Last night’s Complications opened up the beginning of a new mystery for Sarah Connor: what are the three-dots? Could this symbol possibly be connected to Skynet? Do the dots represent something else entirely? Or are they simply a manifestation of her craziest imagination? We won’t answer those questions here, but we will point out a few other things…

As JW mentioned in his earlier blog post, in Sarah’s second dream she wanders into a nursery (of turtles)! If you look closely, you’ll notice the location of the nursery is actually the living room of the old, burned-down Connor house (from season one). Is there hidden meaning to Sarah dreaming about that place?

Brilliant West Wing actor Richard Schiff guest starred in the episode as Charles Fischer. Immediately before shooting, Schiff spent the week at the Democratic National Convention in Colorado. In fact, he flew back right after to shoot this series! While we love his performance as the Skynet Grey, this isn’t the first role we considered Schiff for — any guesses as to which first season role we considered him for?

And one more side note about Richard Schiff — all of the scenes that take place inside the shipping crate were shot on our stage 28A on the WB studio lot. Said stage is actually one of the same stages that housed his previous series, The West Wing. Nothing like coming home.

Complications marked the return of Dr. Sherman, as played by Dorian Harewood. His scenes with Sarah were shot quite soon after production wrapped on The Tower is Tall…, but keep your eyes peeled for a return appearance from Sherman in the near future (and in a different location, no less).

This is the first episode in which we open up the possibility that our characters’ actions in the present may be altering the future. (Derek’s future/past never included being tortured by Fischer, but Jesse’s version of it did.) Literary and psychological scholars refer to this concept as multiverse, a series of parallel universes or alternate realities. Wikipedia suggests that multiverse is “the hypothetical set of multiple possible universes (including our own universe) that together compromise all of reality.” It’s a hotbed issue within the Terminator franchise (after all, Sarah Connor’s known for her “no fate but what we make”), but this is the first time we’ve possibly seen his concept in play in our series. So is Derek right? Can they actually stop Judgement Day? Perhaps or perhaps Fischer’s trip back really was to secure the future by setting up his younger self. Thoughts?

As we’ve mentioned in the past, we often use shorthand in the writers’ room when breaking stories. It’s certainly no different with this one! The working name for “Fischer” was actually “Fritzel,” but of course we never actually intended to use it! The name Fritzel initiated with one of the episode’s two writers, Ian Goldberg, as he pitched the story. Ironically enough, this is one of the first episodes this season that has retained it’s title from the original draft of the script — a watch joke, as Charles Fischer explains within the episode.

Complications was written by the dynamo team of EP John Wirth and staff writer Ian Goldberg and directed by Steven DePaul, longtime television helmer.

A few months ago, Ian Goldberg announced that he wanted to write an episode inspired by the classic movie The Night Porter, an Italian film starring Dirk Bogarde and Charlotte Rampling, written and directed by Liliani Cavani. We all got very excited about the prospect of this, I had some vague memory of how much I liked and/or admired the film, though I could not recall a frame of it, except maybe a shot of Bogarde at the counter through the front door of the hotel, and I suspected that even that memory was unreliable.

Anyway, we embarked upon this little exercise and about three days into breaking the story, Ian confessed that he’d, in fact, never seen the movie. And so we all decided we needed to see the movie if we were going to write something inspired by it. So, cut to a week later, and the only person who actually went out and rented it and saw it was Toni Graphia, who thought it was creepy and disturbing and not as sexy as she’d hoped it would be.

I don’t know how much, in the end, the episode resembles in spirit the great French film (which I still haven’t gone back and watched), but I can say I feel it is among the best scripts we’ve produced on the series to date. This, primarily because of a couple of big sci-fi ideas it contains, and because of the profound (and uncredited) contributions from Josh.

Richard Schiff does amazing work in it, as we’ve all come to expect from him, and Brian Austin Green is a revelation. You’ll also get to see a very moving performance by Stephanie Jacobsen. Finally, Lena holds the entire episode together with a haunting, beautiful performance. She is, as always, at the heart of the show, and at the center of everything that happens. The world revolves around her and this affecting performance really resonated with me.

If you pay close attention, you’ll see Sarah revisit the old Connor house in one crucial scene. Thanks for watching!

Because it’s Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles night!

Complications
8PM/7PMc
FOX

Watch it live. Record it and watch it again. You’ll need to.

To hold you over for the weekend until Monday’s big Complications, here’s an exclusive clip from the new episode.

Monday Night
8PM/7PMc
FOX
Watch it live.

We’re back on MONDAY NIGHT with our all-new Complications!
8PM/7PMc
FOX

Watch it live to survive.

Because you’ve been asking, here it is, straight from the, err, horse’s mouth.

New episodes continue next Monday with Complications at 8PM/7PMc (only on FOX!) and air every Monday through the shocking end of our first thirteen episodes on December 15th! You’ll have to see it with your own eyes to believe it…

Then, get ready for the greatest night of sci-fi awesomeness that ever happened as we return with our fourteenth episode beginning on Friday, February 13, 2009. You definitely won’t want to miss it. As you’ve heard, we’ll be paired with Joss Whedon’s new extravaganza Dollhouse (and of course, the final return of another of our favorite sci-fi brethren shows on another cable channel at 10PM on Fridays).

We can’t wait!

And now a message from the Podcasting Society of America (err specifically, the Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles division):

We regret to inform you that due to the timely constraints of writing and shooting a kickass back-nine episodes, our informative and exciting weekly podcasts have gone on a temporary hiatus. While no podcasts were recorded for the Brothers of Nablus or Mr. Ferguson Is Ill Today episodes, we will return next week with the inside track on our all-new episode, Complications.

Please standby. Oh yeah, and tune in on Monday at 8PM/7PMc as we find the Connors at the beginning of a new, Cromartie-free, chapter. But when a new set of nightmares take hold of Sarah, we find ourselves asking — has she finally gone off the deep end or is she actually on the track of Skynet?

We’re taking a week off-air next week, but when we come back you’re in for a world of surprises. Curious about Weaver’s daughter? Wondering who Derek’s kissing? And where, oh where did Andy Goode’s The Turk go? All will be answered.

And as if you need even more incentive to tune into the show, a few other very special things (spoiler alert!) to look forward to in our coming weeks include more details on Derek’s past in the future, the return of the bloody list, episodes entitled Complications and Mr. Ferguson is Ill Today, a new obsession for Sarah Connor, and the inevitable meeting between James Ellison and the Connors.

Thoughts? Theories? Post away.