On page 16, Sarah Connor fears that Terminators may be after
her and her son after seeing news footage of the slaughter
at the Death Valley Visitor Center. She tells John she was
afraid they'd find him and he asks "who"? She inquires back
whether he remembers that she told him "bad men" might come
after them. This seems to indicate that John is not already
familiar with the Terminators in this particular timeline,
so the events of this mini-series seem to take place in a timeline in which the
events of the movie Terminator 2: Judgment Day
never occurred.
Channel 9 news reporter Michael Erlin who appears in this
issue is a fictional character as far as I can tell. It's
not revealed what city Channel 9 represents, but probably
Los Angeles or Las Vegas seeing has how he is reporting on
events in Death Valley National Park.
In this issue, Sarah Connor is seen as a housekeeper at a
motel, under the identity of Mrs. Stanton. She sees the news
broadcast about the slaughter at the Death Valley Visitors
Center in Furnace Creek and realizes Terminators are
responsible. She calls for John and they set out to disappear
again, to avoid the Terminators.
On page 4, Sheriff Klein calls in to all her patrol cars
that the suspects (the two Terminators) are on Route 190,
heading for Death Valley Junction.
Death Valley Junction is a tiny community east of Death
Valley National Park. The eastbound portion of Route 190
ends at Death Valley Junction.
The old prospector tells VanDirk his name is Scotty. This is
probably an homage by writer Grant to Walter Edward Perry
Scott, known as Death Valley Scotty, a con man and
prospector in the region in the early 1900s.
On page 9, the police chopper pilot radios in that the
suspects have been sighted five miles beyond Zabriskie Point.
Zabriskie Point is a point in the Amargosa Range east of
Death Valley.
On page 15, Van Dirk has a flashback of his time in the Gulf
War. The Gulf War was a war,
lasting from August 1990 through February 1991, of U.N.
coalition forces spearheaded by the U.S. against Iraq for
the country's invasion and attempted annexation of Kuwait in
1990.
On page 16, John Connor is wearing EVo shorts. There are
various independent brands around the world making clothing
under the "Evo" name.
On page 17, we see "Death Valley Eco Project" stenciled on
one of the ATVs used by Ken Norden. He has previously stated
that his project had been funded by a university. The
Death Valley Eco Project appears to be a fictional study as
far as I can tell.
On pages 21-22, a Dr. Newbert is demonstrating the KZ-1, a
primitive version of an HK-Tank, to the U.S. Navy at China
Lake. It's unrevealed whether Dr. Newbert has a direct
connection to Cyberdyne; possibly he invented his proto-HK
on his own or with another company and Cyberdyne's microchip
technology was introduced to it later.
Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake is a real world
facility in the Mojave Desert of California.
After being betrayed by the U.S. military officers, Dr.
Newbert flees the scene with the KZ-1 in what appears to be
a military Humvee.
An advertisement for Cyberdyne appears on the inside back
cover of this issue.
Unanswered Questions
What does KZ-1 stand for?
Back to Terminator Episode
Studies
