Cromartie is the name of a Series 888 Terminator that serves as a major antagonist in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. One of numerous infiltration machines created by the rogue artificial intelligence Skynet, Cromartie was sent back in time from 2027 to 1999 on a mission to kill John Connor, would-be leader of the Human Resistance. He was portrayed by Owain Yeoman in the series' pilot episode, but would lose his bio-synthetic flesh covering following that episode. After receiving new skin and cosmetic surgery in the episode "Heavy Metal", he is portrayed from then on by Garret Dillahunt.
History[]
First strike[]
In the series' pilot episode, Cromartie first appears at Crest View High School in New Mexico, posing as a substitute teacher in order to get close to John Connor. Knowing that John is using an assumed name, Cromartie confirms his presence during class roll call and immediately attempts to kill him using a gun concealed in a hidden compartment in his thigh. John manages to run away but Cromartie follows him out to the school parking lot. He manages to corner John but is suddenly hit by a Jeep being driven by Cameron, a reprogrammed Terminator sent back to protect the Connors.
Cromartie, of course, is not seriously damaged by the collision and quickly resumes his pursuit of John, following him and Cameron back to the Connors' house. He attempts to kill both John and his mother Sarah, but Cameron intervenes and disables the Terminator with an electrical cable. In the two minutes it takes for Cromartie to reboot, Cameron and the Connors escape.
Over the next few days, the Connors remain on the run while Cromartie attempts to track them down. With unwitting aid from the police and FBI who were also pursuing the Connors, Cromartie tracks them down to a bank in Los Angeles where they have broken into a vault. When Cromartie arrives at the bank, he forces his way into the vault where it appears that Cameron had stashed a portable time displacement device that would allow her and the Connors to jump forward in time. Just as the time machine activates, Sarah wields an isotope-based energy weapon and fires at Cromartie. The blast severs Cromartie's head from his body and the time machine warps Cameron and the Connors into the future.
Time travel and restoration[]
Cromartie's severed skull
Though his flesh was damaged by the blast from the isotope gun, Cromartie maintained a sufficient bio-electric field to be carried by the time displacement field. As the Connors and Cameron arrived in Los Angeles in 2007, so too did Cromartie, though he landed further away than his quarry and had been forced into shutdown. His endoskeletal chassis, having been completely stripped of flesh during the time displacement, ended up buried in a scrapyard, though one of the scrapyard workers discovered his severed skull and took it home, putting it on his mantelpiece. Though damaged, the endo-skull retained some power and transmitted a signal to its body. The body burst out of a heap of scrap metal, killing one of the workers there and taking his clothing. Cromartie's body also ripped off the head of the worker and used it as part of its disguise while it followed the recall signal from its own head.
Cromartie's new skin
Cromartie's head and body would soon be reunited, but without his organic sheath he had insufficient ability to infiltrate. He sought out a scientist called Dr. Fleming who had been experimenting with the idea of creating synthetic tissue for skin grafting purposes. While Fleming hadn't yet worked out the correct formula for developing synthetic tissue, Cromartie possessed all of Skynet's knowledge and provided the formula to Fleming. Cromartie had also stolen a large supply of blood from a hospital which Fleming used to create his tissue formula. Filling his bathtub with the formula, Fleming then watched Cromartie disrobe, revealing his robotic endoskeleton. Cromartie submerged himself in the liquid synthetic tissue until it set over his chassis. Though he now had flesh, it was gruesomely misshapen and he would require reconstructive surgery to pass as a human. Seeing as Fleming had served his purpose, Cromartie killed him and took the doctor's eyes to cover up his own mechanical ones.
Cromartie as played by Garret Dillahunt
Next, Cromartie would seek out a cosmetic surgeon, finding one in Central LA and breaking into his office to access patient records. Among the surgeon's patients was a failing actor known as George Laszlo and Cromartie decided that Laszlo had the appropriate facial structure to suit his needs. Cromartie forced the surgeon to reconstruct his face to match Laszlo's and then killed him after the operation was over. He then tracked down the real George Laszlo to his apartment in Hollywood, breaking in and holding Laszlo's face and his own up to a mirror. Satisfied that his face was a a near-perfect match to Laszlo's, Cromartie murdered the actor and would take up residence in his apartment, using it as his base of operations while he resumed his mission to terminate John Connor.
Mission resumed[]
After his last encounter with the Connors, Cromartie had lost all trace of them. In order to find them again, he turned to the FBI who had also been pursuing Sarah Connor ever since the incident at Cyberdyne Systems a decade ago. Assuming the false identity of Agent Kester, Cromartie gained access to the FBI database, seeking any records relating to the Connors. This would lead to him seeking information from Charlie Dixon, Sarah's former fiance whom she had left in 1999, but Charlie had no idea that Sarah was even alive, much less any knowledge of her whereabouts.
Believing the Connors to have gone to ground within L.A. County, Cromartie began searching for John in different schools throughout L.A.. Though he did visit the school John was attending during this time, Cameron was able to recognise the suspicious "agent" as a Terminator and she and John were able to hide from Cromartie with the help of one of their classmates distracting the cyborg assassin. Cromartie soon concluded that John did not attend the school and left, continuing his search elsewhere.
While Cromartie had been seeking out the Connors, he had left several bodies in his wake, drawing the attention of the FBI and Agent James Ellison in particular. Ellison had been following the Connor case for years and in recent months had discovered evidence confirming everything Sarah had said about Skynet and Judgment Day, with Cromartie's activities only convincing him further of the truth. Not having covered his tracks very well, Cromartie's infiltration of the FBI was discovered and Ellison, now aware that Cromartie had stolen George Laszlo's identity, led a team of agents in an assault on Laszlo's apartment. However, the agents were not prepared or equipped to deal with an advanced killing machine from the future and Cromartie effortlessly slaughtered all of the agents that stormed the apartment, with the exception of Ellison himself. Cromartie had spared Ellison because he expected the agent would lead him to the Connors, willingly or not.
Target acquired[]
After the massacre in Hollywood, Cromartie disappeared and Ellison was forced to take a leave of absence. Ellison convinced his superiors that George Laszlo was responsible for the massacre, knowing that they would not believe the truth. Concerned that Cromartie might use Charlie Dixon again in order to find the Connors, Ellison contacted Charlie himself and he and his wife Michelle everything he knew about Skynet and the machines before urging the couple to leave L.A..
As Ellison had feared, Cromartie did indeed try to use the Dixons, kidnapping Michelle while the Dixons had stopped at a gas station. He took Michelle to an abandoned building where he set up what appeared to be an explosive trap, using Michelle as bait to lure Sarah, Cameron and Derek Reese away. The trap was merely a ruse and the bomb was a fake, meant to distract Michelle's rescuers from the real bomb which was wired to the cell tower outside the house. Before destroying the tower, Cromartie used a tapper to listen in on Sarah and John's cell phone calls, successfully intercepting the code they used to talk back and forth to each other. Cromartie then detonated the bomb and collapsed the cell tower, leaving Sarah and the others wounded and stranded while he returned to L.A. to kill John.
After destroying the tower, Cromartie contacted John, using Sarah's code and imitating her voice, telling him to meet up at the Santa Monica Pier. At the pier, Cromartie pursued John to a dead end of the pier where John jumped off into the water. Cromartie followed, grabbing John by his jacket, attempting to drag him to the bottom of the water, but John slipped off the jacket, swimming to the surface while Cromartie sank to the bottom, eyes visibly glowing as he sank into the dark depths. Later, Cromartie walks up from the shore, drenched, but with no visible damage to his systems.
Having lost John once again, Cromartie would utilise local resources to find him again. Having a rough idea of where the Connors resided, he began questioning citizens using a photo he had obtained of Cameron. While talking to staff at a homeless shelter, Cromartie was approached by Jody, a girl who had previously met Cameron when she was malfunctioning and suffering memory lapses. Jody agrees to help Cromartie so she can get revenge on Cameron for knocking her unconscious and stopping her from committing a burglary. However, she soon realises that Cromartie isn't really Cameron's uncle as he claims and thinks he is stalking her. Likewise, Cromartie becomes frustrated with Jody's careless behaviour and throws her out of his car.
Cromartie then finds the Connors' actual residence through a conversation with their neighbour Kacy Corbin and pays a visit. He is thwarted by Riley Dawson's tactics, but manages to enter the house. He is unsuccessful, however, and does not see John hiding in the shadows. He then leaves, undaunted, quipping the usual "Thank you for your time".
Some time later, Cromartie discovers that Sarah, Cameron and Derek have been pursuing a group of thieves that had robbed them. While Cameron killed three of the four thieves, Sarah had let one of them live and Cromartie promised the survivor protection from Sarah if he told him where she lived.
Last stand[]
Several days later, Cromartie shows up again at the Connors' hideout, attacking Sarah and demanding John's whereabouts. Sensing that Sarah doesn't actually know where John is, Cromartie kidnaps her, putting her in the trunk of his car. Cromartie later learns that John and his new friend Riley Dawson are in Mexico after the two of them are digitally photographed by a local and identified by the police. Having been monitoring FBI calls, Cromartie heads for Mexico to finally complete his mission.
Cromartie later arrives at the village where John was reported to be and enters the police station, killing all of the cops that stand in his way. However, he spots John and Riley escaping with James Ellison, the runaways stealing his car.
Later, Cromartie returns to the police station to pick up more ammo for his guns. He is then lured into a church by Ellison, who tells him "All things are possible to he who believes." He is then sniped by Derek, and continuously fired upon by he and Sarah. Cromartie, wielding a 9mm and an HK-5, fires back at both of them. Cameron then appears behind him, wielding a Remington 870p combat shotgun loaded with depleted uranium slugs. Cameron fires multiple shots that pierce Cromartie's armoured chassis and destroy a fair-sized portion of his head. Badly damaged, he collapses to the floor unable to move, but still conscious. His attackers stand over him as John appears wielding a handgun and fires a single round into Cromartie's damaged head, knocking him offline.
After the shootout, the Connors take Cromartie's body outside the church and bury it in the yard, intent on coming back later to destroy it with thermite. Meanwhile, Cromartie's CPU chip is removed and Sarah places it on a rock before smashing it with the butt of her assault rifle. With the chip destroyed, Cromartie is well and truly dead.
Post-termination[]
Cromartie's body is incorporated into John Henry
Although Cromartie's CPU was destroyed, his body was not. After Cromartie's termination, the Connors and Ellison split up, seeing it best that they don't travel together. While the Connors left, Ellison contacted his new employers at Zeira Corp and arranged for the recovery of the T-888 endoskeleton buried outside of the church. Sarah would return to Mexico some time later with a supply of thermite to vaporise the endoskeleton, but would find the grave empty.
It would later be revealed that Zeira Corp had incorporated Cromartie's endoskeleton and processors into the artificial intelligence they were developing, which had been named John Henry.
Terminations[]
Cromartie has killed dozens of people over the course of his mission. These victims have been listed by the episodes they occurred in.
1.01 - Pilot[]
- Mr. Ferguson - A teacher at Crest View High School; his death occurs off-camera. Cromartie killed him in order to take his place at the school and get within striking distance of John Connor.
1.02 - Gnothi Seauton[]
- Chet - A worker at a scrapyard. Cromartie's decapitated body emerges from a scrap heap and kills Chet and his dog off-camera, using his head as part of a disguise while it goes searching for its own head.
- Unnamed junkyard worker - The man who took Cromartie's head from the junkyard. Cromartie kills him off-camera before retrieving his own head.
1.03 - The Turk[]
- Dr. Fleming - A scientist who was researching artificial skin growth for grafting purposes. After helping him develop his formula and using it to acquire a new skin sheath, Cromartie killed him off-camera and took his eyes to cover up his own robotic eyes.
1.04 - Heavy Metal[]
- David Lyman - A cosmetic surgeon who was forced to give Cromartie surgery to make him appear human. After the operation, Cromartie snapped Lyman's neck.
- George Laszlo - An actor whose face Cromartie had based his new skin sheath on. He killed Laszlo by slamming his head against a mirror.
1.08 - Vick's Chip[]
- Unnamed desk officer - While posing as an FBI agent, Cromartie attempts to access the youth database to find out which school John is attending. The desk officer refuses to cooperate with him since he has no warrant or any other paperwork. Getting nowhere with the desk officer, Cromartie breaks his neck and uses his computer himself.
1.09 - What He Beheld[]
- Hostage Rescue Team - Twenty HRT officers led by James Ellison and Greta Simpson assault George Laszlo's apartment where Cromartie is hiding. Cromartie kills all of them single-handed, some by shooting and others by blunt trauma.
- Greta Simpson - An FBI agent who accompanied Ellison and the HRT officers in attempting to take down Cromartie. She met the same fate as the officers under her command.
2.07 - Brothers of Nablus[]
- Ellison Terminator - A T-888 sent back by Skynet to replace FBI agent James Ellison. Since this conflicted with his mission to kill John Connor, Cromartie saved Ellison by destroying the Terminator sent to replace him, tearing out its power cell.
2.08 - Mr. Ferguson is Ill Today[]
- Unnamed police officers - Cromartie guns down seven officers at a police station in Mexico while hunting down John Connor.