From The Mouths of Babes. And Robots.

One newer show I've been watching regularly has been Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, and while some of the appeal is definitely that I already know the outlines of the story, I think it's delivered some quality shows. It's not the best show on TV or anything, but it's consistently entertaining, and they blow shit up.

Anyway, the final two episodes of the season were really good. I'll let io9 handle the full recaps, but there were two moments in the penultimate episode that were the sorts of small details that can win me over fully. First, Savannah Weaver -- daughter of Catherine Weaver, a corporate executive who has been killed and replaces by a T-1000 "liquid metal" model that just so happens to be Shirley Manson from the band Garbage -- is trying to teach the evolving AI in the basement a song. Her "mother" asks if Savannah could teach it to her instead, to which the girl replies "you're a girl, and you can't sing." If that wasn't a wink to Manson's rock and roll life, and the difficulties of being a woman in that life -- I seem to recall her being a bit insecure at least early on in the band's success -- I don't know what was. I'm guessing she loved it.

Then there was the AI discussing theology with Ellison. As self-aware self-organisms tend to do, "John Henry" brought up how humans are imperfect, because they've got these great computers and memory systems, but there's nowhere to preserve them once the host body dies -- nowhere to download your consciousness.

His response? "That's why humans invented heaven."

In terms of overall plot, I like that Weaver and John Henry may actually be on the same side as John and Sarah Connor, although the proliferation of time-traveling robots and alternate future timelines could get out of hand really quickly.