Episode 105: Queen's Gambit

Queen's Gambit
Air date	February 11, 2008
Written by	Natalie Chaidez
Director	Matt Earl Beesley
← Previous	"Heavy Metal"
Next →	"Dungeons & Dragons"

"What does it matter? You don't know the Reese boys and you never will."

- Derek Reese.

Sarah reevaluates the capabilities of her friend Andy's computer after he enters it in a chess competition. During the competition Sarah meets a stranger with a history similar to hers. Meanwhile, Agent Ellison finds remnants from a past terminator battle.

Vick turning to finish the job

Derek Reese

Cameron meeting a friendly, distant relative

Little John playing chess

Synopsis

Fifteen years ago, deep within a South American jungle, a young Sarah trudges her way to a camp, and then watches the then eight year old John Connor (John DeVito) play chess with an older soldier as a part of his strategy training.

Back to the present day, Sarah does her routine rigorous exercise and takes a handful of vitamins, and prepares lunches for John and Cameron before they go to school. Andy Goode calls and asks Sarah to meet him at Pasadena. He recoded his artificial intelligence prototype, The Turk, in a coffee shop in Van Nuys, where he has entered a chess tournament. In the dining room, John and Cameron are doing their homework. Sarah tells John that she's heading to Pasadena to meet Andy, and John and Cameron can meet her there after school.

At Charley Dixon's home, Cromartie, disguising himself as FBI Agent Kester, asks Charley about the whereabouts of Sarah and John. Cromartie voices suspicion that Charley is harboring Sarah and John. However, Charley swears that he didn't, and acts upset at the way Cromartie is behaving. As far as he knows, Sarah Connor blew herself up inside a bank vault eight years ago. Cromartie then leaves his business card, asking Charley and his wife to call if they have any information.

Charley's wife, Michelle, knows that Charley was lying to Cromartie. She asks Charley to tell her the truth. Charley then told her that John came by to their home weeks ago. He doesn't have a plan of how to deal with Sarah coming back into his life again.

Sarah arrives in a convention hall full of robots and computers. Andy arrives and shows her his rebuilt prototype. This new version is more adaptable, less predictable, and more eager to learn than the previous one. Dmitri Shipkov, Andy's partner, taught the Turk how to play chess. Andy tells Sarah that the winner of the tournament will get a cash prize and a military contract. Andy and Dimitri will split the money and the deal afterward. Sarah is then silently disturbed by how are things are going with The Turk.

In school, students place notes and flowers around a memorial for Jordon Cowan. Cameron does not understand why people would write notes to the dead, and John explains it is one of the ways people deal with sadness. John then talks to Cheri, but she leaves after a brief talk.

In an auto class, two Hispanic-American students argue about a piece of equipment. John steps in to help one of them, named Morris. John and Morris immediately become friends afterward. Morris mentions that he saw John with Cheri, and his advice to John is that he should stay away from her because her father has her on lock down.

Sarah watches the chess tournament as The Turk competes with another artificial intelligence program, created by Japanese developers. Sarah notices a stranger entering the auditorium, who she finds alarmingly familiar. John and Cameron arrive at the convention hall, with Cameron looking over the robots throughout the auditorium curiously. Sarah informs John of the military contract, and tells him to cheer on the Japanese, or Cameron will kill Andy. When the Japanese team loses its queen it appears Andy may soon win the game, but lose his life. However the Japanese make a sudden move, placing The Turk in checkmate. Sarah then heads to Andy's hotel room and bumps into the man who was lurking in the auditorium. She opens the door and finds Andy dead. She then chases after the man, and tackles him in an alley. The man breaks free but then finds himself surrounded by the police, with no choice but to surrender himself to them. Sarah, upset over Andy's death, takes it very hard.

The next day, John hacks into the country's law enforcement database and pulls up the image of the stranger Sarah fought last night. They are able to identify him as a Resistance agent, one of John's best soldiers in the future. A T-888 terminator, the same one who posed as a Resistance fighter (Gnothi Seauton), also hacks into the database. The terminator then walks up to a pair of talking police officers and attacks one, purposely getting himself arrested.

At school, Cameron goes to see one of the school counselors. The counselor asks Cameron what Jordon talked about before she died. She repeats the conversation and knew that Jordon was upset about the graffiti. Cameron then leaves the office, leaving the counselor concerned.

In the county jail, the stranger sits across from Agent Ellison, and the agent shows him the photo from his apartment. Ellison then asks the stranger about the strange blood-like substance found in the apartment, hoping to find an answer. The stranger knows that Ellison won't believe him, but does give him a grim warning that everyone is about to die. As Ellison leaves, he walks past the T-888.

Outside the county jail, Sarah, in a business suit, is talking to the counselor on her cell phone about Cameron's strange behavior. Sarah then hangs up on him. She later walks in the interrogation room where she poses as a lawyer for the stranger. The stranger admits that he knows who Sarah really is; he tells Sarah that he didn't kill Andy. He just wanted to destroy his prototype. Andy was dead before he got into his room, and the prototype had been stolen. He begs her to leave, because he knows that a T-888 is after him. The stranger tells Sarah that his brother carried her photo for luck. The stranger introduces himself as Derek Reese to Sarah. She realizes that he is the brother of her deceased lover, Kyle Reese, and the paternal uncle of her son.

John tries to talk to Cheri, but she shuns him, then walks to her father's car. Sarah arrives and informs John and Cameron that they have a mission.

In a transport van, Derek begins to lock-pick his handcuffs. Sarah chases the van, and Cameron jumps on the transport and stops the guards. After they take the van, they see in the rear-mirror that the T-888 is chasing them. Cameron engages in combat with the cyborg, and during the struggle, the T-888 loses a hand after Sarah edges the van near a truck. The T-888 seems like it may defeat Cameron, but Sarah fires her pistol to distract the Terminator, giving Cameron a chance to break free. The Terminator then shoots Derek. Cameron hits the Terminator with a metal pipe, taking the cyborg down and (with John's help) extracts the CPU from his exposed metal skull.

The group take Derek back to their house. However, his injury is beyond Cameron's capability to treat. Realizing that Derek needs immediate medical attention, Sarah plans to kidnap a doctor. John argues with her, and Sarah reveals to him that Derek is John's father's brother, therefore his paternal uncle. Overwhelmed, John runs out from the house.

Ellison goes over the events with the guards. At the scene he finds the remains of a severed and mutilated T-888 hand and looks strangely at it.

Sarah does everything she can to keep pressure on Derek's wound, while Cameron is writing a note. Derek suddenly stops breathing as John returns home, with Charley behind him. Charley pauses after seeing Sarah, then begins to perform CPR on Derek.

Continuity notes

• Derek Reese is the brother of Kyle Reese from The Terminator.
• Derek mentions that he recognizes Sarah from the "snap" that Kyle carried around in the future. That picture is shown in both The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day (with Linda Hamilton as Sarah) as well as in Episode 209: Complications (with Lena Headey as Sarah).
• The T-888 who is trying to terminate Derek Reese was the same terminator posing as the fourth dead Resistance fighter in the safe house, in (Gnothi Seauton).
• Through the previous episode the Cheerleader was called Jordon Cowan. However as Sarah talks to Mr. Harris, he says Jordon Tallen.
• The events of this episode take place on October 25, 2007.

Notes

• Sarah is taking Echinacea pills which are used for cancer treatment and increased defense of the immune system.
• Sarah Connor is shown wearing her trademark tank top for much of the episode.
• In the opening scene, Sarah is doing pullups using the metal bar of a swing set. She was also shown doing similar pullups in Pescadero State Hospital in Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
• In Andy's second incarnation of The Turk, we learn that he did the programming, but his partner, Dmitri Shipkov, was the one that taught it how to play chess.
• Queen's Gambit is a classic chess opening.
• When Morris tells John about Cheri being 'damaged goods', he tells him "Just looking out for you". John will use the same words on Morris when he tries to come on to Cameron.
• Derek Reese is arrested for a crime he didn't commit, and then a terminator comes after him while he's in police custody. This is the same thing that happened to his brother Kyle Reese in The Terminator.
• At the chess competition, Cameron stands in front of a "robot" which is able to do face recognitions. Several things displayed on the monitor refer to concept of robots and artificial intelligence, e.g. "BladeRunner" (and Cameron's face is named with "101").
• At the chess competition, when Cameron is looking at all the robots, the dog robot barks at her. In the movies, real dogs often bark at the terminators. The Resistance of the future often used dogs as a way to identify terminators.
• The chess game John speaks about (Byrne-Fischer, 1956) is considered by some to be the game of the century. In this game, 13-year old Bobby Fischer defeated one of the leading American chess players at the time, Donald Byrne, sacrificing his queen on move 17.
• The Queen's gambit is a chess bait strategy to let your queen be captured. This tricks the opponent to expose his King to a planned checkmate. Within this episode Vick allowed himself to be captured and jailed in the same jail as Derek, his primary target.

Monologue

Opening
"In all of the training my son received in the jungles of Central America, nothing better prepared him for combat than the game of chess. It taught him almost everything he needed to know about war. That to win you must be patient, bold, calculating. And most of all, willing to sacrifice."

Closing
"If there is a flaw in chess as a game of war, it is this: Unlike war, the rules of chess are constant, the pieces unchangeable. You will never win the heart of a rook or the mind of a knight. They are deaf to your arguments. And so be it. The goal of a chess game is total annihilation. But in war, even as the blood beats in your ears and you race after your enemy, there is the hope that saner minds than yours will stop you before you reach your target. In war, unlike chess, rules can be changed. Truces can be called. The greatest of enemies can become the best of friends. In war, there is hope."

Quotes

John: You're really good at math.

Cameron: Yes.

John: You want to do mine?

Cameron: Yes.

---

Cameron: What are they doing?

John: They're writing notes... for Jordon.

Cameron: She's dead.

John: Yeah, I remember watching her fall.

Cameron: Me too. How will she get the notes?

John: She won't.

Cameron: But you said...

John: Sometimes things happen and they are so bad... that people don't know how to deal with their sadness, so they write it in a note.

Cameron: But I thought people cried when they are sad.

John: Sometimes it's not enough.

---

Morris: Hey um... I saw you talking to Cheri Westin this morning.

Morris: Maybe no one told you because you are new, but she's damaged goods.

John: She's my Chem partner. Do you know her or something?

Morris: (scoffs) No one knows her. Something went down crazy at the last school she in, but no one knows what it is. Her dad's got it pretty locked down tight.

John: That's a pretty boring rumor.

---

(Cameron watches Sarah finishing her pull-ups, walks up to her and holds out a pencil)

Sarah: What's this?

Cameron: You should write Andy a note, if you can't cry.

(Sarah snaps the pencil in half and gives it back to Cameron)

---

Mr. Harris: What did she say when you did talk to her?

Mr. Harris: I mean, was it something upsetting for you to hear?

Cameron: She said... (in the same frantic manner as Jordon) You saw it right? Right? You saw it?! It's so freaking big and right out there!

Mr. Harris: (beat) She was talking about the graffiti?

Cameron: (monotone) It's freaking big.

Mr. Harris: Yes. Yes it is.

Cameron: And no.

Mr. Harris: No?

Cameron: No, it was not upsetting for me to hear it.

---

Sarah: Field trip.

John: (jumping in the front seat) I call shotgun.

Cameron: I call 9 millimeter.

---

Agent Ellison: Tell me something I don't know.

Derek Reese: You all gonna die.

Q&A

• Q: Who is the person in the jungle teaching John Connor playing chess?
  • A: Playing chess requires a certain level of intelligence. That person is not a simple soldier, but someone with more experience, probably the leader of the camp.
• Q: Who is calling Charley Dixon on the mobile while the FBI agent (Cromartie) is asking questions about Sarah Connor?
  • A: Could be anybody, maybe his grandpa. What is interesting is the reaction Cromartie has. It looks like he needed time to know if that phone call is a thread or not.
• Q: According to John's classmate Morris, something happened to Cheri Westin last year. What really happened to her?
• Q: Who called the police after Andy Goode was killed?
  • A: Obviously, not Sarah. Someone must have found him dead and called the police. It could be anyone, even a person who had never seen him before.
• Q: Sarah Connor said: "They've been watching Andy Goode. Doing surveillance...". Who is she referring to?
  • A: She is referring to the Resistance fighters.
• Q: Who killed Andy Goode?
  • A: At the end of Episode 6 you can see Derek did.
• Q: Which murders is FBI Agent Ellison referring to when interrogating Derek Reese?
  • A: Derek Reese is charged for the murder of the three others (Resistance fighters) in the safe house.
• Q: What murders is Agent Ellison investigating?
  • A: Murder of Mr. Ferguson (teacher at the high school)
  • A: Murder of three people (the Resistance figters)
  • A: Murder of Enrique Salceda
  • A: Murder of Andy Goode
  • A: The two doctors that Cromartie killed to hide his identity
• Q: Why did Agent Ellison move prisoner Derek Reese?
  • A: He wanted to get more information from him and wanted to have him in FBI custody, where his influence is greater.
• Q: Derek Reese seemed to recognize Cameron when he saw her the first time. Have they met before?
  • A: When Derek Reese is floating between life and death, his flashbacks show the events just before the Resistance fighters time travel. In these flashbacks we see him meeting Cameron.
• Q: Who is Cameron writing to?
  • A: Probably she is writing a note for Derek or Vick. ↔
• Q: Why does Cameron turn the chip of the T-888 clockwise, when other terminator chips are removed by turning them counter-clockwise?
  • A: Maybe this model is different or maybe the film director forgot that terminator chips are removed by turning counter-clockwise.

Characters

Main

• Sarah Connor - Lena Headey
• John Connor - Thomas Dekker
• Cameron - Summer Glau
• James Ellison - Richard T. Jones

Recurring

• Cromartie/George Laszlo - Garret Dillahunt
• Michelle Dixon - Sonya Walger
• Andy Goode - Brendan Hines
• Cheri Westin - Kristina Apgar
• Dmitri Shipkov - Mark Ivanir
• Mr. Harris - Neil Hopkins
• Vick Chamberlain - Matt McColm
• Derek Reese - Brian Austin Green
• Charley Dixon - Dean Winters

Minor

• Morris - Luis Chávez
• Bobo - Josue Aguirre
• Guard - Troy Cephers
• Old Rebel Soldier - Ray Chavez
• Young John Connor - John DeVito
• Student - Ally Maki
• Announcer - Jacob Witkin

External links

• Queen's Gambit - IMDB.com
• "Queen's Gambit" at TV.com
• Official Episode Clips:Clip 1