Cromartie

Cromartie is a fictional robot assassin featured in the Terminator multimedia franchise. He made recurring appearances as an antagonist in the FOX Network television series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. He was originally played by actor Owain Yeoman in the pilot episode of the series. Cromartie then appeared as a headless endoskeleton at the end of "Gnothi Seauton", after which he was played by actor Garret Dillahunt under the alias, George Laszlo, beginning with episode 1x04, "Heavy Metal".

Original model
Cromartie was the human alias of a T-888 series Terminator infiltration and assassination unit. Having been likely programmed in the year 2027, it was sent back in time to September, 1999 to assassinate fifteen-year-old John Connor (who was operating under the alias of John Reese at the time). Tracking John Reese to Crest View High School in Red Valley, New Mexico, the Terminator infiltrated the school as a substitute teacher and assumed the name Mister Cromartie.

Cromartie had a gun installed beneath the skin covering of his cybernetic leg. While administering the role call, Cromartie began surreptitiously extracting the gun from his leg. When he correctly identified student John Reese as John Connor, he aimed the weapon at him and fired. Cameron Phillips dived in between John and Cromartie taking several shots to the chest, thus revealing that she too was a Terminator. Students began screaming in panic and hiding beneath their desks. John managed to dive out the window and Cameron followed him shortly thereafter. Stalking after them, Cromartie paused to look back at the terrified students and wanly smirked, "Class dismissed".

Cromartie stalked after John into the parking lot where John sought cover behind a school bus. Using enhanced superhuman strength, Cromartie overturned the bus, forcing John to run out into the open. He scrambled behind a row of parked cars, avoiding several more shots, but Cromartie eventually caught up to him. He was readying the kill shot at Connor's head when Cameron Phillips rammed him with a pick-up truck. The two escaped before Cromartie fully recovered his senses.

On the trail of Connor, Cromartie found Sarah Connor on a nearby ridge who had been trying to find out what had happened to John. He attacked her, but Sarah resisted. He then used her cell phone and imitated her voice to call John, instructing him to return to the house. Cameron suspected that Cromartie would utilize such a tactic, so she took John's place when entering the abode, allowing herself to be shot multiple times by Cromartie's gun. Luring him in close, Cameron struck back and the two fought one another, causing a great deal of damage to the house. She temporarily incapacitated Cromartie by electrocuting him with a power cable, thus giving her enough time to get John and Sarah to safety.

When Cromartie revived, he tracked the three of them to a bank in Los Angeles, California. Cameron locked herself and John and Sarah inside of a fault and began cobbling together an isotope weapon made from components that had been previously secreted away in safety deposit boxes. As Cromartie began smashing through the vault door, Cameron passed the weapon to Sarah Connor, so that she could then implement her escape plan, which involved shunting the three of them forward through time. Sarah fired the weapon at Cromartie just as he was breaking through the door, burning away his outer layer and destroying his head.

Notes & Trivia



 * Cromartie is the first T-888 Terminator featured in the Terminator franchise.


 * Not including John Henry appearances, Cromartie has appeared in fourteen episodes of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles in one varying form or another.


 * Playing the role of Cromartie is actor Owain Yeoman's first work in the science fiction genre.


 * In addition to playing Cromartie, actor Garret Dillahunt also played the artificial intelligence, John Henry in season two of the series.


 * Actor Owain Yeoman is best known for playing the role of CBI detective Wayne Rigsby on the CBS crime drama series The Mentalist.


 * Actor Garret Dillahunt is also known for playing the character of Matthew Ross on eleven episodes of the USA Network television series The 4400.


 * It is unclear whether Cromartie was a completely fictional alias, or if the Terminator based his appearance on an actual person (whom he presumably killed).