Terminator Zero’ Episode Six Review

Episode six of ‘Terminator Zero’ dives deep into one of the franchise’s biggest features, while providing some good character development for several of the main cast.

This episode opens with a scene between Eiko and the mysterious Prophet, who are discussing one of the biggest plot points, not just in this show, but in the whole Terminator franchise: the tricky business of time travel. The Prophet explains that time isn’t just a straight line, where you can jump back and forth as you like. Rather, when you do travel in time, you just create a new timeline, so you’re not so much changing the present or future, just creating a completely new one. This is similar to how it was explained in ‘Avengers: Infinity War’. This might seem like a reasonable answer, but it does open up a lot of problems for the franchise which has been built on some pretty shaky time travel mechanics, with the constant altering of the past shown in ‘Genysis’ and ‘Dark Fate’, where it’s used more as a convenient plot device rather than something that needs to work properly. It might have been better to not mention it at all and just let the audience’s suspension of disbelief do the work.

This scene also hints that the Prophet is more than she seems. How does she have any knowledge of time travel to this extent? Is she a previously established character we’ve already met? Considering this is only 2022, she does look too old to be anyone from previous ‘Terminator’ movies, unless she’s done a lot of time travel.

Aside from this, we get to see more of Misaki, Kenta, and Hiro, who are becoming some of the most interesting characters in the show. The mystery of who or what Misaki really is takes another turn, as she’s shown to have some pretty awesome fight moves, similar to what an advanced Terminator might have. This makes Kenta’s distrust of her all the more natural. He’s got some of the biggest character development in the show, as he goes from doubting Misaki, to trusting her again, and now abandoning her to find his sister Reika on his own, only to get captured by the Terminator.

All of this leaves plenty of questions needing answers as the show moves onto the last two episodes, and turns the stakes up even higher, as it prepares for the finale.