Recap: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles - S1E5 "Queen's Gambit"

Blah blah blah flashback.  In the now, Cromarty-Lazlo knocks on Charley's door, posing as an FBI agent and asking questions about his history with Sarah Connor, a/k/a Reese.  Charley tells Cromarty-Lazlo (I think I'll just stick with "Cromarty" from here on out) that he doesn't know anything about Sarah "Connor" and the Sarah Reese he was engaged to died in explosion eight years ago.  Cromarty gives him a business card and leaves, amazingly without killing anyone.  Charley's wife looks like she might, though.

Andy calls Sarah to let her know that he's rebuilt his computer and has entered Turk II in a computer chess tournament in Pasadena, in case she wants to see him in action.  She does, and heads to the tournament, telling John and Cameron to meet her there after school.  When she gets there, Andy is all a-flutter since the tourney winner gets a military contract for their computer.  Dun dun dun dun!  Sarah watches the match, noting a scruffy-looking guy lurking in the shadows.  Andy's doing really well ... until he isn't, and the Japanese team wins the tournament.

Penny (Charley's wife, but I don't know her name so I'm just going with her name from Lost) tells her husband that she knows he lied to the FBI agent.  He confesses that he saw John.  She gets very upset, reminding him that Sarah is dangerous.

After the Turk II loses, Sarah wonders what to do - since how can the Turk II become SkyNet if it didn't win the contract.  She goes to see Andy and bumps into the scruffy guy - Brian Austin Green, having left all traces of David Silver behind him and looking dang hot - coming out out of Andy's room.  Inside, Andy is dead.  Sarah goes chasing after BAG and they have a big ol' fight.  The cops show up and Sarah scarpers, watching BAG get cuffed and hauled away.

The next day, John hacks into the LAPD system and they determine that BAG is the fourth freedom fighter.  Cameron says that in the future, BAG is one of John's best soldiers.  Unbeknownst to our heroes, however, the Terminator that killed the other three freedom fighters and then escaped has also hacked into the LAPD system, who really ought to upgrade their firewall or something.  This Terminator recognizes BAG and sets out to do something about it.  [For those keeping score, there are three Terminators extant at this point: Cromarty, the freedom-fighter-killer and the powered-down one that Cameron locked behind the blast doors.]

Ellison interrogates BAG.  He shows him photos of all the bodies thus far that are linked by the splashes of Terminator blood (the freedom fighters, the plastic surgeon, the British research guy, etc.).  Ellison asks what he thinks and BAG replies, "We're all going to die."  Cheery!  Ellison thinks that BAG has more to say and wants him transferred to FBI custody from the LAPD.  Out in the hall, the FF-killing Terminator has managed to get himself arrested and brought to LAPD.  Uh-oh!

Sarah poses as a lawyer, I guess, and goes to see BAG.  He is unhappy to see her, saying that she's taking an unnecessary risk coming here.  He also tells her that he didn't kill Andy - he was already dead when BAG went to his room to try to steal the Turk II.  By the way, whoever killed Andy took the computer, so they both (Sarah and BAG) failed in their missions.  He tells her to go find Andy's partner; he'll deal with the Terminator that is after him.  Also, he's Kyle Reese's brother, Derek.  But he doesn't know that Kyle is John's father because of time-travel/keeping secrets/whatever.

The Terminator busts out of its cell easily, looking for Derek.  Luckily, Derek is already on the transport truck.  En route, he gets loose of his cuffs.  Sarah, John and Cameron break him out of the truck but the Terminator is right on top of them.  There's a big fight: Derek gets shot; Cameron manages to pull the chip out of the Terminator's head and that brings him down.  They take Derek back to their house but he's in really bad shape.  When John wants to know why he should be worried about this total stranger bleeding to death on the kitchen table, Sarah tells him that Derek is his uncle.  At this point, Derek needs a doctor but they don't dare take him to a hospital.  John runs off, leaving his mom to try to keep the bleeding under control, and eventually brings Charley, EMT that he is, back to the house.  After Sarah and Charley exchange "holy frigging shit" looks, Charley goes to work on Derek.

In other news, whilst questioning the transport cops on how two 110-pound women managed to make off with his prisoner, Ellison finds the Terminator's torn off hand under a pile of wreckage.  Dun dun dun dun!

Humor:  as Sarah, John and Cameron jump in the car at some point, John says, "I call shotgun."  Without skipping a beat, and deadpan as only a Terminator can do it, Cameron says, "I call 9mm."


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

Recap: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles - S1E4 "Heavy Metal""

We open with a plastic surgeon getting a visit from the reconstructed Terminator: the machine wants a new face because the one he just grew out of that blood solution is a bit too monsterish.

At the Connor house/HQ, John is sad and distracted, thinking about Jordan, a girl from school who killed herself  (there was some weird graffiti going up at school and had something to do with her - like she was molested by a teacher or something - and she just couldn't take it anymore, and jumped off the roof of the gym right in front of all the students) - he blames Cameron for not letting him try to stop her from jumping.  Cameron has more important things to discuss, however: she's found video footage from the night the three of them jumped forward from 1999 and in the background is the disembodied Terminator head.  So the reassembled Terminator is Cromarty, then.  Sarah and Cameron think they should make a run for it but John throws a small hissy fit, whingeing that Sarah promised him that this time they would stay and fight.  

Also, there's a shipment of a special alloy coming in to port today - the alloy from which the Terminators are made - and they think that Cromarty might try to take it.    They grab the shotguns and the C-4 and go check it out.  They find a bunch of bodies and realize that the truck has been hijacked by a different crew.  That's weird, thinks Sarah, since when does Cromarty work with humans?  Then they see the Terminator - and it's not Cromarty.

Ellison finds the plastic surgeon dead in his office, with used instruments and some of that not-human blood solution in the drain.  A photograph is up on the computer screen, showing the new face Cromarty has taken: that of "George Lazlo," a former patient.  He brings Lazlo in for questioning.  Lazlo (and Cromarty) are played by Garrett Dillahunt, who is fabulously creepy as always.  Ellison coerces a blood sample from Lazlo - who calls him a fascist - then lets him go.  Lazlo returns to his apartment and is nearly immediately visited by Cromarty.  Holding Lazlo by the throat, Cromarty checks the resemblance - it's perfect - then snaps Lazlo's neck.

John wants to charge right in and fight the new Terminator but Sarah and Cameron think that's reckless.  When the two women get in the car, John wriggles through an open window of the warehouse to plant a tracking device on the truck carrying the alloy.  He gets trapped, however, and is still in the truck when the Terminator drives off.  An armed guard catches Sarah and Cameron peeing in the the windows and pulls a gun on them.  Sarah walks up to him, hands up, and asks, "Have you seen a dachshund puppy?" and then beats him into unconsciousness.  Awesome.  It's too late, though, as the truck and John are gone.

Back at the house, Sarah is panicking as Cameron tries to track John's cell phone.  On the truck, John is also panicking a bit but still manages to bash the guard's head in with a chunk of alloy.  His attempt to pick the lock is less successful.  Sarah and Cameron go back to the warehouse and pound on the guard guy some more until he agrees to drive them to the army depot where the alloy is being taken.  On the way there, the women leave the poor guy standing in the middle of a mine field.

When the truck pulls into a bomb shelter at the army depot, John is able to sneak off and hide, where he watches "Carter," the Terminator, kill the men who were helping him and then seemingly shut down as the blast doors close.  As Carter just stands there, John finds a phone and calls his mom, who is right outside with Cameron.  Cameron confirms that it'll take Carter 15 seconds to reboot from his "stand-by" mode once he is triggered awake.  Sarah tells her son to open the blast doors and then run.  One problem: the key to the doors is around Carter's neck.  John manages to get the key without waking the Terminator and gets the door open.  He and his mom drive out in the truck while Cameron fights with Carter.  They lock him in behind the blast doors - where he will presumably go into stand-by again, as the closing doors seems to be his trigger - and drive away.

Ellison pays Lazlo/Cromarty a visit at Lazlo's apartment.  He tells Lazlo/Cromarty that someone may be trying to steal his identity - why would someone steal my identity? wonders L/C - and leaves a business card with him.  Surprisingly, Lazlo/Cromarty just lets him go.

Cameron sends the truck and its alloy cargo off a cliff and into the ocean; she secretly keeps one bar of the alloy, however, and looks at it that night in her room.  John sits down to try to finish his homework that night.  His hands are shaking - it was a big day.

Note:  I think this show is finally starting to find itself, inserting some small, subtle humor in this episode:  when Sarah tells the guard guy he can leave if he can get past Cameron, the guy advances on the girl confidently ... and then there's a cut to the guy driving them to the army base, giving Cameron  terrified little sidelong glances and Cameron just gives him a tiny smile.  And later, Sarah, watching John struggle to get the truck into gear while Carter advances on them, says “If you’re going to save the world, you’re going to have to learn how to drive stick.”

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

Recap: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles - S1E3 "The Turk"

Sarah pages through the SkyNet intel retrieved from the dead freedom fighters' safe while John and Cameron go off to school.  They have to walk through a metal detector to get in, which of course Cameron sets off; John tells the guard that she's got a metal plate - a big one - in her head.  Here's an issue I have: in E1, Cameron was a very natural-acting girl but now, just a couple of episodes later, she's way more stilted and Terminator-like.  What's that all about?

Sarah visits Teresa Dyson at Miles's grave, showing her some photos to see if she recognizes anyone who might have been interested in Miles's Cyberdyne work.  There's one guy Teresa knows: Andrew Goode, who interned at Cyberdyne some years ago.  Teresa asks if Andy's going to have to die too and, when the answer is "maybe," tells Sarah to make it count then.

The reassembled and masked/hooded Terminator breaks into a hospital and steals a lot of blood bags.  Later, it breaks into the apartment of a British-accented scientist and gives him a complicated formula.  Once he gets over his fright, the British scientist is fascinated and thinks that yes, yes, he just might be able to grow muscle tissue and skin from this.  The Terminator tells him to get on it.

Sarah finds Andy Goode working at a cell phone store.  She buys three phones from him and he asks her out.  Sarah has zero sense of humor and can barely flirt, but she agrees to dinner and even shaves her legs before heading out on the date.  In another part of town, Agent Ellison pays Carols (Enrique's nephew) a visit to ask about why he and his uncle spoke on the phone three times the day Enrique was killed.  Carlos isn't interested in talking to the feds, however.

After dinner at Andy's apartment (who does that, goes to a guy's house for dinner when you only ever talked to him in a cell phone store? Bad ass Sarah Connor does, I guess), Andy proudly shows Sarah this fancy computer he's built, "The Turk," which is a chess-playing computer that sometimes seems to think for itself.  Andy thinks it's pretty damn cool; Sarah, of course, is slightly disturbed but plays it cool.  She does notice movement outside the window but when she runs out to check, she can't see the guy hiding in the trees watching her.  We can't really see this guy either but he does have a barcode tattooed on his forearm (like the dead freedom fighters did) so I'm thinking this is the fourth guy who got away.  Later, John interrogates his mother about the Turk, although she can't answer all the technical questions he has.  John, computer genius/hacker that he is, is frustrated.  Cameron, ever practical, notes that Andy will have to be killed.

At the British scientist's apartment, the tissue growth solution is ready.  The Terminator disrobes down to his metal chassis - which the scientist takes in stride remarkably well, considering THAT'S A FRICKIN' SENTIENT KILLER ROBOT THERE IN FRONT OF HIM - and climbs into the bathtub full of the red goo.

Flames fill the night sky and Sarah watches from a hiding spot in the tree as Andy watches his house - and the Turk - burn to the ground.  She has a small smile because she thinks she's solved the problem without having to kill anyone.  Time will tell, I think.

Ellison and the cops are investigating at the British scientist's apartment: the scientist is dead, his eyes torn out, and there is blood (or bloody solution) all over.  And then EEEEEUUUUWWWW!  In a flashback (?), the Terminator rises up out of the tub, dripping with the solution and covered in new flesh.  And the British scientist guy watches excitedly, then helps to slice the Terminator's eyelids open.  The machine's decidedly non-human eyes glow red and now we know how the scientist ended up losing his.

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

Are you guys watching Misfits?

Because, seriously, you should be.  It's a British Heroes  that doesn't at all (so far) suck, plus sex and nudity and lots of swearing and, in the first episode, complete with a 28 Days Later-esque rage-zombie.  Doesn't that sound like so much fun?

The premise is this: a disparate group of young people (early 20s, I guess, since none of them are in high school) are given community service sentences for various crimes and meet up at a London (?) community center.  As they and their probation officer head outside to paint some park benches, a strange and violent storm rolls in, dropping huge chunks of hail.  The storm also hits them with a bolt of lightning and when they all wake up, they've got various superpowers, which seem to be based on things they regret about their lives.  Hijinks ensue, people die and we're off to the races.

Seriously, I'm not going to tell you any more than that because you really should watch it yourselves.  The main characters are well cast: multi-racial, with multi-socioeconomic backgrounds, interesting body types and faces, and strong (and in some instances, difficult for the non-Brit to understand) accents.  These aren't your typical too-gorgeous-to-be-real Hollywood actors: they could be real people.  The show is not for children as it's violent and bloody, full of f-bombs and fairly graphic sex - not quite True Blood level but close.  But it's also very funny in places.  Things do not work out for our characters - things are difficult for them and are not solved in one episode - nor are we told everything about all of them all at once.  I think it's way fun.

Misfits is a British import and is found on Hulu, with new episodes being dropped every Monday.  Go check it out.

Recap: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles - S1E2 "Gnothi Seauton""

Google Greek translation: gnothi seauton = know thyself


Remember, y'all - it ain't 1999 any more.  It's 2007 and our heroes are trying to make their way in this new time.  Also, anomalously, in this new time: a disembodied metal Terminator skull, found by a roadside crew member who stuffs it in his pocket as a keepsake.  Is this Cromarty's skull?  Didn't he get all blowed up in 1999?


As the gang regroups, Cameron tells Sarah that there are some other freedom fighters (sent back by John) in 2007.  The two women go to a flophouse where four of the freedom fighters live; unfortunately, there are four dead bodies on the floor.  Wait!  One of them is yet alive!  Oh, oops: it's a Terminator, lying in wait.  He and Cameron have a big ol' fight until the Terminator makes a run for it.  Cameron chases and Sarah steals a motorcycle and follows.  They lose him and Sarah is pissed because Cameron told her it would be safe and, lo and behold, Terminators.  (Sarah is really kind of ungrateful and bitchy to Cameron.)  Cameron points out that at this point in 2007, the Terminators don't know what John looks like, so they would walk right by him without recognizing and trying to kill him.  So that's a plus.


Later, Sarah and Cameron go out to track down Enrique, one of Sarah's old freedom fighter buddies who was the go-to guy for fake IDs back in the day; he's out of the business now, however, and sends them to his nephew.  John is supposed to stay at home but he's fidgety and heads out to the frickin' mall of all places, where he goggles at the crazy new 2007 cellphone and computer technology - so cool!  He does a web search and learns that Charley Dixon is now living here in L.A.


Meanwhile, the roadside crew guy puts the Terminator head on his coffee table.  His pet cat hisses at it when its eyes glow red.  And somewhere in a L.A. scrapyard, a headless Terminator body springs to life ... and promptly murders the junkyard dog and its owner.


Sarah and Cameron meet with Enrique's nephew Carlos.  His pitbulls take an instant disliking to Cameron, so she has to wait out by the car.  Carlos wants $20,000 for the new IDs: prices have gone up since 9/11.  Sarah: what's 9/11?  Carlos: are you f'ing kidding me?  After he and his buddy bring her up to speed, she gets to the car just in time to stop Cameron from killing a nosy cop.  


On the other side of town, John has broken into Charley's home.  It appears that Charley is now married - to Penny, the love of Desmond's life (that's a Lost reference, btw).   Charley comes home in time to find John there and is understandably incredulous that John hasn't aged at all in the last eight years.  John panics, knocks Charley down and gets the hell out of there.


When Sarah and Cameron get home, they figure out that John went out but don't press him on it.  The three of them go back to the flophouse to retrieve the money, weapons, etc. the freedom fighters probably have stashed there.  (Unless the fourth guy, not left dead on the floor by the Terminator, collected it already.)  When Cameron tries to open the safe, she gets zapped by the booby trap and her system has to reboot (120 seconds).  They hear the Terminator coming up the stairs so Sarah tosses Cameron out the second (third?) story window while John opens the safe - by guessing the date that is the combination - and snatches up what's inside (guns, diamonds, etc.).  Cameron reboots and they get away just in time.


Back at the roadside worker's house, the Terminator body has come to collect its head.


Sarah and Cameron pick up their new IDs from Carlos and Sarah overhears him saying something in Spanish to his crony that troubles her.  She goes back to Enrique's and confronts him: he's an informer and has sold her out to the FBI.  Cameron steps up and shoots him dead which makes Sarah kind of cross.  Whatever, Sarah, he ratted you and your boy out to the feds.


Closing montage:  John and Cameron register for high school; the Terminator roams among the ranks of the homeless, wrapped in ratty clothing; Sarah goes to the hospital for tests because Cameron had told her earlier in the episode that she died of cancer in 2005, which is why Future John sent them ahead to 2007, because he wanted to skip his mom's death.


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

Recap: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles - S1E1 "Pilot"

I started watching T:TSCC when it was actually on.  I stuck with it for a while too, but dropped it eventually - I think it was dragging for me or I was tired of teenaged John Connor whingeing all the time or something.  Yet here we are again, revisiting the series (which is only about two seasons long) all because my dear old friend (as in, we've been friends forever, not that we ourselves are aged or anything) Joe has suggested I give it another go.  So here we go, Joe, it's all for you!

1999.  Sarah Connor, in a waitress uniform, grabs future messiah John Connor out of his high school library.  They try to run but the cops are waiting outside, and Sarah and John get stuffed into separate cruisers.  When Sarah sees the Terminator approaching, she kickassedly subdues the cop who's supposed to be watching her.  As the cops engage the Terminator (much to their detriment), Sarah drags John out of the cruiser and tells him to run for it.  He does; the Terminator shoots him down; Sarah screams and begs for her own death; the Terminapocalypse happens around them; and Sarah wakes up from her nightmare, gasping.  Her fiance, Charley Dixon, comforts her, not seeing the look in her eyes.

When John rolls out of bed, his mom tells him that they have to take off, fiance notwithstanding.  John whinges: he likes it here, he likes Charley, no one knows them, it's been two years, it's safe.  Sarah snaps: Don't you ever think that - no one is ever safe.  We leave in half an hour: you get one bag and I'll go make pancakes.  After the pancakes, they rabbit.  Later, when Charley goes to the cops about his missing fiancee, hot FBI agent Ellison is there to bring him up to speed on the T2 events: mental hospital, high body count, blowing up Cyberdyne and Miles Dyson, etc.  When Ellison updates the FBI/police database with Sarah's current aliases, a Terminator picks up the information.

Some time later, in whatever rural NM area the Connors have landed, a cute girl - "Cameron" - tries to chat with John at school, but he's uncomfortable with the attention.  That night, he bitches to his mom about how his clothes are all wrong for this "hick town."  Meanwhile, Ellison has tracked the Connors down because Sarah forgets to change her alias.  

The next day, there's a new teacher in John's class: Cromarty.  He's a Terminator, of course, and soon opens fire at John in the classroom, taking out poor cute Cameron while John dives out the window.  John runs; Cromarty follows.  At work at a diner, Sarah catches the breaking news on t.v. - shots fired at the high school - and takes off.  In the school parking lot, Cromarty has John in his sights when a pickup truck runs him over. Cameron is driving.  "Come with me if you want to live," quoth she, because she too is a Terminator, one of the good ones.  John gets in the truck and they drive away.  When Sarah scopes out the school, Cromarty grabs her.  He takes her cell and uses her voice when John calls.  At their house, Cromarty lies in wait, Sarah helpless beside him.  A sweatshirted figure opens the door and speaks in John's voice.  Cromarty shoots but it's Cameron.  There's a hugenormous fight between these two Terminators, the great big guy and the tiny girl.  John and Sarah get the hell out of there and Cameron manages to knock Cromarty out for a couple of minutes by hitting him with a bunch of electricity.  The next day, Ellison checks out the wrecked house.  Where's the blood?  

John and Sarah are frustrated that this is happening again to them - didn't they take care of this during T2?  No, says Cameron, someone else built SkyNet but she doesn't know who.  John starts whingeing again (third time in one episode!) about how he doesn't want to be humanity's savior and can't his mom do something about it now so he doesn't have to?  Okay, says Sarah, we'll find SkyNet and shut it down once and for all.  The three of them go to the Dyson residence where Miles's widow is understandably reluctant to let them in.  Sarah tells her that she didn't kill Miles - he was a hero - but is there anyone who was interested in his work?  Theresa Dyson says no, no one (is this a totally useless scene or what?), then Cameron pipes up that they have to go now.  Cromarty shows up; Sarah, John and Cameron commandeer the Dyson SUV and get away, but Sarah gets shot in the process.  As Cromarty runs past their abandoned pickup truck, Cameron triggers a remote charge, blowing it all to bits.  Cromarty is still coming after them, but he's looking a little rough now.  The three find a hideout and Cameron stitches Sarah up.

In the morning, they go to a bank where Cameron waves a gun around and insists that the teller lock the three of them in the safe deposit box vault.  Once inside, they open a bunch of boxes (which accounts she opened in 1963 and which subsequent time-travelers have stocked) and start assembling a sort-of nuclear weapon.  Cameron opens another box which reveals a computer: it's an escape hatch/time machine and she can take the three of them out of here and into the future where they can continue their search for SkyNet.  Outside, Cromarty has arrived and, completely disregarding the gathered cops, stomps inside and begins to systematically dismantle the vault door.  Cameron sets the time machine to 2007 and just before they disappear from this when, Sarah shoots Cromarty with the sort-of nuclear gun and blows him all to bits.

2007:  In a flash of light, Sarah, John and Cameron appear in the middle of a road, naked since nothing can come through with you on the time traveling.  Cameron easily gets a carload of frat boys to pull over for her, then beats them all unconscious and takes their clothes.  Now that they're in this when, 2007, no one knows the Connors are here and no one should be looking for them.  Except that there's cellphone footage of naked Sarah being played across the television new broadcasts and both Charley (now married) and FBI agent Ellison see it.

Next time on T:TSCC

My truth about cats and dogs

After having watched three (?) episodes of Teen Wolf and one episode of The Nine Lives of Chloe King, I feel I can confidently pass judgment on these two new, supernatural-teenager summer shows*.  Or at least pass my judgment: Chloe is the vastly superior show (she said, only having watched the pilot).  I'm not entirely surprised by this because I've liked another ABC Family show quite a lot (GREEK).

While MTV's Teen Wolf is banking on the current werewolf upsurge in the wake of Twilight and True Blood, the acting is really pretty terrible, especially from the kid they got for the lead.  Sure, he's got this fairly attractive/geeky vibe going where you can believe that his post-bite transformation adds just enough charisma and strength that the hot chick (who looks like she's about 30) is going to notice him.  But dude cannot act.  Anything that calls for the slightest bit of emotion results in SHOUTING.

Chloe's ensemble is stronger, generally speaking (Chloe is played by the succubus chickie from The Gates, which saddened me by its utter failure).  The show is taking a risk by creating a new mythology and not falling back on vampires/werewolves/witches, which has all been done before, and I like that.  The pacing is fast: we had to listen to some exposition to pass along said new mythology, but we also got right to the parkour and fighting, and SPOILER our girl is already down one life as of the first episode - she's going to have to be more careful from hereon out.

I'm going to stick with both of them for the time being, especially since it's summer and my dance-card is not quite full (T:TSCC S1, Harsh Realm remainder and True Blood S3 on the horizon).  Hopefully TW will get better - let's not forget that BtVS was pretty shaky in the acting department when it started too.


*  Mr. Mouse is standing back there, shaking his head, wondering why it is that I am so compelled to watch supernatural high schoolers.  He thought it was over when Buffy went off the air.  Guess he was wrong.

Mini-cap: Harsh Realm E4 "Kein Ausgang"

Google German translation: Kein ausgang = no output

Seriously, I hate these voiceovers.  Someone needs to goose Tom, get a little energy into his voice.  Anyway, the gang is looking for a certain assassin, one of the first men sent into the game to take out Santiago: one Captain Wolf.  They're out in the boonies somewhere and Dexter runs off into the woods.  When Tom and Pinnochio chase after him, they encounter some weird computer code/glitch so that Mute Girl/"Florence" and the car are gone when they go back to the road.  Also, they seem to be back in World War II.

A troop of U.S. GIs, including Doug Savant, desperately trying to butch it up, captures our boys, thinking they're German spies.  Tom notices something weird[er] right off, however, when he catches Doug Savant reciting the VCs' lines before they speak.  The soldiers lock Tom, Pinnochio and Dexter in a storeroom where they find a little VC boy hiding in the woodbox; Pinnochio finds a pinup of Betty Grable and tucks it into his vest (ha!).  He explains to Tom that this is a battlefield simulation, an early version of Harsh Realm, that apparently someone forgot to delete.

The boys try to escape but there's no way out of the simulation.  Doug Savant/"Scott Somer" tells them that he's been stuck in here for 18 months.  When Pinnochio learns his name, he nearly rips Somer's throat out because Somer was in Desert Storm with him and got four of his men killed.  When everyone settles down, they brainstorm that since the objective of the simulation is to capture the bridge over the river, maybe the simulation will end if they blow the bridge up.  Or, another option is the simulation crashes and kills them all.

That night, they sneak out and set the explosives on the bridge.  Dexter and the VC kid wander out onto the bridge after them and Tom gets captured by ze Germans as he's shooing them to safety.  The kid makes it back to Pinnochio; Dexter scurries off the side of the bridge in a hail of bullets.  Some wants to blow the bridge anyway - nearly frantic to get out of this simulation - but Pinnochio won't let him.  He's going after Tom.

Tom is beaten/interrogated by ze Germans for a while until the ranking officer comes in: it's Captain Wolf, the assassin they've been looking for.  Wolf says that he actually prefers the simulation to Harsh Realm (it helps that he speaks German).  He also says that the boys shouldn't blow up the bridge - which Tom takes to mean that the jump-port (the escape switch out of the simulation) is located there.  Wolf leaves, giving Tom a knife with which to cut himself free.  Shortly thereafter, Pinnochio shows up and Tom takes him to see Wolf.  Meanwhile, Somer can't stand it any longer and tracks down another detonator, determined to blow the bridge since he doesn't know about the jump-port.

When Tom, Pinnochio and Wolf get to the bridge, Somer has lit the fuse.  Pinnochio goes for the fuse while Wolf and Tom cover him, but Pinnochio gets tagged and falls off the side of the bridge.  Wolf gets shot and killed, but before he expires, he tells Tom that the jump-port is off the side of the bridge, right where both Dexter and Pinnochio went over.  Tom makes a dash for it, falling into the jump-port just as the bridge explodes.  Somer tries to follow but gets caught in the explosion instead.

In the aftermath, Tom, Dexter and Pinnochio have made it back to Harsh Realm where Florence is patiently waiting by the car.  Somer, however, reawakens back in the simulation.  There is no escape for him (except doesn't he now know where the jump-port is and can go there since the simulation seems to have reset?).

Mini-cap: Harsh Realm E3 "Inga Fossa"

In the real world, the army is worried about keeping their Harsh Realm program a secret - Sophie is asking too many questions.  Also, Sophie's voiceover is just as boring and sucky as Tom's are.  The Woman-In-Black who gave Sophie Pinnochio's dog tags works for the military in I-Corps; Sophie follows her as she leaves work one day and drives to an army supply depot.  Once inside one of the warehouses, WIB hooks herself up to a machine and is transported [somehow - it's not clear/evident] to Harsh Realm.  Once there, she meets with Santiago.  She's on good terms with him but is not actually on his side - she's working against both the Army and Santiago?  What's her game?  He gets all intense when he asks if she's uncovered the leak yet but she plays it cool.

Outside Santiago City, Tom, Pinnochio and Mute Girl are looking for Freddy the Forger in a club where illegal "zip-fights" are being held.  Zip-fights are actually less exciting than those motorized skateboard fights with knifes on Max Headroom: they're holographic zip-files that holographically bludgeon each other.  Whatever.  Pinnochio finds Freddy, who is S&Mishly chained to a guy who doesn't want to share his pet, so Pinnochio beats the crap out of him.  The army busts in and Tom, Pinnochio and Freddy scarper off, Freddy dropping a bunch of his forged ID chips.  MG tries to gather the chips up and gets nabbed by the army.

The boys manage to find a glitch in the game code and slip into some blank, unprogrammed game space where they wander in the dark until they catch a glimpse of Waters in the latrine.  They bust through the wall - scaring the piss literally out of Waters - and carve the ID chip out of his chest.  They need it to access the building in Santiago City where Santiago keeps the portal between the two worlds.  Tom steals a Humvee and they head for the city.  Later, WIB commends Waters on achieving his objective and smooches him.  They do it on the conference room table.  When she notices the wound on his chest, he smirks that it was all part of the plan to catch Tom.

Once in the city, the boys stop in at the apartment of Freddy's contact to (a) steal his clothing and (b) cut the ID badge out of his chest.  When they come back out, the Humvee has been towed so Pinnochio tells Tom and Freddy to take the bus. He's not going with them - he doesn't want to go back to the real world for some reason.  When the bus pulls away, however, Waters is there with a squadron and they nab Pinnochio, taking some time to beat the snot out of him.  Apparently Pinnochio used to have Waters's job before he was insubordinate to Santiago and there are some lingering hard feelings.

WIB watches Tom and Freddy go up to the fourteenth floor where the portal is; she waylays them there, telling them that it's a trap.  She hands Tom the message from Sophie and tells him that Santiago's master plan is to destroy the real world so that Harsh Realm is all that is left.  Tom doesn't care: he wants to see his girl.  The alarm sounds.  WIB begs Tom to stay in Harsh Realm and defeat Santiago.  When Santiago arrives at the portal room, only poor Freddy is there, WIB and Tom having disappeared.  Freddy gets dragged off and I'm guessing his VC gets terminated.  In a droning voiceover, Tom tells Sophie that he's going to stay in Harsh Realm and take down Santiago.

Then, inexplicably, Tom waltzes into the jail where MG, Dexter, Pinnochio and dozens of other people are being held.  He lets them all out.  Pinnochio snarls: "She got to you, didn't she, Inga?"

Real world:  When Inga/WIB returns to the real world, where her real body has been lying on a gurney in that huge warehouse, Pinnochio's RW body is on the gurney next to her: his face and body have terrible burn scars and it looks like he's lost an eye.  No wonder he doesn't want to leave Harsh Realm.

Meanwhile, back at Santiago's headquarters, he's getting ready to conquer New Jersey and add it to the other five states he currently controls (looks like all of New England on the map).  WIB catches Waters as he heads out to lead the strike force.

Mini-cap: Harsh Realm E2 "Leviathan"

We open with a long shot of a farmhouse ... hey! That's the farmhouse from that awesome X-Files episode from S4, "Home," that never gets rerun because of the incest and the deformities and the violence and the incest.  But I digress.  A couple of rough-looking guys go up to the farmhouse, briefly terrorizing the woman and children inside.  They're looking for her husband.  One of the kids goes running across the field to warn his dad but the tough customers get there first and tell him that they're after a soldier he served with.  He cocks his shotgun (not a euphemism) but one of the rough guys zaps him with a remote control, effectively pausing him.  Oh, right - this is a VR game.

In the poverty-stricken "Pittsburgh Encampment," Tom, Dexter, Pinnochio and the mute chick roam around, looking for gas for Pinnochio's car.  Tom's voiceover drones on and on - it's very stiff and I'm not paying attention to it.

Back in the real world, Sophie goes to the army base and demands to know why Tom has been missing for over a week.  The army tells her that he's been KIA on a top-secret mission and his body is being shipped home. As she runs out, upset, a dark haired woman from an adjoining office watches her go.

Back in Harsh Realm, Pinnochio tracks down some gas but it's a trap set for him by those two rough looking guys.  They're bounty hunters and Santiago has a price on Pinnochio's head.  In the next scene, Santiago himself is at the farmhouse where the wife tells him that the bounty hunters took her husband away.  The soldiers drag the family outside and Santiago orders the house to be torched.

Real world:  After Tom's funeral, the dark haired woman approaches Sophie and tells her that the army is lying to her about Tom's death.  She gives Sophie Pinnochio's dog tags and Sophie's all, WTF is this?

Harsh Realm:  Out on the "Pennsylvania Frontier," Tom, Dexter and Mute Chick find Pinnochio's car and follow tracks to where the bounty hunters are holding their buddy, along with "Johnny," the dad from the farmhouse.  Johnny has been beaten pretty badly but he's still alive.  Outside the fence, Tom and Mute Girl plan to go in after nightfall; Dexter has other plans and tunnels under the fence, trotting right inside past a dozing bounty hunter.  There's a girl there, girlfriend/whore of one of the bounty hunters, and she sees the little dog, snatching him up and snuggling him, obviously desperate for some affection.  But on the outside, Tom hears yelping and foolheartedly rushes in to save his dog.  It's a trap, of course - Dexter is fine - and Tom gets tossed into the holding cell with Pinnochio and Johnny.  Nice rescue, snarks Pinnochio.

Meanwhile, Santiago's troops are torching the Pittsburgh Encampment.

Real world: Sophie follows the Mike Pinnochio lead and finds Johnny's real world wife.  The wife has been unable to learn anything about her husband's disappearance either but shows Sophie a photo of Johnny and Pinnochio's unit: each of these men have disappeared and are presumed dead.  Sophie thinks that fishy.

At this point, I was getting a little bored with the episode, so, in short, Mute Girl frees the boys and, with the help of the girlfriend/whore, they all escape just as the army closes in on them.  The girlfriend/whore gets shot but she's just a virtual character, so it's no big deal. The gang delivers Johnny to his VC family before heading off on the next adventure.

Real world:  The dark haired woman tells Sophie that she can get Tom a message [somehow].  In a droning voiceover much like her fiance's, Sophie tells him - and us - that he needs to get back to her from wherever he is: she's pregnant.