Plot
Derek notices a newspaper article about the seemingly motiveless murder of a man named Martin Bedell, who shares a name with a significant future resistant. He persuades the others that a Terminator is eliminating people of that name. Derek and John go undercover at a military school to protect a teenage Martin Bedell, who turns out to be the correct one, while Sarah and Cameron try to protect a child of the same name... and end up kidnapping him.
Meanwhile, Weaver sends Ellison on a mission to investigate events at the nuclear power plant three episodes back, intending to clear up loose ends.
Tropes
- Boot Camp Episode : Derek and John spend the episode at a military academy.
- Call-Back : To the first film. The T-888 is methodical in its pursuit of the three Martin Bedells, the same as the T-800 in the film.
- Coincidental Broadcast: Derek noticing the newspaper report of the third Martin Bedell's murder.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: The actress playing the form that Weaver uses to seduce and kill Nelson is listed in the closing credits as "Bar Skank".
- Gun Porn: Not only does Derek bring a Barrett anti-materiel rifle to the academy, he also delivers a hearfelt description of how great its Raufoss Mk 211 rounds are.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Derek reveals at the end that Martin wasn't an old soldier who taught John Connor what he needed to know about military matters, he sacrificed his life to free John from Machine captivity.
- Innocently Insensitive:
- Cameron shows young Martin his mother making an emotional TV appeal for the kidnapper to return him, because Martin wanted to see her.
- Cadet Pyle questioning Derek on his kill count.
- Kill It with Fire: Derek destroys the Terminator by luring it into a natural tarpit, shooting it in the head with armour-piercing explosive bullets and setting the tar alight.
- Killed to Uphold the Masquerade: Weaver killed Nelson because he suspected that something weirder than officially accepted had happened during the plant crisis and was about to call in a federal government investigation.
- The Kindnapper: Sarah ends up kidnapping young Martin on the spur of the moment when a Terminator turns up at his house to kill him just as she and Cameron arrive.
- Kiss of Death: Weaver kisses Nelson, then turns her tongue into a metal tentacle and liquidises the inside of his head.
- Military School: The setting of Derek and John's plot.
- Reality Is Unrealistic: Quite a few viewers complained that the scene with Derek Reese destroying a Terminator with an anti-materiel rifle was not realistic, due to fact that he fired his Barrett M82 from the shoulder. Since then many "guntubers" demonstrated that this feat is entirely possible and most proficient shooters can actually perform a rapid firing and still hit the target.
- Rule of Three : Three Sarahs, three Martins.
- The Schlub Pub Seduction Deduction: Weaver seduces and kills Nelson the plant manager in a sexy disguise at a bar.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: The military environment and his knowledge of Martin's true fate cause Derek's past memories to weigh on him very heavily.
- Shout-Out:
- The title refers to Goodbye to All That, the war memoir of the British poet and World War I veteran Robert Graves.
- The incompetent and gung-ho Cadet Pyle is named in reference to both the original Gomer Pyle from Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. and the character nicknamed after him in Full Metal Jacket.
- The resistants in the future refer to Machine tanks as "ogres". OGRE is a tabletop war game about futuristic tank combat.
- Stable Time Loop: Cadet Martin is influenced to stay in the military and become the resistance fighter Derek knows him as, after Derek kills a Terminator in front of him.
- War Is Hell: Derek lays a heavy speech of this nature on Cadet Pyle after Pyle insensitively questions him on his kill count and shows a general ignorant bloodlust.
- Welcomed to the Masquerade: Derek deliberately kills the T-888 in front of Cadet Martin to force him to recognise his responsibility to the future and become a soldier.
