Shipping Confessions: Jameron (TSCC)

I know at the beginning of this series I said I would only do non-canon pairings. However, the fact of the matter is I left myself open to talk about canon pairings that I think people don't think I really ship. Or if I keep some canon ships in the background. I left that loophole so I could talk about Jameron.

What is Jameron? Make sure you're not by a Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles fan. Because while some Jameron fans will tell you kindly, there are real fanatics out there that might hit you.

Jameron is really the big ship of TSCC (aka Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles) like Destiel (Castiel and Dean Winchester) is in Supernatural. It seems like you can't talk to anyone who doesn't even slightly ship the pair.

The ship is John Connor and Cameron. While they never get together in the show, which would probably have changed by Season 3 or else a riot would break out, various comments by both cast and crew show that it was canon. Through Season 1 and 2, John and Cameron's relationship was evolving. And by the end of Season 2, John decides to go forward in time just so he can rescue Cameron.

Before I continue I want to tell Jameron shippers this is my personal take on the ship. If you have any disagreements, or think I got something wrong, tell me politely. Now that hopefully the pitchforks are put away, we can actually continue.

I have talked about Cameron when I talked about Camerah (the ship of Cameron and Sarah Connor), so I'll keep my little bio of her brief.

Cameron is a killer robot sent back in time to protect Sarah and John Connor. What is most notable about her is that she shows more emotions than most Terminators. She seems to have the greatest ability to learn and feel human. Also, the role of Cameron was made to fit Summer Glau and it does that wonderfully.

John Connor, as all the Terminator fandom knows, is the future leader of mankind. He will lead humanity to victory and defeat Skynet. However, in TSCC he is a teenager and is still growing into the leader he will long be remembered for. He first meets Cameron when she's pretending to be a normal human girl called Cameron Phillips (this has made the majority of the TSCC fanbase have her last name be Phillips, never mind she only uses a last name for aliases). He quickly finds out that Cameron is more than human when she saves him from being killed by the Terminator Cromartie.

Besides his relationship with Cameron, John is forced to grow up quickly as this is a Terminator tv show and there's not really a whole lot of calm moments to spare. I think the moment that causes him to grow up a little is when he is partly to blame for Riley Dawson's death. Not that he really loved her, but he failed to save a human life.

Now since you know the basics of Cameron and John Connor let's look into their relationship.

I'm going to start with an interesting theory that is neither confirmed nor denied in canon of TSCC's two seasons. I am warning you it will probably make a good majority of you Jameron shippers freak out a little so feel free to skip this next little part. This is an interesting point to consider and I did promise back when I talked about Camerah to go a little more in depth.

The basic theory is that the Future John Connor, the one that sent Cameron back in time, had programmed Cameron to love him. Why do I even bring it up when it darkens John Connor's character and destroys the Jameron ship? Because it gives a logical reason why Future John sent Cameron back in time and why she is so obsessed with him.

If you buy into this theory: John re-programmed Cameron after she had tried to impersonate Allison Young (I sort of ship Future John and Allison, however there's not really enough material to do a Shipping Confessions on the pair), realized that re-programming Cameron to love him was insulting both the late Allison and himself, and sent Cameron back in time because he knew she'd protect his past self as well as getting away from him (aka Future John).

So do I buy into this theory? No. It's just an interesting thing to think about.  I'd buy into it if I didn't see Cameron's love for John as anything other than sincere.

Since we got the bad news out of the way, let's look at the good news and how I actually view the pair.

I love this ship and consider it to be one of the more unique ships out there. Not because it's a human and a robot being in love, but because there is a clear relationship shown without the usual kissing or holding of hands. Yes, there was many a time in TSCC where we were begging John and Cameron to do it already. Near the end of the series there was a moment that was a sex scene between John and Cameron without it really being a sex scene (you'll have to see it for yourself to really get what I mean).

When John first sees Cameron you know that he wants to be with her. Even when he finds out and feels a little betrayed, he doesn't push her away. Throughout Season 1 he is developing deeper feelings for her and starts to actually love her.

The thing that tears John and Cameron apart for a little while (making John fallback on Riley Dawson to pretend he's over Cameron) is Cameron trying to kill him and his mother. So for much of Season 2 he's dealing with the betrayal of someone he loved and cared for. By the end of Season 2, as I've stated previously, they did make amends and are "back together" again.

We can't end this part without talking about Cameron. Yes, I have talked about her here but more from John's perspective and not her own. Throughout TSCC Cameron is trying to become human and, at the same time, still act like a Terminator. While she has always loved John, Future and Present, if she knows that she's feeling love is really up to debate.

Myself, I think she always had the feeling but hasn't always known what it is. Cameron was originally programmed by Skynet and it wouldn't need its infiltrators to know what the emotion felt like. It would only need infiltrators to imitate the emotion. As Catherine Weaver (a T-1001 that appears like a villain throughout the majority of Season 2) shows, once a Terminator can think for itself there is the possibility of rebellion. So Terminators are able to feel but they won't be ready to identify the emotion.

Throughout the two seasons of TSCC, Cameron is able to identify the feeling of love she has for John. I say identify because her actions always show she places John before herself even when the mission doesn't call for it ("Mr. Ferguson is Ill Today" for example).

I so wish that we got another season of TSCC so we'd get questions answered plus John and Cameron officially becoming boyfriend and girlfriend. Well, once he got her chip and was able to put it in another TOK with Allison's skin/hair/ect.

Listen, if you don't ship Jameron I don't hate you. In fact, I'm scared by the majority of Jameron shippers because they're very fanatical about their devotion to this ship. However, I can't say I don't agree with Jameron as I sure as hell do.

So what's up next time Shipping Confessions returns? We're going to go into a series where one universe you can get rich by selling coffee and the other universe has a scientist who really likes his drugs. The pairing? One where one person says the other's name wrong on purpose.