On the road, Charlie and Michelle stop for gas out in the desert somewhere. While Charlie is futzing around with the soda machine, a pick-up truck pulls in. It's Cromartie and he jumps into Charlie's SUV and drives off, Michelle still in the passenger seat, shrieking for her husband.
Back at the Connor household, John hooks up illegal cable for the immensely pregnant Busy Phillips (character name: "Casey"). A news story about Laszlo/Cromartie's FBI massacre comes on, throwing John for a bit of a loop. When he goes back to his house, Charlie calls him on his cell. Charlie's a mess, trying to hold back his tears. John hands the phone to Sarah. Charlie tells her that Cromartie took Michelle and asks her to help him. Sarah doesn't want John to know what's going on - because he'll want to get involved - so she acts like she's blowing Charlie off, but finagles his location. After she hangs up the phone, she stuffs a bunch of guns in a duffle bag, tells Cameron to keep an eye on John, and heads out to the truck. Derek tells her that this is the absolute wrong thing to do: if she gets involved, Cromartie will use her to get to John. Sarah's like, are you coming or not? Derek: wait, let me get my favorite gun.
Cromartie has Michelle tied to a chair in some abandoned building. While he's busy wiring explosives and machinery, she struggles to free herself.
John and Cameron go out to buy a bunch of computer stuff. He gets a call from Riley [oh friggin' great] and asks Cameron to drop him off so he can meet her. Cameron reminds him that she's supposed to watch him. When she goes to get in the truck, John bolts, disappearing into a parking garage.
Ellison gets a phone call from Catherine Weaver. She says she has a job opportunity for him, seeing how she assumes he'll be leaving the FBI once his administrative leave is over. To entice him to meet with her, she promises they can talk about who - or what - killed all those FBI agents.
Sarah and Derek find the distraught Charlie. Sarah can't think how to track Michelle and Derek's all, you know she's dead so there's nothing we can do. And then Michelle (not dead) manages to get to her cell phone and calls Charlie. She tells him where she is, then she has to hang up because she hears Cromartie coming. He wires up her chair with explosives while she watches, bug-eyed and terrified.
Oh dear god who the frick cares as John and Riley chat meaninglessly. It's like the worst flirting ever. Cameron tracks them down and stares at them. They run off, trying to lose her. Fat chance of that: she's a Terminator. Finding her target is what she does.
Sarah, Derek and Charlie make their way to the abandoned building where Michelle is. Derek finds her first, noticing the wired chair. They ask her where Cromartie is and Derek goes after him, saying that if he's not back in fifteen minutes, they should leave without him. Meanwhile, Michelle is totally freaking out, her muscles twitching and burning from the adrenaline coursing through her. Sarah snarls at her to hold still, and then sends Charlie out to the truck for some tools. When he's gone, Michelle asks if Sarah is here for Charlie. Sarah: "I thought this would be easier. I thought you'd be dead already." When Charlie comes back, he reports that Cromartie has destroyed the car's engine. Sarah thinks for a minute - why mess with the car when humans are so easy to kill? - then figures that this was all to separate them from John. She just rips the wiring off Michelle's chair (no actual bomb) and calls her son to warn him.
However, as Derek stalks through the buildings, searching from Cromartie, he finds a computer set up to tap into cell signals: Cromartie hears Sarah's call to John, gets the password and hears enough of her voice to mimic it. Then he blows the bomb he did set and the nearby cell tower comes crashing down into the building. Cromarte calls John, using Sarah's voice, and tells him to meet at the pier. Cromartie drives off. Sarah, Derek, Charlie and Michelle get ready to walk to the highway - but Michelle has a pretty big wound gouged out of her back. Nonetheless, she insists that she can keep up.
Catherine Weaver and Ellison have their meeting. Weaver tells him that she knows about the machines. She wants him to help her find another one of them.
John ditches Riley to go to the pier to meet his "mom." Cameron finds Riley and asks where John went. Sarah and her gang carjack a van. As Sarah drives the van like a lunatic, Michelle screams in pain. She's bleeding out from the wound in her back. Charlie hollers at Sarah to stop and, after some hesitation, she does. [But why? This is dumb: Charlie should want her to drive as fast as she can to a hospital, not stop in the middle of the desert. I guess he wants his wife to bleed to death without being jolted?]
John walks along the pier, finally spotting Cromartie and realizing the trap. They chase around a bit, then Cameron shows up and starts looking for John. Around and around and around ... until John dives off the pier in an attempt to escape. Cromartie jumps in after him ... and promptly sinks to the bottom and out of reach. John comes up for air and sees Cameron staring down at him from the pier. John: "A little help?" Cameron: "I don't swim." John: Well, no shit. Some time later, Cromartie walks out of the ocean, none the worse for wear.
Sarah reconnects with John, who immediately notices the big pool of blood coagulating in the back of the stolen van. He glares balefully at his mother. She takes him to the hospital where Charlie is sitting, stunned and crying, his wife's wedding ring on his finger. Charlie sobs and John puts his arms around him. Cut to Michelle's funeral, where Ellison stands next to poor Charlie. The Connors do not go to the funeral, which was smart since Cromartie is there, searching for them.
Previously on T:TSCC / next time on T:TSCC
4 hours ago
I'll miss Penny.
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