Season 2 Episode 17 - Ourselves Alone

Cameron watches a bird fly across the living room. "You shouldn't nest in the chimney." She grabs it, goes to set it free. "I'm not supposed to kill you." But as she tries to let it go, her hand glitches and she accidentally kills it. Uh-oh.

Sarah cleans the remaining blood off the floor of the upstairs bathroom (where Riley slit her wrists). Riley appears, offers to get more bleach from downstairs and help.

Downstairs, Riley runs into John. She tries to apologize for what happened, but he just wants to keep it in the past. After a while, Sarah comes downstairs and finds the bleach -- Riley's obviously gone.

Derek and Jesse take target practice at apples. He wants to know when her Judgment Day is -- the date. But she doesn't want to talk about it. He wants her help on a mission to stop Skynet, but again, she's not interested. "I'm not here to stop the war," Jesse tells him, "I'm here to win it."

"Either help me with my plan or show me some progress on yours," Derek tells her. Reluctantly, she agrees to help him.

Sarah combs through files, leads she's accumulated. She asks Cameron what happened to the information about a lawyer who set up the shell company Desert Heat and Air. "Derek took it." He's off chasing it down because she's been distracted.

Sarah then asks Cameron about Riley -- she wants to know what happened the day she tried to kill herself. Cameron tells her about the bruise on her and that she was lying. John thought it was from her Foster Dad, but Riley claimed otherwise. "We don't know much about Riley," Cameron tells Sarah. Sarah decides to go talk to her foster parents...

In the garage, Cameron slits open her wrist to reveal part of her endoskeleton -- she's checking mechanical function for damage. On her way out, Riley wanders down and accidentally sees Cameron in action. But does Cameron know she's seen her? And if so, what does that mean for Riley?

Cameron admits to John that she accidentally killed a bird. He sees the damage buried deep in her arm. "I don't know how it happened." He knows it was during a fight. She's taken a lot of wear and tear fighting other machines. John thinks he can swap it out if they had spare parts -- lucky (or unlucky) for him, Cameron has been keeping spare parts from machines they've destroyed. She tells John that future him told her not to destroy all of the endoskeleton parts. "Future John has better information than you do."

Riley waits in the park for Jesse. She pulls up. Riley is worried that Cameron is going to kill her. She admits that she saw the metal, Cameron cut her arm open -- Jesse deduces that Cameron is having problems, something's wrong. "If she knew you saw, you'd be dead." Riley doesn't want to go back, she wants out of the mission. But Jesse won't let her out.

"There's gotta be another way."

"Trust me, there's only one way." Jesse comforts her.

Sarah meets with Riley's foster dad, Aaron. She talks to him about Riley's suicide attempt. Sarah tells him about the bruise on her face and gently prods him to know if he did it. Angry, Aaron denies it and blames John for all the bad things in Riley's life. She's been on a bad track ever since she met John. "That girl assaulted my wife. Started yelling about the world blowing up and bleach skulls or some sort of nonsense." Uh-oh. Aaron tells Sarah he was angry that Riley dropped out of school and then was concerned when her guidance counselor came around with a lot to say about John and Sarah and their whole family. He gives Sarah the guidance counselor's name but tells her to keep John away from Riley.

John works on Cameron's arm in the garage. It's an intimate moment as she works on her hand movements, grabbing his hand. He believes he's done it. She feels better but she doesn't know if she's all fixed. "You're ahead of schedule," she tells him. "With what you need to learn."

Sarah talks to Derek on the phone while she waits for the guidance counselor in the park. She wants him to keep her in the loop about tracking down leads. Finally, the guidance counselor Ms. Wilson shows -- it's Jesse!

Jesse as "Ms. Wilson" asks Sarah about John's history. Sarah pretends she was happy with John's relationship with Riley -- she tries to get information on Riley's history. Jesse asks about Sarah's relationship with John's uncle, Derek, who lives in the home. Jealous? "Ms. Wilson" tells Sarah that Riley told her about their trip to Mexico. She agrees to let Sarah handle things her own way. "I'd appreciate that," Sarah tells her.

Riley goes for a checkup on her suicide wounds. Her nurse is unsympathetic, Riley's just another patient...

John does research on the computer for Derek. Cameron asks him what he's doing. John asks her how his hand is. "Aren't you supposed to be really good at self-repair?" Yes, she is. "But sometimes it's really nice to have help."

Derek watches the Kaliba lawyer from a distance at the bar. A high priced prostitute cozies up to him, but he's not interested in her. He is, however, interested if she knows anything about the lawyer. Not much...

John talks to Riley on the phone -- she's coming over later -- when Sarah returns home. She tells John about her conversation with Jesse (the "guidance counselor") about Riley. She tells him that Riley had a lot to say about them and Mexico and bleaches skulls and the end of the world. She's been talking about them, putting them in danger. John thinks on it. "I haven't told her anything," John tells Sarah. He's going to have a conversation with her.

"It might be too late for that," Sarah thinks. "I want you to prepare yourself for what's going to happen when Cameron finds out."

"Do you think it's possible for me to know something Future John doesn't know?" John asks Cameron in the kitchen. She's not sure. "Do you think it's possible to know something that you don't know?" Yes, she knows that Future John probably kept secrets from her. He thinks on it.

Riley shows up at the house. Sarah tells her she owes John an explanation for all the things she's said to her foster dad and the guidance counselor. But Riley doesn't know what she's talking about.

John prods Riley as to how people know things, true things -- specifically what happened in Mexico. She denies ever saying anything. "What would I even say?" But they're interrupted by a knock at the door. Someone with a clipboard. Cameron takes Riley to hide in the garage, John and Sarah open the door:

It's Molly Malloy from the Department of Children and Family Services. She wants to know about Riley. She asks them about guns in the home, carrying weapons around teenagers, etc.

Meanwhile in the garage, Cameron tells Riley this is all her fault. She's the reason that woman is here. Her hand glitchy, Cameron tells Riley they don't always like the way she solves problems. "What am I going to do with you?" she asks Riley. Riley pretends not to know what she means. She denies ever having said anything to anyone. "You don't belong here," Cameron tells her. "You're unreliable. I don't know what you do." Scared, Riley plays dumb. "You can't be John's girlfriend, you're a threat. You cant' stay here anymore but I can't let you leave," Cameron tells her, unsure. But Riley's saved from Cameron when John enters and takes her out...

In private, John asks Cameron if she was going to kill her. Cameron doesn't know what she was going to do. "Since when do you not know what you're going to do?" Cameron knows that she should have killed her, she's a threat. But something's happening to her -- it usually isn't a decision if a threat should live or die.

"What's happening with you?" John asks her.

"I don't know."

Sarah considers what she's going to do with Riley. She loads her gun and then unloads it.

Outside, John confronts Riley. She denies every saying anything. He knows that. But he also knows now is the time for the truth. Suspicious, he asks her if there's anything she wants to tell him? "Today is the day. Today is the day where you tell me whatever it is that you might want to me. Today." With both Sarah and Cameron watching, Riley lies.

"No," she tells him. "But is there anything you want to tell me, John? Because you're right. I think today is the day." No.

Derek sorts through surveillance photos of the Kaliba lawyer in Jesse's hotel room. She enters and asks about what he's found out. He tells her the lawyer is well protected -- bodyguards, security system, cameras, etc. He's also learned that the lawyer has chartered a flight out of the country -- it's time to move in on him. Derek's got a plan. Jesse's not sure she can be a part of it. "You've got your people," she tells him. But he needs her and gives her the details of the plan.

John tells Sarah that he doesn't think Riley ratted them out. Instead, she trusted someone and they sold her out but she won't ell him who. Both Sarah and John knows this is bad. While they're talking, Riley takes off.

Derek waits, hidden, on the street in the hills, ready to ambush the lawyer's car. But he needs Jesse. And she doesn't show.

Instead, Jesse's in her hotel room where she's surprised and attacked by Riley! Riley goes after her ruthlessly, claiming Jesse's been using her -- the plan isn't what she told Riley. "She's supposed to kill me, right? That's it. That's the real plan!" Riley knows that Jesse wanted Cameron not to trust Riley. She called the DCFS and her foster parents. If Cameron killed someone that John loved, it would be enough to send her away. "How could you do that to me? I trusted you. I loved you." Riley confesses.

They fight. And fight. And fight. Jesse admits that Riley's right but she's lucky. She gave her purpose, her death would have meant something. But she's a coward. More fighting, destroying the hotel room, and Riley's got the upper hand. She's scrappier, stronger, has more will. It is absolutely brutal.

But in one quick snap, Jesse's able to reach her gun and shoots Riley through the heart. Riley falls, dead, another victim of the war.

In the hills, Derek continues to wait. Still no Jesse. He spots the lawyer's car but isn't able to get him without backup. Another lead lost.

John finds Cameron building something in the shed. He can't find Riley. He asks her if she killed Riley. "You know I didn't." John asks what she's been doing? "Making something for you." He asks what it is.

Cameron explains that John tried to fix her twice now but it's not working. She's not capable of killing herself, but he is. "Why would I want to kill you?" he asks. "You might have to someday." She explains that she's planted a small amount of explosive in her skull next to her chip. It will destroy her. And now she's given him the trigger on a chain to wear around his neck.

"What would Future John do now?" he asks her.

"Future John doesn't live her. You do." Cameron knows.

John exits the garage and spots something in the grass -- a dead bird.

 

Guest Cast:

Stephanie Jacobsen as Jesse; Mackenzie Smith as Savannah; Gregg Perrie as Aaron; Leslie Thurston as Nurse; Alex Carter as Ko Samuels; Tina Casciani as Working Girl; Alison Martin as Molly Malloy