In my first post about SCC, a review of the pre-air pilot I wrote in July 2007, I said this about Cameron:

"Cameron will, in the end, have to be sacrificed in a way completely different to the many deaths of the T-101. I think her model (by either accident or design) threatens the human-machine dualism of the Terminator mythology, and that for that dualism to be maintained, for the future to occur as it must, she will have to be destroyed. Irretrievably. With absolute finality. That, I suspect, is her purpose."

I wrote that review assuming - because it had been years since I'd seen Terminator or Terminator 2 - the metaphysics of T3 rather than of the first two films (or rather that of Kyle Reese and Sarah Connor): that the future was already set, and that Judgment Day was going to happen regardless of how much the past was changed.

Now, having seen more episodes of SCC, I've come to believe that, within the rules of this show at least, it is possible to change the future - to prevent Judgment Day. But my assessment of Cameron, and what she represents, hasn't changed very much. rez_lo once mused that she thought perhaps Cameron was Skynet's gift to John, a symbol, maybe, of all that the two generals have in common; my first SCC fic was about John giving Cameron the software to be almost as intelligent as Skynet, whilst also nurturing her through her "childhood", affording her the concern and tutelage that Skynet did not get; fryadvocate wrote about John's way of seeing Cameron as more than a "thing" being sharply (dangerously) at odds with how most of the resistance sees her.

What's been clear from the start is that Cameron is significant - because she is a "very scary robot", because she unsettles us so much, because in the pilot we were taken in and we feel emotion toward her. The new ads (showing Cameron as half-robot) that FOX had for SCC before it officially aired lessened the impact of that statement, but it deserves repeating that when the pre-air episode was doing the rounds, I read many reviews which expressed surprise that Cameron turned out to be a Terminator; she fooled us as much as she did John. None of the previous Terminators have ever done that, and only the T-888 (an "infiltrator", like Cameron) has shown anything like the sophisticated degree of human-like minicry that Cameron exhibits (when she chooses, when the mission dictates).

Cameron is a "freak", a wild card, with tremendous potential to affect the war and the future. Like Derek pointed out in "Vick's Chip", it is still conceivable that Cameron does turn into Skynet - that the bond between her and John (present! or future!John) is broken in some way and she strikes out on her own. She has that potential. But she also has the potential to be a kind of mediating force, a defector from the enemy who is simultaneously an ambassador for that enemy. She could be future!John's downfall, if he chooses her - and the compromise that she represents - above the desires of the rest of humanity. She is the greatest unknown, and the most beguiling type of mystery.

little_giddy explores one possibility of Cameron's "purpose" (a Trojan horse from future!John to his past self) that makes complete sense to me. It's also one of the most fascinating and complex characterisations of John that I've read yet.

The Further I Fall, I'm Beside You, by little_giddy (TSCC; John, Cameron)

John knew, like he'd always known, that nothing he did to the timeline would make Cameron human or born of a mother. That didn't mean he cared less, invested less in her; it meant the opposite. Cameron was a bomb and catalyst thrown into his own past, her every fibre from long hair to tone of voice calculated to get a precise reaction and loyalty from his own self. She was calculated to devastate him.

Edit: FOX, PLEASE DON'T CANCEL MY SHOW.