Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles - The Complete Second Season

Things blow up. Someone you think is a human turns out to be a shape-shifting Terminator. There are confusing forays through time and discussions about what happened when in which version of the past and/or future. But really, the second season of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles--unfortunately the final season of the series--is about family, connections, and the things we do to protect the ones we love. Sarah Connor (Lena Headey) has an especially rough road, nearly dying and becoming obsessed with a three-dot symbol and detours through a world of UFO obsessives. John Connor (Thomas Dekker), a.k.a. the guy who will grow up to lead humanity's resistance to the hated machines, gets tough and gets a girlfriend. His uncle Derek (Brian Austin Green) gets a girl as well, and the women in their lives turn out to have a surprising connection. Cameron (Summer Glau), the Terminator sent to protect John, suffers some damage and reveals some surprisingly human secrets of her own as her relationship with John gets more emotional and complicated. Shirley Manson (lead singer of Garbage) joins the cast as Catherine Weaver, an icy executive with… well, suffice it to say that a familiar (and threatening) face shows up in her company. The special features are extensive and include featurettes on the writing, effects, stunts, music and more. This is a fitting sendoff for an ambitious show. --Stephanie Reid-Simons

The time: today. The stakes: all our tomorrows. A nascent AI, assisted by droids, continues to edge toward world domination and the ruin of humankind. It accepts no limits. It fears no one. Except John Connor. The machines know John, now 16, is the future head of the resistance. They know he is growing in abilities. They must find and terminate him. But Sarah Connor is there, protecting and instructing her son as he becomes the man he's destined to be. The hunt is on in a season of powerful revelations, breathless pursuits and bravura effects. A mysterious 3-dot symbol (do UFOs provide a clue?), a girlfriend for John (is Cameron jealous?), ZeiraCorp (can it master the renegade software called Turk?) - Season 2's 6-disc action arsenal is locked, loaded, ready to amaze.