Character sheet for Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.
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Main Characters
Sarah
Sarah Jeanette Connor
Played by: Lena Headey
Aliases: Sarah Reese, Sarah Baum
The mother of John Connor, she was told that he will grow up to be the leader of the resistance against the malevolent A.I. SkyNet. Currently lives with John, Cameron, and Derek in Los Angeles, trying to stop the creation of SkyNet.
- Action Girl: Knowledge of the coming apocalypse made her Took a Level in Badass, causing her to train in the use of many in the use of military-grade weapons and become an expert at handling survival situations.Derek: Remind me again, why are the boys out here and the girls in there?
John: Because one of the girls is harder than nuclear nails.
Derek: And the other one's a cyborg. - Action Mom: One episode even has Sarah saying to the child she saved that while she's not a spy, she is a mom.
- Anti-Hero: She can be pretty ruthless when it comes to keeping John safe, which puts them at odds since John has a Chronic Hero Syndrome.
- Badass Normal: She's a mere human with combat training who regularly is up against Terminators.
- Cartwright Curse: Like John, everyone who loves Sarah dies. Kyle, her parents and roommate in the first film, and Charley Dixon, Sarah's ex-fiancé.
- Crazy-Prepared: Sarah keeps concealed weapons scattered around the house, such as a shotgun hidden behind wallpaper, and a huge trunk of rifles and shotguns under everyone's respective beds. And the furniture is lined with kevlar.
- Drives Like Crazy: Sarah is a terrible driver, because she's usually driving very fast away from a scene, and talking to her passengers. In the season 2 premiere, she's trying to talk to John and crashes the car.
- Fantastic Racism: Doesn't waste an opportunity to express how much she hates Terminators and spends many a episode saying something hateful towards Cameron.
- Fish out of Temporal Water: She jumps from 1999 to 2007 in the pilot. Being in a world where technology is even more present only makes her even more paranoid.
- Hopeless with Tech: Justifiable, in that she sees every kind of technology as a path leading to the apocalypse, but she really is hopeless.Sarah: [To Andy, when buying a cell phone] When I push these buttons, will someone talk to me?
- Jerkass Has a Point: While her treatment of Cameron is in no way nice or appreciative, she does have reason to distrust Terminators, especially the new breed who can fake emotions or glitch and try to kill them as Cameron ended up doing.
- The Leader: Until the day comes that John must fulfill his destiny as the leader of the human resistance, his mom is the one calling the shots.
- Lethal Chef: Other than pancakes and PB&J, Sarah can't cook.
- Mama Bear: Anything she does is to ensure John survives.
- Properly Paranoid: Her paranoia often puts her at odds with her son, but she's proven to be right more often than not.
- The Protagonist: Her name isn't in the title for nothing. This is her story.
- Tired of Running: Her utilitarian lifestyle has kept her on the run for her entire life and its clearly taking a toll on her.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Noticeably compared to the Linda Hamilton version when it comes to treating allied Terminators.
- Screw Destiny: She has already skipped her cancer death, so this becomes her motto.
- Your Days Are Numbered: When Cameron informs Sarah of the death from cancer she would have faced in the original timeline had they not jumped 8 years through time over her death. This led her to see an oncologist and despite having no current signs of symptoms she adopted a strict regimen of exercise and supplements. But despite her best efforts, her health began to deteriorate slowly through the last half of Season 2.
John
John Connor
Played by: Thomas Dekker
Aliases: John Reese, John Baum
Sarah Connor's son, the future leader of the human resistance against the Machines.
- Big Good: In the future, he becomes the savior of humanity, The Leader of La Résistance, and the one responsible for setting his own mom on the path to fighting Skynet.
- Broken Ace: Future John is a charismatic leader, a powerful fighter and a masterful strategist but no one knows about the awful things he went through to be what he is or the questionable decisions he made in the past to ensure the victory of the human race.
- Cartwright Curse: Alison Young, Riley, his whole family, most of the people that help him along the way... Yes, John is a dangerous person to know.Everyone dies for me.
And in another episode, Derek: "He died, John. He died for you. We all die for you." - Chronic Hero Syndrome: He has an impulse to do whatever he can to help others, frequently putting him at odds with his more pragmatic companions that put his safety above all else.
- Cruel Mercy: Upon learning that Jesse killed Riley and tried to frame Cameron for it in an attempt to make him distrust her, John chooses to let Jesse live, because he sees that she's torn up about murdering Riley and feels the guilt and grief are a worse punishment than execution.
John: If I have to live with it, so do you.
- Distracted by the Sexy: Being a hormonal teen, he's frequently distracted by Cameron's presence.
- Doom Magnet: There are always some time travelling robots or ill-intentioned people arriving to torment him.
- Growing Up Sucks: If you're going from town to town, surrounded by danger, and with a Bad Future hanging above your head, adolesence may be exciting but it is not going to pleasant.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: He's reluctant to accept his destined role as the savior of humanity.
- Important Haircut: The start of Season Two has him going from a Emo Teen longhair to a shorter one.
- Playful Hacker: Mentioned in the pilot, that he's gotten in trouble and blown their cover a few times because of this.
- Pretty Boy: Has long eyelashes, and sometimes his face is practically shiny.
- Science Hero: Since he's destined to fight the Machines, he's naturally highly skilled on the subject of robotics, engineering and computer technology. All the better to kill you with.
- The Smart Guy: Compare his superlative tech skills to that of his companions, which range from "unremarkable" to "hopeless" and you see why he handles the tech stuff.
- Tired of Running: Repeatedly states this throughout the series. He just wants to prevent the War so it can be over.
- Took a Level in Badass: Season Two was all about this, but it came with knowing what terrifying sacrifices were made for him and by him. Also, as noted by Word of God, the end of the season 2 premiere is the first time we see John with a gun, when he hands it to Cameron to test her loyalty, after her chip malfunctions. Throughout T2 and the first season of TSCC, it was important that John knew about guns but did not use them. After he killed Sarkissian in the S1 finale, the show creators did away with this, because John lost some of his innocence.
- Unresolved Sexual Tension: Loads with Cameron. Him being an hormonal teenagers puts him in constant awkward situations with her, even without her meaning to, such as giving him neck massages when he's stressed.
Cameron
Cameron
Played by: Summer Glau
Aliases: Cameron Phillips, Cameron Baum, Allison Young
"Thank you for explaining".
The reprogrammed Terminator (rumored to be TOK715) sent back by future John Connor. The most advanced infiltrating unit seen so far - unlike other Terminators, she can eat food and cry. She acts as John's advisor in the future, much to the chagrin of the other resistance fighters.
- Action Girl: She has Super-Strength, is skilled with guns and knives and doesn't hesitate to use any combination of the three. It's like a Slayer had she a complete disregard for property damage.
- Berserk Button: Don't lie to her or wear her favorite leather jacket.
- The Big Girl: Being a Terminator, she's strong enough to take the physical tasks.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: Cameron's concept of caring, concern, affection, and morality begins and ends with John Connor.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Even before her chip was damaged Cameron did not seem all there. After, well, she spends her time locating the exact center of the house for no reason in particular, wants to kill birds, and lugs around research assistants and lets them shoot her gun. She is also far and away the most intelligent and battle capable member of the group.
- Came Back Wrong: She survived a car bomb, but was accidentally reset to her Skynet programming. She even told Sarah not to let John bring her back if it happens again.
- Cloud Cuckoolander: Comes off as one even before her chip was damaged.
- The Comically Serious: She has No Social Skills, and the results are hilarious.Zoey: Does this make me look fat?
Cameron: Yes.
Zoey: What the hell? What's your problem?
Cameron: You asked...
Franny: Bitch whore much?
Cameron: I don't understand.
Franny: I said: bitch... whore... much? What are you looking at?
Cameron: I am looking at YOU. - Creepy Monotone \ Machine Monotone: A natural for a terminator.
- Cute Bruiser: It's River Tam playing the role so it's a given. She is not played up to be cute, rather the opposite of Cameron being a bruiser is centered on, but simply based on the actress' looks alone the cute part comes out.
- Cynic–Idealist Duo: Cameron and Derek serve as a very cynical counterbalance to the more idealistic Sarah and John. Both Cameron and Derek often advocate that Murder Is the Best Solution in order to Leave No Witnesses or to achieve their goals (after all, if Judgement Day happens the person in question would have most likely died anyway), while Sarah and John try to stick to the more idealistic world view seen in Terminator 2 which prompted them to spare Miles Dyson and attempt to stop Judgement Day without killing any humans. The show, being Darker and Edgier, often seems to side with Cameron and Derek in this regard.
- A Day in the Limelight: "Allison From Palmdale" (Cameron's origin) and "Self Made Man" (Cameron's night time activities)
- Deconstruction: "Self-Made Man" deconstructed Cameron as a character, showing her capable of interacting with other humans and making a friend, Eric, at the library. However, she does this with the single-minded goal of improving her ability to fit in with human beings and in fact accidentally damages her friendship with Eric by informing him that his cancer, thought to be in remission, has returned.
- Does Not Understand Sarcasm: Her machine nature makes her Literal-Minded.
- Emotionless Girl: Cameron is a machine, so she doesn't need to express anything.
- Feel No Pain: A Zig-Zagged Trope here. The Terminators with a biological covering or the liquid metal versions can "sense" injuries but don't actually feel discomfort. They know when and were they're damaged but don't actually fell agony or distress.
- Femme Fatale: Cameron knows how her appearance affects those around her and uses it to great effect, either using it to draw in targets or to derail and distract. She's even willing to use it on John.
- The Gadfly: She often perform odd actions with the sole purpose of antagonizing people, such as Erotic Eating in front of Derek.
- Glass Cannon: Cameron is a more advanced T-800 model than any the Connors had previously encountered (a T889-F, to be precise) with better infiltration capabilities and the ability to regenerate her flesh covering by eating human food... but she's scaled down to fit inside a small human female "shell", which means she lacks the mass the older Terminator units (like the Arnie varieties in the films and Cromartie in the show) have to better utilize their strength. However, Cameron's still immensely strong and just as unstoppable against anything short of another T-unit.
- Implacable Man: It's in her programming!
- Innocent Fanservice Girl: The concept of modesty often eludes her and she takes her clothes off in front of people without a second though. Sarah has to tell her to Please Put Some Clothes On when she catches Cameron taking bullets off her body while topless.
- I Will Protect Her: A gender flipped version where Cameron will do everything to protect John, as well as prepare him for Judgement Day and beyond.
- Lady of War: Has an absolute calm, feminine grace, and physical ability. Though in her case, much of it is because she is also a very scary robot.
- Little Miss Badass: Played by 5' 6" (1,68 m) Summer Glau, and highly destructive.
- Magical Girlfriend: Deconstructed. She's an unearthly beautiful girl devoted to John but she also lacks empathy towards anyone else and is willing to protect John by any means at her disposal, going so far as to use her looks and physique to distract John and break him out of his darker moods.
- Manipulative Bitch: Cameron is very good at getting the reaction she wants out of people.
- Ms. Fanservice: Cameron is very attractive and frequently wears tight or revealing outfits, and being a Terminator, had her own Naked on Arrival scene followed by a Full-Frontal Assault in the pilot, albeit only showing Toplessness from the Back or Shoulders-Up Nudity
- Murder Is the Best Solution: She commonly advocates murdering witnesses or other threats, which is usually objected to by Sarah and John. And more often than not, her recommendations turn out to be right.
- No Sense of Personal Space: She stands too close to people and stares when she evaluates their threat level.
- No Social Skills: To the point John's first advice when arriving at a new school is "try not acting weird". It doesn't work.
- Omniglot: Her programming includes various languages, so she can speak Russian, Spanish, etc. when the situation requires.
- Passive-Aggressive Kombat: Punishes conversational partners who don't make her happy with disturbing revelations.
- Pet the Dog: All the time with John, from reassuring him of his value to acting as a semi love interest. Also towards a researcher who helps her, from helping him move about in his wheelchair to letting him fire her gun. Then she lets slip that he's had a relapse of cancer he thought he had finally gotten cured, causing him to possibly be Driven to Suicide.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: She has red eyes, just like all Terminators.
- Ridiculously Human Robots: She demonstrates in the first episode that she can eat food, something no other Terminator before could do. She has stated that she can feel physical sensations. She also displays the ability to cry and show emotions, most notably in her "Allison" persona, and she has showed glimpses of genuine personality at times. The show left it ambiguous if she could assert an override on her original programming to kill John on her own.
- Robot Girl: To the point she's supposed to pass as a teenager.
- Robotic Reveal: Inverted. In "Dungeons & Dragons," while Charley Dixon has been made aware of the existence of Terminators, and that Cameron is one, he still finds it hard to believe until Cameron begins incinerating the T-888's exoskeleton with thermite. The bright light generated is so intense that Charley can see Cameron's metal skull and blue eyes through her skin.
- Speaking Like Totally Teen: Her attempts at incorporating actual teenage girls' vocabulary often misplaces the words.Cameron: I'm a bitch whore.
- Spock Speak: Comparable to Arnie's T-800. When the situation doesn't ask for it, Cameron won't try to sound remotely human.
- The Stoic: Even as trying to be friendly, she is pretty lacking emotion.
- Sugar-and-Ice Girl: Upon finding John, Cameron dials up the sugar part of her personality as part of her infiltrator mode, to try and get into his life so she can protect him. When that's blown the ice part takes over and Cameron's focus is solely on protecting John, but she slips time and time again showing that she has genuine affection for him.
- Tuckerization: She's named after Franchise creator James Cameron.
- Leotard of Power: She wears a dark red unitard when going undercover as a ballet student.
- Waif-Fu: Comes with being played by Summer Glau. Justified, and reconstructed here. While in other works, a slim woman taking on opponents bigger and stronger than her, especially when it appears that she's manhandling them and throwing them around with no effort, stretches willing suspension of disbelief, here it makes perfect sense. Cameron might look like a waif, but underneath she's a "hyperalloy combat chassis" and she's much heavier and stronger than she appears (which allows her to play the role of The Big Guy as well).
- Weak, but Skilled: At least in relation to other Terminators. She doesn't have their raw strength and often can't beat bigger Terminators in a straight up fight - which is why she fights dirty.
- Yandere: Very loosely, but there are shades of this in some episodes. She'll protect John, no matter the cost. Subverted when Jesse expected her to kill Riley and be destroyed or banished by John, and that didn't happen according to plan.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: In "The Demon Hand" to the Russians, after getting what she needed from them. In this case she doesn't actually kill them, but simply ignores them once she has what she needs, allowing them to be killed because their survival was then irrelevant to her overall mission.
- Younger Than They Look: Cameron's exact age is never specified, but she's almost certainly younger than her human appearance makes her seem. Cameron states in the pilot that she comes from 2027. If Allison Young was born in 2008 or 2009 (Mrs. Young was pregnant), Allison would have been about 18, and Cameron's appearance is based on Allison.
Charley
Charley Dixon
Played by: Dean Winters
"He was a scary robot but you, you're a really scary robot."
Sarah's former fiancé, he's since married someone else until she dies by Cromartie's hands.
- Combat Medic: An EMT, Charley patches up Derek after he's shot while escaping, and both John and Sarah after they escape from Cameron.
- The Heart: Charley often provides care and support, and has a soft spot for Sarah at her most crazy.
- Heroic BSoD: Has one after his wife dies.
- Heroic Sacrifice: In "To The Lighthouse," Charley dies protecting John Connor from a T-888.
- Hollywood Atheist: At the funeral for his wife, Charley tosses the Bible Ellison gave him into her grave.
Ellison
James Ellison
Played by: Richard T. Jones
"These are more than machine but I will never make the mistake of thinking them human".
An agent of the FBI, he started out trying to stop the Connors... until he started believing them.
- As the Good Book Says...: Deeply religious.
- Inspector Javert: Is always seeking the Connors, even after their supposed death but avoids ever being an outright villain since he had good reason to believe Sarah was seriously dangerous. He was just an officer who ended up in really deep stuff.
- Kill and Replace: Not him, but a Terminator who tried to kill and replace him to steal his identity. It's foiled, however, by Cromartie, of all people... I mean cyborg. See Cromartie section below.
- Skeptic No Longer: Like everyone else in the authorities, Ellison believes that the Connors are violent crackpots that are a menace to society. However, throughout season 1, he started to observe things that don't make any sense unless you take the whole time-traveling killer robots from the future in the equation. By the finale, he quits the FBI and believes the Connors are right about everything.
- Shout-Out: His name is a dual reference to James Cameron (Original writer) and Harlan Ellison (Who claims to have written it first).
Derek
Derek Reese
Played by: Brian Austin Green
"We can go back. We can fix all the mistakes".
John Connor's uncle from the future, he came back to get a chess playing computer named the Turk and kill its creator, Andy Goode.
- Cool Uncle: And one who acts as a surrogate father given his brother is dead.
- Character Death: Eventually gets shot in the head by a Skynet Terminator.
- Cynic–Idealist Duo: Cameron and Derek serve as a very cynical counterbalance to the more idealistic Sarah and John. Both Cameron and Derek often advocate that Murder Is the Best Solution in order to Leave No Witnesses or to achieve their goals (after all, if Judgement Day happens the person in question would have most likely died anyway), while Sarah and John try to stick to the more idealistic world view seen in Terminator 2 which prompted them to spare Miles Dyson and attempt to stop Judgement Day without killing any humans. The show, being Darker and Edgier, often seems to side with Cameron and Derek in this regard.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: He's killed unceremoniously in the middle of what's essentially a non-arc related Monster of the Week episode. His death also deliberately averts Death Is Dramatic, he's killed suddenly without warning and the camera doesn't even linger on him but instead continues following his killer as he hunts down the rest of the team. However, due to time travel another Derek Reese eventually shows up.
- Mr. Fanservice: Gets several Shirtless Scenes and a Shower Scene.
- Secret Secret-Keeper: Sarah and John decide early on not to tell him that Kyle Reese is John's father. In the first season finale Derek reveals he worked it out for himself but didn't say anything until he surprises John by taking him to a park where young Derek and Kyle are playing.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: Breaks down crying in a bout of PTSD while watching Cameron dance. The music is the same music he heard while held captive (and probably tortured with the music) by Terminators.
Antagonists
Cromartie
Cromartie
Click here to see his first skin appearance
Click here to see his second skin appearance
Played by: Owain Yeoman (first skin), Garret Dillahunt (second skin)
"Thank you for your time."
The Terminator sent after John at the same time Cameron was. His chip is eventually destroyed, but his body ends up being used as the "face" of the Turk/John Henry supercomputer.
- Affably Evil: Despite being a killing machine, when he's not killing people, he's actually a nice guy who is able to politely converse with others and shows curiosity. The actor who portrays him lampshades this. He even has a brief conversation with Sarah Connor (while tied up) and his retort about who a murderer is implies that he's simply doing his job.
- Bond One-Liner: In the pilot, after starting a gunfight in John Connor's high school class while impersonating the substitute teacher, Cromartie pauses his pursuit of a fleeing John to quip "class dismissed" to the terrified students.
- Boom, Headshot!: How he's finally taken out, after having been incapacitated.
- Cool Car: He seems to prefer 1970s muscle cars and pickup trucks. He drove a 1970 Ford Mustang Mach 1 in the pilot, a Dodge Ram Power Wagon during "Mousetrap" and a Chevrolet Chevelle 454SS convertible.
- Determinator: As is typical for one of skynets assassins.
- Evil Wears Black: Seems to show a preference for black clothing.
- The Heavy: He's the primary Terminator hunting the Connors, since he's the only T-888 who's aware of their current temporal location due to his head following them through the time machine into 2007.
- Head Hat: In the pilot, Cromartie's headless body temporarily uses the severed head of a garbageman he killed as a head (in order to maintain a human shape for infiltration purposes), until he manages to retrieve his real head (which was knocked off and sent through a time machine during a fight with the Connors).
- Impersonating an Officer: After obtaining his new face, he initially assumes the identity of an FBI agent to better track the Connors.
- Kid Sidekick: In one episode he teams up with a teenager who had her own reasons for wanting revenge on the Connors, in hopes that her experience with the Connors and better knowledge of human society could help him track them. When this plan fails, instead of killing her he just boots her out of his car onto the curb and drives off.
- Kill and Replace: He killed a failed actor and assumed his identity afterwards.
- Leave No Witnesses: When he was first reactivated, Cromartie killed the garbage man who found his body, the scientist and surgeon he used to obtain a new face, and the actor whose face he had copied. After his new identity was compromised, however, he stopped bothering to eliminate witnesses.
- Losing Your Head: Decapitated while the Connors and Cameron time travelled. Yet both the head and the decapitated body managed to restart on their own.
- Made of Iron: More so than even the old T-800's, as Cromartie survives being decapitated with a plasma weapon in the pilot episode. Ultimately it takes multiple headshots from a shotgun loaded with depleted uranium slugs to finally put him down, and that only worked because he was momentarily distracted after being lured into a killzone and riddled with automatic weapons fire.
- Magic Plastic Surgery: Justified in that he's a robot and once he got new
flesh put back on his body, he forced a plastic surgeon to make him look like a failed actor (in a procedure that would normally kill a human being). - Murderous Thighs: It never comes up during the show, but art book notes and other supplementary materials show that one of the upgrades of the T-888 compared to the T-800 is that the armor plates on their upper thighs have sharpened edges, allowing the endoskeleton to dismember or decapitate the limbs or head of organic opponents using its thighs.
- The Nth Doctor: Played by Owain Yeoman in the pilot before he gets blown up, Garret Dillahunt in the main seasons after he gets a new flesh covering, and an uncredited stuntman in the interim stages.
- One-Man Army: After his fake identity as an FBI agent is blown by Agent Ellison, Cromartie completely wipes out the SWAT team sent in to capture him, all to the tune of Johnny Cash's "The Man Comes Around".
- Pragmatic Villainy: Cromartie isn't particularly concerned about avoiding collateral damage, but also tends to ignore anyone who isn't a target or an active armed attacker. At times he's spared opponents who were no longer an active threat, and after his identity was compromised he stopped bothering to eliminate witnesses. In this regard he's noticeably more merciful than the T-1000 was (or Cameron, for that matter).
- The Slow Path: In the pilot episode, Sarah decapitates Cromartie with a plasma weapon before jumping several years into the future to escape Skynet's radar. However, Cromartie's head follows them through the time machine, and upon landing in 2007 it remotely reactivates his body, which reobtains the head and resumes its mission to find and kill the Connors.
- The Stoic: Typical of a T-888, he's better at social interactions than the older T-800 models, but still isn't as smooth as the T-1000 was and comes across as stoic and detached.
- Superior Successor: The T-888 series is shown to be this compared to the older T-800's; they're stronger (Cromartie flips over a school bus with his bare hands in the first episode), faster (T-888's are repeatedly shown being able to keep pace with a speeding car), noticeably better at creative thinking, and somewhat better at infiltration and social interactions, though not nearly as much as a T-1000.
- Villainous Rescue: He destroyed a fellow Terminator who tried to Kill and Replace James Ellison, only because his mission conflicted with the other Terminator's in that he believed James can lead him to the Connors.
Sarkissian
Margos Sarkissian
Played By: James Urbaniak
A criminal who attempts to blackmail the Connors for the Turk.
Carter
Carter
Played By: Brian Bloom
A Terminator sent back in time to acquire and store a large amount of Coltan, the metal used to construct Terminators, for Skynet.
Vick Chamberlain
Vick Chamberlain
Played By: Matt Mc Colm
A Terminator sent back in time to create a traffic surveillance system Skynet hopes to use in the future.
Civilians
Kacy
Kacy Cotton
Played by: Busy Philipps
The Connors' new and very pregnant neighbor.
- Donut Mess with a Cop: She met her baby daddy when she was working as a pastry chef in a high-end donut shop.
- Feminine Women Can Cook: Kacy is heavily pregnant and a professional cook. In contrast to the badass Sarah and Cameron, who's "not really into food," Kacy is more of an earth-mother type.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Blonde and a close, loyal friend of the Connors.
Trevor
Trevor
Played by: Jon Huertas
Kacy's ex, her child's baby daddy, and an LA detective.
- Disappeared Dad: At first. Kacy says he "freaked out" when she got pregnant, but it turns out she's the one who left.
- Clueless Detective: To be fair, the Connors aren't his case, but Sarah noticeably clams up when Kacy notes that Trevor is a cop.
- Fair Cop: To Kacy. His cop-ness is what attracted Kacy when she worked in the donut place.
Riley
Riley Dawson
Played by: Leven Rambin
"I'm a brave, spooky ninja!"
John Connor's new friend at school.
- Bad Liar: When Sarah confronts her, she tells Riley she's a terrible liar.
- Becoming the Mask: Heavily hinted, at the very least she does care about John.
- Broken Bird: The cracks begin to show early that she's had a troubled past. Once it's revealed that she grew up during the war with the machines, it becomes clear she's been barely holding it together most of the time. Even her "cover story" is pretty awful: she was orphaned when her parents died in a meth lab accident. Recruited from the gutter, Flores found her surviving by catching rats.
- Foreshadowing: Someone takes a picture of John, something he is very paranoid about because of Skynet hunting for him in the future. Riley smashes the camera. As John later says, "she put herself between me and a machine that was threatening me."
- Keeping Secrets Sucks: She isn't a natural at it, to say the least.
- Killed Off for Real: Killed by Jesse in "Ourselves Alone" after learning she's a Sacrificial Lamb in The Plan.
- Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Riley is introduced as a cute friendly girl at school that helps John cheer up. But she turns out to be a deliberate Honey Trap.
- The Mole: She's actually a secret resistant fighter who was recruited by Jesse to keep an eye on Connors and Cameron.
- Sacrificial Lamb: Jesse's plan for her was to be caught and killed by Cameron, and thus make John lose trust in Cameron. Upon learning this, Riley furiously confronts Jesse about it and ends up being killed by her in an attempt to frame Cameron for it.
- Street Urchin: Used to be a "rat catcher" in the Bad Future before she met Jesse.
- Walking Spoiler: Her true role in the story isn't revealed until much later.
- Unwitting Pawn: The whole reason she was brought back from the future was so she could be killed and sow distrust between John and Cameron.
Morris
Morris
Played by: Luis Chavez
John Connor's other friend at school. Asked Cameron to the prom. Not seen much since the first season.
- Comic Relief: Gets some funny lines.Morris: Your sister is dark!
- Hopeless Suitor: Crushes hard on Cameron, thinking she's merely John's sister.
- Muggle Best Friend: For John during his time at school in season 1.
Dr. Silberman
Dr. Peter Silberman
Played by: Bruce Davison
A psychologist who laughed at the idea of the Terminators. After the events of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, he retreated to a mountain cabin and became an apocalyptic believer.
- Laser-Guided Karma: At the end of "Demon Hand," he gets locked up in the same mental hospital he used to run, in Sarah's own room.
- Sanity Slippage: It's safe to say that T2 did not do any favors for his mental state.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After seeing that the Terminators, and thus the Future War, were real, he fled to a mountain cabin to await Judgment Day.
Others
Weaver
Catherine Weaver
Played by: Shirley Manson
"The project's name is Babylon. It's from The Bible."
The CEO of Ziera Corp. She had the Turk stolen and set a group of people to work with it on "Project Babylon." Also, she is a liquid metal T-1001 Terminator.
- Ambiguously Evil: She looks like the Big Bad of the second season and has no qualms about killing anyone she needs to, but she's trying to destroy Skynet rather than create it.
- Bond One-Liner"Sorry I piss you off, Mr. Tuck. The feeling's mutual.""I bet that's never happened before either."
- Bulletproof Fashion Plate: Although it's easier when your clothes and hair are part of your shapeshifting body.
- Cool Car: Her black 2007 Mercedes Benz E63AMG sedan.
- Genius Bruiser: She is the most advanced an intelligent Terminator in the series.
- Gone Horribly Right: From Skynet's perspective, at least. The genocidal supercomputer didn't mass produce the T-1000 series terminators because it was afraid they would develop a personality that was opposed to its, and only sent back the original T-1000 as a last ditch effort to kill John Connor. Catherine Weaver demonstrates that it was correct with this assessment.
- Good All Along: Or at least, Not Dedicated to the Extinction of Mankind All Along. It looks like she's trying to create Skynet, but John Henry is actually meant to become a rival supercomputer capable of fighting Skynet. She's still willing to off people or do whatever shady things will accomplish her goals, however. But that's true of much of the human resistance, too.
- Kill and Replace: Maybe or maybe not, since it's unclear if the real Catherine Weaver was actually killed in a helicopter crash (that killed her husband) or killed by this T-1001 who assumed her identity.
- Lady of War: She is stoic and calm, and dresses in more graceful clothing. Being a Bullet-Proof Fashion Plate helps.
- Light Is Not Good: She wears a lot of white. Downplayed because she's technically an Anti-Hero, as it is implied that she did consider allying with the resistance to take down Skynet, but turned down the offer in part due to Jesse, and her Project Babylon is meant to be a means to counteract Skynet. She later (so to speak) extends her own offer of alliance to the Connors in the present.
- Unflinching Walk: After she killed the people at the "air conditioning factory". And then Out of the Inferno as well.
- Walking Spoiler: On two nested levels. The first, at the end of her first episode, that she's a liquid metal Terminator. The second, not explicitly confirmed until the end of the season, that she isn't working for Skynet but is a Wild Card AI with total free will.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: She killed everyone involved with Project Babylon and was planning to kill Ellison if he hadn't remained useful.
Savannah
Savannah Weaver
Played by: (Mackenzie Brooke Smith)
"I want my old mommy back."
The daughter of (the real) Catherine Weaver. She becomes best friends with John Henry.
- Bring My Brown Pants: She's terrified of Weaver. When her "mother" calls her from across the room, she refuses to come. She runs out of the room instead, leaving a puddle behind.
- Creepy Child: Savannah's delivery is pretty innocent, but while she explains John Henry as the man in her basement at her mommy's work, John looks terrified.
- Disappeared Dad: We know in one episode her parents are technically dead, but...
- Future Badass: Implied to be a member of the Resistance in the future, something that Season 3 would have explored.
- Morality Pet: For John. In some ways, she's a reminder of the innocence he's lost.
John Henry
John Henry
Played by: Garret Dillahunt
"Why is a math book so sad?"
The AI built and developed from Andy Goode's Turk supercomputer, using Cromartie's body as a means to communicate with others and manipulate its environment. Extremely intelligent, but almost childlike.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Averted. Weaver specifically enlisted Ellision to teach John Henry morality and ethics so he would develop properly.
- Basement-Dweller: It's not like he has any choice on the matter since his body is permanently hooked up to the computer that's used to run his AI.
- Cain and Abel: John Henry asks which "brother" he is. Weaver's response is he might be neither, and may in fact be God.
- Good Counterpart: Weaver created him to be this to Skynet; an A.I. with the capacity for moral reasoning that Skynet lacks, combined with the advanced capabilities that would allow it to successfully fight Skynet on an equal level.
- Walking Spoiler: Mentioning his existence is a massive spoiler for people who haven't watched the show.
Murch
Matt Murch
Played by: Shane Edelman
The main programmer and tech geek on the Babylon Project.
- Alliterative Name: Matt Murch
- Ascended Extra: Was intended to only appear in "Samson and Delilah."
- Due to the Dead: Wears a special tie on the anniversary of Lachlan Weaver's death.
- Mr. Exposition: Explains most of John Henry's development.
- Smart People Wear Glasses: Nerd Glasses, naturally.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: John Henry finds Murch's "resignation" and moving plan. It's not revealed if Weaver actually killed him or not.
Dr. Sherman
Dr. Boyd Sherman
Played by: Dorian Harewood
"Because it has so many problems".
A child therapist whose name was found on the blood-stained basement. Weaver hires him as a consultant to help her understand the strange behavior of her AI.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: Died of heat stroke after the AI rerouted the power from the air-conditioning to continue powering itself.
- Token Minority: The only other African-American character in the show aside from Ellison.
Jesse
Jesse Flores
Played by: Stephanie Jacobsen
"Sunset's at 5:47. I'm not gonna miss that sucker."
A human resistance fighter who traveled back in time to escape the hell of the future. Has an intimate relationship with Derek Reese. Actually traveled back in time on her own with Riley to try and separate John and Cameron, and is also implied to be an alternate counterpart to Jesse from Derek's timeline.
- Action Girl: A female resistance fighter from the future, she's more than capable of handling herself. Although in her case she's more of a Dark Action Girl.
- Alas, Poor Villain: You can't help but feel bad for her after the events in the submarine and Cameron's bad news.Jesse: You have no idea what they took from us!
- All for Nothing: When she confronts John about if, had she actually manipulated Cameron into killing Riley or at least convinced him she had, he would have killed Cameron. She's distraught when the answer is no.
- Anti-Villain: Her reasons for what she's doing aren't selfish—she truly believes that reprogrammed Terminators are still dangerous, which to be fair is not entirely untrue given what happens when Cameron's chip is damaged. But her methods leave a lot to be desired, and despite her clear regret she doesn't actually change her plan.
- Batman Gambit: Get Riley to threaten Cameron enough to kill her so John would be alienated from Cameron in the first place. If that doesn't work, kill Riley yourself, then pin the blame on Cameron. Unfortunately for her John figured it out before he terminated Cameron.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Revealed herself as this the moment she slapped Riley, and right after Riley admitted to screwing up, was not in good shape and was asking to stay with Jesse for a while.
- A Day in the Limelight: "The Last Voyage of the Jimmy Carter".
- Fantastic Racism: She's played as being prejudiced against machines, using the term "metal" derisively when referring to them.
- "Friends" Rent Control: It's unclear why she decides to stay in a 5-star hotel room in Los Angeles, much less how she can afford it.
- Gender-Blender Name: Jesse is a gender-neutral name, which Derek take of advantage when Sarah asks Derek who Jesse is.Derek: He came back with me. One of them killed him.
- Manipulative Bitch: In addition to the above mentioned Batman Gambit, Jesse's relationship with Riley borders on Domestic Abuse.Jesse: I took you from hell, and brought you to paradise!
- Ms. Fanservice: She's a looker and spends several scenes in skimpy clothes, such as swimsuits, sheets, towels, bikinis. The camera also has a tendency to focus on her legs or cleavage.
- New Old Flame: Used to be Derek's lover back in the Bad Future, and they quickly end up in bed shortly after meeting in the present. Although she's implied to be an alternate counterpart to Jesse from Derek's timeline, thus making their relationship a case of Bed Trick.
- Rebellious Rebel: She went AWOL from the resistance due to John Connor's increasing reliance on Terminator, particularly Cameron. She time-traveled in order to sabotage his relationship with Cameron.
- The Reveal:
- She's revealed to be connected to Riley in "Strange Things".
- Gets one by Derek before we see the last of her. We don't know if he shot her or not.
Derek: You're not my Jesse. - The Schlub Pub Seduction Deduction: When she talks up a "brownshoe" in the bar, she's really just looking to pick a fight to account for the bruises from her fight with Riley.
- The Sixth Ranger: She shows up last to "join" as an ally to the group, although she's got her own agenda. Turns about to be Sixth Ranger Traitor when she ultimately betrays our heroes.
- Start of Darkness: She wasn't always the Manipulative Bitch she eventually became. In fact, she actually had no problems working under the command of a reprogrammed terminator, and defended Queeg's decisions against the crew. All that changed when they brought a T-1000 onboard, and Queeg ordered them to act like it never happened. She almost got raped by a suspicious crewmember (who got executed by Queeg because of it), and then found out that Queeg's orders overrode her authority. She then murdered Queeg and ordered everybody to abandon ship, sending the sub to crush depth. Then when she got back, she found out that the rapid change in pressure caused her to miscarry the baby she was pregnant with.
- Tragic Stillbirth: She was pregnant with a child from Derek when a mission went wrong in the Bad Future, causing her to miscarriage, which was the incident that caused her to lose faith on John and the reprogrammed terminators.
- Uncertain Doom: The last time she's seen Derek is pointing a gun at her. Fade to Black as we hear a gunshot. Then the series got canceled.
- The Vamp: She knows how to turn up the sex appeal in order to get people to do what she wants. It's impled she recruit Riley by seducing her back when she was a rat-catcher.
Allison
Allison Young
Played by: Summer Glau
"I live in a tunnel. I eat garbage for dinner"
A resistance fighter in the future. Captured by Skynet, and who Cameron's physical features are based on. Later killed by Cameron for lying to her. Implied to know John Connor personally. And now, most likely alive again in the alternate future timeline.
- Back from the Dead: After the timeline changes.
- Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Averted; her face is marked by a lot of open cuts and scratches.
- Defiant Captive: While scared, she never helps Skynet, actively misleads them and talks back to them from time to time.
- Determinator: She will escape, or die trying. Barring that, she's not gonna do anything to compromise John Connor's safety.
- I'm Not Hungry: When the machines offer her food to try and weaken her resolve.
- Orphan's Ordeal: Was only three years old on Judgement Day, which claimed the lives of both her parents.
Jody
Jody
Played by: Leah Pipes
"I got this necklace at this awesome thrift store in Echo Park."
A runaway Cameron befriended in "Allison in Palmdale".
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: Along with revenge on Cameron, she decides to follow Cromartie because she found him kind of cute.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Appears harmless, but is an Alpha Bitch.
- Consummate Liar: To the point Cameron gets fed up with all her lies.
- Hipster: Says she wants to go someplace "more authentic," maybe Portland.
- The Load: Once she decides to help Cromartie find Cameron.
- Sticky Fingers: She steals even from her own house.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness:
- A non-fatal example. Once Cromartie has had enough of Jody, she's thrown out of the car.
- At the end of "Allison from Palmdale," Cameron nearly kills her, as well.
Rita
Rita
Played by: Jillian Armenante
A social worker at a youth hostel that Allison/Cameron meets when her chip goes wonky.
- All Therapists Are Muggles: While she succeeds in unlocking some of Cameron's "Allison" memories, the truth would get Cameron thrown in a psych ward.
- Department of Child Disservices: Rita is a social worker at a youth hostel. She's weeks behind on her paperwork, with more cases piling up.
- Obstructive Bureaucrat: In this case, it's a good thing when she tells Cromartie to go to the back of the line.
The Chola
The chola
Played by: Sabrina Perez
A young woman who acts as a lookout for Carlos while he does his business. Pops up a few times throughout the series.
- Back for the Finale: We don't see her for most of the season, then she shows up at the last episode.
- Spicy Latina: Downplayed, but wears heavy makeup and acts as a lookout for the gangbangers.
- The Voiceless: Doesn't speak until the last episode.
Father Bonilla
Father Armando Bonilla
Played by: Carlos Sanz
A Catholic priest at the church where Sarah and John seek sanctuary. He's the only one Sarah can call after she gets arrested.
- Back for the Finale: Along with Chola, Allison Young, and the Reese brothers.
- Crisis of Faith: He's a devout Catholic, but the horrors he sees in his dealings with the Connors are enough to raise many questions. Perhaps if the show had produced a third season, this might have been explored more.
Kyle Reese
Kyle Reese
Played by: Jonathan Jackson
The resistance fighter from the future who protected Sarah Connor against the first Terminator and fathered John. He died but his mission was accomplished.
- Has a Type: When Derek lets John know that he's aware Kyle was his father, he says that Sarah is Kyle's "type." He doesn't elaborate.
- The Lost Lenore: For Sarah, having died before the series started.
- Posthumous Character: While he's mentioned many times in the present day, he only appears in flashbacks. During John's cover story, his father is always a dead hero.
General Perry
Tuck
Sarkissian
Margos Sarkissian
Played By: James Urbaniak
A criminal who attempts to blackmail the Connors for the Turk.
