TV Verdict

Cameron wants to know why John Connor is stupid enough to risk the life of a girl he loves in “Mr. Ferguson is Ill Today,” episode #2.8 of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Of course, Cameron has made some pretty stupid moves over the past 18 episodes, as Cromartie the Terminator points out later on when he catches up to Sarah. “Does she have damage to her chip?” he asks.

John’s not going to give up so easily on Riley, though. He’s heading for Mexico with her, at least for a “field trip” and a stay in the honeymoon suite. “Did you run this idea by your Mom?” Riley asks.

They’re just in time for a festival. “Skulls and darkness. How charming,” she says. Things get even more charming. That danger’s the dish of the day when they stop for a bite to eat, thanks to a photographer with a photographic memory who recognizes that John Baum is really John Connor. There’s a scuffle, and the couple winds up in jail.

The story opens with the same events from three different perspectives–that of Sarah, that of Cameron, and that of John. Yeah, it feels like a stunt at first, but when plot points are thrown in from Derek’s and Cromartie’s viewpoints toward the end, it works. Better is Riley’s surprising ability to think fast on her feet, perhaps faster than John Connor. She tells a story to distract the guard in the Mexican jail so she and John can make an escape. “I don’t want to run away from you,” Riley tells John. Maybe her noggin isn’t so sharp after all.

By the end of the episode, everyone–including, Sarah, Cromartie, Agent Ellison, Cameron, and Derek–ends up in Mexico for a Western-style showdown. Someone in that teaser ad dies. Happily, my guess was wrong. It’s Cromartie.

The meeting between Sarah and Ellison finally gives the fugitive and the FBI man a chance to talk, and the conversation’s dramatic. The ending, which puts to rest the show’s initial menace, and a deft story signal that Sarah Connor is going to stick with a more ambitious path.