We've discovered that Jessie's main objective is to emotionally and physically separate John from Cameron -- which again begs the question, just how intimate do these two become in the future? All signs point to....!! This is, of course, an abomination to certain members of the Resistance working under John, and thus Jessie apparently decided to use the feminine wiles of a teenage girl to lure John away from Cameron and to pursue more normal, "healthy" alternatives.So there are two main questions that this brings to mind.
Number One: Just who is Riley? Has this girl been brought back from the future with Jessie? Or has Riley, much like Sarah, had dreams and seen visions of what's to come? Has she stumbled upon this life accidentally? How -- and what -- exactly does she know?
Number Two: In this episode, John seems to have "gotten his head in the game" as both Derek and Sarah have been incessantly asking of him in the past few episodes. This change of heart coincides with John's decision to break up with Riley for her own good. But at the end of this episode, it seems that John's not going to have the willpower to break up with her after all -- what does this mean as far as his commitment to his destiny? Is Riley going to be a distraction again, or, now that John knows she knows something's up, is he going to be able to balance these two parts of his life? Is Jessie's plan going to backfire? And what's going to happen when John inevitably discovers Riley's deception?
On this note -- I very much enjoyed John's change of attitude in this episode. He's finally showing some deference to his mother again, which I think couldn't have come at a better time, considering her state of mind as of late. It was cute how he stayed up all night researching for her, and also when he jumped to her defense during his and Derek's conversation, thinking that Derek was about to start in on Sarah when she wasn't around to defend herself. I don't think it's a coincidence that his attitude shift came after Sarah's emotional breakdown in "Mr. Ferguson Is Ill," and that his mindfulness continues in this episode as her mental state plummets. I think that if Sarah would just continue to show her weaknesses to John, rather than trying to control him and pretending to be rock steady, John would respect her for it -- and more importantly, I believe he would step up to his responsiblities more readily.The metaphors and dialogue of this episode were unbelievably awesome. One thing I've always enjoyed about T:SCC is the poetic, subtle dialogue -- often, you can dig into the things that the characters say and garner a hell of a lot more than just what's being said on the surface. And I've also enjoyed how other characters, and the relationships between other characters, reflect in various ways the relationships that the Connors/Reeses have with each other.
The only problems I've had with dialogue this season has been some of what Riley has said to John -- but now, in light of the events of this episode, I'm wondering how much of what Riley says reflects upon her very extenuating circumstances. I wonder, if I go back and rewatch this season, if I'll be able to glean some meaning from her words and actions beyond how I initially perceived them. I wonder how many hints there were that I just didn't catch.
Here's a great example of something Riley said this week that I would have pish-poshed at last week, and now I kind of just sit and wonder. John and Riley are in Riley's bedroom, and Riley has just asked John what he thinks about her posters. He is looking at a poster of a bear eating a fish, and he comments that he thinks Riley likes that poster the best, because she seems the type that likes bears. Riley says to him: "It's not a poster of a bear. It's a poster of a fish being caught by a bear. Just swiped out of the water, totally at random. Do the other fish even care? Do they even notice? No. They just keep swimming like nothing happened. 'Cause nothing important did."During this scene, Riley's connection with Jessie and John has not yet been revealed. When she spoke this line, I was still a bit annoyed with it -- mostly because I couldn't really understand it. I could understand Riley acting all emo and depressed, what with the week she's had and all. But until later on, her weird random expressions of emo-ness seem self-centered and unprovoked. But now? We're wondering if she's that fish -- did Jessie just pluck Riley up randomly to aid her in her attempts to separate John and Cameron? Was Riley a prisoner of the terminators in the future, much like Derek was? What sorts of memories does Riley have stored up in her brain that give her that far-off, "caught" look when she's speaking this way?
For Sarah, everything in this episode is revolving around the mystery of the three dots that she dreamt about earlier, and now is seeing everywhere. Sarah's preoccupation with the dots provokes Derek's observation that even he's seeing them everywhere now, and he thinks perhaps their work is just making them all crazy. Well, maybe -- but the writers have certainly got the viewers curious, and it seems like there's got to be something at work here other than just coincidence.
Riley says to Jessie during their meeting, "There's a lot of mirrors in this world. Did you notice that?" just before she tells her that she's not sure she can continue to deceive John. At the end of the episode, Sarah's looking at herself in the mirror, and she has three tiny cuts on her face -- not even cuts, really, but almost pinpricks, dots, in that same triangular pattern -- and in anger, she punches out the mirror. But as she walks away, the camera pans down, and the viewers see that, despite Sarah's intention to destroy the mirror so she wouldn't have to look at herself anymore, all she's managed to accomplish is to create more mirrors, as each broken shard of glass exposes her face to herself, even if she's not looking there.The death of Dr. Sherman and the resurrection of Cromartie (e.g. John Henry) were two other somewhat unexpected events. I actually sort of enjoyed Dr. Sherman, so kudos to the writers for killing off a character that the audience might actually feel sorry about.
The scene in which Ellison had the conversation with John Henry was downright creepy. It was awesome to watch this conversation, as John Henry brings up images and formulas to communicate with Ellison. I wonder about Ellison's future involvement with the company, as more evidence that ZeiraCorp isn't what you would call an "upstanding" corporation continues 
to build. I loved his comment that if Catherine Weaver wants to teach the machines, she should start with the Commandments. The last scene in which Cromartie/John Henry communicates with actual words rather than images was especially shudder-worthy.Next week's episode looks to be especially Riley/John heavy -- I wonder what's going to happen between these two, and whether Riley's eventually going to come clean. Either way, it looks like John's getting even more invested in this relationship, and when he learns of her betrayal it's going to shatter him. Is it wrong that I'm looking forward to this?
---Adela P.
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