Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles Episode 2.06 The Tower Is Tall But the Fall Is Short

Flashlights. Sarah and Cameron somewhere they're not supposed to be. Investigating. A man calls out "anyone here?" But they're gone.

Dr. Boyd Sherman. That's the man but what's his connection to Skynet? As John drives Cameron and Sarah back, we learn that Sherman's name was on the bloody list left on the wall by the dying resistance fighter.

Meanwhile, Catherine Weaver poses for a photo shoot in her office. She tries to get Savannah, her daughter, to join her in the photos, but Savannah's resistant. After Catherine scares her daughter away, she questions her assistant about her own experiences parenting. The assistant offers up the number of her family therapist...

...Dr. Boyd Sherman, whom is coincidentally meeting with the Baums: Sarah, John, and Cameron. As he talks to them and plans for individual meetings, Cameron bugs the office. Sherman and John plan for their first session tomorrow.

In the lobby at ZeiraCorp, Ellison is suspiciously restricted from an elevator with Catherine Weaver and Murch. We follow them below ground to a secret control room, The Turk's playroom! Andy Goode's once Chess-playing machine has evolved and can communicate now through images. But Murch tells Weaver that there's a problem -- the AI keeps showing unsolicited images and they don't know why or what it's trying to say.

Sherman meets with a very hesitant Savannah Weaver. When Catherine exits the room, Savannah shows Sherman what's really the matter -- she's scared of her mother.

Derek returns home to the Connor house suspiciously late. He doubled back on Sherman's house. Sarah tells him that they still need his patient files. Then, upstairs... a gunshot!

...cleaning his gun, John accidentally shot it off. Or was it an accident?

Cameron listens to Sherman's session with Savannah. Savannah tells Sherman that she "wants her old Mommy back." Outside, Catherine watches them play, not comprehending this very human interaction.

Meanwhile, John enters Sherman's office too! Sherman asks Weaver about her strongest memories from childhood. "Why do you ask?" He believes the death of Savannah's father has taken a real toll on her. "Well, we can't make her grow faster, can we?" Weaver asks. Sherman tells the T-1001 that she needs to work on her relationship with her daughter. In the waiting room, John bonds with Savannah when Weaver walks right by him, not knowing she just passed by John freaking Connor!

Derek hangs out at his normal spot in the park, watching people. Oddly, he feels someone watching him. Someone familiar? He chases the girl, following her all the way to the Alistair Grand Hotel... "Jesse?" And she kisses him. Someone familiar, indeed.

Jesse has traveled back in time -- but why? There's an obvious sexual chemistry between them. She tells Derek that Connor didn't send her back, she found a way back herself. Jesse tells Derek that there's metal everywhere now -- John has stationed them in every base -- and she doesn't trust them. Jesse came back to be with Derek: "When everything ends, I want to be with you." But he's got other plans...

John sits in with Sherman, who likens him to a war vet because he checked all the exits when he entered the room. Sherman asks about the burn on his face (from the gun shrapnel), but John lies and Sherman knows it. As Sherman talks to him, John flashes back to the attic -- Sarkissian holding Sarah and John hostage.

Cameron gives Sarah some facts on teen suicide, when Sherman pulls her aside. He tells her that he wants to see John again. He asks her if she knows of any violence in his past -- again, more flashes of fighting with Sarkissian in the attic.

The T-1001 watches old footage of an interview with the very real, very pregnant Catherine Weaver and her husband pre-plane crash. She's learning about her, absorbing her memories!

In the Turk's playroom, Murch tells her that it's still acting up -- it's showing the same series of pictures and equations over and over. He suggests maybe considering scrapping the project, but she rejects that idea.

Back in her office, she finds Savannah watching the old interview footage. T-1001 Weaver make an attempt to connect with "her" daughter... creepy...

John finds Sarah working out in the garage. He wonders when he's going back to Sherman, but she doesn't think they should. Apparently, the patient list was a bust -- the files were encoded. He pushes to go back -- after all, Sherman's name was on the list. Sarah reminds him there's no time table on the list and Sherman might not be important right now. Cameron suggests that maybe Sherman's name is on the list because he helps John. "What makes you think John needs help?" Sarah wonders. "What makes you think I don't?" he rebuffs. but then quickly pulls back.

Parked, a city bus driver sleeps at the wheel. Suddenly, a burst of blue electrical current. Uh-oh. With the precision of like a machine, a naked redheaded Terminator girl kills the driver, takes his clothes, and walks off into the distance.

Derek tells Sarah a story about a friend in the future who wanted to kill himself. Both agree John is not suicide, but also know that he is changing; watching Sarah kill Sarakissian really took a toll on him. More flashes of Sarah and John in the attic, fighting back.

Sherman's secretary enters her car. In the rearview mirror she catches a glimpse of the redhead Terminator girl, which we know means the end of her.

Ellison enters the ZeiraCorp elevator with Murch. Awkward silence, as Ellison inquires about the floor below (the Turk's playroom). "I'm going to have to ask you to get off on this floor," says Murch as he swipes his super secret key.

In her office, Weaver tells Sherman about the Turk. "I'm still a little fuzzy why you called me here." She is impressed with the way he's been helping Savannah and thinks he could be of use on the Turk. She shows him the images and equation but Sherman starts laughing -- he tells her the Turk is telling a joke!

Why is a math book so sad? Sherman tells her the AI is advanced -- it recognizes humor. It's like a gifted child that's grown bored. Because it has so many problems.

Sarah listens to Cameron's bugged session of Sherman and John, never more aware of John's pain.

Derek goes to see Jesse at the hotel. He was thinking about the time they met -- the time she saved him from killing himself! It wasn't a "friend" he was telling Sarah about, it was him. Passionately, Derek kisses her, as they fall into bed...

...but when Derek gets out of bed, Jesse shoves some photos under her bed, out of sight... photos of Derek with John freaking Connor. What the...?

Weaver shows Ellison a giant lego castle she built for Savannah. He asks her about the basement, but she just tells him there's high security for good reason -- "We're building something."

John meets with Sherman again -- this time pulling out Cameron's bug to talk in private. John tells him the basics on Sarkissian -- someone broke into their house on his birthday. Flashes to Sarkissian and John fighting. But John can't open up about the rest. Sherman tells John it's not his job to protect his parent.

As Cameron enters the office, she does so at the exact same time as the redhead machine. They exchange glances, suspicious, before the fighting begins! It's an all-out bash that throws them into an elevator, where Cameron destroys the machine completely. When Cameron pulls out it's chip, it self-destructs in her hand...

...at the Connor house, they talk about the machine. "It was there for Dr. Sherman." But to kill him or protect him? Cameron tells them about the chip -- Skynet is advancing! They clearly don't want John reprogramming machines in the future.

Sherman and Weaver talk about Savannah. She's very impressed with his work -- but he's impressed with the improvements she's made to her relationship with Savannah. She offers him a consulting job helping her team with the Turk.

John examines the destroyed Terminator, as Catherine invites Savannah on to her lap in her office. Derek and Jesse evaluate their lives -- apart -- as Cameron reads the pamphlet on suicide and examines the disintegrated chip.

And we're back in Sherman's office once more. He's with Sarah, as she flashes once more to Sarkissian in the attic. But it is John choking him, ending him, as Sarah just looks on...

No, she couldn't protect him then.