Terminator Zero’ Episode Eight Review

The eighth episode of Netflix’s ‘Terminator Zero’ delivers a powerful finale to the show, as the main characters converge on Malcolm Lee’s research lab for the final showdown.

There’s a lot going on here, and I mean a lot going on. Perhaps too much, to be honest. As we discovered in the previous episode, Malcolm is actually from the future, and travelled back in time to the 1980s to develop Kokoro, an AI that could help stop Skynet destroying human civilization. Now that Kokoro is online, it turns out she might not be all that different from Skynet.

This episode is full of unexpected twists and revelations, the first of which is that Eiko is actually Malcolm’s mother in the future. The thing is, she doesn’t know that, and hasn’t given birth to him yet, so it seems an odd choice that the resistance would choose to send her back. Surely they would know who he was? It certainly seems that Malcolm knew the mysterious prophet who decided to send Eiko back.

Is it a time loop, then? It seems more like a time knot, and it’s not the only one. In the second big twist, we find out that the Terminator that’s been hunting them all this time can’t actually harm Kenta, because it was sent back in time by him in the future. In 2022, Kenta makes a peace between humans and machines to end the war. This is the same year Eiko goes back, but the peace clearly hadn’t been made then, unless the Terminator is lying. Yet as we see, he doesn’t activate the EMP and destroy her, she convinces him to trust her, so if there is a time loop, it’s clearly already broken. When this is combined with what the Prophet said, time isn’t a straight line and there is no fate, it only makes it all the more confusing. 

I think this is a really big problem with time travel in sci-fi, no matter how you try to explain it, there are always contradictions. For a franchise like ‘Terminator’, which uses time travel as a simple plot device, it might have been better not to get so deep into it, or provide so many twists in one series. There’s only so much suspension of disbelief available to an audience.

This is easily the weakest part of the show. It’s been building up to something big all the way through the eight episode run, and some parts do land, while others don’t. The reveal that Malcolm was from the future, that Eiko was has mother, that Kenta sent the Terminator, any of these could have worked on their own, but put together, they add up into a big mess of time travel spaghetti.

Outside of this, the show’s been pretty good. Great action, gory, plenty of tension and twists that keep the story going. The characters are relatable, and it brings a new angle to the franchise through Malcolm and Kokoro’s debates and the idea that AI might be an ally as well as an enemy, a very timely point. The animation is excellent too, and the show looks great.

I don’t know if there’s more to be said here. The characters’ stories are left open-ended, and there’s no clear defeat of Skynet. Maybe they could be explored more in future seasons. Even if they don’t, this show has opened up new avenues for the show to explore, moving away from the characters who’ve been central to all the other movies and shows. Sure, the same basic premise of time travel and impending apocalypse are still there, but it’s delivered in a fresh, original way, with a smart enough plot to keep you thinking.

It’s definitely the best ‘Terminator’ project I’ve seen in a long time.