Milky Moor posted:

The Future War - 2. Who Is John Connor?

At this point, and according to the rank-and-file of the resistance, John Connor is playing crazy temporal chess with Skynet and appears to conduct much of his business through Cameron, who is basically his top lieutenant, bodyguard, advisor, confidante, perhaps even lover. "Telling me is the same as telling John." Future John is playing the long game, the big game, and his leadership is suffering. People are losing faith in the mythological savior that is John Connor.

How similar this is to Derek's future is unclear. It feels like, however, that Derek came from a future where reprogrammed Terminators were never in positions of command and John was a more personable leader. However, this could be because Derek Reese was closer to John that Jesse or the average soldier was, therefore rendering both perspectives true. After all, even Skynet can deduce that John Connor has an inner circle.

If there's a reason why John Connor is losing the faith of his people, it appears to be that he is ruthlessly compartmentalizing information on a need-to-know basis. He is treating people like machines. He has an exacting plan and merely needs the humans to blindly follow it. This is the discussion and tension that plays out between Jesse and Queeg. Queeg knows what is going on, Jesse doesn't. Queeg doesn't think people need a reason, they just need to follow their orders and trust in the chain of command. Jesse argues that people do, in fact, need a reason.

When it comes to the mission of the Jimmy Carter, the following seems true. John Connor knew what was happening. Cameron knew what was happening. Queeg knew what was happening. Jesse was cleared to know some of it. For all of his big game thinking, however, John didn't accurately account for the variables of the soldiers under his command. While Queeg was acting entirely as expected and presumably desired, and Jesse's beavior was a big mistake, it might've been a mistake that could've been averted if John had've explained things to Jesse.

Or maybe it wouldn't have. Maybe Jesse would've reacted just as badly to the very idea of negotiating with metal. Maybe things would've gone worse.

(Of course, at the same time, Jesse is a soldier and should be ready to, even expecting to, follow orders when she doesn't have the full picture -- that's just part and parcel of being in a chain of command.)