Discussion: Why Did Cromartie Leave Ellison alive?

"Not only was Ellison not a threat in that scene but Cromartie knows he still has to find John Connor & who better to lead him to him. Cromartie knows Ellison has the files on Sarah. I do think Cromartie would have killed Ellison had he ran into him at FBI headquarters after Cromartie found out Ellison had the files. Notice they show Ellison & Cromartie just miss each other at the elevator. Ellison will never know how close he came to being taken out by Cromartie not once, but twice. Three times if you count when they met at Laslo's right after Cromartie killed him."

"Interesting question, I think we can rule out that the cyborg is developing in the same way as Cameron. He/it has NOT been exposed to humans beings day to day as Cameron has with the opportunity to observe them in their everyday interactions,motivations and emotions. She has the brain so like the tin man she is looking for a heart. I hope she will return in S2 as she is by far the most interesting character, as if human and cyborgs are to co-exist then they must come to understand and tolerate each other, and it is her journey that gives us hope. John appears to see more in her than the other characters, so perhaps he is coming to the realisation that they must learn to live together as outright destruction of one side by the other is both unlikely and not to be desired.

Anyway why did he leave Ellison alive? In my view three possibilities:
1. As you say he was no threat, so maybe!
2. Cromartie knows he has pursued the Sarah Connor case tenaciously over the years, and therefore he may be of use in the future in some way to provide information.
3. Future knowledge. Maybe at some point Ellison is pivotal in some way in the course of events (probably in favour of Skynet) and must therefore be left alive to fulfill that role. Cromartie knows this and acts accordingly.
Hope we find out in the next series, although in the best tradition of the X-Files it is always good to have some things unexplained to give the fans something to speculate about!"

"Having stated the above, here is my own theory on Ellison's survial:

Part of Cromartie's Infiltrate function is to not draw attention to himself. He has a database of what the current year is like and that mass death will bring more humans after him. His AI presents himself with a solution of how to kill and remain undetected: Frame Ellison. Ellison is going to have a lot of explaining to do. Which is more believable to a 20th century detective? Several well armed police with the element of surprise ambused a subject who turned the tables on them, or they were betrayed by one of their own, an obsessed, stressed out agent who just happened to be the only survivor? What's he going to say that is believable and doesn't make him sound crazy? How could this suspect possibly have killed all those agents and why would he possibly leave Ellison alive? While Ellison is in hot water, Cromartie is free to still pursue John Connor without having having to fight through hordes of police along the way (he's not worried about being stopped, just slowed down)."

"I agree with this response the most, but in answering this question, I think it is also important to ask, "Why did Terminator X kill victim Y?" If a Terminator does not kill a threat, why did Vic for instance, kill his "wife"? Why did Cromartie kill the victims who were no threat to him? Most of these victims were important to Skynet true and you could argue that killing them eliminates people who might know about Skynet weaknesses, but as far as we know, these people never presented a threat in the "typical" timeline. They probably died on Judgement Day. Several times the "good" Terminators have told John or Sarah that killing someone would be more strategically beneficial. Terminators run on computer logic. This tells us that Terminators only kill if it is somehow logically beneficial. So the victims' deaths benefitted Skynet and Ellison's survival benefits Skynet as well. This we know for sure. What we need to know is how it benefits them. Though all theories presented are good so far, I think the no threat theory is least likely. Sure that's part of it, but I think there is more, like a logical & statement (If human = no threat && human alive > human dead then don't terminate else terminate). "

"Having stated the above, here is my own theory on Ellison's survial:

Part of Cromartie's Infiltrate function is to not draw attention to himself. He has a database of what the current year is like and that mass death will bring more humans after him. His AI presents himself with a solution of how to kill and remain undetected: Frame Ellison. Ellison is going to have a lot of explaining to do. Which is more believable to a 20th century detective? Several well armed police with the element of surprise ambused a subject who turned the tables on them, or they were betrayed by one of their own, an obsessed, stressed out agent who just happened to be the only survivor? What's he going to say that is believable and doesn't make him sound crazy? How could this suspect possibly have killed all those agents and why would he possibly leave Ellison alive? While Ellison is in hot water, Cromartie is free to still pursue John Connor without having having to fight through hordes of police along the way (he's not worried about being stopped, just slowed down)."

"I think that Cromartie felt no need in killing things that pose no threat to him. Remember, he is not necessarily evil, he is unrelentless in his mission, and if someone tries to stop his mission, they die, if they dn't Cromartie barely pays attention to them."