Terminator Genisys Ending: What Does It Really Mean?

What's The Deal With The Guardian's New Body?

Just before the time machine blows up, ripping John apart, Pops is thrown out and into some gloopy liquid metal. He's presumed dead, but shows up minutes later to free Sarah and Kyle, revealed to have become some T-1000/T-800 hybrid (a T-1800? T-800000?). This is a major step forward in the Terminator mythos (almost as ground-breaking as turning humans into machines), but is actually pretty grounded in the logic presented in the earlier movies. Pops isn't a proper T-1000, but for all intents and purposes he will operate pretty much like one. So how did this happen? The T-1000 substance needs a CPU to consistently hold shape - thus far John's only been able to temporarily replicate vague human forms using lasers - which Pops' open skull provides. He's now totally independent of the T-800 skeleton, but due to his specifically formatting 'brain' retains the same shape and, more importantly, the same programming, meaning he's essentially dealt with his problem of being old and obselete.