Sarah Connor and Derek Reese are put to the test after Cromartie kidnaps Charley Dixon's wife; John Connor is in a sticky situation of his own when he finds himself caught between Cameron and Riley, falling straight into the sights of Cromartie. Fleeing the Terminator threat in Los Angeles, Charley Dixon and his wife Michelle were filling up at a gas station in the middle of the desert. As the truck arrived, Charley headed off to buy Michelle a soda. After disabling the ignition of his vehicle, Cromartie carjacked the Dixon's truck with Michelle inside. John helped an extremely pregnant Kacy (their new landlady and neighbor) setup bootleg cable in her bedroom. On the local news, a clip of Beast Wizard VII, the low-budget film starring George Laszlo was running. John came home to find Cameron calculating the center of their new house. While asked if this had anything to do with John's safety, Cameron replies no and simply states the observation that the house was moving and that they'd have to repaint in a year.
While Sarah unpacked groceries, John received a desperate call from Charley. Not wanting to involve John, and not having Sarah's number, he asked to speak to his mother. Charley told Sarah that Cromartie had taken Michelle and Sarah played along to protect John. Sarah probed Charley for his location and told him to stay put. She scolded John for giving Charley his number and set him on a chore to keep him far from harm, buying new computers for their nascent resistance cell. Sarah rapidly packed up weapons as Cameron "investigated" a bird stuck in the fireplace, intent in its termination. Sarah forbade her to harm the bird and directed her to stay with John today and to not let him out of her sight. Sarah also informed Derek who tried to warn her away from an obvious trap to get to John, but joins her anyway. Michelle is revealed tied up in a chair in an abandoned building. Cromartie methodically prepared a device that incorporates mousetraps as triggers. Michelle spotted her cell phone “conveniently” left nearby and struggled towards it.
John and Cameron loaded the new computer equipment into the back of their truck in the store parking lot. Cameron lifts a heavy server with ease, and surprises an old couple with her strength. Riley called from the Santa Monica Promenade, wanting to hang out. Cameron refused to let John go alone and when the opportunity presented itself, John bolted, attempting to ditch the Terminator. Agent Ellison, amazed at providence, also watched Beast Wizard VII. He received a call from Catherine Weaver enticing him with a job offer and hints of knowledge about Cromartie’s massacre. She invited him for lunch to talk about "who or what" actually killed his colleagues. Sarah and Derek met up with Charley at the desert gas station. Derek bluntly informed Charley that Cromartie doesn't care about Michelle, and is just using her to get to John. Flatly stating that Michelle is probably already dead. Once Michelle finally reached her tantalizingly placed cell phone, she made the call for help to Charley.
Derek and Sarah demanded he test her, to make sure it's not Cromartie imitating her voice. After she passed, As best she could, she told them where she was. Hearing as Cromartie wrapped up in the other room, Michelle cuts off the call and tried to conceal her efforts to make contact, but a simple comparison of imagery in memory confirms for him the trap is in motion. Michelle begged for her life, but Cromartie set his trap with her as live bait and tapes her mouth shut. John and Riley hung out on the Promenade. John broke the news that he's not coming back to school, and is going to be home schooled for now. Riley spotted Cameron watching them, so they scrambled to ditch her. Sarah, Derek, and Charley arrived outside the building Michelle described as her prison. Cautiously they entered, searching the place for Michelle, or Cromartie. They found Michelle, tied up in a chair set upon mousetraps wired to a bomb. Sarah demanded Michelle not move while Derek double checked the rest of the place for Cromartie.
Charley tried in vain to reassure Michelle it would be okay. Sarah ordered Carley out to the truck for her “red handled bag” of demolition gear so she could attempt to defuse the bomb. Once Charley returns with the bag and announced that Cromartie took off (and killed their car before he did). Sarah realized that this means it was all a setup—even the bomb's not real. Sarah immediately called John who told her he was at the promenade and lied that he was still with Cameron. Derek’s search revealed a cell phone scanner and signal relay wired to the nearby cell tower re-broadcasting their call... right to Cromartie, revealing their security code and the location of his primary objective. Derek then located a beeping detonator with a wire leading outside to the cell tower. In a reversal of the trap the Connors laid for him in the past,[2] Cromartie dialed his cell phone (the detonator) and destroyed the tower, dropping it on the location of his captive. The massive tower fell squarely into the building, but luckily no one was terminated, however Michelle was gravely hurt by the falling tower and as they stumbled off, a big blood stain was revealed on her back.
With all cell phone service down, and his obstacles either terminated or at least safely isolated from John, Cromartie was free to close the final stage of his trap around John. From the desert, Cromartie called pretending to be Sarah, redirecting John to wait at the Santa Monica Pier and shut off his phone. Cromartie then raced off after his target. John abandoned a frustrated Riley after telling her he had to go meet his mom at the pier. Sarah, Derek, Charley, and Michelle planned to trek through the desert to reach the road, but Charley balked because of Michelle's injury, unable to determine its severity or treat it in the field.[3] Michelle angrily insisted she could walk, and that no one would have to wait on her. Ellison met with Catherine Weaver in her office to talk about the FBI massacre. She showed Ellison photographic evidence of an endoskeleton hand involved in a plane crash five years ago (2002) and shared that she knows that it was a robot that tried to kill John Connor in Red Valley, NM in 1999.
Weaver also declared that she knows that a robot was involved in the FBI massacre. She claimed to have been working on reverse engineering the same technology with her “late husband” and wanted to hire Ellison to find out about these robots and to even catch one for her. Cameron cornered Riley in a parking garage, demanding she reveal "Where's John?" as John waited for "Sarah" at the crowded Santa Monica Pier. Fortunately, as they struggled towards the highway nearly five miles away, Sarah carjacked a cell phone service van en route to the downed tower and they drove off after John. Jouncing across the service road, Michelle struggled to stay alive with Charley's increasingly futile help. They exchange harsh words as he demands Sarah slow down, but she countered that he should have stayed away. At the end of her rope, Sarah slammed on the brakes, sliding the van to a stop, still far from both aid for Michelle, and her chance to save John. A wary John spotted Cromartie on the pier and fled for cover.
The Triple-Eight followed suit, chasing John down the pier. Cameron, too, arrived and begins closing on the pair from behind. John created a diversion by trading jackets with a pier fisherman and hiding in a crate, confusing Cromartie, but is rapidly reacquired by him. Trapped with nowhere else to run, John dove off the pier and into the ocean, Cromartie firing away at him. Intent on terminating his target, Cromartie jumped in after, intending to latch on and drag John into the depths. John barely gets away by shucking off his oversized borrowed jacket, and Cromartie sank out of reach to the bottom of the ocean. John swam up, and spotted Cameron on the pier. When John asks if she could provide some assistance, Cameron simply replies "I don't swim". John and Cameron met up with Sarah and Derek in a nearby alley and hopped in the van. John, okay, but shaken up, discovered Michelle's blood pooled in the back of the van and knows not all is well. Cromartie stalked onto the beach out of the ocean depths, ready to resume the hunt.