Season Three, Episode 3

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Season Three

episode three

Dearly Departed


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April 2009

After a blue lightstorm, John and Ms. Weaver were gone. Sarah Connor and James Ellison found

themselves alone in the ZeiraCorp Artificial Intelligence Lab.

Well, not quite alone.

Sarah: "Oh my God! It's a trick! Cameron's body is still here."

Uncharacteristically, Sarah touches Cameron's arm as if that will rouse her from a deep sleep. Cameron is

neither asleep nor comatose. She's dead. Sarah tries to move Cameron's body. Presumably to the floorso that she can burn it (along with hundreds of Zeira employees in the building when the fire gets out of

control). Cameron is lighter than she remembered. She thought it would take a forklift or even an

industrial crane to lift Cameron's body.

Sarah finds that she can easily lift the girl. She picks up Cameron in her arms. Something deeply

maternal in Sarah is triggered and an awful theological thought occurs to Sarah.

Ellison: "What's wrong?"

Sarah: "This is the first time I've ever held her and it had to be after she was dead."

Ellison thinks to himself that Sarah must be the world's worst mother. He had seen Catherine Weaver,

who turned out to be a machine, hold Savannah, her human daughter. There was no doubt in his mind,

then or now, that Catherine loved Savannah very deeply. Sarah had never hugged Cameron!

Ellison held his tongue for some time but he could not hold in one caustic remark.

Ellison: "Now I know why she had such a nasty temper. I can forgive her now."


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Obviously her mother was a bad influence. Ellison could no longer in good conscience blame Cameron

with an upbringing like that.

Sarah: "She had a temper?"

Ellison: (eyebrows shooting up) "You didn't know? John had her beat me unconscious."

Sarah: "John ordered her to do that? I am so sorry."

Ellison: "Whatever." (seeing the continued look of consternation on Sarah's face) "What's wrong now?"

Sarah: "Mister Ellison, you're a religious man. How much does a soul weigh?"

Ellison: "You can't apply physical or natural measurement to the metaphysical or supernatural." (he

obliged Sarah anyway) "One scientist found a difference of twenty-one grams between a living person

and a dead body."

Sarah: "She weighed almost a ton alive. Now she is as light as a feather. Her coltan bones alone should

make her heavier than this."

Again Ellison held his tongue.

Sarah: "If there is a God, then He is beating me over the head with this. Cameron's soul must weigh the

better part of a metric ton. If that isn't a message from God, I don't know what is."

Ellison was unimpressed by Sarah's words.

Ellison: "You're moving her in order to burn her body. Isn't that your standard operating procedure? I

know you wouldn't put her in the Connor family plot."

If Sarah had a conscience, then she would have been insulted by the put-down but Sarah saw no error inher ways. Seeing that Sarah was obtuse on such matters, Ellison got specific.

Ellison: "Before you go burning her, you ought to know that this building is already on fire and you could

kill a lot of people starting a fire in this basement. Fires burn up and there are a lot of floors above us.

And you ought to know that she's not dead."


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He pointed up to the display:

I'M SORRY JOHN.

I'M SORRY JOHN.

I'M SORRY JOHN.

I'M SORRY JOHN.

I'M SORRY JOHN.

Sarah: "I'm the one who first noticed she left a text message. So what?"

Ellison: "I watched John-Henry develop from a software program that could not speak into a human-

looking person who carried on conversations just like we are doing right now. The early John-Henry

could only display visual images."

Sarah: "You're saying Cameron is inside that computer?" (angry) "Then that terminator bitch tricked my

son into time travel to God-knows-where! If he's in the future, then he is alone and from his point of

view, I'm long dead. He's just a teen-ager."

Ellison: "Well he's got what most teen-agers want, independence. Maybe he doesn't want to be leader.

Maybe somebody else is leader. Maybe no one has heard of him."

Sarah: "Frankly, I am afraid to do anything that might change the future in a way that will jeopardize

John's life. Except I don't know what that is. It might be doing this as opposed to doing something else.Even doing nothing at all might be dangerous."

Ellison: "Worried about hurting people in the future? We have a whole planet full of people who are

polluting, overpopulating and starting wars. One person can make a difference simply by not polluting or

starting a war. I thought your whole mission in life was to stop this war." (pauses) "I was in love with a

machine or a machine was in love with me and I didn't know it. Maybe I've made a friend, maybe my last

remarks to Catherine were less than charitable, I don't know. I guess I'll know if she returns. Frankly, I

wonder if round trips are even possible when it comes to time travel."

Sarah: "I wish round trips were possible but I hear what you are saying. That we need to deal with the

present the best way we know how."

Ellison: "Doing what's right. Do you want your robot daughter back?"

Sarah: "How?"

Ellison: "I'll take that as a no. I'm still security chief of Zeira Corporation and I have a burning building

full of people to worry about." (heads for the door)


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Sarah: "I meant yes."

Ellison plugs the umbilical into Cameron's head the way it used to be plugged into John-Henry's scalp.

He then walks to the door.

Ellison: "If Matt Murch or any of his staff come into the lab, just say that she's the new robot interface for

the AI. Then stay out of their way as they repair Cameron."

Sarah: "You're familiar with all this robotics and artificial intelligence stuff?"

Ellison: "Familiar enough. I leave science to the scientists. I have to go. People could be dying in this

building."

Ellison leaves to deal with the fire marshal and police chief and other officials descending on the building.

The last time an aircraft hit a skyscraper was Nine Eleven.

Sarah forgot to ask Ellison if he thought Cameron had a soul. When Sarah turned from the exit to look

back at the body, Cameron was looking at her!

Season Three, Episode 3

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Transcript of Season Three, Episode 3