why are we back in time? it looks like the 30s. oo fire. looks like we find out later.
so who is this wheelchair guy Cameron has been visiting. and bringing donuts to him.
this guy is like her buddy. they’re chatting and shit. are they in a library? i think he’s the librarian. and it looks like he thinks she’s a student.
she finds a picture from the fire in the beginning. 1920, the year is. there’s a terminator in there. now Cameron is going to find out what happened to him.
Reilly wants john to come pick her up somewhere.
meanwhile, Cameron and wheelchair guy, who conveniently works in to conversation that he’s had bone cancer, so now we know why he’s in a wheelchair, are looking through microfilm/fiche trying to find out about the guy from the old photo.
on a completely unrelated side note, i used to enjoy searching through microfilm in the library basement back in high school. nothing like the smell of old books and newspaper with hum and whirl of the microfilm viewer.
anyhow
they find the terminator guy in a picture with Rudolph Valentino at a movie premier. cue flashback where terminator is speaking to Valentino.
now they have figured out who the terminator guy is from the photo caption, so Cameron is off to break into the basement where there’s more records.
meanwhile, john is off to pick up Reilly at some awful party. now Reilly wants to party. john doesn’t want to stay, but is for Reilly.
wheelchair guy is super pissed that Cameron broke the lock to get in the basement. he goes to pick some shit up and falls out his chair. now he’s all embarrassed and sulks off.
so now she’s back to apologize. now Cameron seems really sorry because this wheelchair guy is her only friend.
but nonetheless, she didn’t find what she was looking for.
wheelchair guy doesn’t seem so pissed and wants to help her figure out who the terminator guy is, why there’s no records of him.
she decides that he might have been a bank robber, and low and behold, they find records of an armed robber who killed a bunch of fold, was shot dozens of times yet walked away like nothing.
then they find that their terminator guy bought up a bunch of land and started a construction company. which drummed out his opposition.
now wheelchair guy knocked over Cameron’s purse and a gun fell out and he’s starting to get worried. she basically tells him that people are out to get her brother, and she protects him.
wheelchair guy wants to understand what’s going on. instead she lets him shoot her gun into a phonebook, which is the most fin he’s had in ages.
meanwhile, Reilly tries to engage john in the fun of video games. a shooter game, it looks like.
Reilly apparently took some asshole’s lighter and john fights him over it. they leave.
meanwhile, Cameron and wheelchair guy are watching tv, and there’s a story about someone whose body was just found - someone who the history terminator made disappear. then they read that it was remotely related to someone who died in the fire in the beginning.
now john is parking with Reilly and they’re having some kind of touching conversation.
yawn. surprise, Reilly really did steal the lighter. Reilly said her real parents died in a fire. john tells her about his past in foster homes while his mom was in the psycho hospital.
kissy kissy.
ugh
black with Cameron and wheelchair guy. Cameron barges in the men’s room (he’s in a stall) to talk about someone she thinks terminator guy killed him.
wheelchair guy says they need something on the top floor, no wheelchair access, so Cameron picks him up and carries him. wheelchair guy, sans wheelchair, waxes philosophical. they find what they need and watch it.
an old lady describing the night of the fire. she remembers seeing the ole blue light and nekkid man appearing, she thinks it’s the liquor messing with her memory, but we know it means she saw a terminator appear. she determines that the fire was an accident after all. terminator guy just happened to appear in the middle of their party and the place caught fire.
the terminator guy was in that picture staring at the sky. Cameron figures that he was determining the date by looking at the stars. poor terminator guy was sent back to the wrong time.
they determine that the terminator guy, having accidentally killed someone ‘important’ in that fire, did whatever was necessary to do something that that guy was supposed to to - build a building on a certain street.
anyhow, the building is a historical landmark now and is closed, needing maintenance after the last earthquake.
so Cameron abandons her wheelchair buddy and goes to explore the tower.
if she finds those fucking three dots here…
holy shit. better than that.
she finds the terminator guy has sealed himself in the wall because he needs to be there in 2010 to kill someone. nice.
so Cameron fights/defeats the terminator guy.
now she’s back with wheelchair guy.
she’s been secretly examining her buddy wheelchair guy, and has determined that his cancer is back, she tells him and he thinks she’s out of her mind. and he’s pissed that she’s such a freak.
it seems like she honestly cares about wheelchair guy. in her way.
back at the Connor place, Cameron sees john come in and knows he’s been with Reilly.
it ends with Cameron arriving at the library to find some chick there. she asks for wheelchair guy, and the chick doesn’t know anything about him. Cameron bribes the chick with donuts (wheelchair guy’s donuts) and gets let in.
proving that she didn’t ‘care’ about wheelchair guy at all.
nice.
less action than most episodes, but i rather liked it. i don’t need action.