Self Made Man - Recap

The episode opens with a New Year's Eve party that appears to have happened in the 1920's. A fire breaks out and panic ensues.

John is searching the Internet for businesses that incorporate three dots in their logo. He is having no luck when Sarah checks on his progress. She encourages him to keep looking but he is doubtful that the dots mean anything. He stops to get some sleep.

Cameron rings the bell on the employee entrance of a library. She hands a bag of doughnuts to a man in a wheelchair, Eric. She goes inside and talks with Eric while he studies in a book. She asks him for help on researching some old weaponry. While they talk she wanders around the room and spots a photograph that was taken at the New Year's Eve party from the 1920's. She sees a man in the picture looking up at the sky and identifies him as a Terminator and wonders what he was doing there. She asks Eric about the event and learns that 43 people died at the fire which appeared to be the result of arson. They do more searching and discover the Terminator was using the name Myron Stark, and was photographed with silent movie star Rudolph Valentino.

John is awakened by a telephone call from Riley, who asks if he will come get her. John appears reluctant but ends up doing as she asks. He arrives at a house where a party is in full swing. He finds Riley but she no longer wants to leave. John is annoyed but decides to stay when Riley asks him to.

Cameron asks where there might be more records of the 1920's that they might search and Eric tells her that they are locked in the basement and he doesn't have the keys. She heads downstairs and by the time he catches up, she is inside the locked room searching through some files. Eric is very upset with her and worries that he will get fired for letting her in the building after hours. He reaches for some boxes and falls from his wheelchair to the floor. She starts to help him but he refuses her help angrily. She watches, curious as he pulls himself laboriously back into his chair and leaves.

Cameron finds Eric upstairs replacing some books on the shelves. She apologizes and tells him she doesn't want to lose him as a friend, she doesn't have any other friends. He asks her if she found anything in the other records and she says there is no record of Stark before the fire. Eric says he might have been an immigrant that came through Ellis Island and changed is name. He then jokes that Stark might have been a bank robber. Cameron looks intrigued and asks to looks through old police records.

Eric finds an old radio news recording that describes a bank robbery where the perpetrator was shot over thirty times but still managed to escape on foot. Cameron is on the trail now and she and Eric look through more records. They discover that Stark used the money from the robberies to buy land in the San Fernando Valley in California and build homes there. Stark built a construction empire that started to rival the leading business owned by Rupert Chandler. Eric accidentally bumps Cameron's bag and it falls to the floor. Her handgun falls out and Eric asks about it. She says she has it to protect herself and her brother. He is confused but accepts her answer, obviously smitten with her. He says he has never fired a gun and she asks if he wants to. Without waiting, she sets up some phone books and has him fire the gun at them. His face alights with joy after one shot. She retrieves the bullet and hands it to him. It is still hot but she does not flinch.

At the party, Riley is playing a video game, badly. She quits and gets John to play her in place. He has never played a video game but agrees to try. The game involves soldiers hunting each other and John fumbles with the controls, frustrated. His opponent kills him and he gets up to leave the party. Riley says she will go with him but a guy tries to stop her, accusing her of stealing his cigarette lighter. He gets physical with Riley and John looses it, using his training to start beating the larger guy in the face. Riley pulls him away before it gets out of hand and they leave.

Cameron and Eric find an old news report that discuss the death of Rupert Chandler's right hand man nearly sixty years ago. They also find a record that mentions that one of the men that died in the 1920's fire was Chandler's son.

John and Riley stop on the way home and talk. They talk about both being considered weirdos, and about living with foster parents. John talks about Charley Dixon who was Sarah's fiancee for a while with some regret. They kiss.

Cameron asks Eric if he ever considered suicide because there is something wrong with him. He tells her no, that he cannot do that to the people that love him and that his cancer is gone now. They continue talking about Stark and the fire at the Speakeasy and Eric tells her there are more records in an upstairs vault but she will have to go without him because there is no wheelchair access. She shocks him when she easily lifts him from his chair and carries him upstairs.

They find some old film that has an interview of a woman who survived the fire. The woman knows nothing about arson but remembers a blue flash of light and a man suddenly there naked, the sign of someone arriving through time. The fire was accidental, the result of the arrival of the Terminator. Cameron suddenly realizes why Stark was looking up at the sky in the photograph. He was using the position of the stars to determine the exact date. Stark was sent to the wrong time.

Stark's arrival killed Chandler's son who was destined to build Pico tower but never would. Chandler decided to plant a garden there instead and never let it be developed. However, the tower was built and Cameron and Eric figure out that Stark went into business against Chandler in order to ruin him so he could buy the land and build the tower himself. But two weeks before the grand opening, Stark disappeared and was never seen again. Eric learns that the building is currently closed for repairs after a recent earthquake and is unsure when it is supposed to reopen. Cameron leaves without a word.

At Pico tower, Cameron breaks in and sees a sign saying the reopening is scheduled for New Year's Eve, 2010, hosted by the Governor. Cameron searches the ballroom and determines where the dais will be located for the Governor's speech. She then finds the optimal firing position to assassinate the Governor and breaks through a wall to find Myron Stark in stasis with a gun. He awakens and they battle. She tosses him into an old elevator shaft and when he starts to crawl out, she snaps the cable and the elevator car falls and pins him long enough for her to remove his chip.

Cameron returns to see Eric and repairs the battle damage to her face with makeup. Eric wonders if she is okay and she tells him she is fine. She then tells him that his muscles are weak and he has lost weight. She also tells him she has determined that he has a tumor in his arm and possibly his lungs. He is upset and says she is insensitive. He tells her to leave.

John returns home in the morning having been gone all night. Cameron is there with the laundry basket and notices lipstick on this neck, concluding he was with Riley.

The next night, Cameron returns to see Eric. A young woman answers the door and says she doesn't know Eric, she was asked to fill in. Cameron offers her the bag of doughnuts and the woman lets her inside.

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