable Cromartie to the point of collapse. Disabled and at the mercy of his aggressors, the Connors, Agent Ellison, and Derek Reese gather around his body. John himself then approaches and fires a final shot into his head; taking him offline. "Mr. Ferguson is Ill Today"

Post Termination[]

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Cromartie's body now being used by John Henry.

Main article: John Henry

Following the ambush, Sarah, John, Cameron and Derek bury Cromartie, and Sarah smashes his main CPU. "Mr. Ferguson is Ill Today" However, James Ellison had dug up his body and turned it over to Catherine Weaver for analysis. "Complications" It was revealed that Project Babylon had incorporated Cromartie's endoskeleton and processors into the artificial intelligence they were developing, which had been named "John Henry". "Strange Things Happen at the One Two Point" John Henry tells Ellison, who had taken on the role of his mentor, that he had learned about Cromartie. "The Good Wound"

Notes[]

  • Cromartie is the first non-mimetic-polyalloy-type Terminator to successfully change his appearance.
  • Cromartie was the first T-888 to be sent back in the course of the events of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Multiple additional time traveling missions, past, present, and future are constantly being revealed as the series progresses.
  • Cromartie's original living tissue model is identified as model 888, which could be a result of the confusion between "series" and "model".
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Cromartie with an HK-5

  • Though Cromartie is seen wielding many weapons (both melee and missile), he seems to "prefer" 9mm guns. He is frequently shown carrying a Glock 17 and HK-5.
  • The origin of the name Cromartie within the fiction is unknown and there is no indication that the Terminator himself refers to himself by this name other than as an alias when he is disguised as a substitute teacher.
    • Presumably if there was a real Mr. Cromartie, the T-888 may have killed him and taken his identity.
    • Since this is the only name they have to use, John, Sarah and Cameron continue to refer to the T-888 as Cromartie. (Similarly, John had earlier dubbed the T-800 that had protected him as "Uncle Bob" in Terminator 2: Judgment Day.)

Behind the Scenes[]

CromartieTVGuideScan
  • A TVGuide feature illustrates Cromartie's transformation as above:
  • Cromartie has since been made a series regular for Season 2 of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.[1]

Appearances[]

See also[]

References[]

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