Cameron/Season 1

Season 1

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This is the official biography page for Cameron during her time in the pre-apocalyptic past. Specifically, it covers her mission to protect a 15 year-old John Connor in that time period, from the year 1999 to 2007 (time jump in between).

Pre-Judgment Day Objective[]

1.01[]

"Come with me if you want to live!"

- Cameron. ("Pilot")

Upon arriving in 1999, Cameron began her 73-day search for John and his mother, eventually tracking them to New Mexico. She infiltrated John’s high school, posing as a student, and initially ingratiating herself with him as a classmate friend (using the alias Cameron Phillips). Cameron approached John in an inquisitive and slightly flirtatious manner, giving the subtle impression of romantic intent. John was not overly compliant though, and rejected her offer to get together after school. The next day, however, John confided in Cameron about the death of his father and confessed to lying to her before. Cameron promised to keep his secret, starting what could have been a close friendship, had fate not intervened.

101SCC John Hacks Camerons Record — Cameron's high school profile

A substitute teacher by the name of Cromartie arrived to take their class and began calling out the students’ names, eventually reaching Cameron’s. She did not answer at first and regarded Cromartie with suspicion, possibly aware of his true agenda. Upon identifying John, Cromartie drew a concealed gun and tried to assassinate the youth, but Cameron dutifully shielded him and was temporarily stunned by multiple shots to her upper body. She quickly recovered, however, and once again thwarted Cromartie by running him down with a truck and driving John to safety.

Cameron then took John back to his home where Sarah was supposedly waiting for him. Sensing a trap, she disguised herself as John and cautiously entered the house, only to be “killed” by Cromartie, who’d taken Sarah hostage. As Cromartie checked “the body”, Cameron kicked him aside and proceeded to slam the T-888 through several walls and eventually crashing through the floor and into the basement. Here she disabled Cromartie with an exposed electrical wire before catching up with the Connors, who were in the process of fleeing in the stolen truck.

They later stopped overnight in an abandoned warehouse in the desert, allowing Cameron the opportunity to tend to her wounds and remove half a dozen bullets from her body. While getting changed, Cameron informed Sarah of the new date for the apocalypse and revealed that Charley Dixon, Sarah’s fiancé had reported their disappearance to the police.

The following evening, Cameron, Sarah, and John visited Tarissa Dyson for information regarding Cyberdyne and her late husband’s work on Skynet. This proved to be a dead end, however, and almost led to them being caught by Cromartie. Luckily, Cameron was able to use a car bomb to deter the Triple-8, thus allowing them to escape more-or-less unharmed. Once they reached a safe location, Cameron stitched up Sarah’s shoulder injury, offering her some ice to numb the pain.

Cameron Pilot3 — Cameron inspects her injuries

The next day, Cameron took John and Sarah to a bank in the city of Los Angeles. Once inside, Cameron stole the security guard’s gun and demanded the clerk to hand over the keys to the safety deposit boxes. She then had all three of them locked inside the vault, a decision which confused both John and Sarah. Cameron’s plan became clear, however, as she unlocked several boxes containing pieces of an anti-Terminator weapon. While assembling the weapon, Cameron detected Cromartie’s proximity and advised John to stay away from the vault door as the Triple-8 began dismantling it from the outside.

Once the weapon was fully assembled, Cameron gave it to Sarah and opened another set of boxes, revealing a TDE interface, which the Engineer who built this place to allow any Resistance fighter to return home. Sarah initially opposed Cameron's apparent scheme but decided to go through with it when Cameron explained that doing so would give them the opportunity to kill Skynet before it's born. Cameron set the TDE for the year 2007 and activated it just as Cromartie smashed his way into the vault. Sarah used the weapon to blow Cromartie's head off as the time sphere engulfed her, Cameron, and John.

All three of them arrived naked on a highway built over the bank’s location. While John and Sarah were embarrassed by their predicament, Cameron was unfazed and led the Connors off the road and onto a construction yard, revealing to them the current date. She then assaulted a group of drunken youths, who tried to accost her, and stole their clothes for her and the Connors. Once fully dressed, Cameron assured John that he was safe now, though both he and Sarah opposed this assumption. Cameron then stole the youths’ car and drove them into the city where they were able to acquire a house and begin to settle into a normal life.^[1]

1.02[]

"He sent us here to fight. You're the best fighter he knows... The best."

- Cameron. ("Gnothi Seauton")

Three days later, while searching for a supplier of fake IDs, Cameron divulged her knowledge of a group of Resistance fighters who could help them acquire what they need. Though angry that she had neglected to mention this before, Sarah followed Cameron to the fighters’ safe house. They arrived to find three of the four fighters dead, however, and upon inspecting the fourth body, Cameron discovered it to be a dormant T-888 and was immediately attacked. During the ensuing fight, the Triple-8 scans Cameron but is unable to identify her model and, after a brief chase, Cameron is hit by a car, allowing him time to escape.

Sarah later berates Cameron for lying about their safety, stating that, had they not travelled forward in time, she would’ve had an additional eight years to train her son. Cameron negates this possibility, revealing that Sarah would’ve died of cancer in 2005 had they not jumped forward. While John patches up her injuries, Cameron informs him and Sarah that many more Terminators are likely to be walking around the city, but none of them know what John looks like, thereby granting him a measure of anonymity.

Upon John’s insistence, Cameron and Sarah visit Enrique Salceda, an old friend of the Connors, with the hope of acquiring fake IDs from him. Though now retired, Enrique points them towards his nephew, Carlos, and comments on Cameron’s tacit demeanor, causing her to laugh sardonically. At Carlos' house, Cameron is met with hostility by his guard dogs and is told to wait outside by Sarah. She stands by the car and is approached by Chola, Carlos’ lookout, who, after sizing her up, leans against the car. Cameron studies the girl’s behaviour for a moment before mimicking her actions and lounging against the bonnet.

While Sarah negotiates with Carlos, a cop who suspects Cameron of hiding drugs in the car confronts Cameron and Chola. When the cop mentions calling in the license plate, Cameron registers him as a threat and would’ve killed him were it not for Sarah’s timely intervention. They abandon the stolen car and begin the long walk home, during which Cameron reveals that she only takes orders from the John she knows in the future.

TSCC102-0026 — Cameron terminates Enrique

Upon returning home, Cameron takes note of John’s shifty behavior and performs a biomarker scan by stroking the back of his neck, an act he believes to be a sign of affection. Due to Carlos' asking price of $20,000 for new IDs, Cameron, Sarah, and John return to the apartment where they discover a safe hidden behind a "Hang in there, baby" kitten poster. Cameron attempts to forcibly open the safe but is struck by an electrical trap, rendering her offline for 120 seconds, during which John guesses the safe's combination and empties its contents. Cameron reboots to find herself on the roof of a car in an alley several stories below the apartment, Sarah having thrown her out of the window to avoid the hassle of lifting her, and joins the Connors as they flee the scene.

At home, while perusing the guns from the safe, her curiosity is peaked by a bag of diamonds that John discovers. He gives her one as a present, stating that "diamonds are a girl's best friend". Cameron visits Sarah in her room and offers her a diamond in turn, asking for clarification on John’s statement. When Sarah fails to elaborate, Cameron comments on her previous "Tin-Man" reference, informing her of how future John used to talk about how Sarah used to read him "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" in Spanish when he was little.

Later that night, Cameron and Sarah revisit Carlos and are able to buy their new IDs, during which Cameron allows Chola to give her a makeover. However, while leaving, they both overhear Carlos speaking in Spanish to his crew; referring to his uncle as “a ratter”. Cameron later follows Sarah to Enrique’s house and guns him down, suspecting him of selling them out to the authorities. Sarah is horrified by Cameron’s actions and slaps her across the face with the butt of her gun, stating that they couldn’t know for sure if Enrique was guilty or not. They then leave as the sound of police sirens near.

The next day, Cameron tests John’s knowledge of his new alias and background, reminding him that his father was a cop killed while arresting a suspect. She and John later enroll at Campo de Cahuenga High School as brother and sister, taking the surname Baum after the novelist L. Frank Baum.^[2]

1.03[]

Cameron TheTurk1 — Cameron displays a lack of modesty

"Freak. Weirdo. Kook. Oddball. Crackpot. Strange duck. Queer potato. Nut. I've been reading the dictionary. I don't sleep."

- Cameron. ("The Turk")

In an act of apparent naivety, Cameron patrols the Connor residence one morning wearing only her underwear, which makes John slightly uncomfortable. She later gets fully dressed, however, and begins applying eyeliner as John enters the kitchen. He compliments Cameron on her proficiency with make-up and finds that she has saved him the trouble of preparing his breakfast. Sarah enters moments later and reminds Cameron to remain clothed while in public and warns her not to kiss anyone at school after Cameron tries to copy John’s goodbye.

At school, John tries to get Cameron to act more like his sister and less like a bodyguard, telling her that she won’t fool anyone if she doesn't learn to blend in. Cameron encounters a problem when passing through the metal detectors, her endoskeleton constantly setting them off. John steps in and tells the security guard that she has a metal plate in her head and, after scanning her cranium, the guard lets them go. Cameron later transfers into John’s chemistry class and hovers over him until he tells her to stop acting like a "freak" and sit down.

When they return home, Cameron cleans their weapons arsenal while John and Sarah discuss Andrew Goode, a potential Skynet progenitor. She casually asks Sarah if she will kill him, prompting her to warn Cameron not to kill anyone until she says so. Cameron replies by joking that people die all the time and won't wait for Sarah’s permission.

At school the next day, Cameron unintentionally insults a girl when asked if she looks fat, to which Cameron answers "yes". The girl’s friend brands Cameron a "bitch-whore" and leaves behind her compact when the bell rings. Cameron hears someone crying in one of the toilet cubicles and encounters a distressed student named Jordon Cowan, who believes that her life is over due to a publicized accusation against her. Cameron tries to cheer up the girl by offering her the compact as a present, stating that it is "tight", but Jordon simply leaves without another word, confusing Cameron.

She later meets up with John and tells him about her encounter with Jordon, commenting that she has a new friend. Suddenly, a student calls out to everyone that a girl is poised to jump off the roof of the gym and Cameron and John join the mass of students outside. John tries to save the girl, revealed to be Jordon, but Cameron pins him against the railing and quotes his prior warning to not be a "freak". Jordon falls from the roof and dies, prompting Cameron to drag John away from the scene so as to avoid publicity.

John subsequently blames Cameron for not letting him help Jordon and starts treating her with disdain. When Sarah ponders on how to help John get over his guilt, Cameron simply states that Andy Goode must be killed.^[3]

1.04[]

"John does these things... The John I know."

- Cameron. ("Heavy Metal")

As part of her protection routine, Cameron regularly monitors the media for possible threats and learns that a shipment of refined coltan has been redirected to a port in Los Angeles. Knowing coltan to be a key element in Terminator endoskeletons, including her own, Cameron investigates further and comes to the conclusion that Cromartie may be involved. To prove her theory, she steals a video recording of their displacement on the highway and discovers that Cromartie’s skull has followed them through and is still intact.

Cameron reports this to Sarah and John, showing them the video as evidence, though she initially has trouble getting the video player to work. Cameron, Sarah, and John sneak into the port warehouse where they plan to await Cromartie’s arrival for the coltan, which was being loaded on a truck for delivery. Cromartie never arrives, however, and Cameron is forced to incapacitate an armed guard whom they initially mistook for the Triple-8. Seconds later, the truck carrying the coltan leaves the warehouse and John discovers that the men driving the truck have, in fact, incapacitated the original drivers and stolen the coltan.

They follow the truck to another warehouse and watch from a window as the men begin loading the coltan into another vehicle. John makes a snide remark about the metal’s density in relation to Cameron who, not cottoning on, explains that coltan was used in later models due to its heat resistance. They then watch as one of the men, dressed in military fatigues, effortlessly lifts a crate of coltan into the other truck. Cameron performs a scan and determines that, while the man is a Terminator, he is not Cromartie due to a conflicting height difference.

Sarah decides to abandon the mission and to leave immediately, despite John’s protests and Cameron’s admission that based upon that volume of coltan, 530 endoskeletons could be constructed in the future. John refuses to leave and sneaks into the warehouse. Sarah tries to follow but Cameron stops her from doing so, reasoning that they might get him caught. They watch as John plants his phone on the truck and is then trapped inside when the men lock up and leave.

Before they can rescue him, however, Cameron and Sarah are discovered by one of the men, whom Sarah quickly incapacitates before running after the truck which has already departed. Cameron then uses an office computer to track John’s phone over the internet but the signal fails, causing Sarah to question letting John have his way. Cameron tells her that Future John does these things, expressing her desire to see John become more active in his destiny.

Cameron HeavyMetal — Cameron disposes of the coltan

With no other options available, Sarah interrogates the worker she knocked out earlier, though he flat refuses to answer her questions. Frustrated, Sarah viciously beats the worker until Cameron makes it clear that a dead captive is useless to them. Sarah then frees the worker and tells him he can leave so long as he can get past Cameron. What she does to him remains unclear, but it is sufficient to make him drive them to the truck’s location, occasionally glancing nervously at Cameron who smiles back pleasantly.

Once he informs them of the truck’s exact location, an ex-military bunker called Depot 37; Sarah has Cameron place the worker in an active minefield. As she carefully navigates her way back to the Humvee, Cameron questions Sarah’s efficiency, which she explains as being a human flaw. They eventually reach Depot 37 and find that the coltan, along with John, has already been sealed inside the fallout shelter. Cameron reveals Depot 37 as the place that she will be built one day and posits that the Terminator is stockpiling the coltan for after Judgment Day as it is a rare alloy in the future.

Sarah suddenly receives a call from John, who tells her that the Terminator, named Carter, has locked the door and then become “frozen”. Cameron realises that Carter has entered standby mode and warns Sarah of the 15-second reboot time, who then tells John to open the doors and run. Once the doors have opened, Cameron charges in and hurls the machine across the bunker as John tries to drive the truck out of the bunker. Carter reboots and tries to prevent them from leaving but Cameron holds him off by repeatedly slamming him against the back of the truck. Carter manages to even the score, however, and uses a bar of coltan to overpower Cameron, sending her tumbling unceremoniously over several heavy barrels.

His efforts to physically push the truck back into the bunker are thwarted by Sarah, who fires a shotgun blast in his face. John then runs the machine over as Cameron steals Carter’s key and locks the bunker’s doors behind her, trapping him indefinitely. She then drives the truck towards a cliff edge, jumping out moments before it tumbles into the sea, the coltan along with it. Though it is unclear as to whether or not the Connors know; Cameron keeps a single bar of coltan, possibly in anticipation of potential damage to herself. ^[4]

1.05[]

"It could still be a threat. It could still become Skynet."

- Cameron. ("Queen's Gambit")

Some time later, Cameron and John are sat at the kitchen table, doing mathematics homework. Taking note of her skill with equations, John asks her if she would like to finish his, to which she says “yes”. Sarah then informs them that Andy Goode has rebuilt the Turk, prompting Cameron to voice an “I told you so”. At school, Cameron and John visit Jordon’s memorial and she asks him why people write notes to the dead. John tells her that it is a method of expressing sadness, but she doesn’t seem to understand. After school, Cameron and John meet Sarah at a chess tournament where the Turk is set to play against a Japanese equivalent.

While amongst the robotics fair, Cameron encounters a facial recognition robot and is intrigued by it. She eventually joins Sarah and John in overseeing the chess match, which the Turk loses. Despite this, Cameron still registers the Turk as a threat and recommends its immediate destruction. The Turk is stolen, however, and Andy is found murdered by a mysterious stranger. At school the next day, Cameron and John sit down for lunch and she questions his reasons for asking her to do his homework before. John simply tells her that he finds it hard to concentrate on academics when people keep dying around him and when asked if she understands, Cameron posits that he is grieving.

Cameron Queen'sGambit — Cameron disables a T-888

This surprises John, who up until recently thought her incapable of understanding human emotion. Cameron admits to reading the notes left for Jordon and is then called to the school counselor’s office to discuss Jordon’s death. The counselor asks her a series of questions, one of which prompts Cameron to copy Jordon’s behavior as a response. The counselor is slightly disturbed by her indifference to the death and continues to probe her for more information regarding the girl. Cameron quickly guesses the counselor’s invested interest in Jordon and turns his questions around on him before leaving; stating that she feels much better.

After school, Cameron spots Sarah waiting for them and informs John, meeting his new friend Morris in the process. Sarah reveals that they have a mission and John calls “shotgun”. Cameron, not understanding his meaning, calls “nine-millimeter”. They ambush a police van by having Cameron remove the drivers. Upon opening the prisoner storage area, Cameron discovers Derek Reese, who immediately tries to shoot her. She disarms him and proceeds to defend the van from a pursuing T-888, damaging its arm and removing the biological covering over its CPU port.

The Triple-8 gets the upper hand, however, and beats Cameron repeatedly before stealing her gun and aiming it at Derek. Cameron quickly recovers and hits the Triple-8 with a steel pipe, causing it to shoot Derek in the chest as opposed to his head. She then pins the T-888 to the floor and calls for John to bring her the toolbox and, with his help, removes its chip, disabling it. When they get Derek home, Cameron tries to help him but does not possess the necessary medical training to save him. As Derek slowly dies on the kitchen table, Cameron begins writing a note, though who she is writing it for has yet to be revealed.^[5]

1.06[]

"Every component must be destroyed beyond repair or recovery. Even a single unaccounted for piece of the endoskeleton could alter the course of technological evolution, and hasten the arrival of Judgment Day."

- Cameron. ("Dungeons & Dragons")

John returns home just as Derek stops breathing, having gone to retrieve Charley, who manages to revive the Resistance fighter. Derek continuously accuses Cameron of being a liar and is terrified when she tries to give him a sedative, his distress causing Sarah to order her to leave the room. Later, as John paces in the living room, Cameron offers him a sedative, which he refuses. He then asks her if she knows who Derek is on a personal level and Cameron recites his military record as well as mentioning Kyle Reese. John asks her what she knows about his father but she only provides another military account and nothing more.

While Derek's condition stabilizes, Cameron deposits the T-888’s body in the garage where she has prepared a furnace with an incendiary compound called thermite, which is hot enough to liquefy the endoskeleton. Before she does this, however, Cameron returns to the house and places a pillow under Derek’s head. When asked if she did anything to him in the future, Cameron claims to have no knowledge of anything before her reprogramming by the Resistance (they delete any memories of their Skynet servitude in order to improve the chances of a successful reprogramming), though Sarah remains unconvinced.

Cameron then removes the Triple-8’s biological covering, storing it in plastic bags, and is visited by Charley. Cameron explains to him that the T-888 must be completely destroyed to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands and bringing about the apocalypse. Charley admits to being afraid of her and abruptly leaves when she lights the thermite, her eyes glowing blue in the process. Cameron is then confronted by Sarah, who warns her not to go anywhere near Charley as well as making her promise to destroy every single bolt of the endoskeleton, but Cameron saves its CPU.^[6]

1.07[]

Cameron DemonHand1 — Cameron in cop attire

"Dance is the hidden language of the soul."

- Cameron. ("The Demon Hand")

Other than the chip, the only wayward piece of the endoskeleton that remains is its left hand, which Cameron attempts to liberate from the local police station. She acquires a policeman’s uniform and bike and disables the local power plant, plunging the city in darkness. With the local PD in disarray, Cameron has no trouble finding the correct evidence box, but discovers that the hand is missing, and takes the registry slip for future reference. Upon returning home, Cameron reports her failure to Sarah and is given the task of hunting down the Turk instead. Sarah suggests she track down Dmitri Shipkov, Andy’s partner, through his sister Maria, who teaches ballet.

Cameron enrolls in the ballet class and, aside from showing interest in the Pas De Chat dance, discovers that Maria is under pressure from Russian gangsters, who are also searching Dmitri. The next day, Sarah checks up on Cameron’s progress, but she simply answers by stating that “dance is the hidden language of the soul”, to which Derek scoffs that “first you have to have a soul”. Sarah makes Derek sit at the table to eat his pancakes, resulting in him and Cameron staring at each other intensely.

Derek eventually jokes that she must not be hungry either and Cameron replies by eating a pancake, which surprises him. Regardless, he warns her that, though she may have gained the Connors’ trust, he will never trust her. Cameron is unperturbed by his threat and states that she knows him as well as he knows her. She later returns the ballet class and watches as Maria dances. Cameron then probes her about Dmitri until the gangster arrives again and threatens to break Maria’s legs in Russian.

Cameron responds by repeating the gangster’s threat word-for-word in perfect Russian (actually, her [Summer's] Russian has bad American accent). The gangster tells her to get lost, prompting her to kick him across the room, shocking Maria. Cameron then drops her façade and demands to see Dmitri immediately with the promise of helping him. Though reluctant, Maria takes Cameron to Dmitri’s apartment where she offers him diamonds in exchange for information on the Turk.

Dmitri reveals that he was paid to steal the Turk so that he could pay back the people who got his sister into the country and gives Cameron the name of the man who bought it off of him. Her mission complete, Cameron abandoned them to their fate as several gangsters arrived and killed Dmitri and Maria. She then returned home and informed Sarah of what she’d learned before returning to her room where she, for reasons unknown, performed a complex ballet dance with Derek as a silent audience. ^[7]

1.08[]

"If The Turk is destined to be Skynet's brain, this software could be its nervous system."

- Cameron. ("Vick's Chip")

Cameron is accused of treachery when Derek finds the T-888 chip in her room. She defends herself, claiming that the chip may have valuable information they can use; though this does little to convince Derek, who accuses her of leading the Triple-8 to his safe house. Cameron denies this but Derek demands she prove her innocence, so she and John visit a school friend who provides them with the equipment they need to hack into the chip.

Here she reveals that she can lie when necessary and admits to lying to John on a regular basis. In his room, Cameron teaches John how to hack into the chip and warns him not to give it too much power or else it might reactivate. By gaining access to its visual memory, they learn that the Triple-8 had assumed the identity of Vick Chamberlain, husband to Barbara Chamberlain who was working on an advanced traffic light system called ARTIE. Cameron informs John, Sarah, and Derek that ARTIE could become Skynet’s “nervous system” and they decide to find a way to disable it.

The next morning, Cameron tells Sarah about “Vick’s” protection methods. Sarah wonders why Vick would choose such a scheme, causing Derek to comment that machines are twisted. John defends Cameron, saying that she isn’t anything like Vick. At school the next day, Cameron and John are having lunch with Morris, who tells them the story of his first tattoo. Cameron, unsure how to respond, simply refers to it as “tight”, a phrase she’d adopted many weeks ago. John leaves her alone with Morris so that he can talk to Cheri, unaware that she is watching him intently.

Cameron Vick'sChip — John removes Cameron's chip

While hacking the chip at home, Cameron and John come across a memory of what they assume to be Barbara’s death and Sarah decides to go look for her, despite Cameron’s insistence that finding her body should not be a mission priority. As she and Sarah search the woodlands, Cameron expresses her lack of comprehension as to why they need to locate the body, referring to it as nothing more than “bones and meat”, a comment she immediately realizes to be hurtful. Upon finding the body, they discover it to be that of Jessica Peck, a lobbyist being paid to oppose ARTIE.

At school the next day, a student informs Cameron that a cop wishes to see John in the principal’s office. A brief analysis of the cop reveals him to be Cromartie and Cameron sends Morris in John’s place, throwing Cromartie off the trail. Cameron starts following the Triple-8 but aborts when John calls out to her, forcing her to briefly pin him against the lockers until Cromartie leaves. She doesn’t offer a reason for her actions but John learns the truth from Morris, who commends her “genius” plan.

Later that night, Cameron sneaks into John’s room without him noticing and sits on his bed while she paints her fingernails. She watches in silence as John plays one of Vick’s memories, which shows him using seduction to convince his wife to continue her work. John finally notices Cameron and jumps out of his skin, asking her how long she’d been there. Cameron then commented on Vick’s methods, referring to them as effective, which prompts John to ask why she acts the way she does.

Cameron just tells him that she is making conversation and decides to inform John of Cromartie’s presence at school. Seeing the concern on his face, Cameron tries to reassure him by stating that Cromartie won’t return to their school, but John lacks her optimism and makes her promise not to tell his mom. Sarah walks in on them in this moment and Cameron promptly leaves, winking at John as she passes. Further probing of the chip reveals Vick’s memory of his murder of the Resistance fighters, absolving Cameron of suspicion in that regard.

Cameron Vick'sChip2 — Cameron is reactivated

While Sarah and Derek attempt to plant a virus in ARTIE, Cameron and John continue to hack into the chip, but John gives it too much power and reawakens Vick’s higher functions. Luckily, they are able to remove the chip before Vick can escape into the internet but the incident gives John an idea when Sarah and Derek return, having failed their task. He comes up with a plan to insert Cameron’s CPU into the traffic light interface so that she can kill the ARTIE system.

After adequate coaxing from Cameron, John carefully removes her chip and inserts it into a traffic light as planned, and she kills ARTIE in a matter of seconds. John then reinserts her chip into her body and Cameron reboots to find John leaning over her for a few seconds before he adjusts himself awkwardly. He then asks her what she saw while linked with ARTIE and she replies by saying that she “saw everything”.^[8]

1.09[]

"Do I have a birthday?"

- Cameron. ("What He Beheld")

The next day, Cameron and Sarah enter an Internet café to meet a man named Sarkissian who has possession of the Turk. Cameron mentions that she has learned Armenian in preparation for this meeting but Sarah reminds her that they aren’t there to charm him. They wait by the allocated computer but no one joins them. Instead, a message appears on the screen, offering to sell them the Turk for $500,000. At home, Cameron inspects the bag of diamonds they took from the safe house and discovers that they have less than $300,000 worth and suggests that they negotiate the price.

Cameron and John later go on a school trip to the science museum where John confides his belief that Sarah has forgotten his birthday, which is the next day. Cameron asks John if she has a birthday and he replies by saying that she maybe has a “builtday”. Cameron then spots a man who exhibits suspicious behaviour and tries to follow him but is told to remain with the group by her teacher.

She later kills the man, however, and stores him in the trunk of his car. Morris and John soon find her and she informs John of what she has done, Morris believing her to be joking. Before they leave, Morris awkwardly asks Cameron to the Prom, a question she takes a few moments pondering until John tells her to say “yes”. They return home and Cameron shows the body to Sarah, who identifies it as one of Sarkissian’s thugs.

Cameron car bomb — Cameron is car-bombed

Suddenly, the thug’s phone rings and Cameron uses her voice impersonation ability to answer it. Moments later, Chola, Carlos’ lookout, turns up and drives them to Sarkissian’s location: the Internet café. Once inside, they chase Sarkissian into a panic room and Cameron smashes through the wall to get at him. He escapes via a secret passage, however, and takes John hostage. Derek shoots Sarkissian though, resolving that predicament, and John joins Cameron in the panic room where he steals Sarkissian’s hard drive.

The next day, Sarah sends Cameron to buy John a birthday cake, but as she gets into the Jeep Cameron spots the real Sarkissian walking away from the house. Just as she turns the ignition, Cameron is consumed by a ball of fire as the car explodes around her. ^[9]

Observations[]

Cameron's capability for human mimicry is determined by her current mission parameters. Her initial interactions with John required a more in-depth personality display, as anything less would've been insufficient to fool him into believing that she was a real girl. Whilst attending high school in 2007, Cameron was no longer required to deceive someone who held prior knowledge of machines and therefore was not as "dedicated" to her infiltration abilities as before, allowing some of her oddities to shine through.

While she remains a machine and displays moments of callous action, Cameron is shown to have a humanistic side to her at times; one that possesses an innocent curiosity for various human arts, be it dance or simple cosmetics. She also has an affinity for understanding human concepts such as grief and quite possibly love.

Cameron lies on occasion, either because the mission requires it or because of her own personal discretion. She even lies to John, despite hinting on many occasions that she is John's confidant in the future.

Though she is programmed to protect John from any and all threats, Cameron does not object to him being more active in their missions, even if it means putting his life in danger. This hints at the possibility that Cameron is instructed to help shape him into the man he will one day become.

During her interview with the school counselor, Cameron displays her interrogation skills by reading between the lines of his behavior, deducing the counselor's affair with Jordon Cowan.