Recap: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles - S1E6 "Dungeons and Dragons"

Note: half of this episode is in flashback form, Derek's POV.  Rather than bounce back and forth between the flashback time and the show's now, I'm going to follow the now all the way through and then do the flashback.

Now.  We pick up right where we left off, with Charley working furiously to save Derek's life.  Understandably, he rants a little bit to the Connors about WTF happened over the last eight years since they supposedly blew themselves up in that bank vault.  The Connors and Cameron explain to him - off-camera - about the Terminators and, when confronted with the battered chassis of the Terminator that shot Derek/they disabled and apparently brought with them (except for his left hand which Agent Ellison has), manages to take it all in stride.  He does need a beer though.

Derek starts flailing a bit and Charley tells the gang that he needs three units of AB negative blood (very rare).  John says they should test him and since he's a match what with being a relative and all, they hook him up to Derek for a direct transfusion.  Charley pieces together that Kyle Reese, Derek's brother, about whom Derek keeps ranting in his delirium, is John's brother - funny how Cameron hasn't figured that out yet.

As Cameron skins out the Terminator and sprinkles thermite on its metal frame, Charley pauses to try to talk to her.  He eventually flees after calling her a "very scary robot."  Sarah comes out to tell Cameron that she is to stay away from Charley and not hurt him.  She tasks Cameron to tracking down the missing hand since it is imperative that all bits and pieces of this Terminator get destroyed.  (Um, what about the one you all left stranded behind the blast doors at that army depot?)  Cameron nods, but then pockets the chip she pulled out of the Terminator's head when she shut him down.

Charley says goodbye to Sarah and hands her "Agent Kestler's" (Cromarty's) business card, letting her know that they're still being hunted.  When Derek arises to some vague consciousness, John is there, talking quietly to him about Kyle ... but still not letting his uncle know that they're kin.

Flashback to Derek's when.  Down in the freedom fighters' tunnels, Derek and Kyle shoot the shit before being sent topside by an unseen John to suss out the machines' latest secret weapon.  Says another soldier, "Don't they have enough weapons?  Why do they need a secret one?"  Topside is hellish, post-apocalyptic, and the Reese brothers glimpse what looks like a huge jet engine being dragged off by the machines.  More machines open fire, the brothers get separated and Derek gets captured.

He comes to, chained to the floor of an old house, along with numerous other humans.  Terminators periodically drag off the dead bodies.  One of the other imprisoned humans confesses to being Andy Goode, to having been part of the team that built Skynet.  Derek is skeptical but files this information away for future reference.  After an unknown period of time - and various off-camera torture sessions - the prisoners wake up to find the machines gone and an ax on the floor next to them, just perfect for striking off their chains.  Derek rushes out to the secret passage into the tunnels but it is blasted wide open, flames everywhere.

Down below, the tunnels are empty and there are signs of fighting.  A couple of guys on patrol show up and gladly tell the escapees what happened: the machines attacked so John cleared his people out.  The resistance attacked a research facility and both John and Kyle went inside on some secret mission, but only John came back out.  Derek is not happy to hear this and wants to know WTF happened to his brother.  Just then, Cameron walks up and Derek freaks out, shooting at her and shouting about the loose machines.  The guy in charge ("Doctore" from Spartacus!) tells him to chill: John is capturing the Terminators and reprogramming them.  Derek doesn't think that's particularly safe, and his fears are confirmed later when one of the reprogrammed machines flips out and shoots up the joint.  Cameron steps up and blows the faulty Terminator to bits, saving Derek.  He doesn't look that grateful, to be honest.

Sometime later, Cameron tells Derek that John wants to see him.  She takes him to a room where a blazing ball of lightning and light crackles.  Afterwards, Derek tells three other freedom fighters about John's plan to send them back twenty years to fix the mistakes.  He gives ol' Andy Goode a meaningful glance.  Derek and the other three freedom fighters come through to the past, naked and gasping at the sight of all that civilization.

One more flashback, to just a couple weeks from the show's now.  Andy Goode, in his chess competition hotel room, looks up as the door opens.  It's Derek, who calmly shoots Andy dead, hoping to have stopped him from inventing Skynet.  Guess he lied to Sarah about that after all.

Previously on T:TSCC / next time on T:TSCC