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"Sarah. He took my wife!"
- Charley Dixon.
SCC 203 TheMousetrap1

Sarah Connor and Derek Reese are put to the test after Cromartie kidnaps Charley Dixon's wife; John Connor is in a sticky situation of his own when he finds himself caught between Cameron and Riley, falling straight into the sights of Cromartie.

Synopsis[]

CameronPhillips-TheMousetrap1

Cameron lifts a heavy server

SCC 203 TheMousetrap2
CromartieMichelle-Mousetrap2

Cromartie sets the trap

SCC 203 TheMousetrap3
SCC 203 TheMousetrap4
CromartieJohn-Mousetrap3

Cromartie tries drowning John

CameronPhillips-Mousetrap4

I don't swim.

Fleeing the Terminator threat in Los Angeles, Charley Dixon and his wife Michelle are filling up at a gas station in the middle of the desert. As the truck arrives, Charley heads off to buy Michelle a soda. After disabling the ignition of his vehicle, Cromartie carjacks the Dixon's truck with Michelle inside.

John helps an extremely pregnant Kacy (their new landlady and neighbor) set up bootleg cable in her bedroom. On the local news, a clip of Beast Wizard VII, the low-budget film starring George Laszlo is running.

John comes home to find Cameron calculating the center of their new house. When asked if this had anything to do with John's safety, Cameron replies no and simply states the observation that the house was moving and that they'd have to repaint in a year.

While Sarah unpacks groceries, John receives a desperate call from Charley. Not wanting to involve John, and not having Sarah's number, he aska to speak to his mother. Charley tells Sarah that Cromartie had taken Michelle and Sarah plays along to protect John. Sarah probes Charley for his location and tells him to stay put. She then scolds John for giving Charley his number and sets him on a chore to keep him far from harm, buying new computers for their nascent resistance cell.

Sarah rapidly packs up weapons as Cameron "investigats" a bird stuck in the fireplace, intent on its termination. Sarah forbids her to harm the bird and directs her to stay with John today and to not let him out of her sight. Sarah also informs Derek, who tries to warn her away from an obvious trap to get to John, but joins her anyway.

Michelle is revealed tied up in a chair in an abandoned building. Cromartie methodically prepares a device that incorporates mousetraps as triggers. Michelle spots her cell phone “conveniently” left nearby and struggles towards it.[1]

John and Cameron load the new computer equipment into the back of their truck in the store parking lot. Cameron lifts a heavy server with ease, and surprises an old couple with her strength. Riley calls from the Santa Monica Promenade, wanting to hang out. Cameron refuses to let John go alone and when the opportunity presents itself, John bolts, attempting to ditch the Terminator.

Agent Ellison, amazed at providence, also watches Beast Wizard VII. He receives a call from Catherine Weaver enticing him with a job offer and hints of knowledge about Cromartie’s massacre. She invites him for lunch to talk about "who or what" actually killed his colleagues.

Sarah and Derek met up with Charley at the desert gas station. Derek bluntly informs Charley that Cromartie doesn't care about Michelle, and is just using her to get to John. He also flatly states that Michelle is probably already dead. Once Michelle finally reaches her tantalizingly placed cell phone, she makes the call for help to Charley. Derek and Sarah demand he test her, to make sure it's not Cromartie imitating her voice. After she passes, as best as she can she tells them where she is. Hearing as Cromartie wrapped up in the other room, Michelle cuts off the call and tries to conceal her efforts to make contact, but a simple comparison of imagery in memory confirms for him the trap is in motion. Michelle begs for her life, but Cromartie sets his trap with her as live bait and tapes her mouth shut.

John and Riley hang out on the Promenade. John breaks the news that he's not coming back to school, and is going to be home schooled for now. Riley spots Cameron watching them, so they scramble to ditch her.

Sarah, Derek, and Charley arrived outside the building Michelle described as her prison. Cautiously they enter, searching the place for Michelle or Cromartie. They find Michelle, tied up in a chair set upon mousetraps wired to a bomb. Sarah demands Michelle not to move while Derek double checks the rest of the place for Cromartie. Charley tries in vain to reassure Michelle it would be okay. Sarah orders Charley out to the truck for her “red handled bag” of demolition gear so she can attempt to defuse the bomb.

Once Charley returns with the bag, he announces that Cromartie took off (and killed their car before he did). Sarah realizes that this means it was all a setup, even the bomb's not real. Sarah immediately calls John who told her he was at the promenade and lies that he was still with Cameron. Derek’s search reveals a cell phone scanner and signal relay wired to the nearby cell tower re-broadcasting their call... right to Cromartie, revealing their security code and the location of his primary objective.

Derek then locates a beeping detonator with a wire leading outside to the cell tower. In a reversal of the trap the Connors laid for him in the past,[2] Cromartie dials his cell phone (the detonator) and destroys the tower, dropping it on the location of his captive. The massive tower falls squarely into the building, but luckily no one was terminated. However, Michelle is gravely hurt by the falling tower and as they stumble off, a big blood stain is revealed on her back. With all cell phone service down, and his obstacles either terminated or at least safely isolated from John, Cromartie is free to close the final stage of his trap around John.

From the desert, Cromartie calls pretending to be Sarah, redirecting John to wait at the Santa Monica Pier and shut off his phone. Cromartie then races off after his target. John abandons a frustrated Riley after telling her he has to go meet his mom at the pier.

Sarah, Derek, Charley, and Michelle planned to trek through the desert to reach the road, but Charley balks because of Michelle's injury, unable to determine its severity or treat it in the field.[3] Michelle angrily insists she can walk, and that no one would have to wait on her.

Ellison meets with Catherine Weaver in her office to talk about the FBI massacre. She shows Ellison photographic evidence of an endoskeleton hand involved in a plane crash five years ago (2002) and shares that she knows that it was a robot that tried to kill John Connor in Red Valley, NM in 1999. Weaver also declares that she knows that a robot was involved in the FBI massacre. She claims to have been working on reverse engineering the same technology with her “late husband” and wants to hire Ellison to find out about these robots and to even catch one for her.

Cameron corners Riley in a parking garage, demanding she reveal John's whereabouts as John waits for "Sarah" at the crowded Santa Monica Pier. Fortunately, as they struggle towards the highway nearly five miles away, Sarah carjacks a cell phone service van en route to the downed tower and they drive off after John. Jouncing across the service road, Michelle struggles to stay alive with Charley's increasingly futile help. They exchange harsh words as he demands Sarah slow down, but she counters that he should have stayed away. At the end of her rope, Sarah slams on the brakes, sliding the van to a stop, still far from both aid for Michelle, and her chance to save John.

A wary John spots Cromartie on the pier and flees for cover. The Triple-Eight follows suit, chasing John down the pier. Cameron, too, arrives and begins closing on the pair from behind. John creates a diversion by trading jackets with a pier fisherman and hiding in a crate, confusing Cromartie, but is rapidly reacquired by him. Trapped with nowhere else to run, John dives off the pier and into the ocean, Cromartie firing away at him. Intent on terminating his target, Cromartie jumps in after him, intending to latch on and drag John into the depths. John barely gets away by shucking off his oversized borrowed jacket, and Cromartie sinks out of reach to the bottom of the ocean. John swims up, and spots Cameron on the pier. When John asks if she could provide some assistance, Cameron simply replies "I don't swim".

John and Cameron meet up with Sarah and Derek in a nearby alley and hop in the van. John, okay, but shaken up, discovers Michelle's blood pooled in the back of the van and knows not all is well. Cromartie stalks onto the beach out of the ocean depths, ready to resume the hunt.[4]

Outside the hospital, John comforts Charley as he weeps over Michelle's wedding ring. Later, Charley is joined by Ellison and others at Michelle's funeral, but none of the Connors are in sight. As the eulogy wraps up and her casket is lowered into the earth, Charley angrily casts the bible given to him by Ellison into the grave and storms off. Cromartie patiently observes the proceedings at a distance, awaiting another chance to strike. John, Derek, and Sarah mourn at home in the stoic company of Cameron as they sit around a somber dinner table.

Characters[]

Main
Recurring
Minor
  • News Anchor - Lisa Canning
  • Pastor - William C. Mitchell

Quotes[]

Derek: Where are you going?
Sarah: You know where I'm going, come if you want.
Derek: You can't go!
Sarah: And yet, I am!.
Derek: It's a ploy to get John. It's a trap!
Sarah: I know that. You don't see John here, do you?
Derek: It's the absolute wrong thing to do!
Sarah: Wouldn't be the first time.

(As Cameron lifts a massive electronics box into the pickup)
John: Hey, hey, hey! Woah, Cameron. Cameron, let me help you with that!
Cameron: I didn't need any help.
John: Yeah, you did. (looks pointedly at the gawking spectators)
Cameron: Right.

Agent Ellison: So... You know who I am. You know what happened. George Lazlo was the shooter. George Lazlo is dead. It's all in the report.
Catherine: And yet here you are. Five years ago, a small commuter jet went down in the eastern Sierras. On its way from Sacramento to Portland. My brother was on the N.T.S.B. team that investigated the accident. He found these. And brought them to me. My late husband and I have spent three years and $20 million. Trying to reverse engineer this technology. We've not been successful. Yet. Red Valley, New Mexico. Eight years ago. 22 witnesses report seeing a man with some kind of robot leg. Try to kill a boy later identified as John Connor.
Agent Ellison: John Connor?
Catherine: Son of Sarah Connor. It was your case. She believed robots were after her son.
Agent Ellison: I know what she believed, Ms. Weaver.
Catherine: You know what really killed those agents. You did not even pretend to ask me what those were.
Agent Ellison: What do you want from me?
Catherine: I want what you want, Mr. Ellison. I want answers. But more than that, I want you to help me find another one.

John: Little help!?
Cameron: I don't swim.
John: I just figured that out!

Cromartie: In 1897, James Atkinson invented the mousetrap. The spring slams shut in 38 thousandths of a second. It is a record that has never been beaten. It is hard to build a better one.

Monologue[]

Closing:

Pastor: "Though outwardly we are wasting away, inwardly, we are being renewed... Day-by-day. For our light and momentary troubles... Are achieving for us an eternal glory, That far outweighs them all. We know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from god. A house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For god has given us the spirit as a guarantee. And as long as we are at home in the body, we are away from the lord. We walk by faith, not by sight. And so fix our eyes... Not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary. What is unseen... Eternal."

Continuity notes[]

(This episode doesn't have any continuity issue yet. Please add one if there is any.)

Notes[]

  • Catherine Weaver presents evidence of another TDE incursion in 2002 when she shows NTSB photos of a private jet crash site that contains endoskeleton remains.
  • Catherine demonstrates the ability to drink liquids, but that would be a simple slight-of-hand for a mimetic polyalloy entity to execute.
  • Cameron's sensory apparatus is sensitive enough to identify the foundation shift of the new Resistance safe house as 0.93mm descent per year.

Deleted scenes[]

(This episode has no information about the deleted scenes so far. Please add one if there is any.)

Terminator references[]

  • John's escape from Cromartie off the pier demonstrates another vulnerability of the Terminator endoskeleton. Although unharmed by total immersion or oxygen deprivation, they are not buoyant enough to swim.
  • The desert gas station and fruit stand is the same one filmed at the end of The Terminator.[5]
  • This episode features a subtle tipping of the hat to Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. Parked next to the Connor's Dodge Ram is a 2003 edition Toyota Tundra — official vehicle of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.

Real-world references[]

Beastwizard7

George Laszlo in "Beast Wizard VII"

Q&A[]

  • Q: Is the plane crash Catherine shows actually the cover utilized for her insertion into the timeline?
    • A: No. The crash is the start of the "real" Weaver and her husband investigating the Terminators. Catherine/T-1001's insertion is suggested to happen in 2005 with the helicopter crash described in the episode "Allison from Palmdale".[6]
  • Q: Or was it the circumstances under the investigation of a "real" Catherine and Mr. Weaver that drew them into the sights of Skynet, resulting in her replacement by the T-1001?
    • A: Yes, see above.
  • Q: Why didn't Cromartie just shoot John before jumping into the water?
    • A: Cromartie shoots several times as he finally sights the running John, but misses. There is a MythBusters episode that clearly debunks the "shooting into water" fiat of the action genre; even a .50 caliber round will disintegrate after about three feet through water. As deep as John was by the time Cromartie reached the edge of the pier, he would be completely protected and bullets would be ineffective. Direct action (the dive) was the most immediate termination option, rather than allowing John a chance to escape underwater.
  • Q Why does Cromartie not get effected by the water and give electric pulses? Is it because of the Living Tissue?
    • A: Designing a machine to withstand submersion in water is fairly common today. There are fully robotic submersibles that can dive to the bottom of the ocean, over 30,000 ft.

References[]

  1. Cromartie has become aware of the many security measures taken by the Connors, and is seeking to circumvent them with an intricate trap.
  2. The command detonated VBIED used to evade him at the Dyson house in "Pilot"
  3. It is unclear how Sarah had the forethought to bring the demolition kit, but wasn’t also equipped with trauma first aid gear, a virtual necessity when hunting Terminators.
  4. A scene reminiscent of Z000.M's arrival in The Terminator: Secondary Objectives.
  5. Official episode podcast
  6. The producer's blog and official podcast for "Allison from Palmdale".

External links[]

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