WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Mother/Android, now streaming on Hulu.
One of the biggest things the Terminator franchise was tasked with was making Skynet and the deadly robots something humanity wouldn’t be able to see coming. The films moved beyond T-800 and T-1000 models, evolving what the ’80s and ’90s offered because subterfuge was a more cerebral and unpredictable tool than wars filled with bombs and firefights. However, as hard as Terminator Salvation tried to destroy mankind with its act of deceit, Mother/Android perfected the arc it went for.
In Salvation, Marcus was planted within the rebel ranks in order to fool Resistance leader, John Connor. He thought he was human, which resulted in him luring John to the Skynet base, believing they would destroy the AI. However, unbeknownst to Marcus, Skynet used him as bait to bring John to his death. But the flaw in this plan was that a previous injury forced John and Co. to make Marcus into a hybrid, with it being revealed that he was killed in battle, only to be revived for the mission of getting John out of the picture.
To make matters worse, Marcus’ programming was always going to work against Skynet because he retained his compassion. Had the system purged this, Skynet would have gotten the drone they needed, not someone who would eventually turn on them, sacrifice himself and help John’s crew bring the digital overlords down.
Well, Mother/Android learned from this mistake and fixed it with Arthur, a bot secretly disguised as a man who saved Georgia and her boyfriend, Sam. He even had evidence planted in his bunker how he was a scientist, using tech to build vests to hide people from the bots roaming around. This was the ideal ruse, as it allowed him to slaughter his own kind before taking the injured couple to a Boston base that the bots needed to shut down.
This batch of resistance fighters had an EMP, and the only way Arthur was getting in was by being a messiah who needed to help damaged people. In other words, he was a more efficient, durable and loyal Marcus that no one would second guess. This resulted in him not even being checked properly, as the authorities wouldn’t question someone who brought humans in to be saved.
Acting as this savior allowed Arthur to then set bombs off and enable a perimeter breach that enables him and his bots to raid and kill the soldiers, all before destroying the EMP that would destroy so many of his kind. The way he faked grief and empathy was jaw-dropping because it made him an undetectable double agent who won everyone’s confidence with ease. Ultimately, it positioned Arthur as the cold, bloodthirsty avatar Skynet needed, just without the imperfections.
See how Terminator Salvation’s secret weapon is perfected in Mother/Android, now streaming on Hulu.
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