Sarah Connor
| “ | There is no fate, but what we make for ourselves
|
„ |
| ― Sarah Connor |
Sarah Jeanette Connor (born fall 1965) is a legendary figure in human history, best known as the mother of John Connor, the leader of the Resistance during the Future War. She not only gave birth to humanity’s last hope but also played a crucial role in training him for the coming conflict. Raised in Los Angeles, California, Sarah led an ordinary life before fate thrust her into a battle against the machines.
| Names | Sarah Jenette Connor, Sarah Baum (TSCC 1.02), Sarah Reese (in TSCC Pilot), Karen, Sarah Gale (in TSCC 2.10) |
| Epitaph | The Mother of the Resistance |
| Gender | Female ♀ |
| Race | Human, Resistance Fighter |
| Occupation | Resistance Fighter, Waitress (formerly) |
| Origin | The Terminator (October 26, 1984) |
| Alignment | Heroic |
| Age | 19 (T1) 54 (DF) |
| Created By | James Cameron, Gale Anne Hurd, William Wisher, Jr. |
| Height | 168cm (5ft 6in) |
| Personality Type | ISTP, 6w5 (Enneagram) |
| Portrayed By | Linda Hamilton (The Terminator, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Terminator: Dark Fate)
Lena Headey (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles), Emilia Clarke (Terminator Genisys) |
Appearance
Sarah Connor evolves from an ordinary young woman into a hardened warrior over the Terminator franchise. In The Terminator (1984), she has soft features, shoulder-length brown hair, and wears casual 1980s clothing. By T2 (1991), she is lean, muscular, and battle-ready, with long, dirty-blonde hair, tactical outfits, and a hardened expression. In Genisys (2015), she is younger but already trained, while in Dark Fate (2019), she is older, gray-haired, and visibly weathered, wearing military fatigues and carrying heavy firearms.
In Chronicles
In Genisys
In Dark Fate
Personality
Her personality shifts from a kind, naïve woman to a determined survivor. By T2, she is paranoid, ruthless, and focused on training John, though she softens slightly. In Genisys, she is independent and tough but retains some warmth. In Dark Fate, she is bitter, cynical, and grief-driven after losing John but regains a sense of purpose in protecting Dani Ramos. Despite her emotional scars, she remains a relentless warrior and one of cinema’s most iconic action heroines.
Biography
Original Timeline
Born in 1965, Sarah was the daughter of a waitress mother and a veteran father. Her father abandoned the family during her childhood, leaving Sarah to be raised by her mother. Despite this, she lived a relatively normal life, attending West Los Angeles Junior College at 19 while working as a waitress at Big Jeff’s family restaurant. She shared a two-story apartment in the Palm District with her roommate Ginger Ventura while continuing her studies.
However, her life took a dramatic turn when she was targeted by a relentless killer from the future, setting her on a path that would forever change history. In the Future War, Sarah became a legendary warrior and strategist, ensuring that her son John had the knowledge and training needed to lead humanity’s fight against Skynet.
The Terminator (1984)
Until May 12, 1984, Sarah Connor lived an unremarkable life—until she became the target of a T-800 Model 101 Terminator, an advanced cybernetic assassin sent from the future to eliminate her. Unaware of why she was being hunted, Sarah found herself pursued relentlessly by the machine.
She was rescued by Kyle Reese, a soldier from the future sent back in time by John Connor himself. Reese explained that Skynet, an artificial intelligence developed for military purposes, had become self-aware and waged war against humanity. To secure its victory, Skynet used time travel to eliminate John Connor before he could be born. John, in turn, sent Reese to protect his mother at all costs.
During their time together, Sarah and Reese fell in love, sharing an intimate night that resulted in the conception of John Connor. Though Reese was her protector, he had also admired her long before they met, having been given a photograph of her by John in the future.
The Terminator methodically hunted Sarah, killing two other women named Sarah Connor, as well as her mother and Ginger. In a final confrontation at a Cyberdyne factory, Reese sacrificed himself in battle, devastating Sarah but also strengthening her resolve. Left to face the Terminator alone, Sarah ultimately destroyed it by crushing it in a hydraulic press.
Though Reese’s death deeply affected her, his love and bravery inspired Sarah to embrace her destiny. From that moment on, she dedicated herself to becoming a hardened warrior and survivalist, ensuring that John would grow up prepared for the war ahead.
Deviating Timelines
Multiple timelines branch out after the events of The Terminator, leading to different versions of Sarah Connor’s story. These include Terminator 2: Judgment Day, the T2 Trilogy, The New John Connor Chronicles, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Rise of the Machines, Dark Fate, and a timeline where Judgment Day never occurs.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
After The Terminator, Sarah gave birth to John Connor on February 28, 1985, and immediately adopted a fugitive lifestyle, focusing on preparing John for his future role. They lived as nomads, traveling across South and Central America, learning survival tactics and military training from anyone willing to teach them.
Sarah remained off the grid until she attempted to bomb a computer company in Los Angeles, believing it to be connected to Skynet’s future creation. Captured by authorities, she was institutionalized at Pescadero State Hospital for the Criminally Insane under the care of Dr. Peter Silberman. Diagnosed with acute schizo-affective disorder, she was deemed delusional for her warnings about Judgment Day. Meanwhile, John was placed into foster care.
At age 29, Sarah found herself at the center of another battle when a T-1000 was sent back in time to kill 10-year-old John. In a desperate attempt to escape Pescadero, she incapacitated several hospital staff, broke Dr. Silberman’s arm, and attempted to force her way out. However, as she neared the elevators, a reprogrammed T-800 emerged, triggering a panic attack as she believed it had come to kill her. John quickly intervened, explaining that this T-800 had been sent to protect him. The Terminator overpowered the hospital staff, allowing Sarah to escape.
Sarah, John, and the T-800 fled to Mexico, seeking refuge with Enrique Salceda, a longtime ally who had been safeguarding an underground weapons cache for Sarah. Determined to prevent Judgment Day, Sarah learned from the T-800 that Skynet’s creation was being spearheaded by Miles Dyson, a Cyberdyne scientist. She set out to assassinate him, but at the last moment, she was unable to kill him in cold blood. Instead, she and John convinced Dyson to destroy all research related to Skynet.
Dyson, along with Sarah, John, and the T-800, infiltrated Cyberdyne Systems, destroying the facility, Skynet’s research, and Dyson himself in the process. In a final confrontation, the T-1000 was terminated, and the T-800 willingly self-destructed, ensuring that no trace of Skynet’s technology remained.
Following these events, Sarah once again went into hiding with John, continuing to train him as a future military leader and tactician.
Alternate Future
Due to Sarah, John, and the T-800’s successful destruction of Cyberdyne’s laboratory, Judgment Day never occurs. In this version of the future, by 2027, John Connor becomes a United States Senator and has a child of his own, never forced into a life of war.
T2 3-D: Battle Across Time
Following the destruction of Cyberdyne Systems, Sarah and John Connor discovered that the company was still developing Skynet. Determined to stop it, they infiltrated a Cyberdyne investor presentation hosted by Kimberley Duncan. However, a new T-1000 tracked John down, eliminating Duncan before attempting to kill him.
Before the T-1000 could succeed, a T-800 suddenly emerged from a Time Portal, rescuing John and repeating its iconic words: "I said I’d be back. Come with me if you want to live." Sarah urged John to follow the T-800, which then transported him into the future via the Time Portal.
After Skynet’s destruction in the future, John returned through the Time Displacement Equipment. Sarah, grateful once again, acknowledged that she owed her son’s life to the T-800 once more.
T2 Trilogy Timeline
Six years after the destruction of Cyberdyne’s headquarters, Sarah and John went into hiding in Paraguay, assuming the aliases "Suzanne Krieger" and "John Krieger." While evading the FBI and U.S. government, Sarah established a trucking company called "Krieger Trucking", doubling as a professional smuggler. Despite their hidden past, they were well-liked within the local community.
During this time, Sarah met Dieter von Rossbach, the human template for the CSM-101 Terminator. Initially skeptical, Dieter came to believe Sarah’s warnings about Skynet after witnessing a Terminator attack. He joined their cause, assisting Sarah and John in their ongoing fight. Over time, Sarah and Dieter developed a romantic relationship, eventually marrying.
By 2029, Sarah was still alive and present to witness Kyle Reese and "Uncle Bob" (the reprogrammed T-800) travel back in time to begin the events of The Terminator.
The New John Connor Chronicles – Skynet’s World Timeline
After escaping from Pescadero State Hospital with John and the T-800, Sarah sought refuge at Enrique Salceda’s desert camp. However, when she planned to assassinate Miles Dyson, John convinced her to reconsider, preventing the murder.
Instead, Sarah and John relocated to the paramilitary compound of Raoul Tejada in Argentina, hoping to prepare for the inevitable war.
Despite their efforts, Judgment Day occurred on August 29, 1997. As the world fell into chaos, John began rallying survivors, gradually building the Resistance to fight against Skynet’s rule. His reputation as a leader grew, and his fame spread across human strongholds.
In 2003, a T-1000 tracked John down, infiltrating the estancia by killing and impersonating Raoul Tejada. Fortunately, the camp’s forces managed to destroy the T-1000, preventing it from completing its mission.
However, by 2012, the war took a devastating turn. During the Battle of Buenos Aires, Sarah Connor, the T-800, and Paco Salceda were all killed in action, marking a tragic moment in the Resistance's struggle.
Jade’s World Timeline
By 2001, Sarah and John began plotting a second attack on Cyberdyne Systems, believing it to be the only way to stop Skynet. However, their mission failed catastrophically.
In 2007, while attempting to destroy Skynet, both Sarah and John were killed, sealing the fate of humanity. That same year, Skynet became fully operational, launching its apocalyptic war against mankind.
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
After the destruction of the Cyberdyne building, Sarah Connor succumbed to leukemia in 1997, three years after her diagnosis in Baja. She was cremated in Mexico, and her friends scattered her ashes into the sea. Never fully convinced that the war was truly over, she arranged for her friends to store a cache of weapons inside a coffin at the Valley of Peace cemetery. (Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines)
T2 Saga Timeline
Following the T-1000's failure to eliminate John Connor, Sarah and John relocated to New Orleans. In 1996, Sarah received a call from John’s school principal, but upon arriving, she discovered that a new Terminator, the T-Infinity, had killed the principal and was targeting her due to corrupted memory files. Despite Sarah’s attempts to reason with it, explaining that John had already been born, the machine still attempted to terminate her. (Terminator: Revolution #3)
Fortunately, John and his older self—who had accidentally arrived from the future alongside the T-Infinity—intervened, with younger John initially mistaking his future self for another Terminator. While the T-Infinity was engaged in battle with a squad of T-850 Terminators, the Connors escaped. (Terminator: Revolution #4)
After reaching a safe house, Sarah spoke privately with older John, and together they devised a plan to disable the T-Infinity so he could use it to return to the future. However, their efforts were disrupted when Skynet sent the Dire Wolf, a powerful machine, to destroy the T-Infinity. With the unexpected arrival of a younger Kyle Reese, they managed to destroy the Dire Wolf and activate the T-Infinity, allowing older John to return to his timeline.
The Sarah Connor Chronicles
August 24, 1999 – November 14, 2007
Episode 1.01
Two years after the events of Terminator 2, Sarah Connor and her son, John, have settled down with Charley Dixon, to whom Sarah is engaged. However, Sarah begins experiencing terrifying dreams of John being killed by a Terminator, prompting her to leave Charley behind despite John’s protests. The two relocate to Red Valley, New Mexico, a place John dismisses as a "hick town."
As John enrolls in his new school, Sarah secures their safe house, constructing a hidden compartment in the wall to store weapons. Later, John expresses his frustration with their new life, mentioning the outdated technology in his computer class. Sarah scolds him for taking computer lessons, fearing he might be caught "hacking," though John insists it wasn’t his choice. Trying to lighten the mood, Sarah asks if he met any pretty girls—John denies it, but Sarah sees through the lie and smirks.
The next day, while Sarah is working at a local diner, she hears reports of gunfire at John’s school. Abandoning her job, she rushes to investigate, watching from a distance as police and forensics teams swarm the building. Before she can locate John, she is attacked by a T-888 Terminator, known as Cromartie. Pinned to the ground, Sarah demands to know what happened to her son. When Cromartie remains silent, she assumes John is dead and attempts to take her own life, but the T-888 stops her, revealing that John is still alive and that she will be used as bait. Cromartie then knocks her unconscious.
Sarah awakens in the safe house, restrained in a chair with Cromartie’s hand around her throat. Moments later, John arrives, but before Sarah can warn him, Cromartie opens fire, seemingly killing him. Sarah watches in horror—until she realizes it was a trick. The "John" that Cromartie shot was actually another Terminator, designed to resemble a teenage girl. As the two machines engage in combat, Sarah retrieves a shotgun from her hidden cache, blasting Cromartie multiple times before taking cover behind a Kevlar-reinforced chair. The female Terminator lures Cromartie away, just as John bursts into the kitchen—only to almost get shot by his own mother.
Episode 1.02
As they flee the scene, Sarah angrily reminds John of his training—he was supposed to abandon her and save himself. They steal a truck and escape, but the petite Terminator suddenly jumps onto the back and slips inside, revealing herself as Cameron. She informs Sarah that Cromartie is temporarily disabled and that she was sent to protect John. Unlike her initial reluctance with the T-800, Sarah accepts Cameron’s presence.
That night, they take refuge in an abandoned warehouse, where Cameron removes several bullets from her body while John sleeps and Sarah strategizes. As Cameron sits topless, Sarah dryly tells her to "put those back in the holster," prompting the Terminator to dress again.
Sarah questions Cameron about the future war and Skynet’s origins, learning that she is from the year 2027 but does not know who originally created the supercomputer. However, Cameron does confirm that Judgment Day is set for April 9, 2011. She then informs Sarah that Charley went to the police, inadvertently leading Cromartie to them. Furious, Sarah snaps at Cameron, telling her to "go to hell," but the machine remains indifferent, insisting that they would have been found regardless.
The next morning, Sarah checks on a sullen John, who pleads with her to help him stop Judgment Day rather than simply going on the run again. Reluctantly, she agrees.
That evening, Sarah, John, and Cameron visit the Dyson residence, hoping to learn more about Miles Dyson’s work at Cyberdyne. Tarissa Dyson, still mourning her husband, offers little information before their visit is interrupted by Cromartie. Sarah pleads for Tarissa’s help, and she allows them to take her car. In their escape, they run down Cromartie, but Sarah is shot in the shoulder.
Taking refuge in an old garage, Sarah orders Cameron to stitch her wound. When John returns from a nearby 7/11, Sarah confesses her deep fears—that John will eventually leave her and that she is plagued by nightmares. Cameron, unaffected, simply states, "I don’t sleep."
The next morning, Cameron leads them to a bank in Los Angeles, where she holds the vault at gunpoint, demanding access to the safety deposit boxes. As Cromartie arrives and begins breaking down the vault door, Cameron assembles a specialized weapon designed to destroy Terminators. She instructs Sarah on its use before revealing her ultimate plan: to activate the vault’s Time Displacement Equipment and transport them to 2007, giving them a chance to stop Skynet before it is born.
Sarah hesitates but ultimately agrees. As Cromartie forces his way in, Sarah fires the weapon, blowing his head off, just as the time sphere engulfs them.
All three arrive naked on a busy highway, much to Sarah and John’s embarrassment. Sarah’s face is briefly captured on a young boy’s cellphone, before Cameron leads them off the road into a construction site. Spotting a group of drunken men, Cameron approaches them—when they attempt to harass the naked cyborg, she effortlessly knocks them unconscious, much to Sarah’s amusement.
Now clothed, they steal the men’s car and drive into the city, where they secure a new house, preparing to settle into their new lives in 2007.
Three days after their time jump, Sarah is still suffering from "time-lag" while John repeatedly urges her to secure new IDs, suggesting she contact her old friend, Enrique Salceda. Before she can act, Cameron reveals that Future John had sent resistance agents to assist them and leads an annoyed Sarah to their designated safe house. Upon arrival, they discover four bodies—three of them resistance fighters, while the fourth is a T-888 Terminator. The machine immediately attacks, throwing Cameron across the room and into Sarah. As the two cyborgs battle, they crash through a window and plummet into an alleyway below. Sarah watches as the T-888 attempts to flee with Cameron in pursuit. She quickly grabs a gun, steals a bystander’s motorcycle, and intercepts the T-888, knocking it off its feet. However, the distraction causes Cameron to be hit by a car, allowing the Terminator to escape.
Back at home, Sarah furiously confronts Cameron for misleading them about their safety, arguing that if they had stayed in the past, she would have had eight more years to train John. Cameron dismisses this idea, revealing that Sarah would have died of cancer in 2005 had they not time-jumped. While John tends to Sarah’s injuries, Cameron warns them that multiple Terminators are likely active in the city, though none know what John looks like, granting him some anonymity.
At John's insistence, Sarah and Cameron seek out Enrique for new IDs. Now retired, Enrique directs them to his nephew, Carlos, but warns that he is "not a believer." When they visit Carlos, Cameron is met with hostility from his guard dogs and is told to wait outside. Inside, Carlos agrees to provide the IDs but demands $20,000, explaining that prices have soared since the 9/11 attacks. Sarah, unaware of the event, is given a brief history lesson before sealing the deal. When she exits, she finds Cameron on the verge of killing a cop. Thinking quickly, Sarah diffuses the situation with a well-crafted lie but loses their car in the process.
As they walk home, Sarah learns that Cameron takes orders only from John—but specifically the John of the future. They arrive to find John working on motion sensors. By his demeanor, Sarah correctly deduces that he sneaked out while they were gone, despite her strict orders to stay indoors until they had their new IDs. That night, the three return to the Resistance safe house to locate a hidden stash. They find a safe concealed behind a "Hang in there, baby" kitten poster. When Cameron tries to force it open, she is incapacitated by an electrical trap. Desperate, Sarah struggles to unlock it, but John successfully guesses the combination: Judgment Day’s date.
With their prize secured, Sarah, irritated by Cameron’s earlier failure, shoves her out of a window, shocking John with her callousness. Once rebooted, Cameron regroups with them, and they flee moments before the T-888 returns. Back home, Sarah counts the money recovered from the safe, while Cameron hands her a diamond she received from Future John. Cameron recalls a conversation where John spoke fondly of Sarah reading The Wonderful Wizard of Oz to him in Spanish, revealing it was one of his favorite childhood memories.
Later, Sarah and Cameron revisit Carlos, paying the $20,000 for their IDs. As they leave, Sarah overhears Carlos calling Enrique a snitch in Spanish. Alarmed, she confronts Enrique, demanding the truth. Enrique insists he is innocent, admitting only that he once betrayed a cellmate for a pardon. As Sarah hesitates, lowering her gun, Cameron abruptly shoots Enrique, killing him. Furious, Sarah strikes Cameron with the butt of her gun and berates her, arguing that they couldn’t be certain of Enrique’s guilt. The two leave as sirens approach.
The next day, Sarah briefs John on his new identity, ensuring he memorizes his fabricated background, including a deceased father. She keeps the truth of Enrique’s fate to herself. Officially, Sarah is now Sarah Baum—named after The Wonderful Wizard of Oz author L. Frank Baum. Later, she visits a doctor for a blood test, checking for any signs of cancer.
Episode 1.03
Sarah wakes up to find her bed covered in documents and photos, evidence of a late night spent poring over them. Moments later, John enters with a cup of coffee, and they discuss the files. Sarah points out a list of Cyberdyne associates and expresses a desire to visit Tarissa Dyson again. When John asks if she wants him to come along, she insists he go to school. Their conversation is interrupted as Cameron casually walks past in just her underwear, making John visibly uncomfortable. Later, Sarah advises Cameron to keep her clothes on at all times and produces a layout of the school, pointing out all entrances and exits. John dismisses her concerns, kisses her goodbye, and leaves. Cameron, attempting to mimic John’s confidence, moves to do the same, but Sarah warns her not to kiss her—or anyone else.
Sarah tracks down Tarissa at Miles Dyson’s grave, placing a flower on the tombstone as a sign of respect before showing her some photos. At first, Tarissa claims not to recognize anyone, but just as Sarah is about to leave, she identifies one man—Andrew Goode, a former Cyberdyne intern. Following this lead, Sarah finds Andy working at a cell phone store, where she purchases three new phones for herself, John, and Cameron. During the exchange, Andy takes notice of her. As she leaves, he asks her out to dinner, and she surprisingly accepts.
Back home, Sarah asks John about his first day of school, learning about Cameron’s encounter with the metal detector. When she brings up Andy, John teases her upon hearing that she agreed to a date. Cameron, ever direct, asks if Sarah plans to kill him. Sarah responds, "Nobody dies ’til I say so," to which Cameron dryly remarks that people die all the time without waiting for her permission.
At dinner, Andy shares his passion project—a chess computer called The Turk. The revelation unsettles Sarah, especially when Andy speaks of The Turk as if it has moods and a personality. Her discomfort deepens when she notices a prowler lurking on Andy’s porch. She quickly ends the date and heads home, informing John of the stranger but unable to determine if The Turk poses a real threat.
The next day, Sarah visits a doctor to discuss cancer prevention and receives a prescription. Later, she joins Andy on a hike, where he enthusiastically expands on his belief that The Turk is more than just a machine. Troubled by the implications, Sarah considers killing him, her hand instinctively pulling at her shirt to keep her concealed weapon within reach. In the end, she spares him, deciding to find another way to stop his work.
That evening, she attempts to comfort John, who is deeply shaken after failing to prevent a girl at school from committing suicide. He bitterly questions the point of being a hero when he can't even save those around him before storming off, glaring at Cameron on his way out. Unsure of how to help him, Sarah turns to Cameron, who flatly states that Andy must be killed.
Instead of taking his life, Sarah chooses another route. Under the cover of darkness, she sets fire to Andy’s house, watching from afar as he mourns the destruction of his creation.
Episode 1.05
Sarah tries unsuccessfully to get John to open up about what happened at school, but he insists he’s "fine" and refuses to talk. Before she can press further, Cameron interrupts with alarming news—Cromartie has returned. She shows them a recording of their arrival on the highway, revealing that Cromartie’s severed head followed them through time. Cameron warns that he will find a way to repair and rebuild himself, prompting Sarah to suggest fleeing across the border and going off the grid. John, frustrated, argues that they should attack while Cromartie is still damaged and vulnerable. Though hesitant, Sarah ultimately agrees, instructing John to retrieve the C4 from the bathroom.
Cameron theorizes that Cromartie may be responsible for redirecting a shipment of refined coltan to a port in Los Angeles, as coltan is a critical component in a Terminator’s endoskeleton. Sarah, John, and Cameron stake out a warehouse at the docks, setting a trap, but Cromartie never arrives. Instead, the truck carrying the coltan is hijacked. They follow it to another warehouse, where Cameron identifies one of the hijackers as a Terminator—but not Cromartie. Despite this, John insists they sabotage its operation, but Sarah refuses to just "kick their asses and go for pancakes," warning that it's too dangerous.
As Sarah gets into the car, John impulsively slips inside the warehouse. She moves to follow but is stopped by Cameron, who warns that she might get him caught. Forced to wait, Sarah watches helplessly as John plants his phone inside the truck to track it—only to be trapped when the men lock up and drive away. Before Sarah and Cameron can react, one of the men holds them at gunpoint. Remaining calm, Sarah slowly approaches and asks if he’s seen a puppy before swiftly knocking him unconscious. She then rushes after the truck, but it's already gone.
Using an office computer, Cameron attempts to track John's phone, but the signal abruptly cuts out, likely due to damage. Frustrated, Sarah regrets giving John too much freedom, admitting it was too soon. Cameron counters that with only four years until Judgment Day, John needs to take charge. With no other options, Sarah ties up the captured worker and violently beats him, demanding the truck’s destination. When he refuses to talk, she cuts him loose, offering him a chance to leave—if he can get past Cameron. Terrified, he immediately cooperates, agreeing to drive them to Depot 37 while shooting nervous glances at Cameron.
Upon arrival, Sarah has Cameron leave the man stranded in a live minefield. Cameron questions Sarah’s inefficiency, but Sarah simply states that humans often do "stupid, illogical things." As they approach the Depot, Cameron reveals that this location is where she was built and directs Sarah to the fallout shelter—where John is now trapped inside. Cameron tries to reassure her not to blame herself, but Sarah turns the accusation back on her, claiming Cameron is the reason for John's reckless behavior. Cameron calmly replies that "her" John does the same things in the future.
After a tense wait, Sarah’s phone rings, and she is relieved to hear John’s voice. He explains that the Terminator inside, Carter, has entered standby mode and is blocking the door. Sarah instructs him to open the door and run while they handle Carter. The doors burst open, and Cameron immediately throws the inactive machine across the shelter. Meanwhile, Sarah rushes to John inside the truck. Carter reboots and attacks Cameron with a bar of coltan, while Sarah struggles to teach John how to drive the stick shift. Carter momentarily gains the upper hand against Cameron and attempts to stop the truck, forcing Sarah to shoot him multiple times in the face with her shotgun.
Momentarily stunned, Carter is run over by John, while Cameron locks the shelter doors, trapping him indefinitely. She then disposes of the coltan by driving it into the sea. Back home, Sarah once again asks John if he’s alright, receiving the same evasive response. He retreats to his room to finish his homework while Sarah sits on her bed, lost in thought over the day's events.
Days later, Sarah maintains her rigorous workout routine, takes her vitamins, and prepares lunches for John and Cameron before sending them off to school. She then receives a call from Andy, who invites her to a robotics convention in Pasadena, where she learns he has rebuilt his chess computer, "The Turk." Before leaving, she instructs John and Cameron to meet her at the convention after school and hands them their lunches.
At the convention, Sarah reunites with Andy, who proudly introduces her to his new creation and his partner, Dmitri Shipkov, the man responsible for teaching "The Turk" how to play chess. She soon discovers that the tournament’s winner will be awarded a military contract, heightening her determination to see the machine destroyed. Watching the match unfold alongside grandmasters and military officials, she grows uneasy as "The Turk" gains the upper hand, capturing the opposing team’s queen. John arrives and is quickly brought up to speed, and Sarah grimly notes that unless the Japanese team defeats Andy, Cameron will kill him. To her relief, the Japanese computer tricks "The Turk" into a trap and secures victory with a checkmate.
Despite "The Turk’s" defeat, Cameron insists it remains a threat and should be destroyed immediately. Sarah, however, opts to tell Andy the truth instead. When she arrives at his hotel room, she finds him dead and "The Turk" missing. Suspecting foul play, she chases after a stranger she had noticed at the chess match, attacking him in an alley and demanding answers. He fights back and nearly escapes, but is ultimately arrested by the police. Staying hidden, Sarah watches in frustration and grief over Andy’s murder.
The next morning, she resumes her exercises in the backyard until Cameron interrupts, handing her a pencil and suggesting she write her grief down. Annoyed, Sarah snaps the pencil in half and retreats to the kitchen to take her pills, bitterly asking Cameron if she even cares about Andy’s death. Cameron coldly replies that the world is safer without him. Moments later, John enters with information—he has hacked into the police database and pulled up a file on the mysterious stranger. Though his name is missing, the report includes a photo of his face and a distinctive tattoo on his right arm, which Sarah and Cameron instantly recognize as a Skynet prisoner barcode.
Disguising herself as a lawyer, Sarah visits the jail, narrowly avoiding FBI Agent James Ellison along the way. While waiting, she receives a call from the school counselor regarding Cameron’s odd behavior but dismisses it, stealing a visitor’s pass and entering the interrogation room. Confronting the prisoner, she accuses him of killing Andy, but he denies it, claiming Andy was already dead when he arrived. He insists he was only after "The Turk" and warns Sarah that a T-888 is tracking him. When she offers to help him escape, he refuses.
As Sarah turns to leave, the man suddenly remarks that she looks prettier than in her picture. Curious, she presses him for more details, and he reveals that his younger brother carried her photo for luck. Realization dawns as he gives his name: Derek Reese—Kyle Reese’s brother. Stunned by the revelation that this man is John’s uncle, Sarah resolves to break him out.
She picks up John and Cameron from school, telling them she has a "field trip" planned. Together, they ambush a prisoner transfer vehicle and free Derek, who is immediately wary of Cameron. Sarah reassures him that she is "one of ours," though his skepticism remains. As Sarah drives the van and John follows in the Jeep, a T-888 pursues them and manages to board. Inside, Cameron engages in brutal hand-to-hand combat with the machine, slamming it against the walls and making it difficult for Sarah to maintain control. In a last-ditch effort, Cameron forces the T-888 through a hole in the van’s side, allowing Sarah to maneuver close to a passing truck, causing severe damage to the Terminator, including the loss of one of its hands.
They eventually reach a safe location, but before Sarah can regroup with John, Cameron is thrown from the van, beaten into submission by the relentless T-888. John instinctively rushes to help, only for Sarah and Derek to restrain him. Sarah opens fire on the machine, momentarily slowing it down. The T-888 seizes Cameron’s sidearm and takes aim at Derek, but before it can fire, it is struck from behind, causing the shot to go wide. However, Derek is still wounded, taking a bullet to the chest. While John and Cameron remove the T-888’s chip to disable it, Sarah rushes to Derek’s side, desperately trying to stop the bleeding.
They return home, laying Derek on the kitchen table, where Cameron scans him and determines that he will die without immediate medical attention. Acting quickly, Sarah retrieves a stun gun, preparing to kidnap a doctor. John initially protests, but when she reveals that Derek is his uncle, he suddenly bolts from the house without explanation. Sarah stays behind, applying pressure to Derek’s wound while Cameron quietly writes a note for reasons unknown.
As Derek’s breathing grows weaker, Sarah calls out his name in a panic. Just as she fears the worst, John returns—with Charley in tow. Sarah stares in surprise, realizing that John has gone to an unexpected source for help.
Episode 1.06
Sarah and Charley exchange a long, silent look before he quickly turns his attention to Derek, working to resuscitate him. As Derek gasps back to life, Sarah holds him down while Charley tends to his wound. However, Derek panics and thrashes when Cameron approaches with a sedative, forcing Sarah to snap at her to leave the kitchen. While John retrieves supplies from Charley’s truck, Charley takes the opportunity to question Sarah about Derek’s numerous burns and scars, but she offers no explanation. Once Derek slips into unconsciousness, Charley removes the bullet and reveals that he followed them to Los Angeles.
Sarah, struggling with guilt, insists she never wanted to leave him behind and had no choice but refuses to elaborate. Later, she finally tells him the truth, showing him the T-888’s endoskeleton and revealing the impending war against Skynet. That night, she catches Cameron standing over Derek with a pillow, immediately suspicious—only for Cameron to innocently place it under Derek’s head. Sarah presses her, demanding to know if she ever harmed him in the future, but Cameron claims not to remember, stating that her memory was wiped during her reprogramming. Before Sarah can question her further, Derek’s lung begins hemorrhaging, forcing her to call for Charley, who quickly drains the fluid.
Derek, however, has lost too much blood and needs an immediate transfusion. Cameron suggests Sarah donate since she’s a universal donor (O-negative), but Charley insists Derek needs three units of his own blood type to survive. Fortunately, John turns out to be a match and agrees to the transfusion. Sarah quietly commends him for bringing Charley into the fold and notes Derek’s resemblance to Kyle—the same build, the same complexion. However, when John suggests telling Derek the truth about their family connection, Sarah refuses, arguing that Derek is still a stranger and that if Future John never told him, then he can't be trusted.
Later, Sarah visits Cameron in the garage, warning her that if she harms Charley in any way, she will personally destroy her. She also orders Cameron to dismantle every last piece of the T-888. What she doesn’t realize is that Cameron has secretly salvaged the CPU.
With Derek stabilized, Charley prepares to leave, cautioning Sarah that FBI Agent Kester is tracking her. Before he goes, they share a final embrace. Afterward, Sarah retreats to her room, meticulously cleaning a rifle in an attempt to distract herself. John eventually seeks her out for comfort, but she initially gives him the cold shoulder—until she suddenly pulls him into a hug.
The next day, she watches as John tells Derek about Kyle’s death, her presence ensuring he doesn’t reveal their family bond.
Episode 1.07
That night, Sarah sneaks away to visit Andy Goode’s grave, standing alone in the dark as she pays her respects. Upon returning home, she checks on Derek, who suggests she set Cameron on the task of tracking down Andy’s Russian partner, Dmitri. Meanwhile, Cameron returns from an attempt to recover the missing T-888 hand, but it has already been seized by the FBI. Taking Derek’s advice, Sarah orders Cameron to locate Dmitri, instructing her to get close to his sister, Maria, a ballet instructor.
While Cameron sets her plan in motion, Sarah poses as a cop and calls the FBI evidence office, hoping to retrieve the T-888 hand. She fails, nearly ending up in a conversation with Agent Ellison. Suspecting that he has the hand, she breaks into his house and discovers tapes from her time in Pescadero. She steals one, intending to destroy it.
When she returns home, she finds John and Derek arguing about Cameron’s trustworthiness. She asks John to track down Dr. Silberman’s address, but Derek interrupts, insisting they get rid of Cameron before she turns on them. When Sarah realizes Derek has been snooping through her weapons stash, she threatens to "bust his head" if he does it again.
The next morning, Cameron updates Sarah on her progress in locating Dmitri, claiming she is close. Sarah makes pancakes for John and Derek, forcing the latter to sit at the table with Cameron. John, still distant, silently hands Sarah Silberman’s address before leaving. Later, she finds the stolen tape in John’s VCR—it’s a recording of her signing away her parental rights. She repeatedly calls him, but he ignores every attempt. Frustrated, she asks Derek to convince John to talk to her when he returns.
Derek, meanwhile, asks about Kyle’s burial, and Sarah promises to take him there one day before heading off to find Silberman. Upon arrival, she catches him preparing to leave with the stolen T-888 hand. Without hesitation, she knocks him out with a single punch, accepting his feeble apology for ever doubting her. As she retrieves the hand and prepares to leave, she hears Ellison calling for help—Silberman has set the house on fire with him inside. Despite the risk, Sarah saves Ellison’s life before escaping.
Back home, Cameron reports her findings—Dmitri and Maria are both dead. When Sarah questions her involvement, Cameron coldly replies that they were never part of her mission, implying she let them die simply because she wasn’t ordered to protect or kill them.
Later, Sarah finds John in his room, still brooding over the tape. She reminds him of the date—June 8, 1997—the day she escaped Pescadero. When he and the T-800 came for her, she had already been coming for him.
They promise to never give up on each other and, together, destroy the T-888 hand.
Episode 1.08
Sarah attempts to contact the current owner of the Turk, a man named Margos Sarkissian, but her calls go unanswered. Distracted, she accidentally lets the roast burn in the oven. As she tries to salvage the meal, Derek enters the kitchen, revealing the T-888 chip he found in Cameron’s room. He immediately accuses her of betrayal, but Sarah hesitates—she had made Cameron promise to destroy every last piece of the Triple-8. At John’s insistence, she allows them to hack into the chip, uncovering that the machine had been assigned to protect Barbara Chamberlain, an engineer developing a traffic light system called ARTIE, under the cover of her husband, Vick Chamberlain.
Determined to investigate, Sarah and Derek break into Barbara’s home, only to find it abandoned, untouched for days. They search the house thoroughly but realize the Triple-8 had already taken her computer and files. Back at home, John’s hacking reveals a recorded death—presumed to be Barbara’s—leading Sarah to track down the body. However, they soon discover the victim is actually Jessica Peck, a lobbyist who had been paid to oppose the ARTIE project. Cameron explains that ARTIE has the potential to become Skynet’s "nervous system," prompting John to suggest using a computer virus to destroy it.
Sarah and Derek stake out city hall, where ARTIE is housed under constant security. Derek recalls the underground tunnels beneath the building—ones he and Kyle once used after Judgment Day. With the virus prepared and suspicions surrounding Cameron put to rest, Sarah and Derek infiltrate city hall and upload the virus. However, the attempt fails, forcing them to flee as security closes in. Sarah sets up an ambush, letting Derek lead the guards past her position before taking them down from behind. As Derek nearly executes one of the unconscious officers, Sarah stops him, noting the dangerous look in his eyes.
At home, John and Cameron propose a new plan—Cameron will insert her own chip into ARTIE’s system to disable it directly. Sarah watches as John removes Cameron’s CPU, remaining with her inert body while Derek takes John to a traffic light to execute the plan. Once the system is successfully shut down, Sarkissian finally returns Sarah’s call. Realizing that Derek was responsible for Andy Goode’s murder, Sarah confronts him, warning that if he ever lies to her again, she will kill him.
Episode 1.09
The next day, Sarah and Cameron follow through with their arrangement, booking a table at the "Wi-Fi" internet café to meet Sarkissian. Instead of showing up in person, he contacts them via computer, demanding $50,000 for the Turk. Back home, Sarah gathers their money and diamond stash, but they only have a little over $30,000. Cameron suggests negotiating the price. Sarah and Derek take what they have to an ATM in a food court, the designated meeting spot, but Sarkissian never shows. Suspecting a setup, they return home before the cops arrive.
Upon their return, however, they find Sarkissian waiting in their living room. Sarah reiterates her offer, but Sarkissian scoffs, now demanding $2,000,000 in exchange for his silence—he threatens to expose their location to the authorities if they don’t comply. Derek attempts to intimidate him into cooperation, but Sarkissian reveals he has a man watching John and Cameron. Forced to de-escalate, Sarah talks Derek down. Sarkissian gives them 24 hours to deliver the money before leaving, and Sarah orders Derek to follow him.
That night, John and Cameron return from a school trip, bringing back the corpse of Sarkissian’s thug—whom Cameron killed. Meanwhile, Derek loses Sarkissian’s trail. When the dead thug’s phone rings, Sarah has Cameron use her voice-mimicking ability to answer. The caller is Sarkissian himself. Realizing they are out of options, Sarah suggests they abandon their current safehouse, a decision John strongly resists. Before they can act, Carlos’ lookout arrives, offering a lead on Sarkissian’s hideout—the "Wi-Fi" café.
Wasting no time, Sarah, Cameron, John, and Derek storm the café. Sarkissian flees into a panic room, locking himself inside. However, Cameron smashes through the wall, forcing him to escape through a secret passage. Outside, Sarah spots him seizing John, dragging him into an alley. She confronts the mobster, leading to a tense standoff. Just then, Derek appears, holding the café owner's daughter hostage. Without hesitation, he shoots Sarkissian in the head with pinpoint accuracy. John, visibly shaken—especially by Derek’s ruthlessness—is pulled into Sarah’s arms for comfort.
The next day, Sarah surprises John, dispelling his belief that she forgot his birthday. She reveals she sent Cameron to get a cake. John, having spent most of the day hacking Sarkissian’s hard drive, prepares to shut down his computer—until he stumbles upon a passport revealing the real Sarkissian. Before they can process the discovery, an explosion erupts outside. Sarah immediately springs to her feet, her concern evident.
November 14th 2007 Onwards
Episode 2.01
As soon as the explosion rocks the house, Sarah grabs her shotgun and rushes to investigate, only to be ambushed by Sarkissian’s thug. He knocks her to the floor and holds her at gunpoint. Meanwhile, John attempts to escape through the back door but is intercepted by Sarkissian himself. Both are restrained and taken upstairs, where Sarkissian mercilessly beats them before attempting to strangle Sarah. However, John manages to free himself and attacks Sarkissian in a violent struggle, ultimately choking him to death as Sarah cuts herself loose.
Shaken by John's actions, Sarah barely has time to react before Cameron appears, heavily damaged from the explosion. Malfunctioning, she raises her gun at John, ready to fire—but another explosion from below momentarily distracts her, giving Sarah and John a chance to escape through the window. They steal a car and speed away, but Sarah’s attempts to get John to respond lead her to momentarily lose control, crashing the vehicle. Both injured, they seek refuge in a nearby church with the priest’s permission.
Sarah urges John to talk about what happened with Sarkissian, but he refuses. Instead, she shifts the conversation to Cameron, theorizing that she has reverted to her Skynet programming and insisting they destroy her. This angers John, but they agree to set a trap. As Cameron approaches, they nearly succeed in removing her chip, but she reboots before they can finish. Now fully operational and hunting them again, Cameron forces them to steal another car and flee down a dry riverbed. However, she cuts them off, overturning the car in the process.
More injured from the crash, Sarah orders John to run as Cameron closes in. Struggling to free herself from the wreckage, Sarah refuses to call out to John for help, echoing her past encounter with the T-1000. Once Cameron leaves in pursuit, Sarah makes an attempt to stop her but is thrown violently against the car and left seemingly unconscious. She recovers and hijacks a truck, chasing Cameron into a warehouse where John has taken refuge. With precise timing, she rams Cameron, pinning her between two vehicles.
Holding her foot firmly on the accelerator, Sarah watches as John moves to remove Cameron’s chip. Cameron, desperate, appeals to John's emotions, trying to manipulate him into sparing her. She even proclaims her love for him, but at Sarah’s urging, John completes the removal. Later that night, Derek and Charley track them down, tending to their wounds and discussing John’s traumatic experience. Derek pushes John to destroy Cameron, but John resists. Sarah takes a different approach, telling John how proud she is of him. Moved, John finally agrees to terminate Cameron.
On the way to a secluded location, Sarah reminds John that machines cannot feel love or emotions—that everything Cameron said was a calculated lie. John insists he knows this, yet he secretly cleans her chip. Just as they prepare to set Cameron on fire, John hesitates and ultimately reactivates her, much to Sarah and Derek’s dismay. When Derek moves to intervene, Sarah stops him, watching in horror as John hands Cameron a gun. To her relief and confusion, Cameron returns it, calmly assuring him that she will not kill him.
With Cameron "good" again, they return to the church. As John recovers, Sarah makes him a sandwich and shares a brief but weighty conversation with Cameron, reflecting on the story of the Resurrection. Cameron warns her not to let John bring her back if she ever turns again. Later that night, Sarah sits outside the bathroom, her emotions overwhelming her. Tearfully, she apologizes for everything that happened that day and softly wishes John a “happy birthday.”
Episode 2.02
After the turmoil of John’s 16th birthday, Sarah spends a restless night in the church, keeping watch over him as he sleeps, still wary of Cameron. In the morning, she sends John to school, wanting him to have at least one normal day. She, Cameron, and Derek then go house hunting and come across a home owned by Kacy Cotton, a heavily pregnant landlady. Sarah quickly bonds with her, though she shares an awkward moment with Cameron, who curiously touches Kacy’s belly. Sarah agrees to rent the house, even taking on all of its current furnishings.
Her brief moment of peace is shattered when an injured Resistance fighter, Wells, stumbles into the yard, warning her and Derek to “stop Greenway” before mentioning the Serrano Point nuclear power plant—a crucial Resistance stronghold in the future war. Wells succumbs to his injuries shortly after, prompting Sarah to take his warning seriously. She and Cameron infiltrate the power plant by posing as temporary workers. While on duty, Sarah meets Carl Greenway and tries to gain his trust to learn more about his involvement in the reactor’s upcoming activation.
Their conversation is cut short when Greenway is called away by his boss, Mr. Nelson. Sarah follows them to a restricted area and listens in, but she is spotted and forced to hide before returning to work. That evening, she and Cameron visit a workers' bar, where Sarah speaks to Greenway again. She notices a deep scar on his arm and learns that he is undergoing cancer treatment, a revelation that unsettles her given Cameron’s prediction of her own fate.
Through further investigation, Sarah discovers that Greenway is hesitant to restart the reactor, fearing irregularities in the system. She relays this to Cameron and Derek, who reveal the grim stakes: if the plant goes online, it could wipe out most of Los Angeles. If it doesn’t, the Resistance loses a critical resource in the future war. Either way, Skynet wins.
Returning home, Sarah is frustrated to find John with a girl named Riley. She disapproves of his reckless decision to involve someone in his life, but John refuses to listen, insisting he wants to live a normal life. She lingers outside his door as he and Riley talk about their parents and the future, resisting the urge to intervene.
The next day, Sarah is assigned to clean up a toxic spill at the plant. She panics when she believes she has been exposed to radiation and is subjected to an unpleasant decontamination scrub-down. However, Mr. Nelson later returns her clothes, explaining that the scanners must have malfunctioned—there was never any radiation exposure.
Later, while cleaning in the control room, Sarah notices Greenway behaving strangely. She calls Derek, who is in the process of breaking into Greenway’s house, only to find him hanging from the ceiling. The horrifying realization dawns on Sarah: Greenway has been replaced by a T-888. She rushes to warn Cameron, but Cameron remains unfazed, cryptically stating that she is “thinking about what to do.”
As the plant goes critical, Sarah scrambles to find a way to stop it but ultimately prioritizes Cameron, whom she sees on a security monitor being savagely beaten by Greenway. She incapacitates a guard and takes his gun before confronting her fears by cutting through the radiation area as a shortcut. Arriving just in time, she opens fire on Greenway, buying Cameron the opportunity to hurl the T-888 into two transformers, frying its circuits.
As Cameron approaches, glitching from damage, Sarah levels her gun at her, demanding to know if she is still safe to be around. Cameron assures her that she’s "okay" and stabilizes the reactor, preventing a meltdown. With the crisis averted, Cameron disposes of the T-888’s remains in a chemical waste bin, and they return home. There, Sarah has Cameron scan her for radiation exposure. The test confirms she is clean, but her fears remain. She asks Cameron if she will get sick again—this time, Cameron has no answer.
Later that night, Sarah discovers blood on the basement door and, inside, finds names and locations scrawled on the wall—the final message left behind by Wells before his death.
Episode 2.03
As the Connors settle into their new home, Sarah receives a desperate call from Charley, who tearfully pleads for her help—Cromartie has kidnapped his wife, Michelle. Aware that John is listening, Sarah responds in code, instructing Charley to discreetly provide his location. Once she has it, she quickly packs a bag of guns and warns Cameron to keep John in sight at all times before heading out with Derek.
When they meet Charley, he receives a call from Michelle, but Sarah insists that he make her prove her identity, knowing that T-888s can mimic voices. Charley asks Michelle a deeply personal question, making Sarah visibly uncomfortable due to their past relationship. Once Michelle confirms her identity and shares her location, the group rushes to a remote cabin where she is supposedly being held.
Inside, they find Michelle tied to a chair with a bomb strapped to her. Sarah quickly deduces that the bomb is fake, but before they can act, Charley reveals that Cromartie has disabled their car. Realizing the danger, Sarah immediately calls John, warning him to stay close to Cameron. Just as they begin freeing Michelle, Derek yells for them to get out—Cromartie triggers a bomb, causing a nearby cell tower to collapse onto the cabin.
Michelle is wounded by shrapnel, and to make matters worse, Sarah’s phone has no signal. Derek grimly reveals that Cromartie intercepted her call, deciphering their code and cutting off their chance to warn John. With no other options, the four trek through the desert until they manage to steal a passing engineer’s van.
Sarah speeds toward the city, desperate to reach John before Cromartie. Charley suddenly demands that she stop—Michelle is bleeding out. Frustrated, Sarah berates Charley for not heeding her earlier warnings to stay away from them, but she ultimately slams on the brakes as requested. They rush Michelle to a hospital, but despite their efforts, she succumbs to her injuries. Later, Sarah and Derek regroup with John and Cameron, and that night, the family silently sits around the dinner table, mourning Charley’s loss.
Episode 2.04
The next day, Sarah sets out to run an errand but is stopped by her neighbor, Kacy, who is experiencing severe stomach pains. Without hesitation, Sarah takes her to the hospital, staying by her side while doctors run tests to ensure the baby is okay. As they wait, Sarah and Kacy grow closer, and Sarah shares the story of John's difficult birth—how she had no choice but to drink an entire bottle of dark rum to dull the pain. She initially lies about Kyle being present, but later admits the truth: he died before John was born.
During their time at the hospital, Sarah meets Kacy’s boyfriend, who turns out to be a police officer, making her uneasy. However, he proves to be a decent person, and Sarah decides to give him the benefit of the doubt. Later, feeling nostalgic, she calls John to check in, but he abruptly cuts the conversation short without explanation.
That evening, Sarah agrees to stay overnight with Kacy, promising to support her throughout her pregnancy for as long as she can.
Episode 2.05
Derek informs Sarah and John about the murder of a man named Martin Bedell, who shares his name with a future Resistance fighter crucial to John's leadership. Realizing the assassin may target others with the same name, they find two more Bedells in the phonebook. John insists on accompanying Derek to protect the older one, a cadet at Presidio Alto military academy. Sarah reluctantly agrees but warns Derek to keep a close eye on him while she and Cameron track down the other Bedell.
Sarah and Cameron arrive at the home of young Martin "Marty" Bedell just moments before a T-888 bursts through the door. Acting quickly, Sarah rescues Marty, and they escape in the car with Cameron at the wheel. As the T-888 clings to the roof, Sarah blasts it off with her shotgun. Terrified and confused, Marty bombards them with questions about the machine and his mother’s whereabouts. Sarah refuses to answer, but Cameron, with her usual lack of discretion, bluntly tells him about the Terminator.
Back at Marty's house, they stand guard while the boy struggles to process the situation. Sarah, her maternal instincts surfacing, helps him search for a pair of pajamas, forming a bond with him in the process. Later, Cameron suggests they should have engaged the Triple-8 rather than running, but Sarah refuses to put a child in the line of fire, firmly declaring that protecting Marty is now their responsibility—despite Cameron’s insistence that he is unimportant to their mission.
In the morning, Sarah finds Cameron and Marty watching a televised plea from his parents, urging for his return. Frustrated, she scolds Cameron, who innocently claims that Marty just wanted to see them. Soon after, she notices Marty hyperventilating from stress over an upcoming book report. To distract him, she helps him choose a book, with Cameron unexpectedly suggesting The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, noting that it was once John's favorite. Sarah then sends Cameron to keep watch over Marty's parents in case the T-888 targets them next.
That night, Sarah reads the book to Marty, who eventually falls asleep on her lap. The next morning, she sees him safely onto the school bus back to his parents, receiving a heartfelt hug in thanks. When John returns home with Derek, Sarah watches him from the kitchen window, noticing his somber expression—unaware that he has just learned of the grim fate awaiting the older Martin Bedell.
Episode 2.06
Sarah and Cameron break into the home of Dr. Boyd Sherman, a potential Skynet target, but their search is abruptly cut short when Sherman wakes up and calls out to them. They immediately flee through the nearest window and rendezvous with John, who picks them up and drives them home. On the way, John argues that Sherman needs protection, but Sarah pushes back, pointing out that they have no precedent for taking such action.
The next day, the three of them visit Sherman’s office under the guise of seeking counseling. The session quickly becomes uncomfortable, as Sarah repeatedly deflects Sherman’s questions back at him. Tension rises further when he brings up John’s father, Kyle Reese. Despite the awkward encounter, Cameron manages to plant a listening device in the office, and John insists they return the following day. That evening, Sarah reviews Sherman’s files and vents her frustration to Derek, realizing they are useless due to the fake names used for patient confidentiality. Suddenly, a gunshot rings out from John’s room. She, Derek, and Cameron rush in to find John visibly shaken—he explains that he forgot to clear the chamber while cleaning his gun, causing it to discharge and burn him with the shell casing.
The next morning, they visit Sherman again. While waiting, Cameron theorizes that John attempted suicide, but Sarah immediately dismisses the idea, insisting it was an accident. When John finishes his session, Sherman pulls Sarah aside and shares his belief that Cameron may be developing Asperger’s syndrome. He also expresses concern for John, warning that he is deeply troubled and in urgent need of help. When Sherman asks if John has experienced past violence, Sarah recalls his killing of Sarkissian and becomes defensive, accusing the doctor of implying John is being abused.
That evening, Sarah takes out her frustration on a punching bag in the garage, unwilling to entertain John’s request to continue seeing Sherman. Cameron suggests that Sherman might actually be there to help John deal with his trauma, but Sarah refuses to listen—only to be caught off guard when John insists he needs help and refuses to discuss it with her. As Sarah sits alone, lost in thought, Derek joins her and shares a story about a soldier he once knew who unexpectedly took his own life. Sarah still refuses to believe John is suicidal but can’t shake the weight of Derek’s words.
Later, she borrows the bugged recording from Cameron and listens to John’s session. When she hears him speak about feeling trapped, she turns it off, unable to bear the rest. That same day, John and Cameron return home with a heavily damaged, disabled Terminator. Upon closer inspection, they realize it had self-terminated by removing its own chip—suggesting that Skynet is now taking extreme measures to prevent its machines from being reprogrammed by the Resistance.
Sarah watches as John studies the machine, silently reflecting on his mental state. Later, she returns to Sherman’s office alone, finally willing to talk about her own struggles—including the lingering trauma of Sarkissian’s death.
Episode 2.07
Sarah, Cameron, and John return home to find their house ransacked by thieves. While Sarah and Cameron sweep the house for potential threats, they find nothing. Confused as to why the security system failed, Sarah is further irritated when Cameron reveals that Riley had snuck into John's room the night before. Furious at John's carelessness, Sarah scolds him and orders him to clean up the mess while she and Cameron track down the culprits.
Cameron drives Sarah to a meeting with Derek, where Sarah questions why Cameron didn’t report Riley’s visit earlier. Cameron responds that she has made her stance on security clear and didn’t want to be a "nag." With Derek now joining them, they visit Moishe, a diamond fence who might have information about the robbery. Cameron immediately recognizes some of his diamonds as part of their stolen stash, but Moishe denies involvement and gives them a lead.
Following the lead, they confront a dentist named Walter Ostrowski, who attempts to flee but is quickly stopped when Cameron smashes his car window and rips the door off. Under pressure, he confesses that he owes money to Moishe, and Cameron escorts him to retrieve it. Meanwhile, Sarah and Derek argue about John, with Derek insisting that John is drifting further from his destiny.
Returning to Moishe, Cameron violently subdues one of his men, prompting Moishe to offer another name and an address. This leads Sarah and Cameron to an elderly couple—parents of one of the thieves—who provide them with yet another lead. As they drive to a video store in pursuit, Sarah grows frustrated with their seemingly endless chase. In response, Cameron unexpectedly recites a passage from Genesis 34, the story of the "Brothers of Nablus," which involves rape, a marriage proposal, circumcision, and mass murder. Amused, Sarah jokes that it sounds like Cameron's kind of story—Cameron agrees.
A credit card trace finally pinpoints the thieves at a bowling alley. Arriving just in time, Sarah and Cameron corner them, with Cameron holding them at gunpoint and demanding the return of her jacket and their other stolen belongings. Sensing that not all the thieves are present, Sarah leaves Cameron to guard them while she searches for the missing one. Cameron, however, decides the thieves pose a security risk and executes them.
In the men’s room, Sarah finds the last thief—a terrified teenage boy. Instead of killing him, she warns him to stay silent about their identities. Returning to the main area, she confirms to Cameron that the situation is handled.
Back home, Sarah and Cameron confront John about Riley and the danger she poses. John snaps back, reminding Cameron that, unlike her, Riley has never tried to kill him. Sarah intervenes, insisting that she never chose this life for him but will always protect him, even if he hates her for it. In response, John bitterly reminds her that she failed to stop him from killing Sarkissian before storming off, leaving Sarah and Cameron in uneasy silence.
Episode 2.08
After the chaos of their break-in, Sarah decides to build a secure safe for their valuables. Late one night, she works in the garage, assembling it herself, while John sees Riley off. Riley cheerfully thanks Sarah for letting her spend the day, but once she's gone, Sarah warns John to let Riley go. John refuses to listen and leaves, his place soon taken by Cameron, who assures Sarah that she’ll talk to him and is confident she can make him see reason.
The next morning, Sarah installs the safe beneath the floorboards. Cameron approaches, informing her that her conversation with John was successful. Though Sarah dislikes Cameron’s growing influence over him, she’s relieved to see John taking responsibility. Cameron then heads out to restock their weapons, leaving Sarah alone. Moments later, she is ambushed by Cromartie, who drags her upstairs to John’s room, only to find it empty.
Demanding John's location, Cromartie gets a sarcastic response from Sarah, who tells him to "check under the bed." Realizing she truly doesn’t know where John is, Cromartie chokes her unconscious and throws her into the backseat of his car. He traces a call from John to Mexico and, as they drive, taunts Sarah about her past mistakes, even suggesting she should’ve finished herself off years ago. Unfazed, Sarah coldly vows to kill him.
She soon notices photographs of Cameron in the backseat, and Cromartie remarks that Cameron has been making errors too, suspecting damage to her chip. Seizing an opportunity, Sarah cuts through the tape on her legs and hurls herself from the moving vehicle. But Cromartie easily recaptures her and stuffs her into the trunk. Using a broken soda can, she cuts through the tape binding her wrists. Suddenly, she hears gunfire and screams from outside. The car lurches forward as it speeds away, and she kicks at the trunk, trying to get the driver’s attention.
The car finally stops, and when the trunk opens, she finds herself staring up at James Ellison—along with John and Riley. They flee to John’s hotel suite, where Sarah interrogates Ellison, learning about his recent discoveries and how Cromartie had been stalking him. She then gives Riley money to get home before calling Derek, who informs her that he and Cameron are also nearby.
Reuniting, they devise a plan to ambush Cromartie. Using Ellison as bait, they lure the Terminator into a church, where Sarah and Derek fire at him from elevated positions, allowing Cameron to get in close and critically damage him. As Cromartie lies incapacitated, John delivers the final shot, blasting the machine’s head with a Desert Eagle.
Afterward, John, Cameron, and Derek bury Cromartie’s remains, planning to return later with thermite to destroy them completely. Cameron hands Sarah the chip, and she warns Ellison to stay away from their world before violently crushing Cromartie’s CPU. Overwhelmed by everything that has happened, Sarah breaks down, and John pulls her into a comforting embrace as she weeps.
Episode 2.09
Following Cromartie’s destruction, Sarah’s mental state begins to deteriorate. She falls asleep on the drive back to Los Angeles and has a bizarre nightmare—she and Cameron stand over Cromartie’s grave, both wearing pink nurse uniforms. Cameron waters three small cacti, which rapidly grow into towering metal constructs that then wrap around John in an eerie, protective embrace.
Jerking awake, Sarah immediately feels sick. John quickly pulls over, and she vomits on the roadside. Cameron, ever blunt, speculates that she might be pregnant (which she isn’t), prompting John to snap at her to shut up. Sarah blames her illness on food poisoning and, before getting back into the car, pauses to flip an overturned tortoise upright, saving it from being crushed.
Back home, Sarah is bedridden. John brings her medicine, while Cameron offers a rehydration solution, instructing her to drink it every half hour or whenever she vomits. Sarah, however, insists that they return to Mexico and finish destroying Cromartie’s remains. John reluctantly agrees.
Drifting into another uneasy sleep, Sarah experiences another unsettling nightmare. In it, a baby monitor sits on her bedside table, whispering unintelligibly—though she can faintly make out the words “baby” and “survive.” She gets up to investigate and finds herself once again dressed in a pink nursing uniform. Entering the living room, she discovers it filled with incubators, each containing three tortoises—except for one, which remains empty.
Sarah turns to find Cameron seated in a rocking chair, dressed in a matching nurse’s outfit, cradling what appears to be a baby. As Sarah watches, the baby is replaced by a tortoise, which Cameron gently holds in her hands. She looks up at Sarah with a warm, almost maternal smile and rises from the chair. Sarah reaches out for the tortoise, but Cameron walks past her and, instead, hands it to Cromartie, who has suddenly appeared.
Sarah jolts awake, only to find herself outside, sleepwalking with a gun in hand. Shaken, she heads back inside and, recalling the pattern from her dream, draws three dots on a piece of paper.
The next morning, she makes an unplanned visit to Dr. Sherman, seeking his help in deciphering her nightmares. However, she remains evasive, unwilling to discuss her relationship with Cameron or much of anything at all. Frustrated, Sherman tells her he can’t help unless she starts being honest. Sarah leaves and returns home, resting on the couch.
Later, John arrives and informs her that Cromartie's body is missing. In response, Sarah shows him the three dots and confesses that she may have inadvertently led Cromartie to their house—she tells him about the teenage boy she spared at the bowling alley. John defends her decision, reminding her that she is not a murderer.
That night, Sarah has another vivid dream. She descends into Cromartie’s grave and finds a hidden door leading into Dr. Sherman’s office. Inside, Sherman coldly tells her she’s wasting her time and calls her a liar. She agrees, stating that she needs to "get back to work." Upon waking, she goes to the basement and studies the cryptic writing on the wall, finally spotting the three dots among the names and locations.
Episode 2.10
Following the trail of the mysterious “three dots,” Sarah and Derek break into the offices of Dakara Systems, stealing their hard drives. Back home, John hacks into them and uncovers blueprints for an A.I. platform, though he notes that Dakara lacks the funds and infrastructure to bring it to life. Derek remains skeptical about any connection to The Turk, but Sarah insists otherwise, pointing to the three-dot pattern on the wall.
The next morning, John sets up a meeting for Sarah at Dakara, posing as an investor named Sarah Gale. She and Cameron meet with Alex Akagi and his son, Xander. Alex explains their project—an A.I. system named “Emma,” named by Xander in memory of his late mother. He seeks investors but admits that a recent break-in has drastically increased their financial needs.
Back home, Cameron expresses doubt that Dakara is connected to The Turk. She references a Go proverb: “Strange things happen at the one-two point,” meaning the usual rules don’t always apply. Sarah scoffs, grabs a handful of Go pieces, and shows Cameron three of them in her palm, insisting the connection is real.
Later, Sarah meets Alex for coffee, where he reveals his plan to buy an advanced CPU to power Emma. He requests a $500,000 investment. Determined to see this through, Sarah gathers all their diamonds and cash, ready to risk everything despite Cameron’s disapproval. While sorting through the valuables, she notices three diamonds arranged in a familiar pattern.
Sarah and Cameron then attend a dinner with Alex, Xander, and Minamoto, a Japanese software developer. Cameron surprises everyone by making a toast in flawless Japanese. Growing impatient, Sarah pushes to finalize the deal. Minamoto hands over the CPU in exchange for the money, and they leave with their supposed prize.
However, back at Dakara, Sarah's unease turns to frustration when they discover the chip is a fake. Furious, Alex accuses Minamoto of scamming them. Sarah vows to track him down, but Alex warns her that Minamoto is Yakuza—extremely dangerous.
Shortly after, Sarah receives a text from Cameron, informing her that she has located Minamoto. Meeting up with Cameron and Derek, they storm his apartment and hold him at gunpoint. Under pressure, Minamoto confesses that he is merely an actor, paid to play the role by the real Minamoto. Derek, however, correctly deduces that Alex orchestrated the entire deception.
Enraged, Sarah storms back to Dakara and brutally beats Alex, forcing him to confess everything to his son. He ultimately returns their money, and Sarah lets him live—but not without a dire warning.
The next morning at home, Sarah allows John to go for a walk with Riley. Left alone, she enters the bathroom and stares at herself in the mirror. Three small blood spots stain her cheek. The sight sends her into a sudden fit of rage, and she violently smashes the mirror, her frustration reaching its breaking point.
Episode 2.11
Still fixated on the three-dot symbol, Sarah has John search online for companies that incorporate the pattern in their logos. The effort quickly proves fruitless, as John finds hundreds of unrelated businesses, none of which seem to pose a threat. Frustrated, Sarah insists he keep searching, but John refuses, shutting his laptop and calling it a night just as Cameron enters the room.
On a whim, Sarah hands Cameron a laundry basket and instructs her to take care of it while they sleep. John, amused, teases Cameron about her new chore, prompting Sarah to dump the laundry on him instead before heading off to bed.
Episode 2.12
Following a lead from the list—“Alpine Fields”—Sarah and Cameron track down the Fields’ private cabin. When the family arrives, Sarah and Cameron ambush them at gunpoint. Sarah orders Cameron to retrieve Lauren, the daughter, but Lauren finds her father’s gun and turns it on Sarah. Before the situation escalates, David, Lauren’s father, takes the gun, only for Cameron to effortlessly disarm him.
Sarah calls John, instructing him to lay low, before explaining the truth about Skynet and the coming war. The Fields, however, dismiss her as delusional. As tensions rise, the family dog barks, but neither Sarah nor Cameron agree to take it with them.
While driving the family to safety, Sarah argues with David and, in a moment of distraction, crashes directly into a T-888. The Terminator immediately attacks, forcing Cameron to engage it. The two disappear into the jungle, playing a deadly game of cat and mouse, while Sarah takes the Fields back to the cabin and begins fortifying their defenses.
Suspicious of their connection to Skynet, she demands answers from David. While searching the shed for tools, Lauren reveals that her father has been working on a classified cybernetic project. When confronted, David refuses to discuss it, citing its illegality.
Tensions escalate when Anne’s boyfriend, Roger, arrives. Sarah initially suspects him of being the T-888 and keeps her gun trained on him. However, when Roger and David begin arguing, she fires a warning shot to silence them.
Suddenly, Cameron crashes through the window, unresponsive and seemingly offline. Before Sarah can react, the T-888 closes in. Desperate, David runs outside to confront it but is effortlessly tossed aside. In that moment, Sarah realizes that Anne is pregnant—and that her unborn child is the Terminator’s true target.
Lauren hides in a closet while Sarah helps Anne escape into the woods. The T-888 corners them, but Cameron arrives just in time, ramming the machine with a vehicle and buying them a chance to flee. Sarah ultimately leaves Anne and Lauren at a roadside café before heading home with Cameron.
Six Months Later:
Sarah and Cameron finally track down the T-888 and destroy it. Meanwhile, Derek finds Lauren and helps deliver her mother’s baby. Tragically, Anne does not survive childbirth.
Episode 2.13
Pursuing another lead tied to the three-dot symbol, Sarah attends a UFO convention, where she learns of a conspiracy involving a surveillance drone marked with three dots and a mysterious man named Abraham, who might have answers. A woman claiming to know Abraham offers to take Sarah to her trailer in the desert, where she shares details about both the drone and Abraham’s past sightings. On the way, Sarah calls John to update him on the lead.
Following the latest report of Abraham’s whereabouts, Sarah visits a UFO café. The trip proves uneventful—until she hallucinates a deranged version of herself sitting across the table, spinning a combat knife. The words "NO FATE" are carved into the surface. Shaken, Sarah follows the woman into the restroom, where she learns the truth—Abraham is actually a transgender woman.
Back at the trailer, Abraham recounts his past, revealing that he once worked with five others on a strange piece of metal—endo-metal. When he started blogging to uncover its origins, the company he worked for tried to silence him, forcing him into hiding as a woman. He claims to have a sample of the metal stored in a safe and offers to show it to Sarah.
They drive to the safe’s location, but the metal is already gone. Before they can react, a masked shooter on a motorcycle ambushes them. Sarah fires back, but the attacker escapes. They return to the trailer, where Abraham criticizes Sarah’s ability to stay calm under pressure, noting that she seems shaken by how close she came to death.
With no memory of key details about his former job, Abraham suspects his mind has repressed them. Sarah takes him to Dr. Barbara Morris for hypnotherapy. Before leaving, she discreetly plants a listening device on him. Waiting outside in her Jeep, she listens in—until gunfire abruptly cuts the session short. Sarah rushes in to find both Abraham and Dr. Morris dead, murdered by the biker, who escapes before she can intervene.
Using the recording from the bug as a guide, Sarah follows its clues to a remote warehouse in the desert. Inside, she finds a man installing an air-conditioning unit. Before she can question him, he suddenly pulls a gun and shoots her in the leg. Struggling to stay conscious, Sarah manages to turn the weapon on him, and after a brief struggle, she kills him.
As she crawls away, her hallucinations return—she sees her crazed self with the knife again, as well as a vision of her past waitress self. The latter leads her outside, where she catches sight of the spy drone flying overhead before she blacks out.
Episode 2.14
Wounded, Sarah manages to drag herself to her Jeep and drive to the nearest hospital before losing consciousness. She later wakes up in a hospital bed, checks her chart, then pretends to be asleep when she hears someone speaking to her. A familiar voice urges her to get up. As she struggles to move, she sees the outstretched hand of an imaginary Kyle Reese.
“Come with me if you want to live,” he tells her.
Taking his hand, she forces herself to her feet, smashes the window, and ambushes a cop as he enters the room to investigate. She chokes him unconscious, steals his gun, and escapes the hospital. With Kyle’s guidance, she calls Derek, instructing him to cover her tracks.
Needing medical attention, she kidnaps a doctor named Felicia Burnett and takes her to an apartment, convincing her to remove the bullet from her leg. As Felicia works, Kyle advises Sarah on how to handle the doctor, reminding her that kindness will yield better results than intimidation. He notices an old stab wound on Sarah’s shoulder and asks about it. She recounts her torture at the hands of a T-1000 years ago.
Felicia, however, is unable to remove the bullet with the tools she has. She convinces Sarah to return to the hospital, where better equipment is available. Sneaking into the morgue, Sarah waits while Felicia gathers supplies. Meanwhile, she calls Derek again to update him on her location. He promises to watch over John before hanging up.
When Felicia returns, she asks Sarah for her gun. Hesitant at first, Sarah ultimately hands it over, encouraged by Kyle’s urging. Felicia sedates her for the procedure, successfully extracting the bullet and stitching the wound. During the operation, Sarah dreams of Kyle standing beneath an apple tree.
When she wakes, Derek has arrived, holding Felicia at gunpoint. Before the situation escalates, a cop enters and demands Sarah drop her weapon. Instead, she shoots him, allowing Derek to help her escape.
On the drive back to the desert warehouse, Sarah attempts to tell Derek about his connection to John, but he cuts her off—he’s already figured it out. As they approach their destination, they spot smoke rising from the horizon. The warehouse is in flames.
Episode 2.15
Hoping to uncover what the workers had been doing in the desert, Sarah, Derek, John, and Cameron attend the funeral for those killed in the warehouse explosion. Upon arrival, Sarah quickly spots a photo board featuring Ed Winston—the man she was forced to kill at the warehouse. While Derek muses that Ed didn’t seem like a murderer, Sarah insists that she could see the potential in him.
As the other mourners gather with candles, Sarah lingers near Ed’s photo, where she’s approached by his widow, Dianne Winston. Dianne introduces herself, and Sarah claims she worked at the warehouse as a "waitress on wheels," using the excuse to justify her presence. During the service, Dianne shares her suspicions about Ed’s strange work hours and the secretive nature of the warehouse.
When Dianne abruptly leaves, Sarah follows her outside. Clearly frightened, Dianne hands Sarah a set of keys that belonged to Ed, unwilling to investigate them herself. Sarah uses them to open a storage container, uncovering a disturbing sight—an entire family’s personal belongings and a quilt soaked in blood. Later, she accompanies Dianne to the cemetery for the burial, but when asked about the container, she lies, claiming it was empty.
At the gravesite, Dianne plays a recorded phone call she received from Ed just three days prior. The audio captures his final moments—the struggle between himself and Sarah before his death. Meanwhile, Sarah notices John and Cameron standing close together, their interaction drawing her scrutiny, before Derek arrives.
Frustrated, Sarah declares that Skynet is behind everything and absentmindedly calls Derek by his last name—just as she once did with Kyle. Derek picks up on it and pointedly suggests that she should let his brother’s memory rest. He then informs her about a private investigator named Mr. Walsh, who has been looking into the case. Sarah decides to follow him, hoping he might uncover something useful.
Tracking Walsh to an empty house, Sarah waits for several minutes before deciding to investigate. Inside, she discovers a hidden door leading to an underground surveillance room filled with monitors displaying live feeds from cameras all over town. A smear of blood on the floor catches her attention, leading her to another hatch, which opens into the garage of a different house. Before she can act, Derek calls her—revealing that the wake he, John, and Cameron attended was staged.
Reuniting with the others, they confront the wife and daughter of one of the supposedly dead workers. The woman confesses that her husband faked his death for the safety of his family—and to collect life insurance. Searching the area, John finds a dirty boot and realizes where the man might be hiding. Following the lead, they drive into the desert, where they witness a drone rising from a pool of water before flying off toward the mountains.
Episode 2.16
Using a lead from the surveillance footage they retrieved from the desert town, Sarah pushes through exhaustion to investigate a warehouse in downtown Los Angeles. Upon arrival, she calls John to inform him of her plan, asking him to check out the building’s details on his computer.
As she attempts to break in, she pauses when she sees a coyote pass by. Distracted, she fails to notice a masked figure sneaking up behind her. Before she can react, she’s struck with a taser and collapses unconscious.
While unconscious, Sarah experiences vivid, hallucinogenic dreams, finding herself trapped inside a sleep clinic.
Dream, Stage 1
Sarah wakes up in a cold sweat, shaken by a nightmare. She pulls the electrodes off her head just as Nurse Hobson arrives, gently encouraging her to try sleeping again. Sarah, however, remains uneasy, feeling out of place in the clinic. Hobson leaves to get her some coffee, and Sarah notices she has a new roommate—Dana—who unsuccessfully tries to hide her smoking habit. Despite this, the two bond, but their conversation is cut short when John arrives.
In the dining hall, Sarah grows irritated when John compliments Cameron on the pancakes she made for him at home. Cameron smiles at the praise, which only fuels Sarah’s frustration. Later, outside, John urges Sarah to stay at the clinic until her sleeping problems are resolved, assuring her that everything at home is under control. He leaves with Cameron, who throws Sarah a smug smile before following him out. Alone again, Sarah watches a man clearing tables and notices a coyote tattoo on the back of his neck. That night, as she sleeps, she begins to stir...
Reality
...Sarah wakes up, groggy, in the back of a moving van. The vehicle comes to a stop, and the rear doors swing open, revealing the face of Ed Winston. Sarah is stunned—she was certain she had killed him. Winston, however, insists he is very much alive. He commends her for finding the warehouse in the desert and presses her for information about her accomplice, suspecting whoever she was speaking to before her capture. Sarah insists she was working alone, but Winston remains unconvinced. He prepares a truth serum...
Dream, Stage 2
...and Sarah finds herself back in the clinic, watching Nurse Hobson prepare the electrode gel. Confused, she wonders aloud what’s wrong with her, prompting Hobson to take her to the monitoring office. Reviewing Sarah’s sleep data, Hobson assures her that whatever is causing her insomnia is psychological, not physical. She suggests therapy, but Sarah dismisses it, saying it "never took."
Hobson then inspects Sarah’s room, finding cigarette butts on the windowsill. She leaves to report it, and moments later, Dana appears. She asks Sarah what she dreams about. Sarah hesitates before answering—she's always running from something. Dana, in turn, shares that she dreams of burning alive every night, a revelation eerily similar to Sarah’s nightmares of Judgment Day.
Dana then asks a chilling question: "Do the men in your dreams ever catch you?"
Reality
...Sarah wakes again, still groggy from the drugs. Through the haze, she realizes that Winston has examined her scars while she was unconscious. He takes particular interest in her c-section scar, deducing that her child is between 15 and 20 years old.
Sarah tries reasoning with him, suggesting that the warehouse was destroyed by his own employers to cover up a security leak, but Winston doesn’t buy it. Changing tactics, Sarah brings up his wife, recalling the fake funeral held in his honor. The mention of her shakes Winston, but instead of breaking him, it enrages him—he attacks Sarah. In the ensuing struggle, she manages to turn his own needle against him, injecting him with the powerful sedative. As it takes effect, he weakens, slumping to the floor...
Dream, Stage 3
...Sarah wakes to see Nurse Hobson injecting an unconscious Dana with an unknown substance before silently leaving the room. Alarmed, Sarah tries to wake Dana, but she is completely unresponsive. Determined to find answers, Sarah follows Hobson down to the basement. Before she can get too close, however, she has to brace herself against the walls, hiding as the nurse glances around suspiciously.
The next morning, Sarah is confronted by Hobson, who assumes she must have been sleepwalking the previous night. Later, in the waiting room, Cameron curiously asks John what it feels like to dream. After he explains, Sarah calls him aside. Outside, she warns him about Hobson’s strange behavior, but John dismisses her concerns, chalking them up to paranoia.
He shifts the conversation, offering to talk about Winston’s death, but Sarah refuses. Instead, she vaguely mentions her “dream,” in which she was captured by a man. Before John can probe further, Hobson arrives and takes Sarah back to her room for another sleep session...
Reality
...Still restrained, Sarah listens as Winston—now weakened—asks about his wife. She tells him about the funeral and presses for details about his job. He admits that he despises it, especially the darker, more violent assignments. He recalls his first kill, admitting that it wasn’t easy. He then muses that Sarah must have felt the same. She corrects him: He would have been her first.
Seizing the opportunity, Sarah offers him a way out. She promises to help him and his family disappear—if he lets her go. Against his better judgment, Winston agrees. Sarah moves to escape, but before she can get far, Winston suddenly grabs her from behind, dragging her back toward the van…
Dream, Stage 4
Sarah jolts awake to the sight of her roommate, Dana, engulfed in flames. She rushes to help, but Nurse Hobson intervenes, restraining Sarah while tending to the fire herself. The next morning, Sarah calls John, but he is momentarily distracted by Cameron, who walks into his room wearing provocative underwear. Trying to focus, John listens as Sarah shares her growing suspicions about Hobson, but he strongly urges her to come home immediately. Sarah refuses, determined to uncover the truth.
Later, Hobson addresses the patients, announcing that Dana is in critical condition but still alive. She then hands Sarah a dose of sleeping pills, which Sarah discreetly spits out after the nurse leaves. Returning to her room, Sarah finds a janitor named Hector cleaning up. She questions him about the dreamcatchers he gave to each patient, and he cryptically remarks that Dana should have controlled her dreams better—implying Sarah should do the same. When she presses him about the coyote tattoo on his neck, he brushes it off, saying it’s for his "girl"...
Reality
Sarah recalls Winston’s earlier story about his son and recognizes the moment when she almost let him go. Winston, too, realizes this—interpreting her hesitation as proof that she has a son of her own. The revelation clicks in his mind: her son must be her accomplice...
Dream, Stage 5
...Sarah wakes in the clinic once more, but something is different—she has been injected with something...
Reality
Winston, convinced that John will come for Sarah, presses her for information. But Sarah remains firm, insisting that John will know better than to walk into a trap. Winston, however, isn't convinced. He smirks, suggesting that she will inevitably call him for help. Sarah, unshaken, vows she would die before betraying her son. Winston studies her, wondering aloud if that’s truly what she wants...
Dream, Stage 6
Sarah is shaken awake by John, who urges her to leave the clinic immediately. But Sarah refuses—she's determined to stop Hobson’s experiments. Together, they descend into the basement, breaking into a hidden lab. Inside, they uncover a sophisticated brain-mapping system and an extensive database of patient information, including Sarah’s own file. Alarmed, she pleads with John to erase her data, convinced the clinic is a front for Skynet.
Meanwhile, Hobson is informed of Sarah’s absence from her room. Without hesitation, she quips, "Thank you for explaining," before marching toward the secret lab.
Moments later, she enters to find Sarah seemingly alone, with John concealed behind a row of servers. Sarah feigns confusion, claiming she must have been sleepwalking again. Hobson doesn’t buy it. Without warning, she lunges at Sarah, nearly crushing her with a heavy computer tower. John reacts instantly, stepping out of hiding and firing three rounds into Hobson’s chest. She collapses, motionless.
Sarah kneels beside the body, trying to make sense of what Hobson is—until, without warning, the nurse snatches the gun from Sarah’s hands and shoots John dead. Stunned, Sarah rushes to her son, but before she can react further, Hobson rises to her feet and kills Sarah too...
Reality
Sarah gasps awake in the van, her wrists bound and mouth gagged. Outside, Winston speaks to his employers on the phone, his back turned. Desperate to escape, Sarah bites down on her wrist until it bleeds, using the slickness to slip out of her cuffs—at the cost of dislocating her thumb.
When Winston opens the van, Sarah lunges. She rams a syringe into his left eye, eliciting a scream of agony. Though wounded, Winston retaliates, slamming Sarah to the floor. They struggle violently, but she manages to seize control, pressing his own gun to his head.
This time, there is no doubt. The clinic was all a dream. This is real.
Sarah pulls the trigger. Winston falls dead.
Breathing heavily, Sarah escapes the warehouse and drives into the night. Along the way, she encounters a coyote crossing her path—a silent, haunting symbol of survival and transformation. She is no longer just Sarah Connor the mother. She is Sarah Connor the soldier.
Episode 2.17
While washing her hands in the upstairs bathroom, Sarah notices the dried blood stains from Riley’s suicide attempt. Determined to clean it properly, she sets to work when Riley herself appears, offering to fetch more cleaning salt from the kitchen. Sarah waits for her return, but after a while, she only finds the canister left at the top of the stairs. After finishing the cleanup, she turns her attention to a pile of files and photos on Skynet leads, noting that a file on a lawyer is missing. Cameron informs her that Derek took it upon himself to investigate the lawyer, which irritates Sarah—she feels increasingly left out of the loop. Shifting focus, she questions Cameron about Riley and the day of her suicide attempt. Realizing they need more information on the girl, Sarah visits Riley’s foster father, tactfully probing him about her behavior. He recounts an outburst Riley had, mentioning her talk of an impending apocalypse—something that piques Sarah’s interest. Before she leaves, he hands her the business card of a school counselor who had previously warned him about Sarah’s family.
Sarah arranges a meeting with the counselor at a park, unaware that she is actually Jesse Flores. Jesse expresses concern that John is abusing Riley and confronts Sarah about John taking her to Mexico. Sarah feigns ignorance, not giving Jesse any leverage. Satisfied for now, Jesse agrees not to intervene, allowing Sarah to handle the matter herself. Returning home, Sarah updates John about her conversation with both the foster father and the counselor. John is caught off guard by Riley’s apparent knowledge of their secret and insists that he never told her anything about their future.
Sarah doesn’t believe him. She warns John to prepare for what Cameron might do when she finds out about Riley’s deception. John agrees to talk to Riley himself. Later, when Riley shows up at the house, Sarah reluctantly lets her in, pressing her to explain herself to John. However, before she can confront her further, an agent from the Department of Youth and Family Services arrives, seeking to speak with Sarah and John. Thinking quickly, Cameron hides Riley in the garage.
With John’s help, Sarah manages to deflect the agent’s questions, and the woman eventually leaves. As John heads out to retrieve Riley from Cameron’s presence, Sarah paces inside the house, her mind racing. She briefly contemplates killing Riley, gripping her Glock as she weighs the decision. But ultimately, she sets the gun down and removes the magazine.
Later, John tells Sarah that Riley had confided in a friend who betrayed her trust. Sarah remains unconvinced, especially when Riley suddenly vanishes from the back porch.
Episode 2.18
Realizing that their home is no longer safe, Sarah decides it's time to pack up and leave. Though she plans to clear out the garage herself, John cryptically offers to do it instead. That evening, as she and Kacy pack belongings in the kitchen, Kacy mentions a recent murder case—a girl’s body was found in a river. Her boyfriend, Trevor, had been on the case. Kacy's description of the victim—blonde hair, scars on her wrists, and a star tattoo—sends a chill through Sarah. Riley’s murder, Kacy explains, was an execution.
Shaken, Sarah searches for John and finds him in the garage with Cameron. Asking to speak with him alone, she breaks the news of Riley’s death. Overwhelmed, John storms off toward the house. Meanwhile, Sarah turns to Cameron, but before she can relay what happened, Cameron makes it clear that she already overheard their conversation.
Returning to the garage, Sarah stumbles upon a stash of hidden endoskeleton parts. Realizing the significance of her discovery, she immediately calls Derek to inform him of Riley’s murder. Later, John confronts her, defending Cameron and insisting she had nothing to do with Riley’s death. But Sarah isn’t convinced. She calls out Cameron’s history of deception—lying about destroying the parts, sneaking out at night, and even claiming to love John. The last accusation hits a nerve, sending John into a furious outburst. Slamming his hand on the table, he angrily declares that Sarah knows nothing.
Hours later, Sarah burns the hidden endoskeleton parts with thermite. Cameron joins her, and Sarah admits that she had considered waiting for her with Derek’s rifle—ready to put a hole in her head—but held back for John’s sake.
Cameron, unphased, calmly tells Sarah that everyone is a threat to John. He must remain alone, isolated from other humans.
The words shake Sarah. What kind of life will her son be forced to live?
Cameron’s answer is simple.
"John’s life… someday."
Episode 2.19
After her conversation with Cameron, Sarah returned inside just as John arrived home. She knew he had gone to see Riley’s body, and though she tried to comfort him, a small part of her hoped he had discovered Cameron as the one responsible for Riley’s death. Instead, John shocked her by apologizing to Cameron for ever doubting her.
Later, while attempting to hide their safe beneath the floor, Sarah caught John on his way out and offered an apology for everything they had been through recently. As she watched him leave, she found herself reminiscing about his childhood—specifically, their time in a "hippie town" where John constantly got into fights with the local kids, forcing them to relocate yet again. He had hated it there.
Once John was gone, Cameron tried to follow, but Sarah stopped her, asking why Future John had sent her back in time. Cameron repeated her mission, but Sarah—perhaps out of jealousy or spite—suggested that Future John might have sent her away because he no longer wanted her around. The words seemed to unsettle Cameron, leaving her momentarily speechless.
Later that night, when John returned home after confronting Riley’s real killer, he sat down on the couch between Sarah and Cameron. The weight of the past few days finally broke him. At first, he turned to Cameron, but when she remained motionless, offering no comfort, he let his emotions take over. He broke down in tears, resting his head in Sarah’s lap as she held him, offering the reassurance he desperately needed.
Episode 2.20
With their home packed up and their belongings loaded into trucks, Sarah, John, Derek, and Cameron left the house behind, heading toward a new safe house in the desert. While Derek and Cameron detoured to retrieve weapons from their cache, Sarah drove John to the safe house—but first, she took an unexpected "detour."
As they traveled, Sarah attempted to lighten the mood by playing an old childhood game with John, remarking that she enjoyed being on the road again. Eventually, she brought him to a lighthouse on the coast, where, to John’s surprise, Charley Dixon was waiting.
Sarah entrusted John to Charley, privately revealing to him that she had discovered a lump—one she feared was cancerous. She chose not to tell John. The next morning, after making pancakes, she went to the hospital for an examination. The doctors discovered that the lump wasn’t cancerous but an inflammation caused by a tracking device implanted under her skin by Ed Winston. Acting quickly, Sarah used a defibrillator on herself, shocking the device and disabling it just moments before an assassin arrived.
She overpowered her attacker and fled the hospital, returning to the lighthouse—only to find a massacre. Several men lay dead, and Charley floated in the water, three fatal gunshot wounds to his chest. John and the boat were gone, meaning he had survived… for now.
Episode 2.21
Following Charley’s death, Sarah received a call from John and agreed to meet him at Kyle Reese’s burial site. There, she found Derek and Cameron, who had also been contacted by John and instructed where to find her. As they stood by the unmarked graves, Sarah pointed to where she believed Kyle had been buried but admitted she wasn’t entirely sure which grave was his.
Derek, frustrated, confronted her about trying to abandon him and Cameron. He believed Kyle’s sacrifice should have earned some trust between them. Sarah, however, insisted that John’s safety mattered more than any obligation she felt toward them. She also admitted that she resented the secrets John kept from her—particularly regarding Jesse.
Before the argument could continue, John arrived, holding a photograph of Savannah Weaver, which he had taken from one of the men who attacked the lighthouse. He insisted they needed to find and protect her. Neither Sarah nor Derek objected.
Tracking Savannah to the Weaver residence, the team infiltrated the house through different entry points. Sarah made her way to the garage—where she found John, already under attack by a T-888.
Sarah fired several rounds into the T-888’s back, only to be thrown to the ground by Cameron, who shielded her from return fire. As the machine refocused its attack, Sarah and John hurriedly led Savannah outside—only to be ambushed from above when the Terminator fired down at them from a balcony. Sarah attempted to distract it with a strafing attack, but once again, Cameron intervened, tackling the machine and sending it tumbling down a steep hill.
Re-entering the house, they searched for Derek, only to find him lying lifeless on the floor, a bullet wound to the head—executed by the Terminator. Though visibly shaken, Sarah maintained her composure, collecting his gun and wallet before instructing the others to move out.
They took refuge in an abandoned clothing warehouse, where Sarah checked their weapons while John silently mourned his uncle. Her thoughts were interrupted by a call from James Ellison, who demanded she hand over Savannah. Refusing to give up the girl, Sarah agreed to meet him downtown instead. Suspecting a trap, she sent Cameron ahead to retrieve Ellison and bring him to a safer location. When they met, Sarah explained that Savannah’s mother, Catherine Weaver, was likely the real target of the attack and was in grave danger.
She also informed him of Derek and Charley’s deaths, demanding to speak with Weaver herself. Ellison agreed to arrange a meeting and left. Sarah and Cameron returned to the warehouse, where John had uncovered startling information: Savannah had befriended an AI named John Henry, which was housed within Cromartie’s endoskeleton. Realizing that Ellison had recovered Cromartie’s body and handed it over to Weaver, Sarah became more suspicious.
Cameron voiced her desire to kill Ellison, but Sarah insisted that no one else die. Soon after, Ellison called again, proposing a trade—Savannah in exchange for a meeting with Weaver. Sarah accepted, and they arranged to meet at a movie theater. Cameron remained skeptical of Ellison’s reliability, but Sarah trusted that he would keep his word.
Ellison arrived and took Savannah, but as soon as Sarah stepped out of the theater, she walked straight into a police ambush. While John remained hidden inside, Sarah made a desperate attempt to escape but was quickly overpowered and beaten into submission by the officers. Handcuffed and arrested, she was paraded before a crowd of reporters as her identity was publicly revealed.
Episode 2.22
Now incarcerated, Sarah was subjected to intense interrogation by Agent Auldridge, who pressed her for John’s whereabouts. She held firm, insisting that John had died in the bank vault explosion in 1999. Later, she received a visit from Ellison, who assured her he had no role in her capture—the police had simply followed him to the theater. Sarah dismissed him, instructing him to keep Savannah safe, a message she repeated for the surveillance cameras.
She then requested to see a priest—the same one who had sheltered her and John when Cameron went rogue. In exchange for telling him the truth about Judgment Day and the future, Sarah asked him to do her a favor. The priest agreed.
That night, Agent Auldridge returned, expressing a surprising belief in her story, though Sarah remained tight-lipped. He briefly mentioned Danny Dyson’s disappearance but did not elaborate. The next morning, the priest visited her again, but their conversation was abruptly cut short by the sound of gunfire. Moments later, her cell door unlocked, and Sarah seized the opportunity to escape.
Navigating the chaos, she encountered a damaged Cameron in the halls, who silently led her outside to a waiting van. Behind the wheel was John, who had orchestrated her rescue. As they drove toward ZeiraCorp, Sarah chastised him for ignoring her warning and coming after her.
Upon arrival, she and John waited for Ellison to take them to Weaver, while Cameron descended into the basement to destroy John Henry. Sensing something was off, John hesitantly asked Sarah if she was sick, a suspicion fueled by Cameron’s concerns. Sarah, however, brushed off his question.
When Ellison arrived, John turned to Sarah and, for the first time in a long while, told her that he loved her before stepping into the elevator to meet Weaver. Without hesitation, Weaver revealed her true nature and motives to the Connors—but before they could delve into details, a Kaliba Hunter-Killer drone crashed into the office. In an instant, Weaver transformed, revealing herself as a T-1001, morphing into a protective shield to absorb the impact and shield them from harm.
The group fled to the basement, where Weaver informed Sarah that John couldn’t save humanity without John Henry’s help. However, when they arrived, John Henry was missing. In his place sat a deactivated Cameron, her chip removed. On a nearby screen, a single message looped over and over: I’M SORRY JOHN.
Weaver quickly deduced that John Henry had used a secret time displacement device in the basement to escape into the future. Determined to retrieve Cameron’s chip, John chose to follow Weaver into the unknown. Sarah, however, stepped out of the time sphere at the last moment, refusing to abandon the present.
As the machine powered up, John looked back at his mother. Sarah gazed at him with quiet resolve, whispering her love as he disappeared into the future—her words lingering in the air like an echo.
Terminator: Genisys
1973
A T-1000 was sent back to 1973 with the mission to terminate 9-year-old Sarah Connor. To counter this, a T-800 was also sent to protect her. Though her parents were murdered at their cabin, the T-800 successfully saved Sarah. Over the years, the Terminator—whom Sarah affectionately named "Pops"—trained her in combat and prepared her for the fight against Skynet. He also informed her of Judgment Day and her crucial role in preventing humanity's extinction. Sarah came to see Pops as a father figure, and together, they prepared for the arrival of Kyle Reese in 1984.
1984
When the original T-800 arrived in 1984 to eliminate Sarah, she and Pops quickly neutralized it. While Pops engaged the T-800 in combat, Sarah delivered the finishing blow using a .50 caliber sniper rifle.
Meanwhile, Kyle Reese arrived expecting to protect a helpless waitress version of Sarah, only to be immediately pursued by a T-1000. Before he could be killed, Sarah and Pops intervened and rescued him. Sarah then explained that the timeline had been altered and that she needed his help to prevent Judgment Day. However, upon seeing Pops, Kyle assumed the T-800 was hostile and tried to destroy it, forcing Pops to subdue him.
When Kyle regained consciousness, Sarah revealed that Pops had been reprogrammed and sent from the future, though his memory had been erased to prevent Skynet from discovering who had sent him. Before they could formulate a plan, the T-1000 tracked them to their safe house. However, Sarah and Pops lured it into an acid trap, dissolving it completely.
Sarah then revealed that she and Pops had constructed a crude version of the Time Displacement Equipment (TDE) and planned to travel to 1997 to stop Judgment Day before it could occur. However, due to Kyle’s newly acquired alternate memories, he realized that Judgment Day had been pushed back to 2017. At first, Sarah dismissed his claim, but he eventually convinced her. With Pops unable to travel immediately due to damage to his organic covering, Sarah and Kyle proceeded forward alone.
2017
Upon arriving in 2017, Sarah and Kyle materialized in the middle of a busy highway and were promptly arrested. While in custody, they learned about a highly anticipated global operating system called "Genisys," which Kyle recognized from his alternate memories as the new form of Skynet.
At the hospital, John Connor unexpectedly arrived and helped them escape. He claimed to have traveled back in time shortly after Kyle did. During their escape, John inadvertently revealed to Kyle that he was his father, confirming what Sarah had hidden from him.
Their reunion was cut short when Pops suddenly appeared and opened fire on John, revealing that he was no longer human. Skynet, under the guise of Alex, had transformed John into a T-3000, an advanced nanomachine-based Terminator. Horrified, Sarah, Kyle, and Pops managed to escape, with Sarah bitterly realizing that John was no longer humanity’s last hope—he was now Skynet’s last hope.
The trio retreated to a safe house to stock up on weapons for their mission to destroy Genisys. During this time, Kyle confronted Sarah about lying to him regarding John’s parentage. She countered that it was actually John who had manipulated him, ensuring his own existence. Kyle then admitted his feelings for Sarah, but she pushed him away, fearing that their relationship would lead to his death as it had in the previous timeline.
John soon tracked them to their hideout, forcing them to flee in a stolen school bus. The chase culminated on the Golden Gate Bridge, where John sabotaged the bus, causing it to crash. Although Sarah and Kyle survived, they were once again taken into custody and transferred to a police station for further interrogation.
Detective O'Brien, recalling his encounter with Sarah and Kyle in 1984, assists them in escaping custody. During their exit, they encounter a young Kyle Reese, frightened by the gunfire. Sarah urges the boy to run and not look back. After a helicopter chase involving John, the trio arrives at Cyberdyne Systems, where the Genisys program is being developed. John confronts them and nearly succeeds in killing them, but Pops intervenes, trapping both himself and John within the magnetic field of the prototype Time Displacement Equipment. As they struggle, Sarah and Kyle rig the facility with explosives. In a final act, Pops is thrown into a vat of mimetic polyalloy before John is destroyed by the magnetic field. Sarah and Kyle take refuge in a bunker just as the building detonates. Believing they are doomed due to limited air supply, they are unexpectedly rescued by Pops, who has been restored and enhanced by the mimetic polyalloy, granting him T-1000-like abilities.
The trio visits young Kyle Reese's home, ensuring he understands that Genisys is Skynet, thus completing the memory loop for adult Kyle. Sarah acknowledges that she now has the freedom to choose her own path. She and Kyle share a kiss, indicating her choice to be with him. Together with Pops, they drive off, embracing an uncertain but hopeful future.
Terminator Dark Fate
For nearly two decades, Sarah Connor dedicated herself to hunting down every Terminator sent from the future. Each time she received a mysterious text providing coordinates to a Time Bubble, she would track down and eliminate the machine.
In 2020, after receiving two more cryptic messages, Sarah arrived at a location just in time to witness a Time Bubble materialize in midair. A figure—Grace Harper—fell from the bridge and crashed onto a car. Sarah began to suspect that while she had changed the future, it hadn't unfolded the way she had hoped. New threats were emerging, and they were worse than ever.
Later, Sarah found Grace and Dani Ramos, a factory worker, cornered on a bridge by a Rev-9 Terminator. She launched a surprise attack, temporarily disabling the machine and allowing the duo to escape. However, Grace and Dani fled in Sarah’s car, forcing her to abandon the fight and pursue them separately.
After securing another vehicle, Sarah tracked them to a pharmacy, where she found Grace unconscious and Dani gathering stolen medication. Taking charge, she drove them to a motel, tossing Dani’s phone out the window to prevent tracking. At the motel, Sarah cooled Grace’s body with ice and administered the stolen drugs, despite having no precise knowledge of the correct dosage. When Dani mourned her father and brother, Sarah, hardened by loss, told her that funerals and goodbyes wouldn’t help—she had to learn to live with it.
Seeking answers, Sarah locked Dani outside and attempted to interrogate Grace at gunpoint, but Grace quickly overpowered her. Once Dani was let back in, Sarah learned the truth—Grace was not a machine, but an enhanced human soldier sent from 2042 to protect Dani.
Realizing their best chance of survival was to work together, Sarah convinced Grace to form an alliance. Grace explained that in this altered future, a new AI called Legion had risen to replace Skynet. When Sarah mentioned her mysterious texts, Grace traced the sender to a location near Laredo, Texas—the same coordinates tattooed on her body. The group decided to head there, using Dani’s uncle, Felipe Gandal, a coyote, to help them cross the border.
During the journey, Grace revealed more about the future, and Sarah concluded that Dani was being targeted for the same reason she had been—she was destined to give birth to humanity’s future leader.
Upon reaching Felipe, they successfully crossed the border, only to be ambushed by U.S. Border Patrol, tipped off by the Rev-9. Sarah, quick-thinking, pretended Dani was her granddaughter with a medical condition to stay close to her. However, before they could escape, the Rev-9 crashed a surveillance drone into the ground in an attempt to kill Dani. Though the group survived, Grace was knocked unconscious in the chaos.
The group was transported to the Texas Detention and Processing Center in Laredo. Sarah attempted to pick the lock of her cage but was unsuccessful. Soon after, Agent Rigby arrived to transfer her to a private holding cell, as she was classified as a high-profile fugitive. While being escorted to the second floor, Sarah noticed Grace—who had escaped the infirmary—pulling a fire alarm after spotting the Rev-9 disguised as a federal agent inside the facility. Taking advantage of the distraction, Sarah incapacitated Rigby and the accompanying officer before escaping with Rigby’s pistol.
As Sarah ran toward Dani and Grace’s stolen helicopter, the Rev-9 pursued her. Despite Grace’s insistence that they take off, Dani refused to abandon Sarah. She jumped out of the chopper, firing at the advancing machine before Sarah grabbed her and pulled her aboard. They managed to lift off just in time, with Sarah shooting at the Rev-9 as it lunged toward them. When Grace scolded Dani for her recklessness, Sarah sided with Grace.
The group followed the coordinates outside Laredo, arriving at a secluded cabin in the woods where they found Carl, a Series 800 Model 101 Terminator. Recognizing him as the machine that had killed John, Sarah immediately tried to shoot him with a shotgun, only to be stopped by Grace. Storming off into the woods, Sarah confided in Dani that she had never taken a photo of John, fearing it would help the machines track him, and now she was struggling to remember his face.
Returning to the cabin, Sarah confronted Carl, who explained that after killing John, he had no further directives. In the following months, he saved a woman named Alicia and her son, Mateo, from an abusive husband and, over time, developed a sense of conscience while raising Mateo as his own. He had been detecting the shockwaves of Time Bubbles and sending their coordinates to Sarah, believing it would give her a purpose and bring meaning to John's death.
Though still furious, Sarah agreed to work with Carl to protect Dani but made it clear that she would never call him by that name. She proposed setting a kill box to ambush the Rev-9, using Dani as bait. Dani, determined to fight, agreed, despite Grace’s strong objections. The group then set out to meet Major Dean, an Air Force officer and Sarah’s contact, to acquire an EMP weapon. Sarah was startled to learn that Carl was already aware of her contact, despite her taking precautions by keeping her phone in a signal-blocking bag.
Upon meeting Major Dean, the team was ambushed by the Rev-9, who had tracked Carl’s van after visiting his cabin. The group fought their way to Bingham Air Force Base, where they boarded a C-5 aircraft to escape. As Sarah and Carl destroyed the Rev-9’s pursuing helicopter with gunfire, the machine leaped onto the plane. In the struggle, Sarah and Dani managed to knock the Rev-9 off the aircraft using Carl’s van.
Shortly after, they discovered that their EMP weapon had been damaged during the firefight. Grace then revealed that Dani wasn’t being targeted because she would give birth to a future leader—she was the Resistance leader who had saved her life in the future. Sarah, shocked, realized that Dani was this timeline’s equivalent of John Connor, not his mother as she had assumed.
Before they could process this revelation, the Rev-9 returned, using a hijacked aerial refueling tanker to ram their plane and infiltrate it mid-flight. As the aircraft plummeted, Sarah, Dani, and Grace escaped in a Humvee while Carl engaged the Rev-9. The Humvee parachuted down to a dam, where Sarah and Dani managed to entangle the Rev-9 underwater using a parachute, setting the stage for their final confrontation.
Sarah and Dani regrouped with Grace and Carl for a final confrontation against the Rev-9 in the turbine room. Grace and Carl managed to trap the machine inside a turbine, triggering a massive explosion that severely damaged both the Rev-9 and Carl. Sensing that the fight wasn’t over, Sarah cautiously approached the wreckage, only for the Rev-9—now reduced to its exposed, mangled endoskeleton—to lunge out and knock her aside.
As Dani took on the Rev-9, Sarah, injured but determined, called out to Carl, who had been incapacitated by the blast. In a moment of resolve, she finally acknowledged him by name, urging him to get up and help Dani. Carl regained consciousness and intervened just as the Rev-9 was about to strangle Dani, preventing it from finishing her off.
Sarah could only watch as Dani, with tears in her eyes, took the thorium reactor from Grace’s dying body and plunged it into the Rev-9’s skull. With the reactor activated, Carl grabbed the Rev-9 and pulled both himself and the machine into a pit. As he locked eyes with Sarah one last time, he uttered the words, “For John,” before the reactor detonated, destroying them both.
In the aftermath, Sarah and Dani mourned Grace, with Dani expressing her gratitude for everything Grace had done to protect her.
Sometime later, the two tracked down young Grace and watched her playing with her family at a playground. As Dani vowed never to let Grace die for her again, Sarah reminded her that she needed to be prepared for whatever lay ahead. With that, they drove off into an uncertain future.
Powers and Statistics
Tier: At least 10-A. 9-B with weapons
Powers and Abilities: Peak Human Characteristics, Martial Arts, Acrobatics, Marksmanship, Stealth Mastery, Damage Boost (Can increase the damage of her weapons with upgrades but also requires Preparation), Vehicular Mastery, Explosion Manipulation (via Rocket Launchers and Grenades)
Attack Potency: At least Athlete level (She is an athletic and physically fit individual) Wall level with weapons (Her weaponry includes a Remington Model 870, his other weapons are in this same level. Capable of harming the T-1000 with weapons )
Speed: Athletic Human travel speed (Is an athletically built person) with Superhuman reactions & combat speed (Can react to attacks from Terminators) and Supersonic attack speed with firearms (1550 ft/s or 472.44 m/s)
Lifting Strength: Above Average Human
Striking Strength: At least Athlete level
Durability: At least Athlete level
Stamina: Peak Human (Can run and fight for long periods)
Range: Tens of Metres to Hundreds of Meters with Guns
Standard Equipment: Colt M1911, Remington Model 870, Detonics SpeedMaster, Taurus PT99AFS, Colt Commando CAR-15 Variants, Colt Model 653, RPG
Intelligence: Gifted (Vastly Knowledgeable about weaponry and hunting Teminators)
Weaknesses: Normal Human Weakness, Suffers from PTSD
Trivia
- When Sarah's group infiltrates the Cyberdyne building, Sarah is wearing Kyle Reese's light blue trench coat from the start of the first movie.
- Sarah Connor was voted #5 on Revolution's Top 10 SF Movie Heroines of all time, with Ellen Ripley (the Alien saga) being #1.
- Sarah can be seen wearing a "Jetsons" shirt from "The Jetsons" before going out.
- According to the script for The Terminator in the Special Edition DVD, Sarah was 19 years old. The film was set from May 12 through May 14 of 1984, placing her birth date between 1964-5-15 and 1965-5-12.
- In Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Sarah's psychologist states that she is 29. The film itself takes place on a summer weekend when John (born 1985-2-28) is age 10, setting the date of T2 between 1995-06-21 and 1995-09-23. This places Sarah's birth date between 1965-06-22 and 1966-09-23, making her 17 or 18 during The Terminator.
- The ending credits of Terminator: Dark Fate state that Sarah was 33 years old in the opening scene of the film, which takes place in 1998. This suggests that Sarah was born in either 1964 or 1965.
- There is no overlap in the date ranges suggested by the first two films, thus one of the stated ages must be incorrect. If we assume Sarah was 18 during The Terminator, 19 when John was born, and 29 during the events of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, then this places Sarah's date of birth between 22 June 1965 and 28 February 1966. It is also been highly speculated that Sarah's exact date of birth is 13 November 1965.
- The tombstone shown in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003) reads 1959–1997. The birth year would make her 24 or 25 during The Terminator. Her death was described as from leukemia shortly after the original Judgment Day (1997-8-29). It is argued that she and John were living "off the grid" in her adult years, routinely using false names, birth dates, inter alias; and that her tomb was really a weapons cache. Nevertheless, the age of John in Rise of Machines timeline(s) shows an inconsistency with other timelines.
- For comparison, Linda Hamilton was born in September 1956, three years before 1959, the year given for Sarah's birth in T3.
- Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
- The timeline in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles is different from that in the films. In the SCC timeline, the events of The Terminator take place in February 1983, and those of Terminator 2: Judgment Day in 1997.
- In the Pilot episode, Sarah's FBI file lists her age as 33 on 1999-08-24, placing her birth date between 1965-08-25 and 1966-08-24. This would make her 16 or 17 during The Terminator.
- In the episode Strange Things Happen at the One Two Point, Sarah states that she was 19 when John was born. John's birth date in this timeline is 1983-11-14, thus placing Sarah's birth date between 1963-11-15 and 1964-11-14.
- Since these is no overlap in the above date ranges, one of the stated ages must be incorrect. If we assume Sarah was 18 during The Terminator and 19 when John was born (same as in the films), then Sarah would have been born in 1964 sometime between February (exact day unknown) and 14 November. Her age in the Pilot would be 34 or 35, depending on whether she was born before or after 24 August.
- For comparison, Lena Headey was born in October 1973, making her 33 at the start of filming in January 2007, and the same age Sarah is said to be in 1999.
- In the original timeline as mentioned in the novelization of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Sarah Connor dies when John Connor is in his mid-twenties when a supply convoy from Mexico led by her is ambushed by a squad of HKs.
- The alternate ending for Terminator 2: Judgment Day in the Ultimate Edition DVD shows Sarah alive and well on August 29, 2029. She is by then a grandmother (and John is a Senator) in a world where Skynet was never able to start its war on humanity.
- The Sarah Connor Chronicles timeline establishes that Sarah would have died of cancer in 2005 if she hadn't jumped forward to 2007. Therefore, if she does not receive treatment (or a cure) for her condition, she can expect to die sometime in 2013, assuming the time travel or other factors related to the relocation does not affect the progress of the disease. This bears some similarity to the Rise of the Machines version of Sarah, who also dies sometime after the original date (29 August 1997) of Judgment Day.
- Emily Blunt, Brie Larson, and Margot Robbie were considered for the role of Sarah Connor before Emilia Clarke was cast in Genisys.
- Emilia Clarke became a fan of the Terminator franchise after her older brother introduced her to the first two films at the age of eight.
- To prepare for the role, Emilia Clarke underwent weapons training. Arnold Schwarzenegger, initially uncertain of her experience with firearms, later praised her proficiency and authenticity in action sequences.
- Emilia Clarke is the second actress from Game of Thrones to portray Sarah Connor, following Lena Headey's role in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.
- Years after the release of Terminator Genisys, Emilia Clarke described the production environment as intense, expressing relief that the film's underperformance meant she would not reprise the role.
- Sarah Connor from Terminator: Dark Fate appears as a cameo character in Gears 5, alongside a T-800 Endoskeleton, as part of the Terminator: Dark Fate character pack. The pack was available for free on November 1, 2019, as a pre-order bonus or for Xbox Game Pass members who played Gears 5 by September 16. Sarah Connor’s Ultimate ability in the game is Heavy Hitter, which allows her to knock back and stun enemies.
- In Mortal Kombat 11, Sonya Blade features an alternate costume from the “Double Feature Skin Pack” that resembles Sarah Connor.
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