Spoilers in the recap.

Last night Allison and I caught the season premiere of Terminator The Sarah Connor Chronicles. To say it was an explosive episode would be a pun and would be an understatement. The episode began with a view through Cameron’s eyes or rather data cell memory. They were the last moments leading up to the car bomb. After the car blows up a song begins to play, Samson and Delilah, it was done by Garbage front woman Shirley Manson who also joined the cast this season as a mysterious corporate executive.

As the song plays we see Cameron reboot and begin to walk back to the house. When the explosion goes off Sarah and John start to make a run for it but are stopped by Sarkissian, the man they went to kill in the last season. Sarkissian and his goon take Sarah and John upstairs and beat them and tie them up. The song continues to play. In the room Sarkissian is attempting to rape Sarah, the scene cuts to Cameron as Cameron comes into the house, dispatches the goon and sets up another explosion. She takes the goons gun and heads up the stairs, slowly. Fire is now spreading to a fuel tank in the house. Cameron opens the door of the bedroom to find Sarah and John okay but Sarkissian is dead. We see the scene through her eyes and she focuses on John and a red TERMINATE comes up, she takes aim and.. the gas tank in the house explodes. Cameron falls and then in true Terminator fashion as John and Sarah peer over the edge to see, a hand comes up. John and Sarah hurl themselves out the window, careen off the roof and onto the ground below. The Game has changed.

Come back from commercial and we catch up with Agent Ellison and Cromartie. Int he season finale Cromartie killed 20 FBI agents without a thought. The episode ended with Cromartie and Ellison. We pick up where that left off. Cromartie levels his gun at Ellison and does not kill him. He walks away. Charlie pulls up in his ambulance and sees Cromartie walking away. They deal with the scene and identify the guy who’s identity was stolen by Cromartie as the killer. I’m sure that any Medical examiner will determine his TOD as before the FBI agents.

Ellison goes back to FBI headquarters is suspended for 6 weeks and is being investigated. He’s not too happy about that.

So, does Charlie even have to do anything at each of the accident scenes. He seems to come to the scene and leave without taking any bodies or anything. I would think that he would end up fired after today. When Charlie goes to the Sarah’s house, because he gets a call about the house explosion, Derek Reese sneaks into the ambulance. The two of them search for Sarah and John.

Cameron is in pursuit of Sarah and John. All three of them are pretty banged up. Sarah and John find sanctuary at a small church. Cameron follows them through a blood trail. That trail of blood leads to the font of holy water where John and Sarah dropped a clock radio. When Cameron reaches in to get it they flip it on and it zaps Cameron. They have 15 seconds to pry out her chip before she reboots. They cannot do it in time so they run.

What follows is a pursuit by Cameron of John and Sarah that ends with John and Sarah slamming Cameron between two big trucks so John can rip out Cameron’s chip. Cameron pleads with John, telling him that she is better. She even says that she loves him, ouch. Derek and Charlie show up because they followed the swath of destruction across the city that lead to Sarah and John. Instead of burning the Cameron chasis they take it with them. John fiddles with her chip throughout the ride. They eventually find a place where they are going to burn the chasis. Thermite is created and poured all over Cameron. Sarah asks John for the chip. John takes the chip and a flare. He doesn’t burn Cameron however. He puts the chip back in. Cameron reboots and we see the viewscreen through her eyes. TERMINATE comes up again in Red but then primary objective override comes up as well. The group returns to the church and John cuts off all his hair (Interesting because that is what made Samson lose his power.)

So is Cameron the Delilah to John’s Samson?

Also in the episode we are introduced to Catherine Weaver played by Shirley Manson. When I first saw her in the episode I figured right away that there was something not quite right with her. Later as she spoke and made comments it got more clear that something was off. Catherine Weaver is the one who has bought the Turk. Her organization is now going to work on a special program called Babylon. The members of the team aren’t that happy with this however. One in particular is pretty “pissed off” at Weaver. This guy goes into the men’s room and is surprised as the urinal morphs into Catherine Weaver. Yes, a T-1000 will be in the series. She dispatches the guy exactly like the T-1000 did to the security guard by the coffee machine. That was the biggest revelation of the episode.

Agent Ellison has another run in with Cromartie at the burned out house of Sarah and John. Ellison says that he will never lead him to them. He says, I will never do the Devil’s work. Cromartie says, “We’ll see.” And then walks away.

All in all it was an good episode, some really cool stuff happened and the intro of Shirley Manson’s character is great.

Here is what TV Squad had to say.