Recap: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles S2E19 "Today Is the Day Part 2"

John sits in the car with Derek, who says how sorry he is about Riley.  John asks his uncle how long he thinks he could survive against Cameron, face to face with no weapons, if she wanted to kill him.  Derek: "No weapons? You already know the answer to that, John.  If she wants me dead, I'm dead."  John sighs and says he wants to talk about Derek's future.  Meanwhile, Jessie goes for a swim at the local Y (doesn't look like a hotel pool), thus allowing her to continue the submarine flashbacks outlined in the prior recap.  By the way, there are a LOT of submarine flashbacks in this episode - since I did them all last time, this should be a short recap.

When John goes home, he expects Sarah (who is hardly in this episode, but slightly moreso than Cameron) to scold him for taking the risk of going to the morgue.  No, says Sarah, I meant that you should have to remember Riley like that.  She asks if he got what he needed there and he says yes, then looks up at Cameron lurking in the doorway and tells her he's sorry he doubted her.

Back at John Henry's lab, the A.I. has gotten into painting D&D figurines as a way to hone his/its fine motor skills.  Ellison helps with the painting and John Henry asks if this means the two of them are friends.  Ellison doesn't have an answer for that.  Later, after Ellison has gone home, Weaver stops by, noting that John Henry convinced Ellison to leave the body up and running for the evening instead of shutting him/it down.  John Henry says that he's found some interesting things hidden in the corporate while he was doing inventory, like resignation letters and transfer orders and moving bonuses, all undated, for all the members of the Babylon project (which is him) - including Ellison who seems to be moving to Copenhagen.  John Henry says, "Mr. Ellison is our friend.  Are you going to kill him?  Human life is sacred."  Weaver: "We have to be prepared for any contingency ... humans will disappoint you."

Later, Sarah questions Cameron: Have you ever thought about why you are here with us right now?  John sent you away from him in the future - why didn't he want you around?  Sarah, stop messing with the toaster's head.

When Jessie returns to her hotel room, John is there waiting for her, gun drawn.  There's a lot of talking, mostly by John, about how humans are irreplaceable, how Derek loves Jessie and how John and Jessie are all he has, how Riley used to make small mistakes in the things she said which tipped him off that she might not be who she said she was.  So he started following her and discovered Jessie, and figured out her plan.  He throws her duffel bag at her feet and tells her to go, go now.  "If I have to live with this," he says bitterly, "So do you."  Jessie asks if her plan would have worked, would have made him divorce himself from Cameron.  John says no.  Jessie: "Well, it's a damn shame.  It's a damn waste."

Derek is lying in wait for her outside.  He knows how she's betrayed him and he pulls out his gun (not a euphemism).  "I don't even know you," he says, voice shaking slightly, "I don't know who you are.  You're not my Jessie - you never were."  She's crying.  Derek says, "John Connor said to let you go.  I'm not John Connor."  Jessie drops her bag and sprints away.  Derek raises his gun, finger tightening on the trigger.  Then the scene cuts to Derek walking into Jessie's hotel room where John is still pacing.  John asks Derek what the future people think of him.  Derek says that not everyone agrees with what John does, and not everyone loves him, but he leads them and they - "we" - follow, humanity rising or falling on John's shoulders.  "But we're always watching."  John: "For me to make a mistake?"  Derek: "For you to be human."  John asks if Derek killed Jessie and his uncle replies, "John Connor let her go."  But his eyes are a little teary so we don't actually know if he pulled the trigger or not.  I think yes.

That night, Sarah, John and Cameron sit on the couch, watching t.v. or maybe staring into the fireplace.  John is sitting noticeably closer to Cameron and Sarah looks a little forlorn.  But then he breaks down, finally crying, and leans into his mother, sobbing in her arms.  Cameron just sits there, unmoved and unmoving, because when you come right down to it, she's still a machine.

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