Terminating the Queen’s Gambit

‘Terminator’ Takes a Queen’s Gambit
Steven Kotler
Special to Hollywood.com

Now that I’ve seen Episode 4: Heavy Metal, I know what’s going to hold my attention all season. The show is really about how John Connor learns to save the world. A ‘heroes are made not born’ kind of thing, or Buffy the Vampire Slayer with robots.

And that’s good news.

John’s world saving lesson number one seems to involve putting aside all that “”why can’t I be a normal teenager”” stuff and learning to get his Rambo on. His moping was starting to grate, so it’s a revelation that comes not a moment too soon.

I was even more hopeful when Fox billed the teaser for Epsiode 5 as the most adrenaline-addled airing yet. I stayed hopeful right until the moment they released the name of that next episode: Queen’s Gambit.

See, Queen’s Gambit is one of the oldest known opening chess moves, the point of which is to take control of the center of the board. But in chess, taking control of the center of the board is about building tension towards a climax–not about the climax itself.

Here is the full story.