The following contains MAJOR SPOILERS for "Complications", an episode of Fox's "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles".

I guess we can?t expect action every week. After one of the most action packed episodes of the season last week, ?Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles? went three storyline divergent storylines with minimal intersection.

The first storyline followed John and Cameron to Mexico to destroy Cromatie's body. But that pesky cyborg?s remains were nowhere to be found. Of course they suspect that it must have been Ellison who has taken the remains, but after Cameron beats up on him, John is convinced he is not involved. Of course he is, as we learn at the episode?s conclusion.

The second thread follows Sarah?s exploration of her dreams, which leads her back to Dr. Sherman (Dorian Harewood). This storyline is by far the weakest of the three, tying Sarah?s dreams to events. She believes everything is connected, and the imagery supports it as she is literally trying to connect three dots from an image in her dreams.

The primary storyline of this episode focuses on Derek and Jesse, who torture a human Skynet operative from the future named Charles Fisher, who has returned. In one of the most interesting elements of the episode, Jesse brings in the 2008 version of Fisher to confront himself. Apparently she and Derek have differing memories of the future, suggesting that they may have come from different iterations of the future.

This was not a bad episode, but it replaced real action with torture and lacked the psychological power of "The Tower Is Tall But the Fall Is Short". The added elements of dream imagery and interpretation has taken this to too much of an abstract level though in my view. The terminator threat is real, and that just makes some of the dream imagery (particularly Cameron nursing a turtle) just seem silly.

What Worked<.b>

Dorian Harewood was back as Dr. Sherman. I like the character, though he was not utilized too much in this episode.

The notion that Jesse and Derek may have come from different futures was intriguing.

Cameron struggles to understand empathy, based on a seemingly trivial event of Sarah flipping over a turtle, which had rolled onto its back. After torturing Ellison, and John deciding that Ellison is not guilty, Cameron rolls him over. That was priceless.

What Didn?t Work

We almost made it through another whole episode without Shirley Manson. Maybe next time.

The cactus as a terminator scene was so cheesy -- if I had not already been a viewer of the show, I might have switched off right then.

I am not a fan of torture scenes. I know there is a segment of the population who loves gruesome scenes, otherwise movies like ?Saw?, ?Reservoir Dogs?, and ?Scarface? wouldn?t exist. But I am not one of them. Hinting at torture is enough for me.

Giving Credit Where Credit is Due

"Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles? airs Monday nights on Fox. It stars Lena Heady, Thomas Dekker, Summer Glau, and Brian Austin Green. "Complications" was written by Ian Goldberg and was directed by John Wirth.

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