What follows is the latest in a series of one-on-one interviews conducted during the 2009 FOX Midseason Press Junket. We'll post each as they relate to that week's premieres.

Brian Ford Sullivan: What's been the biggest surprise for you on the show?

Thomas Dekker: To be honest, what I didn't see coming is what is in our back nine. So of the episodes that have aired, I've had a good idea from the get go - season one was kind of this evolution of... starting [with John Connor being] very small and scared and slowly growing to a kind of angrier, tougher, kind of scary guy actually. But the back nine is actually where the writers are throwing me things that I go, "Whoah! I did not know any of that was going on!" Here's a lot smarter than I thought, there's a lot that's been going on secretly and a lot being done that we find out rather quickly on the show.

Brian Ford Sullivan: I think one of the interesting aspects of the show is how Riley's [Leven Rambin's character] job is to pull John away from Cameron [Summer Glau's character]. Do you think John's relationship with Cameron is bad for him?

Thomas Dekker: Well it's that in the future, [Cameron's] with him at every turn and does everything with him. We don't really know what their relationship is but the resistance has become frustrated with him because they're not even getting to speak to John Connor anymore, everything's going through Cameron. And their frustration is - they're fighting these machines on one hand and then their leader is trusting them with a machine and thus they're trying to pull him away. But the interesting thing is that, again you'll see in the back nine, is it kind of does just the opposite - which is a bit of a scary thing. When he chose to save her [in the season premiere] and pointed a gun at his family, that's a little screwy, you know what I mean? So whether she ends up always being good or whether she's making a colossal mistake remains to be seen.

Brian Ford Sullivan: Do you think Cameron's his first love?

Thomas Dekker: Yeah, I do. I've always looked, we've always looked at it that whether he wants to admit it or not or whether he tries to forget it, he's still totally, you know... I mean, she's kind of, it's that strange thing - it's that she lives to protect him and she's beautiful, it's [complicated]. But that's what I'm talking about specifically is that whole thing with Riley, a lot gets uncovered, he's a lot smarter than you would necessarily think.

Brian Ford Sullivan: I know it's a separate thing but are you excited about the upcoming film?

Thomas Dekker: Yeah, I've seen pieces of it. It's just kind of crazy... [it's a] nice companion piece especially with the direction our show is going. I think the two work very well together, in tandem together.

Brian Ford Sullivan: Are there any contributions to the "Terminator" mythology you've especially proud of?

Thomas Dekker: What I think has been cool is that we managed to start with this one idea - that was perfect for each one of the films - and have gotten to like spread it and spread it and spread it out into these very complicated [places]. We get to fill in all these blanks all these outside corners of the story that was played with in the films. Please keep watching, we get really good is this back nine.

"Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" moves to Fridays at 8:00/7:00c beginning this week.