From the get-go, “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” claims to follow the events of the first two James Cameron films. Though “T2” was released in 1991, it’s set a few years later in 1995 to keep in line with Edward Furlong’s John Connor supposedly being 10 years old. No, we don’t buy it either. Not only does Furlong’s John act more like a newly minted teenager, but he looks the part too. To further complicate things, “Terminator 3” mentions that John was 13 during “T2,” which doesn’t match up with his 1984 conception.

By the time “The Sarah Connor Chronicles” aired, the series aged John up a few years, making him 15 in 1999 and stating that it had been two years since the events of “T2.” This means that in the series timeline, they faced the T-1000 in 1997. John’s age is a constant question throughout the “Terminator” franchise, but even within “The Sarah Connor Chronicles'” own continuity, there’s plenty of room for debate. In the episode “Today Is The Day, Part 2,” John states that he was 12 during the events of “T2,” thus contradicting what we learn in the “Pilot.”

When you do the math, “The Sarah Connor Chronicles” version of John was probably conceived in 1983, a full year before the events of “The Terminator.” Whether those events happened earlier in the timeline or not, it’s clear that the show only loosely followed the specifics of the original Cameron films.