The Sarah Connor Chronicles and a Pointless Killing.

Let me start by saying I really enjoy watching the Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. It’s one of only two shows I watch weekly. But what is up with killing off all of the characters in the Sarah Connor Chronicles? I know the season finale is next week, but what kind of finale can it be when you’ve already killed off three critical secondary characters and what I’d consider to be one of the main characters.
(A brief synopsis of the series is at the end of this post.)
Five weeks ago, John Connor’s girlfriend was killed.
Three weeks ago, Jessie, the traitorous woman who killed John’s girlfriend, was killed.
Two weeks ago, Charlie, an individual who we have not seen in months, but was an important part of John’s and Sarah’s life was killed.
And then last week, Derrick, John’s uncle, was killed.
Sarah Connor was arrested as well, but that’s no big deal. She’s escaped from jail before, but the killing of Derrick was huge. Let me be clear, what shocked me was not that he died – well, yes it did shock me – but how he was killed: quickly, in a situation totally unrealistic based on his military training and experience, and with his death serving no purpose but to remove him from the show.
He must’ve pissed off someone in real life.
Stay with me here and see how pointless his death was, especially compared to the demise of the minor characters.
John’s girlfriend was killed after having a bare-knuckle fight against Jessie the Traitor, because she figured out Jessie’s plan and wanted to protect John.
Jessie the Traitor was shot dead by her former lover, Derrick, even though John had told him to let her go. A surprise, but it made sense based on Derrick’s character.
Charlie being killed was a surprise as well, mainly because we hadn’t seen him in a long time. But he was killed protecting John in a hail of gunfire, sacrificing himself for the son he never had and it showed on his face when he made that decision.
Then Derrick was killed: the uncle who ate terminators for breakfast in the future and was integral to John’s survival in the present; the Rambo of the future, always cautious in his planning and movements and always carrying an insane amount of artillery. How does he die?
A lone terminator enters a house to kill a child. John, Sarah, Cameron, and Derrick (the four main characters) arrive on the scene and try to rescue the child. They know very little about her. But our heroes have put their lives on the line before for people we care little about, so I have no issue on why they go to the house.
John rescues the girl and Cameron takes on the terminator. Meanwhile, Sarah’s outside and Derrick is still in the house doing a sweep. He’s not running to save anyone, just doing a methodical search of the house for assailants. (Remember, this is Mr. Rambo.) So, he comes around a corner at the same time as the terminator. A look of surprise comes over his face, the terminator raises its gun, and shoots Derrick through the head. And that’s it. Main character gone. Mr. Rambo never got a shot off. The terminator goes outside, lines up John in his sights. Sarah comes out from cover blasting away to distract the terminator. Cameron comes out and throws the terminator off a cliff. We go back inside and see Derrick dead--bullet hole in the head with unstaring eyes and blood pooling underneath him. He definitely won’t be coming back.
What?!
Again, the entire scene at the house seemed very routine. Like another quick exchange of gunfire and then the heroes would be on their way. After all, it was only one terminator against the four heroes. And let me just add that with all the terminators running around in this series, terminators have gotten a whole lot less menacing. They’re not the invincible terminators of Schwarzenegger’s day.
Now, if Derek died at climatic moment in the story I’d be okay with him dying. For example, the good guys find out the girl’s mother’s company is hiding a terminator and they go to take the company and terminator down. Then the girl’s mom surprises Derrick. He realizes that she is yet another terminator and takes her on to save John, even though he knows it’s suicide.
But don’t kill Derrick with some lowly no-named terminator during a routine snatch and grab mission.
Perhaps it was the whole, anyone can die at any minute, or the injustice of war, but when someone watches a character for years, you’d hope their death would be a bit nobler or serve a higher purpose. They should have put Derrick on the pier sacrificing his life for John to redeem his mistake with Jessie, rather than Charlie (the guy we haven’t seen in months) if they were just going to kill him off anyway.
Perhaps the season’s final episode next week is also the series’ finale and that’s why everyone is dying off. Fine. But I’d kindly ask the producers, screenwriters, directors or whoever is calling the shots that when you kill off a principal character, their deaths should have a purpose, higher meaning, or be more significant than the deaths of the minor characters.
Very disappointing.

(Synopsis: In the future the machines take over the world. The champion of the humans is John Connor. The machines send a terminator back in time to kill John Connor before the big take over. John Connor sends back people and good terminators to help himself survive. Let the fun begin.)