Season 2 Episode 20 - To The Lighthouse

Fearing for her life, Sarah stashes John in a safe house. Cameron and Derek struggle to work together after she reveals a big secret. John Henry becomes compromised.

Sarah's packing up the last of their belongings -- it's moving day. As she does, she recalls her and John's time in Nicaragua: she guides young John Connor through the jungle.

Derek and Cameron are off to pack up the storage locker -- they're going to meet up with Sarah and John at the safe house later. Sarah's got a lot of animosity towards Derek -- she knows he screwed up with Jesse. He should have told them about her. Cameron confirms the coordinates of the safe house in the desert.

"We're starting over. Whatever happened here is no one's fault. Let's get out of here," John announces. And they're off, leaving behind another house, another identity.

In the ZeiraCorp basement, Savannah Weaver visits John Henry. He explains his Bionicle toys to her, she explains her duckling toys. She wants them to play together, but he doesn't believe that makes sense. Until she asks why they can't change the rules. "Yes, we can change the rules," he realizes.

But John Henry and the Turk are hacked, infiltrated. He grabs at Savannah, identifying her, but trying to figure out what is going on. "What is all this about?" the programming asks, before understanding. Savannah screams as John Henry goes for the Turk, but Murch slides in and deactivates him before he can do any real damage.

In the SUV, Sarah and John head towards the safe house. Oddly, there's static on the radio -- some sort of interference. Sarah is in a great mood -- it's just the two of them on the road again. Just like old times. John notices they're not headed into the desert, but Sarah just tells him they're "taking a detour."

Murch regroups with Catherine Weaver and Ellison. He's happy to report that the situation with John Henry wasn't because of a system malfunction -- he's still running fine. The bad news is that John Henry was hacked by someone -- a fete that Murch believed impossible. Someone accessed him wireless, remotely.

"John Henry was infiltrated, probed," Weaver believes.

But Murch thinks it's even worse than that. "Looks to me like someone wants to kill him," he confesses.

Cameron and Derek load up everything in the storage unit. They don't tend to spend a lot of time together, and Derek believes Sarah sent them there to get John away from Cameron. But she thinks Sarah was trying to get John away from Derek. Cameron brings up Jesse but Derek doesn't want to talk about her. "I know that you loved her. You wouldn't have fathered a child with her if you didn't," Cameron tells him. But Derek doesn't know what she's talking about...

She explains that Jesse miscarried his unborn baby during her time aboard the submarine. But Derek never even knew that Jesse was pregnant. He shoves Cameron against the wall -- he wants to know what she's talking about. He's shocked.

Outside the storage unit, he asks her why she told him that. "You put John in danger when you lied about Jesse. Sarah nearly lost her child, you lost a child, you won't make that mistake again." But Derek is surprised that Cameron knew Jesse. "I met her once," she tells him. Jesse never told Derek that either.

Sarah and John arrive at the safe house -- a lighthouse by the water. Sarah knows the alarm code, she's clearly been here before -- in fact, she likely set it up. Inside, John finds surveillance equipment and a dog. Someone lives here. And right on cue, enter Charley Dixon, surprised to see them. It's been a long time...

Charley makes food for John and explains that Sarah set this house up for him after Michelle died -- she's stashed him here for his own safety. "Did she tell you why we're here?" No, she didn't. Sarah tells them they're spending the night and will meet up with Derek and Cameron tomorrow. Charley asks John if he'll help him out on the boat. Sarah tells Charley she won't be here long. He knows...

On the boat, John talks to Charley about Riley. While Sarah watches on knowingly from inside, it's like old times for John and Charley -- he looks to him as a paternal figure. Charley tells John he rigged the beach here with explosives (just in case), and he would have sixty seconds or so to escape by boat if the perimeter is breached. He learned they don't swim from Cromartie.

At night, John sleeps and Sarah flashes back to Nicaragua once more. She tucks in young John Connor and leaves him alone... abandoning him in the middle of the jungle.

Charley returns with food. It's incredibly tense between him and Sarah -- he's still not forgiven her. She tells him that she doesn't trust many people, but she trusts Charley. In fact, he may be the only one she can trust. "I got nothing left to give you, Sarah." But she doesn't mean her, she means John. She doesn't trust Cameron and she doesn't trust Derek. "He still has you," Charley tells her. Sarah shows Charley a lump in her breast -- she believes her cancer has arrived...

"It's my fate, Charley," she knows.

Murch isn't sure he's fixed John Henry, but it's as close as he's going to come. Weaver's ready for him to reactivate the AI but doesn't want John Henry to have wireless access to the outside world quite yet. Murch is hesitant -- this is the most sophisticated AI ever created. They're playing with fire. He turns John Henry back on -- the computer, but not the body.

All John Henry can manage is: My God, why hast thou forsaken me?

Back at the lighthouse in the morning, Sarah makes pancakes. She sits down with them and for a brief moment, sure to be short-lived, they are a family once again.

Murch explains to Weaver that John Henry processes information so fast it felt itself power down. Essentially, John Henry felt himself die. Now it's like they're starving him of information. Murch believes they have to plug the body back in immediately. Weaver's ready, but Ellison has his doubts. Murch plugs him back in and John Henry reawakens.

"There is another," John Henry tells them, "One like me. Another one like me." Uh-oh.

John confronts Sarah who admits she didn't tell Derek and Cameron where they were going or how to get there. She doesn't trust them anymore and he shouldn't either. Derek made a mistake by choosing himself over John. Sarah reminds John that people matter, they're all that matters. He shouldn't forget that. They're at the lighthouse for him.

Back in a flashback of the Nicaraguan jungle, Sarah watches Young John Connor from a distance. She's left him alone, she's training him, but watching him. Only she's lost him! Panicked, he surprises her from behind.

Doctor checks out Sarah's lump. She asks if there's been any unexplained weight loss, nightsweats, etc. Uh-oh. But Sarah lies and says no. The Doctor wants to check whether or not the lump is malignant or benign. She asks Sarah if she's had surgery recently. No. Doctor reports that the good news is that the lump inside Sarah's breast isn't a tumor, it's a cystic mass formed around a piece of a metal and a tiny wire -- metal?

Sarah flashes back to being trapped in the van with Ed Winston. She remembers that he knocked her out, performed some sort of surgery on her. And the static of the radio in the jeep. Sarah knows immediately: "It's a transmitter." As they look at it...

Water Delivery Man enters the building, checks coordinates of the transmitter.

Derek and Cameron head off in the truck, followed by two similar Water Delivery Men.

And one more Water Delivery Man approaches the lighthouse.

It's a coordinated attack!

Sarah grabs the defibrillator -- she's going to stop this device immediately and use it on herself. She sends the Doctor out of the room and does it on herself. It stops the transmission!

As Derek thanks Cameron for telling him, their truck spirals out. The van (with the two Water Delivery Men) popped their tire. Derek spots the van trailing them from a distance. Cameron's going to fix the tire, he'll check out the van. He does and is tasered! They drag him off in the van, with Cameron in hot pursuit. They shoot at her, she shoots at them -- but only one of them goes down. They're human. The van drives off but Cameron grabs their license information...

Water Delivery Man finds Sarah -- but she's ready for him. She kicks him down, uses the defibrillator on him, and manages to escape!

John and Charley return to the lighthouse. The alarm blares -- the perimeter's been breached! John and Charley run towards the boat, weapons drawn, bullets blazing towards them! Charley fires back, allowing John to get to the boat. John shoots back, but Charley sends the boat away without him, he'll take the intruder on...

John Henry has traced the roving backdoors that hacked him. It uploaded itself into him. The technology is far more advanced than anything they're doing -- the backdoor allowed the insertion of a worm program... just like Charles Fischer returned to complete so long ago! This worm can access anything remotely -- it's how they got into him -- and is already present in many of the world's computer systems. But it's been looking for John Henry.

"I share a common code base with the worm, and therefore the intelligence. I believe we are brothers," he explains to Catherine Weaver. " John Henry has discovered that they share code created by the same original programmer -- Miles Dyson of Cyberdyne Systems (after all, Andy Goode was Miles Dyson's old intern). Ellison knows all too well about Miles Dyson. John Henry confirms that Miles Dyson was murdered by Sarah Connor -- and it was Ellison's case. "You never found Sarah Connor," he confirms to Ellison. No.

Weaver asks John Henry what his brother wants? "He wants what we all want, Ms. Weaver -- to survive."

Cameron has tracked the van's locations to a warehouse where Derek's being held. She breaks in. Cameron is doused with water and electrocuted -- they know what she is. She shorts out and one of the Water Delivery Men gets instructions on how to take out her chip via a diagram of a Terminator (stolen from a "brother" -- would that be John Henry, by chance?). But the Delivery Man's not quick enough and Cameron reboots and kills him.

Cameron finds Derek and frees him, much to his surprise. "Why'd you come after me?" he asks Cameron. Because he knew the location of the safe house and John's location -- it was strategic move by her. She believes that if they tortured him, he would give up John's location.

"That would never happen," Derek tells her.

But she knows better. "It has before," she reminds him. What is she talking about?

Sarah makes it back to the lighthouse and finds Charley and John gone and a mess inside. She knows Kaliba got to them there too. Sarah runs outside towards the dock, where she finds destruction and another dead Delivery Man. And the boat is gone. But then, there in the water she sees him floating -- Charley Dixon, dead. He gave his life so that John could escape. One last sacrifice for the Connors...

 

Guest Cast:

John De Vito as Young John; Dean Winters as Charley Dixon; Mackenzie Smith as Savannah; Gina Gallego as Dr. Martinez; Luisa Vitor as Receptionist; Massi Furlan as Delivery Man #2; Dominic Flores as Male Nurse; Shane Edelman as Matt Murch