6 Episodes that Prove 'Sarah Connor Chronicles' Is the Best 'Terminator' Since 'T2'

Opening in theaters today, Terminator: Genisys is the latest attempt to relaunch the venerable Terminator film franchise, which began with James Cameron’s low-budget, high-grossing 1984 original and continued with the even more successful sequel, Terminator 2: Judgment Day. But post-Cameron sequels like Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and Terminator Salvation have struggled to continue the franchise’s complicated mythology, which involves a post-apocalyptic future brought about by the AI-enabled computer, Skynet, and a warrior-in-training, John Connor, who will grow up to save mankind — if time-traveling cyborg assassins don’t get him first. In fact, Genisys, which stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as the titular robotic killer and Game of Thrones’s Emilia Clarke as John’s mom, Sarah, (another GoT vet, director Alan Taylor, is behind the camera) is billing itself as a reboot of the series, incorporating key elements and even scenes from the first movie, but significantly altering events to open up new storytelling avenues.

It’s a bold idea, but let’s not forget that Genisys isn’t the first to mess with the established Terminator timeline. For two seasons, which aired from 2008 to 2009 on Fox, showrunner Josh Friedman boldly blazed his own trail through the Terminator-verse with The Sarah Connor Chronicles, which picked up from where T2 left off and took the story in fascinating directions. Besides addictively serialized sci-fi storytelling, TSCC also boasted a terrific ensemble cast, headed up by Lena Headey as Sarah (taking over a role originated by Linda Hamilton), who is regularly searching for ways to prevent the looming apocalypse, while also being a good mother to her teenage son (Thomas Dekker) and dealing with the arrivals of various Terminators, both good (like Summer Glau’s Cameron) and evil (Garret Dillahunt’s Cromartie), as well as John’s uncle from the future, Derek Reese (Brian Austin Green). While still unavailable for free streaming, both seasons can be purchased via Amazon Instant. Here are six standout Sarah Connor Chronicles episodes that prove the best Terminator story since T2 happened on TV, not in theaters.

“Pilot”
Thumbnail Recap: On the run in the wake of supposedly stopping Judgment Day, John and Sarah discover that the apocalypse is back on when Cameron and Cromartie both descend on the New Mexico town where they’re both hiding out from the law. With Cameron’s help, they leap ahead eight years and set about trying to prevent Judgment Day all over again.

Why It’s Great Terminator: Written by Friedman and directed by genre TV staple, David Nutter, the pilot episode effectively establishes the new status quo and gives Headey and Dekker plenty of meaty material to set their performances apart from previous incarnations of these characters. Cameron and Cromartie, meanwhile, more than fill the diesel truck-sized void left by Schwarzenegger. And because it’s the pilot, a lot of money is spent on action and explosions, which means stuff blows up real good.

Best Moment: The climactic time jump — with the characters going forward rather than backward — is the point at which the series stops being a pretty good continuation of T2 and becomes its own distinct thing.

“The Demon Hand”
Thumbnail Recap: While on the trail of a missing Terminator hand, Sarah crosses paths with a nemesis from her past — creepy psychiatrist Peter Silberman — while John learns more than he wanted to know about his mom’s stint in a mental hospital.

Why It’s Great Terminator: We may know that Sarah is right about Judgment Day, but as far as the rest of society is concerned, she’s loony bin material. This episode reminds us what exactly her single-minded mission has cost her, both in terms of her personal freedom and her relationship with her son. It’s another strong showcase for Headey, who consistently proves herself a more than worthy successor to Hamilton.

Best Moment: Sarah re-watches surveillance footage from the asylum of her signing away her parental rights to John. Headey looks almost as devastated as she does while attending the wedding of her other onscreen son.

“What He Beheld”
Synopsis: Cameron and Sarah attempt to acquire a seemingly innocuous chess-playing computer program that may actually have serious ramifications for the future. As a birthday present, Derek takes John to meet his father, Kyle, while he’s still a young boy. Cromartie is located by the FBI, but naturally refuses to go with them quietly.

Why It’s Great Terminator: The first season’s various story strands come together in compelling ways and the scenes with John and Derek highlight the young Connor’s yearning to understand the father he never knew.

Best Moment: Lacking the feature film budget required to depict a full-on Cromartie vs. the FBI battle, the show makes the striking choice of filming the entire attack from the bottom of a swimming pool, which steadily fills up with bleeding bodies of mortally wounded agents while Johnny Cash’s haunting tune, “The Man Comes Around,” plays on the soundtrack. It’s one of the best action sequences in the franchise’s history and barely a hint of action is shown.

“Automatic for the People”
Synopsis: While John makes a new friend at school, Sarah and Cameron secure jobs at a nuclear plant that’s integral to Skynet’s plans.

Why It’s Great Terminator: Presenting a standalone present day mission that has enormous ramifications for the future, “Automatic for the People” shows off Sarah and Cameron’s skills as a team and lends their undercover operation extra urgency. Bonus points for the cameo by Breaking Bad star Dean Norris as a vaguely shady plant employee.

Best Moment: In order to maintain her cover, Sarah dons a hazmat suit to mop up a radioactive spill, but freaks out as soon as she enters the room… probably because she’s already been told by Cameron that her fate is to die of cancer.

“Complications”
Synopsis: Derek interrogates Charles Fischer (Richard Schiff) who, post-Judgment Day, becomes a collaborator with the machines; Sarah finds herself bedeviled by bad dreams and visits a psychiatrist to help her gain some perspective.

Why It’s Great Terminator: The idea that Skynet would send human double agents — and not just Terminators — back through the timestream is a great one and the episode raises the ante when the present day Fischer is located and forcibly brought face-to-face with his traitorous future self.

Best Moment: Derek learns that, in another version of the future, he was tortured under Fischer’s watch.

“Born to Run”
Synopsis: Sarah is in FBI captivity, Derek is dead, and John and Cameron emerge from hiding to recover Mama Connor and confront the person pulling the strings all season long, industrialist and secret Terminator, Catherine Weaver (Shirley Manson).

Why It’s Great Terminator: All good things have to come to an end, but at least Sarah Connor Chronicles saved some excellent fireworks for its series finale, with a race-against-time pace and a cliffhanger ending that nobody ever saw coming.

Best Moment: John is teleported into the post-apocalyptic future, where he reunited with Derek. There’s just one problem… nobody in this timeline has ever heard the name John Connor.