"When I was tossing and turning last night trying to get to sleep, I came up with this idea:

What if Cameron either is more Skynet controlled than we realize or acting like a rogue and wayward child of Skynet, but for some reason (perhaps because she was designed and built too well) she has become individually more advanced and more "self aware" than her creator (Skynet's worst nightmare)? She has become curious and intrigued about humans and what it means to be a human... wanting to "walk --or dance-- a mile in our shoes" so to speak. Maybe she's drawn to us as a species because we've shown grit, determination, tenacity, and resilience when facing impossible odds and that has somehow "moved" her.

Perhaps because of this special spark and change of "heart" from your normal Terminator (even Arnold's model) John trusts her so much and talks to her in such intimate details about himself. Then decided to use her in the fight and built on top of this special foundation with his own programming... or left her as is, but gave her specific missions to carry out.

Now that she's in the present with this younger and "purer" John and a living, breathing Sarah Connor acting like a stand-in mother, a new parental figure with human morals, values, and understanding aside from Skynet she starts learning and being guided to the basic building blocks of humanity and that opens her eyes far beyond what was happening to her "mind" in her Future, and now extinct timeline.

She is experiencing friendship, family, bonding, trust and other positive traits that fly in the face of what Skynet believes: that humans are worthless, but dangerous bugs to be feared and squashed. This sets up an internal struggle for the very soul of Cameron.

more... "

"I like the way you describe Cameron as acting like a rogue and wayward child of Skynet, So if this was a goofy, fun show, or perhaps for a little comic relief, they could (I atlest thinks it could be fun)to have Skynet send one, perhaps a very advanced model to go and get its wayward child sat on the straight an narow, a little like when Sarah Did the Jenni!-thing in ep.2 maybe have it go all on her, with not socialising with the enemy, without sanction from skynet, instead of beeing angry of her meeting with a boy, and maybe have her when she first sees/hears this model, threathning with whatever Skynets has as an equal to parents grounding,/limiting of privileages, she actually reacts very human(not just simulating it), either with fear in her voice, like "I am, such in major trouble now" or like very rebellious like, "shouting from behind a wall, when you have to get me first"

How about that? It maynot fit in the series, but it could be a little comic relief?

KrelleK "

"read this entire thread. So many lovely and amazing ideas and theories! I agree that most of them are very very plausible, esapecially the original poster's ideas. I think that Cameron's progression to feelings won't be as far fetched or long term as you might think however. Whatever her memories of the future are, FutureJohn is integral to them. I tend to believe futureJohn taught her everything she knows about human interactions and maybe grew attached to her in the education. Such memories were of course eradicated as superflous before sent on her mission to 1999, but I'm sure now that her chip holds hidden or latent files which are basically erased data that retains a ghost-file that she can then retrieve, or possibly it can reactivate itself once she herself reactivates after time travel. a tech-savvy Future John should have known that, which leads to the idea that he most likely left the latent files there on purpose...they were most likely not pivotal files, voice data cues, protocols, basic instinctual programmed behaviors that were triggered only in the presence of JOHN CONNOR. I think, because of these latent files, Cameron already has a sort of quasi-affection for John while his is still in the beginning stages of infatuation and gratitude. She just doesn't understand why yet. I think this will begin to be explored as it was said, in "flash-forwards" to Cam's now defunct future, and the development of her relationship with John. As to her loving John being the key to bringing Skynet down? personally, I don't think the writer's would go down such a pure, truly meaningful route. not that they can't or won't, but that I find the writers make up their own logic as to what constitutes a morally uplifting conclusion. Even if I believe in the "Hippie theory" it may be a tad too cliched for the writer's to think they can touch it. Can it happen? sure. is it likely? 50% likely. keep theorizing! "

"Love is like oxygen!

"