Preview: Terminator's Sarah Connor Reunites with Her Babydaddy

Friday the 13th is Sarah Connor's lucky day. As Fox's Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles resumes its sophomore season this Friday at 8 pm/ET (new time slot alert!), TV's baddest momma will reunite with her back-from-the-future ex, Kyle Reese. What brings about this unexpected moment in their "long-distance" romance? Jonathan Jackson (a Daytime Emmy winner as General Hospital's original Lucky Spencer) gave us a look at what the immediate "future" holds for John Connor's extremely absentee father.

TVGuide.com: Here we are, almost a year to the day of your first Terminator appearance, and you're finally working with your "babymama," Lena Headey. Is that something you thought might never be possible?
Jonathan Jackson: There are so many different things they could do with the character, that I really had no idea. But I was really excited to get to work with Lena. She's awesome. 

TVGuide.com: How is it that Kyle comes to share a moment with her?
Jackson: Well, the context is that he comes back to help her with a life-and-death situation. So there are a lot of great scenes and interactions between Sarah and Kyle. It's cool to be able to touch on the original romance and connection that they had. It was so powerful, and it's the foundation of the whole [mythology]. 

TVGuide.com: What was your initial reaction when asked to fill the Michael Biehn role from the Terminator films?
Jackson: I was a fan of the films growing up, but more a fan of the second one, because I was really young when the first when came out. So there wasn't much intimidation. 

TVGuide.com: But as a sci-fi fan, were you a bit jazzed?
Jackson: Oh yeah. I was totally excited. I had to go back and rewatch the first one, which was good because it's never great to be trying to fill someone's shoes. You put your trust in the producers and directors if they think you're the right man for the job.

TVGuide.com: How do you think your "son," Thomas Dekker, turned out? Proud of your boy?
Jackson: [Laughs] Absolutely, yeah. I've run into him a couple times, and he's doing an awesome job.

TVGuide.com: I seem to be playing "Six Degrees of Amber Tamblyn" this week. Shortly after I shot a video with her on the set of her new ABC series, The Unusuals, I did a phoner with Sprague Grayden (Joan of Arcadia, now on 24). And now you. [Jackson and Tamblyn played childhood pals on General Hospital.]
Jackson: You know, I just saw Amber on Punk'd the other day. I don't know if it was rerun, but she was the one getting punk'd and it was pretty funny. I felt bad for her, but she handled it really well! She's so sweet.

TVGuide.com: What else do you have cooking? Anything on the music front with Enation (Jonathan's band with brother Richard Lee Jackson, Daniel Sweatt and Michael Galeotti)?
Jackson: Yeah, 2008 was a really good year for us. We released our newest album, World in Flight; we went on One Tree Hill a couple times, which was awesome; and we have a song on Dog the Bounty Hunter coming up. The music stuff has been great.

TVGuide.com: And what can you tell me about your upcoming movie, Kalamity?
Jackson: That's an independent film I did with Nick Stahl — speaking of "Six Degrees of Separation," because he played John Connor [in Terminator 3]. It was kind of weird!

TVGuide.com: Kalamity has an interesting premise — guy returns home to discover that something is a bit "off" with his girlfriend...
Jackson: He also finds that something is "off" with my character, his best friend Stanley. It's very edgy and intense, and I had a great time filming it. I saw a cut of it last week, and I'm very excited. It's a character/suspense film where a lot of strange things are going on.

TVGuide.com: OK, but not "strange" as in time-traveling robots from the future.
Jackson: No, no.... [Laughs] Strange without the sci-fi.

Watch our brand-new video Q&As with Terminator stars Shirley Manson, Richard T. Jones and Garret Dillahunt.