"John. It's time to go" - the sentence that destroyed what could've been the most romantic moment between John and Cameron.
Plot
The series finale pulls out all the stops and ties up loose story threads. Sarah has been arrested and John is out of his mind with anxiety. Cameron tries to calm him down. Sarah sends John and Cameron a message via Father Bonilla. Weaver finally agrees to meet with Sarah.
Tropes
- Always Save the Girl: John travels to 2027 with Catherine Weaver to rescue Cameron, by doing that he creates an alternative future in which he is not the leader of the resistance.
- Almost Kiss: If Cameron wouldn't have cut her moment with John he most certainly would have kissed her.
- Arc Words: Sarah's "I'll stop it," to John. Also "Will you join us?," which is repeated a few times throughout the episode.
- As You Know: Auldridge gives Sarah, and the audience, a rundown of her crimes.
- Back for the Finale: Several characters, including Father Bonilla, the chola, Allison Young, and Derek Reese, after John travels forward in time.
- Badass Boast: Ellison assures John that if he betrayed Sarah, a SWAT team would be outside the door.Then the same thing would happen, as happened to your last one.
- Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Throughout the series, this has been played pretty much straight with Cameron's healing ability. Averted in the finale, however, when she gets badly roughed up.I'm not one hundred per cent.
- Beautiful Dreamer: Cameron watches John sleep, a Call-Back to Sarah doing this in the pilot. It still freaks him out.
- Black-and-Grey Morality: When questioned about the legality of watching police surveillance tapes, Weaver points out it's also illegal to lie to the FBI.
- Book Ends: The series begins and ends with a jump forward in time.
- Bulletproof Human Shield: Weaver saves Sarah, John and Ellison from the Skynet drone attack by expanding her metal body into a shield for them.
- Chekhov M.I.A.: Auldrige casually mentions to Sarah that Danny Dyson is missing. It's confirmed on the DVD commentary that this was intended to be a plot point for the next season, and that Danny would have had something to do with Skynet. (Of course, in Terminator Genisys he does).
- Cut Short: The series ends with a massive cliffhanger. Some of the mysteries:
- Cameron's fate. Is she irrevocably dead, is she still alive and running on John Henry's old hardware, or is she sharing a body with John Henry? Or did she reset that nuke in her head before she gave John Henry her chip and it's a matter of time before the whole place blows?
- Given the way time travel has been implied to work in this series, if John ever does get back to the twenty-first century, will it be to the same timeline that he left Sarah in? Will she still die of cancer?
- When John jumps, is it the start of his rise as the leader of the Resistance, and does he show them how to kill Terminators more efficiently ("He taught us to smash those metal motherfuckers into junk), calling back Reese's line in the first film? When do he and Kyle get captured and go to the Skynet work camp, or does that rescue not happen as the result of all the timeline shifting?
- What happens to Savannah? Do she, Ellison, and Sarah become a weird pseudo family? Does Sarah raise her as a resistance fighter in place of John?
- What happens to the empire Weaver has built? Zeira Corp is a giant corporation. Does the shady Kaliba simply absorb it? Does someone else carry on Murch's AI research? Many possible plot threads were set up in the second season, leaving fans hanging.
- Gone to the Future: Since John time-skipped forward, he was not around to lead the revolution against the machines; therefore, when he arrives in the future, no one knows who he is and only doesn't get shot as a terminator since Weaver leaves him before the dog shows up with the rebels.
- Literal-Minded: When the gun shop owner tells the Terminator that silencers are illegal to buy, but gives it a phone number and tells it to ask for Manny, the Terminator asks for Manny out loud there and then.
- Miranda Rights: An unusual case for a TV show. Rather than having her rights read at arrest (as most shows do), she's advised when she gives her testimony, which is what they do in Real Life.
- Moment Killer "John. It's time to go."
- Mugging the Monster: When the "water delivery" Terminator tries to shoot Weaver.
- Mythology Gag: The Terminator buying weapons at a gun shop.
- A Terminator with a big gun is wading through a law enforcement facility looking for Sarah Connor, absorbing gunfire.
- Due to a parameter of not killing, the Terminator absorbs vastly more damage from police fire than in T1, similar to the T-800 taking out a SWAT team non-lethally in T2. Cameron goes above and beyond, not even winging anyone.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Auldridge suggests to Sarah that he has come to believe her story about an apocalypse and killer robots from the future. She doesn't respond, and it's left unknown whether he was sincere or not.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Cameron's electronic eye shows red when half of her face is shot off during the fight at the prison.
- Ship Tease: The strange, awkward pseudo-sex scene between John and Cameron. That can't be healthy for a young man's budding sex drive.
- Shout-Out: It's a minor one to T2, but Cameron bids the chola "Hasta luego." Cameron shooting up the prison is also a Shout-Out to the first film.
- Speak in Unison: Weaver and John Henry say "We'll see" in unison.
- Titled After the Song: "Born to Run" by Bruce Springsteen.
- Trash the Set: Weaver's office gets well and truly demolished by a Skynet drone attack.
- Wham Line: From the chola, who has been The Voiceless throughout the series.We lose everybody we love.
- Also Sarah's line, the final spoken line in the show.
I love you, too. - Writing Around Trademarks: A notable aversion: Sarah calling Weaver a "Terminator bitch" is the only time that the T-word is used in dialogue during the show.
