Sarah investigates a new company with a possible connection
to the three dots and Skynet.
Dr. Boyd Sherman (dies in this episode)
Didja Notice?
The pistol Ellison pulls out of a drawer at 0:35 on the
Blu-ray appears to be a
Glock
17.
Sarah and Cameron infiltrate Dakara Systems. This is a
fictitious company.
At 1:42 on the Blu-ray, three flags are seen atop the
building housing Dakara Systems. The middle flag is
obviously the U.S. flag, but I've been unable to positively
identify the other two. The right-most flag has a color
scheme similar to the flag of the African continent.
After looking at the hard drives stolen from Dakara, John
calls the company's concepts for AI "vaporware", comparing
it to the idea that terrorists "have the plans for nuclear
bombs...and all they're missing is the plutonium." In
computer terminology, "vaporware" is a product that is
announced but never produced for sale or is canceled.
John puts together a cheat sheet for Sarah so she'll have
an idea of what she's talking about during her investor
interview at Dakara Systems. He notes such terms as "neural
networks" and "emergent behavior".
An artificial neural network is a computing system based on
the biological neural network of animal brains, particularly
humans. "Emergent behavior" is a systems theory that larger
entities can emerge through the interactions of simpler
constructs.
Sarah adopts the last name "Gale" for her alias during her
interview at Dakara. Like
the
"Baum" name the Connors have adopted as their identities in The
Sarah Connor Chronicles, this would also seem to
derive from
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum; the
protagonist of the novel is Dorothy Gale.
Alex Akagi and Sarah reminisce over the band Duran Duran.
Duran Duran is a British new wave band that rocketed to
stardom in the 1980s.
During the investor interview with Sarah and Cameron, Xander
Akagi remarks that his mother died in a car crash in 1984.
It seems odd that he should say that during the interview.
That is also the year that the events of
The Terminator took
place. Since both the current episode and the original film
take place in Los Angeles, could it be that the writers
inserted the remark as a hint that the car crash that took
the life of Xander's mother was the result of one of the car
chases in the film?!
At 9:45 on the Blu-ray, it's pretty obvious that the coffee
cup Sarah is drinking from is, in fact, empty! This is
commonly the case in television and film productions...keep
the cup empty (unless it's transparent) to avoid spillage or
continuity errors during a scene.
John identifies one of the posters in Riley's room as a
shot of Yosemite, telling her he's been there with his mom.
This refers to
Yosemite National Park in northern California. The
poster appears to be a photo of the Merced River flowing
past the rock formation called El Capitan.
Xander's favorite game, Go, as explained by Cameron, is a
board game which originated in ancient
China over 2000 years ago and is still popular today. Her
remark that there are more possible Go games than atoms in
the universe is, allegedly, true. She also remarks that the
game was invented 5,000 years ago; really, it is only known
that it was invented over 2,500 years ago.
This episode reveals that Riley is a Resistance agent from
the future working with Jesse to stop Cameron from becoming
too close with John Connor, in fear that John will become
too trusting of reprogrammed Terminators in the future.
Alex tells Sarah he met his wife when she was 19 at a
concert of Pink Floyd's The Wall at the L.A.
Memorial Sports Arena in 1980 and Sarah remarks that she
remembers the concert and she wanted to go so bad. Pink
Floyd was a British rock band from (intermittently)
1965-2014; The Wall was their 1979 album,
accompanied by a concert tour, which opened at L.A. Memorial
Sports Arena in February 1980. The stadium was closed and
demolished in 2016 to build a new stadium,
Banc of California Stadium, set to open in 2018.
Alex guesses that Sarah must have been about 9 years old
when Pink Floyd played at
L.A. Memorial Sports Arena in 1980 and she responds only
that she was "very young". She was actually about 15 years
old at the time from what we know of the Terminator
timeline, but in the "current day" of 2007, she has skipped
the years of 2000-2006 (plus roughly half of 1999 and 2007)
due to time travel in
"No One is Ever Safe".
Alex mentions to Sarah a chess tournament sponsored by the
U.S. Air Force "a couple months ago". This is seemingly a
reference to the events of
"Queen's Gambit", though episodes since then have hinted
that almost a year has past since then (October 25, 2007).
Does anyone know what Minamoto and Cameron say in Japanese
during the dinner signing at the restaurant? If so, let me
know at the email address at the top of the page.
After the transaction with Minamoto is completed, Sarah
says, "Domo arigato." This is Japanese for "thank
you". After Minamoto leaves, Alexander says to Sarah, "I
didn't know you spoke Japanese," and she responds, "I was
into Styx before Duran Duran." Styx is an American rock
band. They had the hit single "Mr. Roboto" in 1983 which
features the repeated lyrics "Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto."
A pair of Riley's foster siblings fight over the TV remote
and whether to watch Shark Week or "some pillow biters sing
and dance".
Shark Week is an annual event on the Discovery Channel cable
network featuring shark-themed programming. The remark
"pillow biters sing and dance" is probably a reference to
So You Think You Can Dance, a dance show on the Fox
network. "Pillow biters" is a slang term for gay men.
Is anyone able to identify the song Xander is singing as the
Akagis and Connors return to Dakara Systems with the chip?
Part of the lyrics seem to be something like, "...are
watching, day by day he..."
At 25:45 on the Blu-ray, the monitor on Xander's computer
appears to have a Real Digital brand name on it. As far as I
can tell, this is meant to be a fictitious company.
As Riley approaches the refrigerator at 24:06 on the Blu-ray
to get her dinner of leftovers, the refrigerator door is
already open a few inches!
Riley has a bit of a breakdown about her foster family's
petty concerns when they don't know how good they have it at
the moment with "your cold sodas and your
Facebook
pages" and telling them that it's all going to burn soon.
Alex tells Sarah that his parents used to run a dry goods
store in
Azusa
before WWII and they lost it when they were rounded up for
internment at Heart Mountain.
Heart Mountain Relocation Center was an American
concentration camp for Japanese Americans during WWII,
located near Heart Mountain in Wyoming.
Alex tells Sarah that Minamoto is Yakuza.
The Yakuza is an organized crime
syndicate in Japan.
It's revealed that before he died, Dr. Sherman named the
Zeira Corporation's new A.I. John Henry. This is also the
name of a fictional American folk hero who fought against a
mechanical steam-powered hammer, defeating it, but dying of
exhaustion immediately after. In later episodes, we learn
that Catherine Weaver intends for John Henry to fight
against Skynet on behalf of humanity.
At 29:51 on the Blu-ray, the names of a number of Zeira
Corporation employees appear on the communication screen of
John Henry. Most seem to be random names, but a couple may
be nods to crewmembers on the series. J. Crouch could be Joe
Crouch, a video playback technician. C. Brown may be
Christopher Brown, a production designer and art director.

Ellison tells Weaver if she wants to teach John Henry
commands, she should start with the first ten. This refers
to the ten commandments given by God to Moses at Mt. Sinai
in the Old Testament.
Sarah holds her Glock 17 against Alex at the confrontation
at Dakara.
Memorable Dialog
don't push it.mp3
losers, castoffs, and rejects.mp3
a poster of a fish.mp3
Strange
things happen at the One-Two point.mp3
he's John Connor.mp3
start with the first ten.mp3
I was using your toothbrush.mp3
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