"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... "

"Interesting….. I hate to be the party pooper but I can’t see a love angle for Cameron. I see Cameron as a child a “true” innocent, however she is governed by what she is, a Terminator, I don’t think reprogramming changes anything about what she was originally designed to do just who her boss is. For me I would like Cameron’s journey to be one of self discovery and the development of free will not some love story as nice as that sounds because it would be too cliché. Freewill is by far a more powerful concept than love, it is what underpins who we are as a race that we question everything and make our own choices wherever they be good or bad. To question what we are and where we are going is what got us kicked out of the garden of Eden, its why angels fall. To go against our creator and question our existence is our greatest gift, that is what I would like to see for Cameron"

"It may be that it's the questioning of authority that helps Cameron step away from any programming that Skynet may have had inside her, guiding any of her actions. She can then choose to use her human experiences and become something else or stay a Terminator and help to destroy them.

Love or hate, Cameron? What will it be? That's a fundamental choice. The yin and the yang.

However, I see her dancing and being curious about humans (and who knows what else) and that seems to indicated to me that she likes this stuff, and may not want to be party to good things like that being destroyed.

In interviews, unless they were a way to throw off the viewers, the cast and crew seemed to stress this John/Sarah/Cameron triangle was some sort of family unit, however weird it might be.

That seems to me that perhaps if Cameron originally had some nefarious intent behind her secrecy, that being around these two and their fierce loyalty, bond, and love... and learning to be their friends and trusting each other would help change Cameron's mind. Again, if she is partially bad in some way.

John also stresses that sometimes the creation outdoes the creator (a machine becomes more than its maker), and breaks out of its shadow. The pupil beomes the master (cribbing Star Wars). Cameron would be Skynet's pupil and Skynet would have been her master in the Future. Now she's far more advanced than this current Skynet. The tables have turned.

Though, also check Cameron's word choice: "sometimes THEY go bad. No one knows why." She didn't say "we" go bad. She is not lumping herself with the other Terminators. She is already thinking as an individual.

Another thought, away from my original opening post is perhaps she has something to gain from seeing Skynet destroyed. That also could be because she's a Turk design and not a Skynet design, if they're different. "

"Again, I must point out what Summer keeps saying that Cameron "loves" John and that maybe she could find true love. Thomas Dekker says the fans will get more in S2.

Unless the writers are screwing with the actors too, then that is another indication that love and friendship plays a BIG roll in this show and one reason I focused my opening to love and caring and Skynet's downfall. That Cameron tries to use the love and experiences she's learned to help Skynet through its teething pains as Andy could not. Andy said he didn't know how to comfort it. Cameron's a fellow A.I. and can speak to Skynet in its language, on its level.

However, because Cameron is so much more advanced than anything seen before and so much more self-aware than even Future Skynet, that she is the cause of its destruction, whether that was her intent or not. The pupil takes out the master, the creation destroys its creator.

I may be repeating myself, but I want to stress this. "

"In the pilot when Cameron was taking the bullet out of Sarah -- Sarah said something along the lines of "he's gonna leave me" in reference to John.

Also with the scene between John and Cameon concerning the eating of the potato chip -- one of the things John said to her was he should have known better than to believe that a hot girl would be interested in a girl like him.

I got the distinct feeling that they were setting the stage for the fact that Cameron would be the one that eventually did cause John to leave Sarah in the sense that she is John's perfect match(machine or not). I think this was reinforced by the fact that it showed Sarah standing out of view watching the entire scene unfold.

I also think this was a factor in the reason that Sarah reacted so violently towards Cameron later on when she shot Enrique. Cameron had told her that she had shot him because Sarah would not have. Sarah slapped her and told her she didn't know what she would have done that she(Sarah) didn't even know what she would have done.

She then said something along the lines that Cameron didn't know her and that she didn't know HER SON. This was in response to Cameron saying earlier that she knew about the tin man -- that she(Sarah) read it to John before he went to sleep at night and that it was one of his favorite things that she used to do for him. Cameron said John used to talk about it a lot revealing a close connection between him and her. I think that Sarah knows down deep inside that Cameron and John are meant to be. She feels it in her heart --that John will eventually step away from her towards Cameron - that he will leave her for Cameron."

"''SHIT''!!!!!!!! cuckoo you started a really cool thread here the hard part is deciding which reply to responed to? I would love to see in season 2 another flashback sence in the future war in 2027 to see how future john come across cameron and to see there intimate moments they shared together meaning just the dialouge they had it must bin interesting plus i still wait to see who they get to play future john. But i do agree cameron is the hope of stoping skynet the way you are stating cuckoo its going to take a couple of seasons for her to learn all about us humanity then again cameron is a quick learner. I believe ''love does concour all'' at least thats the way last matraix movie ended but i also believe that mad gunoius josh freidman has bigger idea how skynet will be destroyed also how john/cameron will end up hooking up and sara and dereks fate as well. So cuckoo what do you think of that?
oh thanks for the invite buddy!"

"Thanks for the compliment. That means a lot.

Flashbacks (forwards in this case) have got to be at least a small part of revealing the "past" of these characters. Maybe peel back the layers a few episodes at a time.

Another thing Summer stated was that we don't know what Cameron was like in the future, or that if she was bad at some point. So, maybe it is true that Derek ran across Cameron when she was bad (and that's why he immediately yelled 'METAL!" when he saw her). He doesn't have the full comprehension that maybe she was turned by John or turned herself by choice. Maybe she, in an earlier stage on the battle field, was the cause of some mischief, so Derek can't let go of the anger. towards her.

Maybe, like I stated, Derek tries to destroy Cameron (maybe her chip, which would be the same thing-- he tried to take it from John once already) and Sarah and/or John have to take steps against him. Her "family" coming to her aid even if John's uncle and Sarah's lover's brother has to pay with his life. That would be a huge thing they'd have to deal with. Will it be Derek or Cameron? Who is truly worthy? Who is LOVED the most?

More to ponder.
"