Holy shit, when I said that Terminator Zero was on the cusp of finding it’s only identity within the franchise, I didn’t think would go this hard. And yet, this is exactly what I wanted as in this climate of impressive franchise rebirths (Prey and Alien: Romulus, I’m looking at you), if any franchise deserves to rise from the scrap heap and retain its former glory, it’s the Terminator series.
Still, while it’s got quite a way to go (me and Genysis are never going to see eye to eye), Zero is improving with leaps and bounds as it steadily phases out all the nods to the original films in favour of going down its own path – or would a more accurate description be timeline?
Watch, as Zero finally takes flight and we now enter uncharted territory that’s – as Sarah Connor put it – as uncertain like Sarah a highway at night….
With Skynet fully operational, an untold nuclear payload is currently on it’s way to countless destinations all over the world and with his hand well and truly forced, Malcolm Lee finally brings his counter AI, Kokoro, online. However, this proves to be something that could very well turn into a frying pan/fire situation when Kokoro reveals that she’s still not entirely sure which side she wants to fight on. You see, even though she’s managed to postpone Skynet’s nuclear holocaust in order to give Malcolm more time to convince her, she still takes it upon herself to start a robot uprising of her very own by booting up the huge stash of the robot servants named 1NNOs that is stored under the city. Before you know it, large swathes of Japan is in flames as these walking iPads suddenly impose martial law with deadly force.
This proves to be something of a double edged sword for Eiko as the good news means that she’s out of police custody, but the bad news is she’s all but failed her mission. But what was her mission – well, it seems that both she and the Terminator had shockingly similar tasks to perform as the both were racing to stop Kokoro from being switched on – but admittedly for different reasons. However, never one to rest on his laurels, the Terminator merely updates his priorities and now aims to reprogram Kokoro to aid Skynet, and with a few modifications in place to help him avoid the 1NNOs, he sets off on his new mission.
Meanwhile, in the aftermath of the revelation that Misaki is a cyborg, both Kenta and Hiro (not to mention a stunned Misaki herself) struggle to reconcile the mild mannered nanny with the army of angry appliances that are current tearing Japan a new asshole as they speak.
But as we all await a resolution that may never come, Eiko relates to hitherto unknown facts about time travel to Reiko.
After four episodes that stuck pretty close to the basic, Terminator template, Model 5 gives us something new to chew on right out of the gate as the stakes are raised unbelievably high the second the show starts. Humanity teeters on a pinhead as Skynet’s initial assault is launched as expected and the sky is literally filled with more explosives that Michael Bay’s entire filmography, however, the showrunners a extremely mindful over everything the franchise has delivered so far, so makes the switch from adoring lover letter to exploring new territory with the flick of a switch. The main thing that strikes you about this budding new status quo is that Kokoro has finally made her choice and she seems to have chosen – Kokoro. That’s right; given the choice between fighting Skynet or joining it, Kokoro has decided not to tick the box marked “I am a robot” for obvious reasons but instead has opted to select “none of the above” and go out on her own. The result is something we’ve never quite seen in the Terminator franchise before because even though we’ve seen Judgement Day occur numerous times, a man vs machine ground battle in the opening moments of mankind’s destruction hasn’t been something the movies have ever touched on in their history. While the sight of Kokoro’s 1NNO army may admittedly invoke memories of the final act of Alex Proyas’ I, Robot, Terminator Zero takes steps to ensure it still carries that familiar feel of the glory days of the franchise. As the box-headed 1NNOs single out and slaughter armed authorities first (police really don’t come off too well in this show) and then move on to rounding up civilians, we don’t know exactly what Kokoro’s endgame truly is, but considering she’s still willing to listen to Malcolm Lee’s reasoning when it comes to human/machine relations, the future is still anyone’s game.
Another way that the show cements its own place in the franchise is how it handles and alters the facts about how time travel works in the Terminator franchise in a way that impressively somehow makes every single movie and spin off cannon with a surprisingly simple solution. As a traumatised Eiko babbles to a listening Reika, she essentially explains that everytime someone goes back into the past, they bring into existence an entirely new timeline which truly means the the future is indeed not set as the previous timeline still exists somewhere on the dimensional arc. That essentially means that not only did every Terminator movie happen, but their own separate timelines still exist somewhere in the time stream and while Genysis and Dark Fate both lightly trod in this realm, they didn’t do it in a fashion that managed to explain away the timeline of the entire franchise. It’s a somewhat revelatory moment in the series’ long history and not only does it technically legitimize every single entry in the Terminator cannon, still hints at further fuckery to come.
What’s also cool about this episode is that we’re getting to see a T-800 level up its game in the face of a change in status quo that was impossible to predict and you have to wonder what is running through its CPU when a rival robot army suddenly rises up that it has nothing to do with and the way it switches its parameters to deal with the problems is yet another way the show keeps adding to the established lore.
Equipping itself with a wrist mounted crossbow is one thing, but this Terminator goes full Maguyver when, to remain invisible to the 1NNOs, it cannibalizes one in order to wear its brain on his shoulder like a second head. Adding to the freakish body horror of it all, the outlet it plugs the remains into is located in its palate which leads to a excruciating moment where the Terminator slices the roof of his mouth open with a scalpel in order to access it.
With its homage phase well and truly behind it, Terminator Zero still has a plethora of secrets yet to spill, but its balancing act between the action and the exposition remains something that can’t be reasoned with and that can’t be bargained with and presumably absolutely will not stop until the season ends.
But that’s just common sense…
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
We Have Issues 