The third episode of Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles, “Mousetrap,” was not only exciting, but it also had great acting and an interesting plot. I’ve been very impressed with Terminator this season. It has really begun to evolve and mature with time, expanding the overarching storyline and the emotional ranges of the characters.

One thing that I really like in this season is how the show’s villainry has been expanded upon. Not only do we still have Cromartie chasing down John Conner, but now we also have a new villain, Catherine Weaver, another Terminator. Weaver is the CEO of ZeiraCorp, a technology company that has been attempting to reverse engineer Terminator technology. In this episode, Weaver even attempts to enlist Agent Ellison to her campaign. I have to assume that she is really just attempting to use Ellison as a pawn to get closer to John Conner or in some other way. Either way, it will be a bad deal for Ellison.

Speaking of bad deals, Charley’s wife got one hell of a bad deal. In this episode, Cromartie catches up with Charley and his wife, Michelle, as they flee and kidnaps Michelle to use her as bait to draw Sarah away from John. Sarah proved her resiliance once again as she, Derek, Charley, and Michelle escape from his trap, but Michelle is wounded and dies before they can get her to a hospital. Michelle’s death felt a little forced. I didn’t like the timing of it, but at the same time she had quickly become a useless character. With her out of the picture, it frees up Charley to take on a larger role in the series. I believe he will become something of a father figure for John.

Despite a pretty well laid plan, Cromartie is also eluded by John. He lures John to the Pier, pretending to be Sarah, to kill him. John’s Spidey sense went off though and he ran off, making a desperate plunge into the water. It worked out well because Terminators don’t float. My only question is, why didn’t Cromartie just tell John to meet him at home? Wouldn’t that have been a lot easier?

Nonetheless, week three produced another stellar episode. For me, this show is a bit of surprise. Given, it doesn’t always take a rocket scientist to follow, the plot has progressed and developed better than I had expected. I’ve really grown to like the show quite a lot. And after Heroes‘ shakey premiere, Terminator may end up being my favorite show of the year.