Season 2 Episode 1 - Strange Things Happen at the One-Two Point

James Ellison is digging up a grave -- Cromartie's grave. As he brushes the dirt off the machine's face, his eyes open... it's all been a dream. Or has it?

He hears the exact same digging noise coming from his backyard. Upon investigation, he finds Cameron! "Go back to bed," she exclaims. Clearly, she didn't believe him.

Downtown Los Angeles. Sarah and Derek leave the truck with the valet out front a nice restaurant. In the same building, they sneak into the offices of DAKARA SYSTEMS -- a tech company who's logo is the three-dot symbol. They grab the hard drives out of the company's computers and bring them home to...

John. But there isn't much on the hard drives. He does uncover that Dakara Systems has a design for an AI, but lacks the appropriate server to run it.

Derek believes Sarah's chasing shadows, but Sarah insists that there's something to the three-dots. Were the three bloody fingerprints on the wall the same symbol she's been dreaming about or just that -- bloody fingerprints on a wall? Derek reiterates that Dakara's design isn't The Turk. Sarah's barking up the wrong tree...

Meanwhile, Cameron returns home with the news that Cromartie's body isn't buried in Ellison's yard.

In the morning, Sarah wakes to find John slaving away at the computer. He's been up all night looking at Dakara's hard drives and found that the company is looking for startup money. Investors. And he's put together a cover story and pulled research for her. John recognizes that it's a small program right now, but "so was Cyberdyne once." And Andy Goode's Turk.

Jesse hops out of the shower to find her surveillance photos of the Connors spread out on her bed. And a pissed off Derek. "You've got thirty seconds. Go." Jesse tells him that she was sent back to find him. Derek's angry she lied to him, but she's equally as angry that he didn't tell her that he was living with them: Sarah, John, Cameron.

Jesse reveals that she's come back to stop Cameron -- in the future John's making questionable decisions and getting people killed. Cameron has taken over; he only listens to her. "Imagine if he spends the next twenty years with her." Jesse has come back to save John Connor.

Police have taken over ZeiraCorp. Ellison talks to the Lead Detective and learns that there's been a death in the building. The heat wave blew a transformer over the weekend and someone got trapped in the elevator and overheated to death. But who?

"His name is Dr. Boyd Sherman," Weaver reveals. She informs Ellison that Sherman's been consulting on the project in the basement: Babylon. She's open and honest with him, explaining that Babylon is an artificial intelligence. Over the weekend the AI borrowed power for itself from the ZeiraCorp building, effectively shutting down the rest of the place and trapping Sherman in the basement lab. Weaver's AI has access to the building's power in order to help it grow... but what were it's intentions? That is what they must find out.

Dressed up and undercover, Sarah and Cameron meet Alex Agagi and his son, Xander, at Dakara Systems. Alex explains that Xander is the mastermind behind the technology -- dubbed "Emma." The Air Force is interested in this technology.

While Cameron and Xander talk, Alex tells Sarah that he'd do anything for his son. "Tell me what you need," Sarah asks. But they need more than Sarah has.

John goes to visit Riley at her foster home where he meets her foster parents. Upstairs in her room, John tries to open up to her about his life, his destiny. "Back in Mexico, I promised to explain everything. The truth." But John goes on, "But the truth is, there's nothing I can explain. Nothing I can say." Riley is understanding, but John freaks out and leaves anyways...

Back at the Connor house, Sarah and Cameron go through the evidence: an AI, the three dots, an the United States Air Force. It must add up to something. But Cameron insists that it isn't the Turk -- Xander doesn't play Chess, he prefers the game Go. Sarah knows this could still be a piece of the puzzle like Barbara Chamberlin's street lights program, but Cameron reminds her that Dakara has no money so they'll miss the Air Force's deadline. "They'll find the money, everything they need," Sarah knows. Because Judgement Day happens.

Riley browses shirts at a clothing store. Then, from behind her: "Cute top. You wanted to talk?" It's Jesse.

Jesse pulls Riley into one of the store's dressing rooms. There's a clear familiarity between these two, frequent touching, almost sisterly. Riley informs Jesse that John almost opened up to her today but then... nothing. John left. Jesse encourages her to get closer to him, to be his rock. "I don't think I can do this anymore," Riley confesses to Jesse. Jesse recognizes that Riley may have developed real feelings for John now but reminds her there's no way out, nowhere to go. "You can do this. You have to do this."

John and Derek unload the truck. Derek tells John even he has been seeing the three dots everywhere now. Because it's easy to think you're seeing things if you are looking for them. John defends Sarah, but Derek isn't talk about her.

Derek knows how crazy their whole purpose to stop Skynet can make them. He wants to make sure John's head is in the game. That he's seeing clearly, that he remembers. "I remember. I always remember," John insists. Does he?

Sarah joins Alex for coffee and talk about parenting, music, and Dakara. He brings up the chess tournament that the Air Force sponsored -- Andy Goode's chess tournament. The winning team -- the Japanese -- developed a tiny microchip and now want to license it to Dakara. But he needs a deposit. Half a million dollars. "It's the future," says Alex.

Murch shows Ellison around the basement workroom that holds the Babylon AI -- otherwise known as the Turk. Ellison quickly learns that the AI broke the rules when taking power away from the building, a first. He asks about the computer's feelings for Dr. Sherman, but Murch doesn't think it's even possible that the AI knew it was killing Sherman when it stole the building's power.

Cameron doesn't think they have enough money to buy the Japanese chip for Dakara. "What would be enough?" Sarah wonders. Everything. The Connors' entire stash of diamonds and cash.

Sarah and Cameron join Alex, Xander, and the Japanese representative, Minamoto, for dinner and the big exchange. Sarah pays him out in cash and receives the chip.

Riley comes home to find her foster siblings arguing. When they try to get her involved, she flips. Riley blows up at them all, screaming that "it's all gonna burn and you're gonna be nothing but bleached skulls." It's a heavy moment. Riley then shoves her Foster Mom across the room before running off...

With his father, Sarah and Cameron in tow, Xander tests the Japanese chip and quickly learns that it's useless. Cameron confirms that the chip is an older design that is disguised to appear more advanced. They've all been had.

Alex tells Sarah that he'll make it right. He'll pay her back. But Sarah says she'll talk to Minamoto. She doesn't care that he's a Yakuza gangster. She's not afraid. Sarah gets a text message that her targets been acquired and exits...

Ellison reports to Weaver that Murch couldn't guess as to the AI's intent. "Why did you ask him?" she retorts. "Ask the Babylon AI. Ask John Henry." The AI's name, compliments of Dr. Sherman himself.

And so they do. Murch explains that John Henry communicates through images and binary code but has voice recognition. It's able to identify Ellison and Sherman and recognize what happened to Sherman -- as the computer sees it, Sherman went offline.

Weaver and Ellison learn that John Henry attempted to call the paramedics for help, but not until after Sherman's death. John Henry doesn't not understand death or feelings. "You taught it procedures, you taught it rules, but it's got no ethics, no morals," Ellison recognizes. "Someone killed the man and it wasn't John Henry."

Before he leaves Weaver asks him what he would teach it? "You want to teach it commands? Start with the first ten."

Sarah, Derek, and Cameron force their way into a crappy apartment and interrupt Minamoto's poker game. Sarah kicks him to the ground at gunpoint and demands answers. Shades of crazy reminiscent of her stint in the nut house, Sarah gets Minamoto to admit that he isn't real -- he's just an actor hired by Alex.

Sarah expresses that they all need to deeper. Everything adds up. "Listen to yourself," Derek says. "Whatever you've needed it to be, that's what it is." He knows she's been played. But she's not done yet.

Sarah surprises Alex at Dakara Systems. She attacks him, beating him half to death, tossing him across the room, threatening him for answers. Alex admits that he's a con artist, but his son doesn't know. "The three-dots?" she asks. "It's just a logo, you crazy bitch," he screams before Sarah hits him again and drags him out of the room.

Sarah holds a bloody Alex in front of Xander (held by Cameron) and threatens him to admit the truth. He does and Sarah gets her money back before leaving...

Jesse returns to her room at the hotel to find Derek waiting. "John Connor's my nephew," he admits to her, knowing very well that very few other people know that. Derek's very clear -- he plans to stop Skynet. He wants to know everything and tells her that now is her time to come clean about everything. But she doesn't. She doesn't mention Riley.

Exhausted, Sarah returns home to John.

Then, Riley shows up at the Connor house. "I reject your rejection," she announces charmingly. And as they head off, she recomposes herself, and we see a hint of the truth and pain in her eyes...

Sarah faces off with the bathroom mirror. Upon close inspection, blood on her face. In the shape of three dots. It isn't over, not by a long shot. Sarah smashes the mirror in anger, closer to crazy than we've seen her since Pescadero...

Weaver's been thinking about what Ellison said. He's right about John Henry. As she brings him down to the basement, Weaver tells Ellison the tale of John Henry, one he's familiar with. "John Henry defeated the machine, but he couldn't stop progress." She brings him down to the basement workroom...

...to meet the new and improved John Henry: Cromartie! Or rather, his body.

With the look of horror and history in James Ellison's eyes, John Henry casts a glance up at him.

"Hello, Mr. Ellison. My name is John Henry. How are you today?"