Posted at 9 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 7

Are Sarah and John Connor a sci fi version and Mary and Jesus?

Two reasons “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” works for me is its gritty female leads—Summer Glau as terminator Cameron and Lena Headey as the title character, Sarah Connor.

So I was a little worried when Headey suggested to reporters during a recent conference call that Sarah would lose some of her ferocity when the Fox show returns for its second season at 7 p.m. Monday.

“I feel that Sarah has taken a kind of a backseat in terms of being proactive and taking care of business,” Headey said.

Sarah’s business, of course, is protecting her 16-year-old son, John (Thomas Dekker), the future leader of the human resistance against the machines that take over Earth.

This season, John will fight his mother when it comes to decisions that affect him, Headey said. In other words, he’s going to grow up.

“I think this season for Sarah is kind of her losing slight control over everything, 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,” Headey said.

Thankfully, Sarah won’t become a complete basket case, according to series creator Josh Friedman, who also took part in the call. He said Sarah and John’s is the “central relationship in the show.”

“Lena talks a little bit about her character taking a back seat to John,” Friedman said. “I think that it’s a parent/child struggle, and … watching the push and pull of that dynamic, to me, is fascinating. So I sort of look at them as a pair.”

Friedman added that no matter how difficult their relationship becomes, Sarah Connor won’t stop being herself—apparently a butt-kicking, angry stand-in for Mary, the mother of Jesus.

“You take a normal girl who ... gives birth to Jesus,” Headey said. "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.”

Both Headey and Friedman talked about the characters in terms of Mary and Jesus.

“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,” Friedman said.

Wow, and I just get into the tough gals and explosions.

Don’t miss what else Friedman and Headey had to say about the new season of “TSCC,” including Garbage singer Shirley Manson’s new role and some amazing spoilers. That’s right, SPOILERS AHEAD, so read at your own risk—or wait until after the 2-hour season premiere at 7 p.m. Monday on Fox.

A CHARACTER DIES

Q: It was revealed at Comic-Con that someone is going to die this season. Do you feel pretty safe because the show is called “Sarah Connor Chronicles”?

Lena Headey: I don’t know. You can never feel safe, to quote Sarah. I don’t take anything for granted.

Q: What can you tell about the death? Will we know who is the “big death”?

Josh Friedman: Well, you’ll know it when you see it. You won’t have to ask about it. I do think there’s obviously some stuff in the first episode kind of thematically about dying and resurrection and reorientation of all the relationships, but when the character dies, I think we’ll know.

Q: What actually brings you to the point of saying, “Well, it’s time to axe one of these guys?”

JF: It’s usually their behavior on the set. 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.

Q: And does the actor know yet?

JF: Yes.

SHIRLEY MANSON’S CHARACTER

Q: Would you characterize Shirley Manson’s character now as a nemesis? Are we allowed to call her evil at this point?

JF: Oh, I think evil’s a bit strong. I don’t think of any of these characters as evil. I think that they’re very focused. They have a plan. It’s not personal, like there’s some evil back story where revenge is necessary. I think that there’s a plan that she has in place to try to grow the Turk, but it’s not necessarily that she’s, it’s like Jessica Rabbit.

Q: She looks fabulous. Congratulations on that one.

JF: I take full credit for how Shirley looks.

Q: What was the decision behind getting Shirley Manson on board? Because this is her first acting job, right?

JF: I’ve known Shirley for a couple of years. She’s a friend of my wife’s … I used to joke with her about coming on the show to do one episode or something like that because she never acted. And we’re like, “You know, you should come, do one thing, come be a scary terminator for an episode or do something like that,” and she always said, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, you’re never going to do that.” And then this year, when we started casting, I actually wasn’t thinking about her for this part … I e-mailed her and said, “Do you want to come in and audition?” She said, “Well, yes, I’m coming back in town on Sunday.” I said, “Well, we need you in on Monday,” and she came and she did it, and She’s just got an incredible charisma. And also, she’s just very professional. She’s always prepared, and her learning curve in terms of the craft part of it has been very high so far, so I don’t know. It sort of just happened organically, but she also had to go through the entire audition process just like any other actor. She was given no extra points for being Shirley Manson. I think, in some ways, she was given minus points by people who thought maybe she couldn’t do it.

A ROMANCE FOR SARAH?

Q: Now, Lena, there’s a little bit of a love triangle seemingly brewing between your character and Reese and your former fiancé Charley (Dean Winters, right). Do you have any thoughts on how you’d like to see that resolve?

LH: 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.

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

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

RELIGION AND 'TSCC'

Q: The issues of faith and face have always run through this franchise. Could you talk about bringing the religious aspects to the forefront?

JF: Yes. I think you hit it on the head. 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.

FBI AGENT ELLISON

Q: As of the finale last year, FBI agent James Ellison (Richard T. Jones, right) pretty much was thrown into this world where terminators really do exist and we see them in the pilot interacting a little with Cromartie (Garrett Dillahunt, left). How is he going to get to hook up with Sarah and the rest of the troops, and what might that mean?

JF: Well, you presume facts that aren’t in evidence. I don’t know that he’s necessarily going to hook up with them. 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 Comartie’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.

DEREK REESE

Q: Why was the choice made to add the Derek Reese character (Brian Austin Green, right) as a series regular?

JF: 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 Brian was out doing lots of auditions, so we thought we’d lock him up so that no one else could take him.

Q: In “Dungeons & Dragons,” Derek having the flashbacks or the flash forwards really brought the episode together. Is that something that we’re going to see more of in season two and how will that take place?

JF: 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.

Q: So now that Brian Austin Green is on as a series regular, has there been any talk to try to get Michael Biehn in as a guest spot as his father?

JF: Do you know they’re friends? Brian and Michael Biehn are friends. I don’t know if you’re asking seriously or not. I’m really kind of anti bringing in people from the “Terminator” movies.

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