I loved it, and it's really exciting to see the show moving into uncharted territory. I think there is LOADS of potential for Season 3, because they can do pretty much whatever they want. I think I've pretty much narrowed down the 3 main priorities for the first few episodes of season 3:
- John needs to find Cameron's chip: from what we've seen, Cameron's program probably switched places with John Henry's. By that, I mean that John Henry probably downloaded himself onto Cameron's chip, while simultaneously uploading her onto his server, which would mean that they can switch back when John finds her chip. On John's end though, this will be the classic "Save the Princess" scenario. The fact that John cares about Cameron enough that he'd put his own destiny at risk to save her speaks volumes about how strongly he cares for her. We still don't know why Cam agreed to give John Henry her chip, but that's yet another question I'm eager to see answered. Above all else, I'm glad that FINALLY, the writers are making us root for John again.
- Return to 2009: Obviously, we won't have much of a show if John spends the rest of it in post-apocalyptia, because that means that anything Sarah does in the present will be futile. When John returns to the present, the future will start evolving again, but in the mean time we'll get a good look at a future where John didn't exist; where the resistance will have to fight without his leadership. John is either going to be disillusioned about his importance in the war, or he is going to be bolstered in how lost of a cause it is if he doesn't return to 2009 and grow up. John's best hope for survival will almost definitely be through Catherine Weaver, so he's lucky that she's on his side.
- Repair Cameron: With Cameron's body still at Ziera Corp, the Ziera techies will probably repair her, since they fixed up Cromartie's body good as new, despite him suffering even more damage than Cam. Whether or not they're going to have Cameron being active through John Henry's hardware, or even having her body tethered to it in a similar way to JH, is kind of a mystery at this point. Given the fact that this is looking to be a "save the princess" story, by nature the audience will feel like they've been cheated out of their emotional and chronological investment if Cameron is beyond saving, so I wouldn't worry about it much. Also, the "I'm sorry John" message that appears on JH's screen suggests that Cameron still exists, but she's confined within John Henry's servers. I think it's kind of a given that in some form, John will come riding in on the white horse and reactivate her.
On an interesting side note, I'm really interested to see where John's introduction to Allison takes him in terms of character development. A lot of sillies on the internet have long speculated that Allison is somehow the "ideal" way for John to fulfill his feelings towards Cameron while avoiding the "boy on robot" territory, but I think it's going to be kind of the opposite. I think the fact that Allison is the so called "easy way out" means she's going to be there to tempt John. Are John's feelings for Cameron based on her looks, or on who she is underneath? What better way to find out, than by offering him a human girl that looks just like her as an alternative?
I think that as John comes to realize just how different Allison and Cameron are, it will affirm that there is no substitute for Cameron, and John will be more comfortable with his feelings towards her. Seeing how much John enjoyed being close to Cameron, even as he felt her cold metal bones, shows that John does not need to ignore the fact that she's metal underneath to find her attractive, and enjoy closeness to her. She quite literally opened herself up and let John inside of her, which carries with it some very deliberate sexual connotations.
The next step, is finding out whether or not John would still want her even if he was offered an alternative, which is where Allison fits into the story. I think John's initial reaction to Allison is a pretty good indicator of where they're going to to go with her character: when John first sees her, his face lights up on a kid like Christmas day; he's found Cameron, and everything is going to be okay. But then, reality sinks in, and he realizes it's not her. His face goes from one of joy to a kid who just found out that Santa Clause isn't real. I think that's going to be the tune that their entire relationship is going to take.
Yeah, this is an awful lot of Jameron-centric thinking, but hey, it was Josh Friedman's idea to have John go 20 years into the future on a quest to rescue his beloved Cammy's chip and bring her back. A lot of Jameron talk kind of comes with the territory.
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