Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles: Are You Satisfied with the Last Episode?

by Trevor Kimball, April 10, 2009

Well, the producers promised us one heck of an episode and they certainly delivered. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles went out with a big bang tonight and leaves lots of unanswered questions. Will we get answers next season?

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (TSCC) continues the ongoing saga first started in 1984 in the original Terminator movie. This particular piece of the puzzle follows the travails of freedom fighter Sarah Connor (Lena Headey), her teenage son (humanity’s future savior) John (Thomas Dekker), and his Terminator protector, Cameron (Summer Glau). Others in the cast include Richard T. Jones, Brian Austin Green, Garret Dillahunt, Shirley Manson, Leven Rambin, Dean Winters, Stephanie Jacobsen, Mackenzie Brooke Smith, and Sonya Walger.

The FOX series premiered on January 13, 2008 — in the plum spot following an NFL playoff game. Over 18.6 million viewers watched with an impressive 11.1/16 rating/share in the 18-49 demographic. However, without the benefit of a football lead-in, only 10.1 million returned to watch the next day, with a 6.2/9 in the demo. The third installment dropped again, to 8.66 million and a 5.3/8. Despite the vast decline, FOX opted to renew the series for season two.

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When TSCC returned last September, it drew its worst numbers to date — 6.33 million and a 2.4/7 in the demo. Things got worse immediately and the series hit a dismal low of 4.57 million and a 1.8/5 in November. The show went on hiatus for two months starting in December. When it returned in February, TSCC served as a Friday night lead-in to a new sci-fi series, Dollhouse. The hope was that the pairing would be mutually beneficial but it didn’t work that way and many believe that TSCC has actually been hurting the Joss Whedon series. TSCC’s audience ended up dipping below three million in early March.

While many moviegoers are greatly anticipating the new Terminator movie, the TV series just hasn’t attracted enough interest. With ratings like these, it’s impossible to think that the series will return for a third year. That’s a huge shame because, after an episode like tonight’s, we’re left with a lot of unresolved plot points.

Tonight, we saw John Connor leave his mother behind and time travel to the future. Once there, he meets Derek (who doesn’t know him yet) and his dead father, Kyle Reese (who hasn’t fathered him yet). Reese is accompanied by very version of Cameron.

It’s obvious that the series is poised to take off in some interesting directions and is really hitting its stride. The fact that the last few episodes have been so strong make the show’s prospects all the more disappointing. It’s a shame that the writers didn’t get to this point sooner.

If the show doesn’t come back next season, and it looks like it won’t, are you upset with how the show has ended?