The Sarah Connor Chronicles: What the Cliffhanger Ending in the Finale Meant

Terminator, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, set after the events of Terminator 2: Judgement Day, was canceled after 2 seasons with a cliffhanger ending.

It was unclear what would happen in The Sarah Connor Chronicles next, but the series hinted at certain possibilities in the series finale. The spin-off series was written by Josh Friedman and starred Lena Headey as Sarah Connor.

The series focuses on Sarah and her son, John, as they try to stop Skynet from coming into existence. Skynet is an A.I. system that will launch a deadly nuclear war against humans in the future.

In Terminator 2, the “Judgment Day” is thankfully stopped due to the efforts of Sarah, John, and the time-traveling T-800. However, Sarah Connor Chronicles, which begins after Terminator 2’s timeline, reveals that Sarah and John could only delay Skynet’s creation, not prevent it.

1. What happens to John Connor in Sarah Connor Chronicles?

At the end of Sarah Connor Chronicles season 2, the teen version of John Connor realizes that his future has changed. In the alternate timeline, John Connor no longer remains the resistance leader.

Judgment Day takes place in the finale, and humanity remains at war with Skynet’s Terminators. John Connor travels to the future with hopes of reactivating Cameron and tracking John Henry. Henry is an A.I. system that lives in T-888 Cromartie’s body.

In the future, he meets different versions of his comrades who do not recognize him. Moreover, John’s absence in the past greatly impacts his future. He doesn’t even remain important in the new timeline since he’s no longer the resistance leader in the past.

Dekker revealed that The Sarah Connor Chronicles season 3, which was canceled, would have shown John Connor’s rise in the alternate future of the season 2 finale. However, since Sarah decided to remain in the past (or the present), season 3 would have alternated between the stories of the Connors.

As per Dekker’s hints, John Connor would have eventually become the leader of the post-Judgment Day resistance, although in a different manner.

2. What happens to Sarah Connor at the end of Sarah Connor Chronicles?

Sarah stays back in the present-day timeline when John decides to track down John Henry in the future. She stays back to stop Skynet’s eventual creation and says an emotional goodbye to her son.

John tells Sarah that he loves her dearly, which is an important moment as the duo has crossed various hurdles. Moreover, FBI Agent Auldridge questions her about John’s whereabouts.

Sarah lies to Auldridge, telling him that John died during the events of Terminator 2. However, Auldridge continues to look for John.

3. Catherine Reveals Her Purpose

A mysterious Terminatrix called Catherine Weaver reveals her true intentions to the Connors. As a time-traveling agent on a mission to combat Skynet, Weaver considers herself the mother of AI John Henry.

The T-1001 leads the Zeira Corporation, which conceals the Cyborg Resistance, a group of renegade machines that fight against Skynet. In the season 2 finale, Sarah confronts Weaver, suspecting that she is working to establish Skynet.

However, Weaver has the opposite goal. She developed John Henry to counter Skynet with a different form of A.I. Once Weaver reveals that Skynet is the common enemy and John Connor and John Henry will be fighting against each other, a drone attempts to kill Weaver.

Moreover, the attempt is made to disturb the human-machine alliance that is in the cards. Weaver realizes that John Henry has gone to the future, while John Connor joins her to track Henry down. Once the two arrive in the future timeline, Weaver disappears, leaving the show open-ended.

4. About Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles is an American science fiction drama television series. It aired on Fox from January 13, 2008 to April 10, 2009, spanning 31 episodes across two seasons.

It is a spin-off from the Terminator film series, disregarding the events of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and picking up shortly after Terminator 2: Judgment Day.

The series revolves around the lives of Sarah Connor (portrayed by Lena Headey) and her son John (Thomas Dekker), who work to prevent the creation of Skynet, an artificially intelligent computer system that will eventually launch a nuclear war on humans.