Plot
Sarah develops a fever after returning from Mexico, and has vivid and recurring dreams that send her back to Dr. Sherman. Derek discovers that Jesse has kidnapped a man who she believes is a pro-Skynet human agent from the future, and has to decide whether she's right or paranoid. Meanwhile John and Cameron go to recover Cromartie's body from its temporary grave for incineration, and discover that somebody else has already removed it.
Tropes
- All Therapists Are Muggles: Sarah's attempts to seek help from Dr. Sherman are once again stymied by her inability to confide in him.
- Alternate Timeline: It is revealed that in the timeline both Jesse and Fischer come from, Fischer tortured Derek for a long period of time as a demonstration to the Machines of how to interrogate humans, causing Fischer to become Derek's Arch-Enemy. Derek genuinely has no memory of this, leading him and Jesse to realise that they actually come from different potential futures, despite having been lovers in both.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: Done by Derek on the younger Fischer.
- Les Collaborateurs: This episode introduces the concept of "The Greys" - humans who work for Skynet.
- Distinguishing Mark: Jesse proves the two Fischers to be the same person at different life stages by revealing that they have the same birthmark.
- Fingore: Derek rips the present Fischer's fingernails out with pliers.
- Forced to Watch: Derek breaks the elder Fischer by torturing his present-day self in front of him.
- Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique:
- Jessie is happy to beat the hell out of Fischer whether he talks or not.
- Cameron does some severe Kung-Shui on Ellison to discover whether he took Cromartie's body.
- The Plan: At the end of the episode, Fischer has arranged for his younger self to be imprisoned, resulting in a Stable Time Loop.
- Shout-Out: The episode features repeated allusions to the Voight-Kampff test for human emotion in both Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and its film adaptation Blade Runner, which involves the subject's emotional response to the image of a tortoise trapped on its back. Sarah rescues a trapped tortoise in Mexico, to Cameron's puzzlement. Her later dream of John and Cromartie also involves symbolic tortoises, and after John and Cameron violently interrogate Ellison, Cameron turns him from his back onto his front.
- Tattooed Crook: Fischer has "prison ink," by which Derek is able to identify him.
- Torture Is Ineffective: Explored. Derek believes that the older Fischer will always be able to resist torture because he secretly believes it's what he deserves, but manages to break him by torturing his innocent younger self in front of him. Meanwhile Ellison manages to convince John that he didn't take Cromartie's corpse despite being brutally beaten up by Cameron.
- Torture Technician: Fischer supposedly acted in this role for the Machines, also teaching them how to torture humans.
-
Written-In Infirmity: Sarah has a bandaged hand in this episode, because Lena Headey really cut her hand on the rifle while using it to frenziedly smash Cromartie's chip in the previous episode.
