Cameron is described as a cyborg on the TSCC season 1 DVD case cover.
Can the sweet but deadly cyborg (Summer Glau of Firefly) be trusted?
To elaborate, she's a cyborg to the same extent that a T-800 is, i.e. she's a metal endoskeleton surrounded by living tissue. At various points in the show, she sustains cuts and bruises to her face and other parts of her fleshy exterior, and those wounds are shown to gradually heal over time.
For example, inIn S01E08, John Connor slices and peels back part of her scalp to expose the CPU port in her skull (much-- much as Sarah Connor did to the reprogrammed T-800 in a deleted scene from Terminator 2: Judgment Day). It's -- and it's very evident that what he's peeling back here is flesh, and blood. Blood is also clearly visible on the CPU port.
In S02E01, Cameron sustains significant damage from an explosion, causing somepart of her metal skull to be visibleexposed through tears in her cheek, so she uses a staple gun to help close the wound.
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles - S02E01 - "Samson and Delilah"
In the following episode, John mentions that the wounds on her face are healing quickly, and she replies "quicker than yours," implying that her flesh may heal faster than normal human flesh.
JOHN CONNOR: That's healing quickly.
CAMERON: Quicker than yours.
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles - S02E02 - "Automatic for the People"
By the end of the episode, the wounds on her cheek have fully closed and formed scar tissue, and by the episode after that, the scars are no longer visible.
JOHN CONNOR: That's healing quickly.
CAMERON: Quicker than yours.
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles - S02E02 - "Automatic for the People"
By the episode after that, the scars are no longer visible.
As is the case for T-800s, her fleshy exterior is apparently also required in order for her to be successfully transported through time using the Time Displacement Equipment (TDE).
In the pilot episode, she, Sarah and John all time travel from 1999 to 2007, and while all three were clothed beforehand, they all arrive naked, consistent with Kyle Reese's explanation in the original film that nothing inorganic candead will go through the TDE, unless it's surrounded by living tissue.
DR. SILBERMAN: Why didn't you bring any weapons? Something more advanced. Don't you have, er, ray guns? Show me a piece of future technology.
KYLE REESE: You go naked. Something about the field generated by a living organism. Nothing dead will go.
DR. SILBERMAN: Why?
KYLE REESE: I didn't build the fucking thing!
DR. SILBERMAN: Okay, okay. But this cyborg, if it's metal....
KYLE REESE: ... surrounded by living tissue!
DR. SILBERMAN: Oh, right.
The Terminator (1984)
In the final episode of season two2, a large portion of Cameron's metal skull is exposed due to damage she'd sustained earlier in the episode, and her body is apparently destroyed during a subsequent attempt to time traveldisplacement.
