Episode 210: Strange Things Happen at the One Two Point

Strange Things Happen at the One Two Point
Air date	November 24, 2008
Written by	Ashley Miller & Zack Stentz
Director	Scott Peters
← Previous	"Complications"
Next →	"Self Made Man"

"Strange Things Happen At The One Two Point; it’s a Go proverb. It means the usual rules do not apply."

- Cameron.

The logo for Dakara Systems -- the three dots

Sarah's obsession with the three dots leads her to a company that she believes may have Andy Goode's Turk. Meanwhile, Jesse's plans complicate things even further, and Weaver introduces Ellison to someone very important.

Synopsis

Alternate Future Cameron/Allison?

Sarah and Cameron work with Alex and his son Xander to broker a deal

Sarah poses as an investor

Cameron and Sarah pretend to be investors

Cameron and Sarah try to impress members of a start up company

James Ellison questions "John Henry"

Riley is revealed to be working with Jesse

Sarah holds Akagi at gunpoint while he confesses to his son

Cromartie's body, now John Henry, greets Ellison

In his dreams, James Ellison recalls his recovery of Cromartie's body from the Mexican desert. He awakes to a strange sound in his yard and investigates, a gun and flashlight in hand. He spots Cameron searching his yard with a rebar, plunging it into the grass to find Cromartie's body. She spots him watching her and tells Ellison to go back to bed.

Meanwhile, Sarah and Derek break into the offices of Dakara Systems and steal their computer hard drives. At home, they get John to check each one and he discovers that they contain the plans for an AI platform. However, Dakara lacks the money and resources to expand their creation. Derek believes it to be a dead end and questions Sarah's mindset. John also expresses his concern, but Sarah blows them both off and Cameron returns from her little sojourn, informing them that Cromartie was no where to be found.

In the morning, John arranges an appointment for Sarah with Dakara Systems. She and Cameron pose as wealthy investors and meet with Alex Akagi and his son, Xander. They learn about the AI, called "Emma", and Dakara's need for funding in order to expand their work. Sarah expresses her interest in helping out and Cameron asks Xander if he plays chess.

At Jesse's apartment, she comes out of the shower and finds her photos of John spread across her bed. Derek confronts her about the photos, threatening to shoot her unless she gives him an explanation. Jesse confesses to coming back with the goal of removing Cameron's influence from John's life, as Future John has become extremely withdrawn and refuses to speak with anyone other than Cameron. She also accuses him of making "questionable decisions" that have led to the deaths of several soldiers. Jesse asks why Derek came back, to which he warns: "I love you; but don't push it."

Sarah and Cameron muddle through the files about Daraka and discuss the connection it might have with The Turk. Cameron agrees with Derek and fails to see a connection, but Sarah remains defiant and refuses to let it drop.

John visits Riley at her foster home and finds her in a sorry state in her room. She appears visibly aloof and somewhat unstable, showing signs of nihilism as she muses over the random apathy of a fish being caught by a bear. John tries to explain about the events in Mexico, but finds himself unable to do so. He leaves, upsetting Riley.

Sarah goes to coffee with Alex and learns that he is in talks to purchase a powerful chip to run his AI on. He asks for a $500,000 investment in order to get the ball rolling with the Japanese software developer.

Riley goes shopping and examines a dress when she is approached by Jesse. They talk in a changing room where it is revealed that Riley has been working for Jesse. Her mission: to draw John away from Cameron's influence. Riley expresses her desire to end this charade but Jesse encourages her to continue, commenting that she cannot escape either way. It is hinted that Riley may have come back with Jesse, but this remains ambiguous.

Sarah and Cameron count their money and diamonds, barely managing to scrounge up the $500,000 they need for the chip, even though it practically makes them broke.

John and Derek unload some weapons from the Ram and Derek questions John's integrity, afraid that Jesse's suspicions might be correct. John attests that his head is clear.

Sarah and Cameron attend a dinner with Alex, Xander, and Minamoto; the Japanese software developer. After Cameron gives a toast in Japanese, Sarah loses her patience with the proceedings and demands they finish the exchange. Minamoto hands over the chip and takes the money. They test the chip, only for it to turn out to be a fake; Minamoto having apparently scammed them. Alex apologizes for the mishap and Sarah vows to find Minamoto, despite Alex's warnings that he is a Yakuza gangster. Sarah receives a text message from Cameron, informing her of Minamoto's location.

Riley returns to her foster home and suffers a breakdown; screaming at her foster mother about the apocalyptic future and violently assaulting her, for which she apologizes and runs off to her room.

Sarah, Derek, and Cameron storm Minamoto's apartment and hold him at gunpoint. He confesses to being an actor and tells them that he was paid by Alex to pose as Minamoto. Sarah doesn't believe him at first, but Derek convinces her otherwise. Enraged, Sarah returns to Dakara and assaults Alex, demanding to know what the three dots meant; he responds it is just a simple logo. Sarah threatens Alex, promising that Cameron will kill Xander if he doesn't confess to what he did. Alex confesses to scamming Sarah for her money and claims that he did it to ensure that he and his son had something to fall back on in case their AI program wasn't completed before the deadline. Sarah lets them live and Cameron recovers their money.

Derek visits Jesse again and tells her about John's relation to him, asking if there is anything else she has neglected to mention. Jesse deflects his question with a memory of old times and they hug.

The next morning, Riley asks John if he wants to come out for a walk, to which he agrees. Sarah examines herself in a mirror and, noticing three blood spots on her cheek, smashes the mirror.

While the Connors run around dealing with their respective problems, Ellison arrives at ZeiraCorp to find that Dr. Sherman has died in an accident. He investigates this incident and discovers that Sherman's death was the result of The Turk protecting itself from a power cut. Sherman was trapped inside the AI room without any ventilation, resulting in his demise at the hands of the computer's heat output. Ellison questions The Turk about Sherman's death and decides that it has no sense of moral ethics, suggesting that Catherine Weaver teach it the Ten Commandments. She later introduces Ellison to John Henry, which turns out to be Cromartie's body attached to The Turk, serving as a vessel for the AI.

Characters

Main	Recurring	Minor	Uncredited
Sarah Connor - Lena Headey John Connor - Thomas Dekker Cameron - Summer Glau Derek Reese - Brian Austin Green Cromartie/John Henry - Garret Dillahunt Catherine Weaver - Shirley Manson Riley Dawson - Leven Rambin James Ellison - Richard T. Jones	Matt Murch - Shane Edelman Alex Akagi - Eric Steinberg Xander Akagi - Eddie Shin Dr. Boyd Sherman - Dorian Harewood FBI Agent - Javier Grajeda Jesse - Stephanie Jacobsen	Minamoto - TJ Kayama Gina - Savannah Jayde Byron - Dylan Cash Aaron - Gregg Perrie Kay - Karen-Eileen Gordon	none

Quotes

(Metallic screeching outside wakes Ellison)

Cameron: Go back to bed! (Cameron continues probing Ellison's yard with a length of rebar)

---

John: Morning

Sarah: Morning to you.

John: Well I did some digging on the drives. Dakara Systems is hunting for start-up money. They need investors for the server farm they're going to build. Big investors. I made you an appointment. Here's your cover.

Sarah: I'm a rich divorcee looking to put my money into tech start-ups.

John: That's right. (John smiles) I, uh...also made you, uh, a cheat sheet. So you wouldn't...sound like a total moron when you're asking about neural networks and emergent behavior.

Sarah: I have no idea what you just said.

John: Yeah, that's my point.

Sarah: Were you up all night doing this?

John: Dakara Systems is a start-up. Okay. So was Cyberdyne once. Andy Goode was building a chess program. Barbara Chamberlain was trying to solve a traffic problem. It always starts small.

---

(Jesse walks out of the shower to see her surveillance photos of John, Derek, and Cameron spread out on her bed)

Derek: (Derek walks in and shows his gun) You've got thirty seconds. Go.

Jesse: Funny Derek.

Derek: Twenty-five. I'm not joking.

Jesse: I was sent back to find him. (Referring to John)

Derek: You could have told me.

Jesse: You could have told me you were living with him. With her. (Referring to Cameron) It. Metal. He wasn't talking with anyone anymore. Just her. He's making questionable decisions. Getting people killed. Good people.

Derek: Ten seconds.

Jesse: She's taken over. It's sick is what it is. Imagine if he spends the next twenty years with her. Imagine what he'll become. What she'll turn him into. Just try. I'm here to stop her. I'm here to save him.

Derek: I've gotta think about this.

Jesse: What the hell are you doing here? Why'd Connor send you back?

Derek: (Derek holds up a picture of him and John) I love you, but don't push it.

---

Sarah: Okay, we've got three dots, an AI with a name and a strong sense of self preservation, plus the United States Air Force. What does this add up to for you?

Cameron: Not The Turk. Xander doesn't play chess. He prefers "Go". It's a game. The Chinese invented it 5000 years ago. Xander said that it's been calculated there are more possible Go games than there are atoms in the universe. He's offered to teach me how to play.

Sarah: Did he offer to tell you about his AI?

Cameron: It's not The Turk. I told you Xander doesn't play chess.

Sarah: But it could be a piece of the puzzle. We've seen that before.

Cameron: "Strange things happen at the one-two point." It's a Go proverb. It means the usual rules don't always apply.

Sarah: It's always the same rules. They always apply.

Cameron: Dakara has no money. They'll miss the Air Force's deadline.

Sarah: They'll find the money. Everything they need. Every penny. They'll get their miracle.

Cameron: How do you know?

Sarah: I know because it's written in blood on my basement wall.

---

Jesse: You look tired. You sleeping enough?

Riley: He came to visit me today. (Referring to John) And I thought he was going to tell me everything. I think that's what he wanted to do. And then...nothing happened. He just left. Something's wrong. Off-balance.

Jesse: Steady him. He's reaching out.

Riley: He ran away from me.

Jesse: He's a boy.

Riley: (Riley looks at herself in a mirror) There's a lot of mirrors in this world. Did you notice that? I don't think I can do this anymore.

Jesse: I'm sorry. It's not easy, I understand. Maybe you even have some real feelings for him. Who wouldn't? He's John Connor. There's a reason people follow him all over hell.

Riley: But what if I want out?

Jesse: How would you do that? Where would you go? There is no out. You can do this. (Jesse kisses Riley on the forehead) You have to do this.

---

Derek: Take a look at this. (Holding up a gunbelt) You seem 'em. The three dots on the belt...

John: If you are gonna talk about my mother when she's not even here...

Derek: No I'm talking about the three dots on this belt. I'm seeing them everywhere now. It's got me thinking how crazy this can make you. You start seeing things in every corner and on every wall and pretty soon you forget what it was you were even looking for in the first place. All of us. Everyone.

John: I remember. I always remember.

Derek: Do you? Are you sure?

John: Derek, what the hell?

Derek: Nothing, I...I just need to know that you're seeing clearly. I need to know someone is, but especially you.

---

Alex Dakara: Xander? Xander?!

Sarah: (Sarah attacks Alex) Who you working for?

Alex Dakara: Sarah, what...

Sarah: You heard me!

Alex Dakara: I don't know what you mean!

Sarah: Don't lie to me! I hate liars!

Alex Dakara: Sarah, I'm not working for anybody. It's just me and Xander! (Sarah throws Alex onto a table and punches him in the face)

Sarah: I spent a couple of a years in a nuthouse. You wanna know why? Men like you. Time was I would have blown this building sky-high, so don't lie to me!

Alex Akagi: I'm sorry, okay, I'm sorry!

Sarah: What are you sorry for? What did you do?

Alex Akagi: The money. I'm sorry about the money!

Sarah: It's not about the damn money! (Sarah punches Alex in the face)

Alex Akagi: Where's Xander?!

Sarah: Tell me about the chip, about the AI, about the three dots!

Alex Akagi: Please don't hurt my boy. Please.

Sarah: Stop changing the subject, and making this about your wife, your poor Grandpa, your son.

Alex Akagi: Please. It is. It's all about him! It's all about Xander!

Sarah: Three dots.

Alex Akagi: It's just a logo, you crazy bitch!

---

Weaver: In folklore, John Henry raced a steam drill through a mountain. One man alone challenged the machine, armed with an iron hammer. They say he was born with it in his hand.

Ellison: His heart gave out and he died. I know.

Weaver: John Henry defeated the machine, but he couldn't stop progress.

(They exit the elevator)

---

(Ellison and Weaver enter a room in the basement)

Cromartie's body: Hello Mr. Ellison. My name is John Henry. How are you today?

Continuity notes

• Riley is revealed to be a sleeper agent working for Jesse, an assignment that most likely stretches all the way back to the events in the first season, wherein Riley had a tendency to watch John in the school corridors. "Mr. Ferguson is Ill Today"

• During their first meeting, Sarah tells Alex Akagi about how she and her friends used to dress up and attend "Duran Duran" concerts in the '80s. Alex quips about the hairstyles of the time, prompting Cameron to state: "That's the hardest part to get right... The hair." This is a direct callback to her conversation with Allison Young, wherein she commented that replicating human hair is a very precise and strenuous task.

Notes

• Jesse's mission is revealed and she is working alongside Riley Dawson to accomplish it.

• Jesse's confused look when Derek told her he loved her is more evidence that they come from different timelines. Derek seems to be from a timeline where the relationship was more serious than Jesse remembers.

• "Project Babylon" is identified by Weaver as a super-sophisticated computer program. It has been given the nickname John Henry and is utilizing Cromartie's body, and is powered by the Turk.

• Derek claims there are four persons who know that Derek is John Connor's uncle. There are actually more than he knows: Derek (though he was probably not counting himself), John, Sarah, Jesse, Charlie (Derek possibly doesn't know that Charlie knows), and Martin Bedell (though only because that part of the cover story happened to be the truth).

Deleted scenes

• Derek and Sarah wait for the valet to return their car while the police arrives to investigate the break-in.

Terminator references

• The Air Force is interested in the AI development, which is also mentioned in the film Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.

Real-world references

• "Dakara" could be derived from "Takara", the Japanese word for "Treasure".

• The "chip" used in the episode is not actually a chip, but a card. In fact, it is the tiny circuit board inside a microSD card.

• Xander Akagi doesn't handle the chip very carefully. A processor of that potential power would be extremely susceptible to static discharge, yet he handles it with his bare fingers, even touching the contacts at the connecting edge. Such handling could potentially zap any type of CPU, CMOS technology and most SIMMs (memory modules).

• "John Henry" was named for a fictional folk hero John Henry who challenged progress. He defeated the automatic steam drill machine in a race that was replacing workers with simple hand hammers driving drills, but died from exhaustion in the process. Weaver's point is that while Henry defeated the machine, he didn't defeat progress. This was meant to confirm to Ellison not to fight progress but to guide it, to manage it. This is Ellison's purpose with "John Henry", to teach it a sense of morality. The legend maybe based on a real John Henry who was supposedly born in New Jersey and was working on the railroad in 1870. He was supposedly a penitentiary inmate in Virginia from which the railroad requisitioned workers from to do the most dangerous work, drilling holes and filling them with dynamite.

Q&A

• Q: How was Dr. Boyd Sherman really killed?
  • A: Life support and life monitoring sensors for the area he was in were shut down by "John Henry" to preserve its power resources to keep on functioning during the power outage. It did not understand that this would kill Dr. Sherman.

• Q1: How was Cromartie's damage from "Mr. Ferguson is Ill Today" repaired so quickly?
  • A: Weaver was almost certainly programmed with information about all the older Terminator series. If so, she knew exactly what to do with Cromartie.
  • Q2: How did Cromartie's skin healed so fast?
    • A1: It can be argued as soon as his body is brought online by the installation of John Henry, the tissue start to regenerate.
    • A2: Since we do not know precisely the elapse time between the episodes "Mr. Ferguson is Ill Today" and this episode, we don't know how fast is the skin regeneration.

• Q: Is Cromartie gone permanently?
  • A: Yes, because his chip(s) is(are) destroyed.

• Q: Why didn't Jesse reveal her mission to Derek earlier?
  • A: Most likely Jesse considered Derek to be a liability in her mission due to his proximity to the Connors.

• Q:: Why did Weaver show John Henry (with Cromartie's body) to Ellison?
  • A: To familiarize him to the extent of Project Babylon.

• Q: Who called The Turk's embodiment (Cromartie's endoskeleton) "John Henry" and why was this name chosen (just by chance?)?
  • A: The name was chosen by Dr. Sherman in an effort to give Project Babylon a name to help it form an identity.

• Q: Did Emma Akagi die in one of the car crashes shown in the original movie?
  • A: Possible, but unlikely. Most of the car wrecks that occurred in the original movie took place on deserted streets (James Cameron was on a tight budget, after all). Any other accidents with "outside" characters (extras, etc.) were either sideswipes or fender-benders. Most likely a coincidence.

• Q: Why did Sarah fund the Dakara Systems ?
  • A: As a ploy to gain access to the facility and to assess the extent to which their claims of AI development could be a foundation for the genesis of Skynet. If proven a threat, the hardware and research would be stolen and destroyed.

External links

• Strange Things Happen at the One Two Point on the Internet Movie Database
• Strange Things Happen at the One Two Point at TV.com