By Tara DiLullo Bennett

There?s a warm, gentle breeze blowing through Warner Brothers' Los Angeles lot this mid-October evening. It?s calm, serene, SoCal weather perfection. But something?s amiss. Near one of the many main entrance gates on these massive grounds, there?s a rather blocky building that?s breaking the tranquil mood as a steady flow of people bustle in and out the main entrance. There are many, and they are diligent and hurried, but there?s nothing in their actions that belies the fact that inside?all hell is breaking loose.

This particular night is several days into the shoot of the Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles episode ?The Demon Hand.? It?s a key hour that delves deeply into the heavy mythology of the show, digging up and recreating big moments that Sarah Connor experienced during her infamous stay at Pescadero State Mental hospital, so vividly portrayed in T2. But inside this building tonight, the action belongs to the Connors? latest protector Terminator, Cameron Phillips (Summer Glau).

Just inside the non-descript entrance, there?s now a blaze of activity as the building is dressed with signage and a mess of extras to represent a crowded LAPD complex. In the center of it all, tiny Glau is outfitted in cop blues?an eerie and obvious parallel to Robert Patrick?s getup from T2. In this scene, Cameron has just shut off the power to the building with the intention to cause chaos so she can sneak in and acquire some evidence in the basement without any interference.

Episode director Charles Beeson looks pleased with her delivery and gives some direction to the 1st A.D. to tweak the shot. A veteran director of shows like Smallville and Supernatural, the British Beeson is making his debut on T:TSCC with this episode. A self-proclaimed super-fan of the first two Terminator films, he explains to us that he?s enjoyed the challenges of helping this mythology transition to the small screen. ?TV is particularly good at the character stuff, and, as an industry, we are getting much better at making TV more cinematic,? he explains. ?For me, it?s all about telling a story about people and finding the right language for that. The inspiration for this series comes from T2 principally, and the rest of the structure comes from the scripts. This episode is particularly exciting because we go back to see Sarah Connor at Pescadero and we get to see the moment she signs away custody of her son. It?s the central emotional strand, and we see her son seeing that and then the resolution of that. It?s a very strong character arc. But it was also particularly thrilling to go back as we recreated the end of the corridor in the psychiatric hospital [from T2] so to stand in that was a blast. Yesterday we did all that ? we had Sarah in her cell, same dimension with the very iconic windows.?

But right now he?s got his hands full with what will be the opening sequence of the hour, and ordering more chatter from the extras in the hallways; and for the smoke machine to achieve the right balance of haze to obscure Cameron?s mission. It?s a classic Terminator-esque scene: moody, fraught with tension and just the right hint that action could come around any corner. Beeson says riding that line of drama is an important part of his job. ?An action sequence doesn?t mean anything to anybody unless you care about the people involved, so you still have to stick with the characters,? he shares. ?I shape all action around that. There?s not a lot of action in this episode, so the action scene we are doing is Cameron breaking into a police station to get hold of some evidence she is trying to track down. As soon as I saw in the script that she was wearing a motorcycle police outfit, there was an obvious inspiration to be drawn from that. But we are on an incredibly tight schedule and you do what you can, and you try and choose your moments.? As if on cue, he picks his moment and steps away to call ?Action!? Glau snaps to with her Terminator posture and dons her intense, reflective sunglasses and power walks into the scene. Beeson smiles, offering, ?You actually would think twice about crossing her!?

After a break in the scene, Glau comes over to share some thoughts on her character?s motivations this episode. On her own mission away from Sarah and John for the bulk of the hour, Cameron uses dance as an outlet to add more soul to her robotic nature. The actress shares, ?Cameron is still not quite fitting in, but it?s more of a team effort now. Because Cameron is not human, she can?t be fascinated or desire to be human, but there is an almost curiousness about being human and trying to absorb and mimic everything around her. We get to do a lot more character study and quieter scenes, things you wouldn?t be able to fit into a movie. For me, it?s easier to have leeway with this character.?

As she goes back to work, it?s not long before another of her ilk comes around. Actor David Kilde, who plays Cromartie, the latest SkyNet-sent Terminator on a mission to kill John Connor, is also wrestling with his robotic inclinations. While he doesn?t have the humanity issues that Cameron is wrestling with, Kilde is instead trying to find his place in the pantheon of cyber-killers. He?s got a pretty overwhelming lineage to live up to and that has the actor a little sweaty when it comes to making his mark. Kilde laughs when he tells us, ?I?m trying to be a really tough Terminator so they have a hard time killing me. It?s pretty great. I?m somewhere between Arnold [Schwarzenegger] and Robert Patrick on the buff scale. You know, I couldn?t imitate Arnold and I?m not the Robert Patrick kind of Terminator who morphs into things, but I think it?s cool that you get Terminators that have different personalities as they learn to assimilate.? Called to his trailer to prep for his next scene, Kilde nods a quick goodbye as he hustles off for some more ass-kicking fun. But he adds with a smile, ?I?m really having fun experimenting with the human emotions and facial expressions. It?s like being a kid?a really strong kid.?

Note: For more on Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, be sure to keep checking back with FEARnet--we'll have an exclusive video interview, from Wondercon 2008, with stars Summer Glau, Thomas Dekker and Brian Austin Green up soon!