I very much agree John going into the future to learn how to be himself, importantly to learn from Derek and Kyle, makes good sense from character development POV. We really haven't seen him become someone special enough to lead the humans to victory, short of him simply being a meat-puppet for Cameron/JH doing all the heavy thinking (hinted at in Jesse's future).
In a way, of course, the time travel is magically fixing things. But it needs to do so in a way that causes the least damage to the logic they've followed with it thus far. I can buy into the idea that a time jump forward doesn't cause time branches so John has the interval between the time jump he made with the Weaverbot and whenever the next time bubble from a future is (but see below). Just how he's going to convince both himself and Sarah he really is Sarah's John ought to be interesting after the Derek-Jesse stand-off. In any case, I don't think he has to be in the same timeline as Sarah whilst they're apart, so long as he can secure the time coordinate of when he jumped from (from JH/Cameron).
Re JH/Cameron. Presently I'm thinking that Cameron was John Henry all along - isn't that what we saw revealed in the finale? She knew John Henry would take her chip to download into because she was in fact John Henry back from the future to bring herself to the future. Cameron/JH's secret agenda all along was to make sure she/he/it existed. The protecting John thing could, in fact, have been a completely bogus cover for that agenda. It makes "Self Made Man" even more useful. Cameron/JH's interest in studying history and very quick grasp of what was going on with Myron Stark, quite apart from showing that time jumps do go wrong and wreck your plans, is understandable because of what the finale revealed: Cameron/JH doesn't just jump in a time bubble, as John Henry he/she/it either invents one, or via information from the Weaverbot, makes and runs one. (John Henry downloaded into Cameron's chip and jumped just before Weaverbot and John I assume.)
"Self Made Man" comes into play again too: it's illogical for John to jump back to later than the Ziera Corp confrontation - why leave Sarah alone in the past when he's coming back anyway? However, plausibly the time jump can be off by a while but still in the same timeline given the possibility of error seen in "Self Made Man" (in the lecture theatre, Johnny is erasing the stuff on the whiteboard as fast as he writes it on). Again, both John and Sarah then need to be convinced they really are the respective "correct" John and Sarah. (Back to Derek vs Jesse - are we going to get Stephanie Jacobsen, and maybe Levin Rambin, back too?)
Re Sarah stepping back out of the time bubble. I'll need to watch it again but what I saw was that Sarah realised she wasn't likely going to be able to wrassle John out the time bubble and he was going because he was convinced, in the heat of the moment at least, he needed to follow Cameron. Once the bubble started forming they didn't exactly have time for an extended debate. Two reasons for Sarah stepping out: she wants to stop JD - and she's been promised by Kyle the future is not set - and that's all she knows to do. The important reason though is that she knows she has cancer. Going to the future will not help her or John. In the future it's unlikely she'll get access to oncology services and it will be too late to stop JD. Dying in the future will just mean another death for John to handle. It was quick-thinking on her part. And the resigned way she said it (to me) seemed like, "I wish I could have said goodbye properly." I think, logically, it must be that Sarah has cancer - jumping over the time of her death didn't cure whatever it was gave her cancer unless it somehow excused her from exposure to a carcinogen. But she then ended up at a nuke plant anyway. Seems to me what would make no sense is that the time jump (in the bank) would magically make Sarah's cancer disappear.
Meantime, Sarah's in deep doodoo for sure: she's on the run, having escaped jail in a monstrous prison break, then trashed Ziera Corp with the result there are sundry people missing. She should have stayed in the bubble!
no subject
In a way, of course, the time travel is magically fixing things. But it needs to do so in a way that causes the least damage to the logic they've followed with it thus far. I can buy into the idea that a time jump forward doesn't cause time branches so John has the interval between the time jump he made with the Weaverbot and whenever the next time bubble from a future is (but see below). Just how he's going to convince both himself and Sarah he really is Sarah's John ought to be interesting after the Derek-Jesse stand-off. In any case, I don't think he has to be in the same timeline as Sarah whilst they're apart, so long as he can secure the time coordinate of when he jumped from (from JH/Cameron).
Re JH/Cameron. Presently I'm thinking that Cameron was John Henry all along - isn't that what we saw revealed in the finale? She knew John Henry would take her chip to download into because she was in fact John Henry back from the future to bring herself to the future. Cameron/JH's secret agenda all along was to make sure she/he/it existed. The protecting John thing could, in fact, have been a completely bogus cover for that agenda. It makes "Self Made Man" even more useful. Cameron/JH's interest in studying history and very quick grasp of what was going on with Myron Stark, quite apart from showing that time jumps do go wrong and wreck your plans, is understandable because of what the finale revealed: Cameron/JH doesn't just jump in a time bubble, as John Henry he/she/it either invents one, or via information from the Weaverbot, makes and runs one. (John Henry downloaded into Cameron's chip and jumped just before Weaverbot and John I assume.)
"Self Made Man" comes into play again too: it's illogical for John to jump back to later than the Ziera Corp confrontation - why leave Sarah alone in the past when he's coming back anyway? However, plausibly the time jump can be off by a while but still in the same timeline given the possibility of error seen in "Self Made Man" (in the lecture theatre, Johnny is erasing the stuff on the whiteboard as fast as he writes it on). Again, both John and Sarah then need to be convinced they really are the respective "correct" John and Sarah. (Back to Derek vs Jesse - are we going to get Stephanie Jacobsen, and maybe Levin Rambin, back too?)
Re Sarah stepping back out of the time bubble. I'll need to watch it again but what I saw was that Sarah realised she wasn't likely going to be able to wrassle John out the time bubble and he was going because he was convinced, in the heat of the moment at least, he needed to follow Cameron. Once the bubble started forming they didn't exactly have time for an extended debate. Two reasons for Sarah stepping out: she wants to stop JD - and she's been promised by Kyle the future is not set - and that's all she knows to do. The important reason though is that she knows she has cancer. Going to the future will not help her or John. In the future it's unlikely she'll get access to oncology services and it will be too late to stop JD. Dying in the future will just mean another death for John to handle. It was quick-thinking on her part. And the resigned way she said it (to me) seemed like, "I wish I could have said goodbye properly." I think, logically, it must be that Sarah has cancer - jumping over the time of her death didn't cure whatever it was gave her cancer unless it somehow excused her from exposure to a carcinogen. But she then ended up at a nuke plant anyway. Seems to me what would make no sense is that the time jump (in the bank) would magically make Sarah's cancer disappear.
Meantime, Sarah's in deep doodoo for sure: she's on the run, having escaped jail in a monstrous prison break, then trashed Ziera Corp with the result there are sundry people missing. She should have stayed in the bubble!