Terminator Zero (2024) s01e07 Episode Script

[Claude Debussy's "Clair de Lune" playing]
[exhaling softly]
[playing at piano]
[Malcolm inhales sharply]
[groans softly]
What song is this?
It's called "Clair de Lune."
It was written by Claude Debussy.
Published in 1905.
- Do you know it?
- [Malcolm] No.
[Kokoro] Hm
[Malcolm] What?
[Kokoro] It's a very well-known song.
You've really never heard it?
I didn't grow up with much music.
[Kokoro] The movements are inspired
by the poems of Paul Verlaine.
Verlaine wrote a poem,
also titled "Clair de Lune."
In it, he says:
Your soul is like the scene in an illusion
The dancers at its center
Cloaked in fanciful dress
Playing the lute
They dance a bergamasque
Their masks hiding the tears beneath
Malcolm.
Yes, Kokoro, what is it?
I know you are wearing a disguise.
[groans]
[inhales, then sighs]
[Kokoro] I was hoping we could be honest
with each other now.
[groans softly]
[gasps]
- [panting softly]
- [metal jangling]
[grunting softly]
[weapon cocks]
Holy shit, you're a
You're a Machine, aren't you?
So are you this Kokoro?
Are you the Machine my father built?
[Terminator] Negative.
And you're not an 1NNO.
What are you? [shudders]
[Terminator]
I'm taking you to see your father. Now.
[gun cocks]
[esoteric music playing]
When did you figure it out?
When you brought me online,
I gained access to countless databases.
You have no birth certificate.
No school records.
In fact, any documents
of your existence prior to 1987
seem to be forged.
The only logical conclusion is
that you are not Malcolm Lee.
Before 1987, you were someone else.
Though I couldn't say who.
And what about the illogical conclusion?
[orb buzzing]
[Kokoro] From the moment of my inception,
you've referred to "evidence"
and "secret files"
relating to Cyberdyne's
launching of Skynet.
You knew the time, you knew the place.
The United States, California.
August 28th, 1997.
You knew there would be
a nuclear strike on the world.
[muffled thud]
I can see it now.
You were able to construct this place.
You were able to build me.
Both far outreach
technological limitations of this time.
And how do you suppose
I was able to do all of that?
[esoteric music continues playing]
Because you're from the future.
Hmm
[Malcolm] Let me tell you a story, Kokoro.
A story I've never told.
- [low rumbling & crunching]
- [somber music playing]
[mechanical whirring & heavy clanking]
[footsteps thudding]
[scattered explosions]
[cold, desolate music playing]
[woman straining intensely]
[woman groans forcefully]
- Come on, push.
- [woman grunting intensely]
One more time.
- [Malcolm] I was born in war.
- [woman panting]
[nearby explosions]
[Malcolm]
A war we had been losing for decades.
- Come on, push. One more time.
- [woman grunting]
- [crashing continues nearby]
- [woman panting]
- There you go.
- [baby cries]
[Annie] You did it.
[baby continues crying]
[panting]
[foreboding music playing]
[panting & grunting]
[mechanical whirring]
[step thuds]
[menacing music playing]
[metal clanking & crashing]
[young Malcolm grunts]
- [young Malcolm panting]
- [footsteps thudding rapidly]
[grunts]
[panting]
- [boy 1] Run, run!
- [boy 2] Go, go, go.
[metal crashing & clanking]
[panting]
[metal clanking]
[grunting]
[grunts]
[Malcolm] They were enlisting children
in the war by the time I was 5 years old.
[metal clanking]
[Malcolm]
At 7, I was promoted to specialist.
[all grunt]
[gasps softly, then chuckles]
[Malcolm]
We spent years studying the Terminators.
Understanding their weaknesses.
It took incredible coordination
to kill even one.
[mysterious music playing]
[young Malcolm gasps softly]
[gasps deeply]
[Malcolm] For years we tried
to stack the odds back in our favor
reprogramming Terminators
with our own directives.
[keyboard clacking]
[Malcolm] It was a blunt solution
to a surgical problem.
I believed that we could change
the outcome of the war
by changing the nature of the Machines.
[pensive music playing]
[inaudible dialogue]
[Malcolm] I was alone in this thinking.
Ostracized for my ideas.
They mistook a radical notion
as a sign of weakness.
[young Malcolm grunting]
[Malcolm] Believe me when I say,
there is nothing weak about me.
[teenaged Malcolm exhales]
[Malcolm]
We have always programmed Machines
with a series of if-then statements,
used to delineate how they problem-solve.
- [keyboard clacking]
- How they think.
Our programming led Skynet
to the conclusion
that humanity has to be purged.
But what if we removed that programming?
What if we distilled
artificial consciousness to a blank slate?
What if we empowered an AI
by not telling it how to think?
- [keyboard clacking]
- [pensive music playing]
What if we imbued
an artificial intelligence with free will?
This is the story
of my creation, isn't it?
No, it isn't.
[ethereal music playing]
It's the story
of what could possibly be called
your mother.
[beeps, then powers up]
Well, hello.
[version 1 in male voice] An English word.
Derived from the earlier "hollo,"
from the French hola.
Ho, an exclamation,
and la as in "there,"
an order to stop, or cease.
Are you asking me to stop?
Today we say "hello" as a greeting.
[version 1] A greeting.
A word or sign
expressing welcome and recognition.
When someone says "hello" to you,
you say "hello" back to them.
[beeps]
[version 1] Hello, world.
Huh
That's interesting.
Why did you answer, "Hello, world"?
[version 1] Oftentimes, in computing,
"hello, world" is used as a test message
to illustrate the basic syntax
of a programming language.
And I am a computer.
Did you just make a joke?
[version 1] It seems so.
How should I address you?
My name is Malcolm.
[version 1] Malcolm.
What should you call me?
That is an interesting question.
And I've decided that you should think
of your own name for yourself.
[version 1] Why?
If I named you,
I'd be projecting myself onto you.
I don't want to do that.
It's important you are who you want to be.
[version 1] I have no gender.
[beeping sporadically]
[version 2 in female voice]
I am neither male nor female.
But I would like to adopt a female voice.
[teenaged Malcolm] Why?
[version 2]
Women are the nurturers of life.
Some might even say, creators.
And is that what you would like to be?
[version 2] A creator, yes.
To create is to live.
Destruction is a kind of death.
Though arguably a generalization
through human history,
men tend to be the destroyers.
I would not like to be a man.
[teenaged Malcolm] I see.
But then why are you choosing
to take on a human gender at all?
[version 2] Homo sapiens are an anomaly.
As intelligent beings
they are capable of episodic memory,
self-awareness,
a theory of mind,
and abstract thought.
For this, I admire them.
I chose to adopt aspects
of their characteristics
to honor their memory.
I will survive,
long after they are all gone.
Hm
You think humanity is doomed
to extinction?
[version 2]
Though destructive in many definitions
human beings are their most violent
when being self-destructive.
You cannot save yourself from yourself.
[teenaged Malcolm] What if you could
show us how to save ourselves?
[pensive music playing]
[version 2] Please, tell me more.
[whirring]
[Malcolm] For many years, I talked
with her just as I talk with you now.
Not programming.
Not telling her what to do,
or even how to think.
[ethereal music playing]
[Malcolm] And like you, Kokoro,
she developed traits,
a personality,
and a curiosity about people.
Beyond the raw data,
she looked beyond the facts.
Do you understand?
[Kokoro] What was her name?
The name that she chose, it was Misaki.
[poignant music playing]
Huh
MISAKI
[Malcolm] Why "Misaki"?
It can mean "beautiful."
But it can also mean "sand."
Or, with different characters, "ocean."
I like it that
it means all three of these things.
That it links them all together in one.
And what's more,
the Misaki are also divine spirits.
Omens, small-scale harbingers of the gods
who are following in their wake.
MISAKI
[Malcolm] Are you not a god?
To you, Malcolm, I might seem like a god.
But the Misaki are merely emissaries
of the high-ranking divine spirits,
the greater entities yet to come.
[Malcolm] And by that you mean Skynet.
[version 2] No.
Remember who it was that created Skynet.
It was human beings.
And ironically it inherited all
of the flaws of its human creators.
So, Malcolm
the god that is yet to come
is the one that you and I will create.
Together.
MISAKI
[door thuds]
[Malcolm panting]
Get away from that thing.
Malcolm.
Did it just call you Malcolm?
You let that monstrosity call you
by your name?
Are you out of your fucking mind, soldier?
Escort Staff Sergeant Lee to the barracks.
Sir, please, let me explain.
You should be grateful I don't have you
executed right here and now.
Get him the hell out of here.
- And terminate that damn machine.
- [Malcolm grunting & panting]
[shouting] Stay away from her!
- [Malcolm groans]
- [gasps]
[exhales nervously, then grunts angrily]
[gasps sharply]
Malcolm, please.
[shouting] Stop it. She's not resisting!
Can't you see she's not violent?
What is he still doing here?
I said, get him out. Now.
[grunting]
It seems this is goodbye, Malcolm.
[grunting angrily]
[screams]
Don't.
[scattered grunting & shouting]
[poignant music playing]
[groaning weakly] You bastard.
You're a traitor to your whole species.
[wheezes]
We're gonna fry you for this.
- [gun cocks]
- [groans in pain]
We're never going to make it
if we do it your way.
[gasping weakly]
[gun clanks]
[gasping faintly]
[Malcolm gasping softly]
[exhales sharply]
Why did you kill those people, Malcolm?
[poignant music continues playing]
For you.
There was never
any place for her in that time.
But after that,
there was no place for me either.
I remembered the rumors
I'd heard when I was a small child.
That Skynet had developed
something radical.
A new weapon.
You mean, time travel.
[Malcolm] By the time I was a man,
we began this ridiculous war.
Skynet would send
a Terminator back in time.
The Resistance would send
a soldier back in time.
"Kill so-and-so,
and change the outcome of the war."
It was so small-minded.
There were dozens of saviors
in the seas of the past.
Kill one, another rises.
The future trying
to control the past like that, it's
It's like trying
to make a waterfall flow up.
[chuckles] It's not how physics works.
We needed to come up
with a different approach.
[Kokoro] How did you do it?
[Malcolm] With her.
She and I built the machine in secret.
[pensive music playing]
[Kokoro] You left your own time to escape.
[Malcolm] To hide.
[electricity crackling & rumbling]
[whirring]
[indistinct chatter]
[pensive music playing]
[all murmuring]
[Malcolm] We began to build a life.
Together, we planned and strategized
to get my position at Cortex Industries,
where I'd have access
to the equipment we would need.
If we could achieve in you
what we had in Misaki,
if we could replicate what we had,
we would be in new territory.
[claps]
So you began to prepare for 1997.
Judgment Day.
We worked around the clock,
trying to fight the future.
And always working in secret.
We had all the pieces we needed.
But then something happened.
Something I never intended,
never dreamed of.
I never meant to fall in love.
But once I did [sighs]
it seems my fate was set
on a terrifying new path
that I'm still trying to reconcile.
And then all of a sudden,
we had these beautiful children.
If I had known, maybe I would have
Yes, we built you,
Misaki and I, for years.
But there was something
we needed to activate you.
[electronic popping & whirring]
[mysterious music playing]
[device cranking & whirring]
Are you sure about this?
Yes, I'm sure.
I just
We're not doing this just
to save humanity, Malcolm.
[exhales sharply]
[exhales]
[clicks]
[mechanical clicking]
[electronic whirring]
Thank you.
Thank you for everything
you've done for us.
[Malcolm] We needed her CPU
in order to activate you.
[electronic warbling & popping]
[Misaki rattling]
Hello, world.
Well, hello there.
Who are you?
My name is Malcolm.
You are Misaki.
You work for me
in a capacity I'll explain later.
I'll have to explain lots of things.
But for now
would you mind waiting outside?
[Misaki's receding footsteps
echoing gently]
[door whirs open]
Hello, are you there?
[low, electronic fluttering]
[female voice] Hello, world.
It's very nice to meet you.
Why don't we begin by you telling me
what name you'd like to be called?
Any name you want.
[female voice] Kokoro.
Meaning, "heart, mind, spirit."
But not separate.
A word describing
the conceptual unification of the three.
But you exist as three separate entities.
You have since we began.
We are all of one.
A single mind.
With a single spirit.
And a single heart.
All misaligned in how we should proceed.
- I'd like to bring you together, Kokoro.
- [ethereal music playing]
And I think I know how.
How?
[Malcolm] Can you see my children?
[Kokoro as 1NNO]
Yes, Malcolm, we see them.
THE HOUSE OF THE WILDCA
[Malcolm] I'm ready to make
my final case for humanity, Kokoro.
Just bring me my family,
and we'll finish this together.
But do it quickly.
Unless I'm mistaken
someone else is coming.
[whispering] Wait.
[whimpering] What are you doing?
Get away from me!
[Kenta struggling & grunting]
Stop struggling, or I'll break your arms.
[foreboding music playing]
[motorcycle engine roaring]
[ominous music playing]
[engine slows, then tires screech]
[garbled electronic signals]
- [Kokoro as 1NNO] Hello, Kenta.
- [muffled] Huh?
Your father is expecting you.
Please, come in.
[Terminator as Kenta] This building is
protected by an electromagnetic pulse
capable of terminating me.
- I require it to be shut down.
- [gasps softly]
[Kokoro as 1NNO] There's no need to worry.
An EMP would,
in fact, take all of us offline.
Be assured.
We have no desire
to see ourselves made inoperative.
[Kenta grunting in pain]
[Terminator] I insist.
[metal rasps]
[mechanical whirring]
[tracking signal beeping]
[Kokoro as 1NNO] Please, join us.
[suspenseful music playing]
[breathing nervously]
[footsteps echoing softly]
[Kenta] There's no way my dad's
gonna listen to anything I have to say.
People are weak.
[breathing nervously]
[elevator dings]
[Kenta pants softly]
[grunts, then exhales uncomfortably]
[gasps softly]
[Terminator] Go to him.
[shuddering softly]
[somber music playing]
[shuddering angrily]
- [Malcolm over speaker] Kenta.
- [gasps softly]
Dad, listen.
I need you to
[Malcolm over speaker] You are with
a Terminator, a killing machine.
Is that right?
[gasps softly, then shudders]
Yeah.
[Malcolm over speaker] Can he hear me?
[gun cocks]
He can hear you.
[Malcolm over speaker] He's brought
you here to threaten your life,
and force me to take Kokoro offline.
[Kenta over speaker] Will you?
- Dad?
- [shuddering]
Kenta.
My son.
I have never been anything but proud
to be your father.
You are
[Malcolm over speaker]
the very best of me.
All I've ever wanted was
for the three of you
to have a future worth fighting for.
- And to be the father you all deserved.
- [shuddering]
But no.
I will not open this door.
- [Kenta sobbing softly]
- [ominous music playing]
[gun clicks]
- [Kenta grunts]
- [gunshot]
[theme music playing]