Tonight marks the second-season premiere of "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles." And let me tell you, it's a good one. I'm sworn to secrecy on the details, but you should catch it if you can. I'm really curious to see what the reaction will be to some of the revelations of the show.

A little bit ago, I participated in a conference call with Josh Friedman, the show's executive producer, and Lena Headey, who plays Sarah. Here are some of the highlights.

On what developments Sarah may encounter:

Lena: It's been an interesting season. I feel that Sarah has taken kind of a backseat in terms of being proactive and taking care of business. I think that we’re going to see a lot more of John taking control and then becoming, making steps towards becoming the man he has to be to take on his tasks. And I think this season for Sarah is kind of her losing slight control over everything pretty much, and my feeling is that I think there’s a slow madness sort of happening in her because she feels that everything’s kind of out of reach right now.

On the end of John's high school days:

Josh: We've seen just about the last of John in high school. I think John and Sarah have either wisely chose homeschooling for John at this point. It doesn’t mean that we’ve seen the last of John interacting with people from his high school, but I think the days of seeing John sitting in class, yes, are pretty numbered.

On Sarah's cancer:

Josh: Well, you know, there is some of it. I mean, thematically, we definitely visit it again this year, and an early episode kind of brings it back up, and I think it’s sort of investigated. It’s sort of explored in a kind of oblique way in one of the early episodes. It’s definitely not something that we’ve forgotten about, but I also don’t think you’re going to see her in bed with chemo anytime soon.

On the other men in Sarah's life:

Lena: Well, I think that Derek and Sarah’s relationship is more a little of already-divorced parents. I think the fact that he’s John’s uncle would be weird, seeing as his brother was the love of her life, so I don’t think there’s going to be any development there. I certainly wouldn’t want it. I think it would be far too obvious.

Josh: I completely agree with her, by the way. It’s not something that we’ve contemplated at all.

Lena: And as for Charley, who knows with Charley? I think that’s always an open door at the moment.

On Ellison and his realization that Terminators are real:

Josh: I think that he is on a quest to kind of figure out, now that he knows for sure that they exist, I think he’s sort of determined to figure out why he’s a part of this arrangement. I think that Cromartie’s particular suggestions to him indicate that, and the fact that he’s been left alive indicates that he may have a larger part of the plan, so I think you’re going to see Ellison kind of trying to figure out what his part in the larger puzzle is.

On bringing religious issues to the fore:

Josh: It’s something that’s always been in the franchise. I think that Sarah as a very, very radicalized Mary figure and John as sort of a Jesus figure has always been in the franchise, and it’s stuff that, thematically, is interesting to explore. And I’ve kind of become fascinated with it through the Ellison character, and part of it was just because Richard T. Jones is quite religious and I’d spent some time talking to him about it, and I figure it seemed like a really natural place to sort of explore some of those themes. And especially with him, regarding whether or not his faith is either confirmed or challenged by, you know, with the things he’s seen. I think it’s easy to assume, oh, because there are terminators in the universe that that means that God doesn’t exist or something, but I don’t think that that’s necessarily true. So it’s interesting just to see people with particular ideologies have to try to fit radical world views into it.

On finding a balance between Sarah and John:

Josh: Well, it’s challenging. I think that it’s very doable. The Sarah/John relationship is the central, I would say that it’s the central relationship in the show, and I think that, at different times, there can be different shifts in terms of the power dynamic or the proactivity. Lena talks a little bit about her character taking a back seat to John. I think that it’s a parent/child struggle, and I think that, as a parent, I’ve kind of, well, my child was a lot younger, but kind of watching the push and pull of that dynamic, to me, is fascinating. So I sort of look at them as a pair. Ultimately, yes, it’s called "The Sarah Connor Chronicles" and it’s about how does this parent of this special child deal with that, and it’s challenging. I think it’s challenging for any parent, and it’s challenging for this particular parent because of who he’s supposed to be, but I don’t believe that she ever has to stop being Sarah Connor. I think it’s just the challenge is kind of figuring out who that is on a daily basis.

On an upcoming big death and what led to it:

Josh: No, it’s pure storytelling. It’s painful to say good-bye to actors. It’s painful, especially this show. Everyone’s wonderful and they’re all lovely people, and going to an actor and saying, "Here’s the script and this is what’s going to happen," is extremely difficult, and it’s never driven, at least so far, for us, it’s never been driven by economics or anything extracurricular. It’s … writer’s room and you’re, all of a sudden you’re having this dawning realization that you have a really good idea for something story-wise, but it’s going to end up costing somebody a job. And it’s not easy. These are people, and most of them will, they’ll go on and get other work, but it’s not a fun thing to do really.

On whether Sarah's angry at John:

Lena: Yes, I think there’s some truth in that. I think that Sarah’s pretty complex. You take a normal girl who’s suddenly, thanks to this conversation, gives birth to Jesus, and was in love, I think was truly in love with this man and he dies and leaves her with this legacy. And I absolutely think that her anger is partly at her son and her situation, obviously. And I think that’s what it is, her frustration in dealing with that as she can’t really throw down with her son. But I think there’s a rooted anger also with everybody that comes to advise her and say she should do this and look at it this way, and I think she would love to say, “… you all,” and she can’t for various reasons. So yes, I think you’re right. I think it’s in the mix. Well, I know it’s in there somewhere.

On finding the balance between big action sequences and the smaller character moments:

Josh: At this point, it’s sort of become an organic thing for us. I think we sort of have a sense of how much action to have in any given episode. It does shift sometimes. Sometimes you, in terms of the realities of production, you don’t have the time or money to do big things all the time in every episode, which I’m happy for. I kind of like it when they say, the money people come to us and say, “You know what? This episode’s going to have to be a little smaller than the last episode.” I kind of enjoy writing smaller, more character-driven episodes, and I think that, at the end of the day, well, I mean, I think there’s sort of three audiences, I think, for the show. There’s the people who really come for the action, there’s people who really come for the characters, and then there’s the large Venn diagram in the middle, which is the people who want both. And I think those are the ones that ultimately, I think, are the most pleased consistently because they’ll get one or the other during the week. To me, it’s a drama. It’s still a family show, a family drama that is in the science fiction world and has action in it, but it’s still, I think, character first for me.

On bringing Derek Reese on as a full-time character:

Josh: Well, people really liked him and we really liked him. I think he added, he adds something to that dynamic. I think that John’s always been looking for father figures, and I think it’s interesting to have one around who is a blood relative, but his back story is complicated. I like the fact that Derek represents the human face of the future war and kind of the cost, so he’s sort of like a, to the extent that he’s sort of this damaged war vet who is in the scenes. You always have a sense of the stakes of what they’re fighting and what you don’t want to see someone become, which is Derek. And he was out doing lots of auditions, so we thought we’d lock him up so that no one else could take him.

On whether we'll see more flashes to the future war with the machines:

Josh: Yes. We will, and I think it takes place sort of the same way a lot of times that it does in "Dungeons & Dragons." I think, for me, what works about "Dungeons & Dragons" is that the future stuff really informs the things that are going on in the present, and you end up, to me, when I watch that episode, I see an amazing emotional storyline with Sarah and with Charley and with John. And I think combining those two and playing those two worlds off against each other is something that I think works very well for us, and so I think we’re going to see it in certain flashes this year, but it should always, and we try to always keep it informing of the emotional back story of the show, it doesn’t just become just pure eye candy, despite the joyousness of that.

- posted by Raoul