Welcome back Continuum time travelers!
MAJOR SPOILERS FOR NON CANADIANS:
The first episode of the new season kicks things up a notch.
Now Kiera’s (Rachel Nichols) enemies seem to be not just Liber8, but the police department and government structure of Vancouver. She has become a lone wolf – someone who deals with the problem of taking the bad guys out by cutting through the red tape.
To be honest, this idea has merit. How can a judicial and police system deal with criminals from the future who, not only know all about the weaknesses of the past, but also, how to get around them. Think about how easy things would be for bad guys from our era to outsmart the police from the 1800’s.
Second Chances:
The new season opens with Kiera (Rachel Nichols) having a nightmare in 2077. Once fully awake, she tells her husband that she is having a headache and believes that her neural tech is not working properly.
Meanwhile, Travis (Roger Cross) has followed Sonya (Lexa Doig). He finds her in a storage room in a hospital. Kagame (Tony Amendola) has told her that her role is to replace him, and her first act as leader of Liber8 is to kill Travis.
As her lover, he does what any man would do; try to talk her out of it. However, her loyalty to the cause and to Kagame is obviously stronger. She shoots Travis several times, then, calmly leaves as if nothing happened.
Fortunately, Travis was shot in a hospital so, he is wheeled into the Emergency Room where several doctors attempt to resuscitate him. No luck. It appears that Sonya was successful in killing Travis per Kagame’s final orders.
They are unsuccessful and prepare to deal with the paperwork, when Travis’s chest reacts twice, as if he has some sort of technology in his chest to restart his heart. Whatever is in his chest, it works. He wakes up, becomes violent, kills a couple of doctors and attempts to escape.
As Travis attempts escape, leaving carnage in his wake, a clever doctor with a syringe of some type of sedative, jabs Travis with it. It is enough to knock him unconscious. You just really have to love good drugs. Travis’s last word before he falls unconscious is, “Sonya”.
A week later, as three thugs attempt to break into Vancity Power Corp., Kiera shows up in that amazing suit of hers and takes all three of them out. Of course, it helps that she was using her invisible capabilities.
There is a witness, of course. The security guard saw her become visible. Kiera tells him that he did not see anything. He nods nervously and runs off. There does not seem to be any explanation for her behaviour, other than that she has decided to be some form of secret super hero.
As well, Alec (Erik Knudsen) has decided to mov
e out of the family home on the farm and into a house shared with several other people his age. His buddy comes up with a weak excuse for not helping him move in. What a great friend – not. Kiera phones and mentions that this is her fourth message. For some reason, Alec is avoiding Kiera.
As Kiera disconnects, who should saunter in but Kellogg (Stephen Lobo) with a grin on his face. We find out more about what has been going on since Season one.
Apparently, after the explosion and collapse of the building, Kiera headed for Kellogg’s boat and spent a few days at his place. Then, as he talks to her in that, ‘poor me’, tone, he accuses her of leaving in the middle of the night, then, calling him now as if nothing happened. Her response, nothing did happen.
After a bit of back and forth, Kellogg asks why he is there. Kiera tells him, she wants to know, now that Kagame has accomplished his mission, and Travis is behind bars, what is next? What is Liber8’s next goal?
Kellogg responds, “it’s a multi-layered approach to revolution against the corporations. It’s going to take time. You know, infiltrate the criminal world, the business world, the political world…” Kiera also has another reason; she needs money.
This, Kellogg smiles, is something he has plenty of. It does not end there. Kiera says that she wants to put an end to Liber8 and go back to her family, and she will do anything to see that things happen that way. Then, Kellogg asks, “How do you know that the future hasn’t already been changed?”
The Mayor of Vancouver has a press conference. As she begins to speak, however, we hear the sound of a shot and the Mayor falls backward, dead. Vancouver is going to need a new Mayor.
We see Inspector Dillon (Brian Markinson)
for the first time this episode. He is explaining on the phone to some bigwig that his department takes credit for putting Travis in prison when Carlos (Victor Webster) walks in.
Dillon then gives us a summary of what is going on through his conversation with Carlos, “the chief was asked to give his resignation. He just did”. Dillon’s position is unaffected, but he adds that the city manager will be running things, “until they can arrange for a quick election.
He is worried that we’re going to lose control of the city before then. I want you to put every resource on this assassination, and I want you to get me an arrest before they sh%t-can us both”. Wow, I had no idea that Carlos was number two in charge. Good for him.
Carlos tells Dillon he will take care of it. Dillon stops him, “what about Kiera? This thing has Liber8 written all over it. I can only speculate about the vigilante behaviour that occurred last night”. I assume the event he is describing is Kiera’s super hero behaviour with the three thugs, which leads me to wonder about it as well.
Carlos and Kiera meet for what appears to be the first time since the explosion. He tells her she needs to get back in the game and drop the super hero act. She replies that she is better working on her own. Carlos adds that he is aware that this would keep her away from the prying eyes of Agent Gardiner (Nicholas Lea) and CSIS.
Later, Carlos has located a rather secluded place to meet with Kiera where the two of them can chat and make some decisions. Kiera’s argument is that, while she is working on her own, she can be more effective at stopping Liber8. She already foiled them from taking down the electrical grid of the city.
Carlos has his own take. If they do not find who killed the mayor soon, both he and Dillon will be out on their backsides. This is something to think about for Kiera.
Moments later, she reaches her decision and tells Carlos what she will get an answer for him, then asks, “was the Mayor in the pocket of the corporations?” Carlos replies, “have you seen a politician who wasn’t?” True, that. Next step is to determine who the mayor’s enemies were.
At Liber8 headquarters, Lucas (Omari Newton) and Garza (Luvia 
Peterson) inform Sonya that Travis is alive and behind bars. Sonya responds that, with the Mayor assassinated, it is too dangerous to mount a rescue for Travis. They need to shut everything down until it cools off.
Garza interrupts, “after we rescue Travis. We don’t leave soldiers behind”. Sonya then interrupts, “Travis got himself shot and arrested. He can’t lead from a prison, so that makes me ranking officer. Do you have a problem with that, Garza?”
After a brief stare down, Garza indicates she accepts Sonya’s position and walks away. Sonya turns to Lucas. She wants to know everything they can find out about Travis.
Alec is looking for a way to pay his bills now that he is out on his own. He does an interview on the run, or, maybe, on the walk, with the manager who is not entirely sure that Alec is right for the job. Alec does manage to convince him in the end. Wow, it must be hard to get work in Vancouver these days.
Back to cop central, where Dillon finds a less than pleasant individual in his office. Gardiner is looking for Kiera. So is Dillon. Once that is established, Gardiner tells Dillon that he expects to be informed when she turns up. Dillon is not prepared to provide that information. Then we get the veiled threats from Gardiner, “you don’t want to mess with me, Dillon”.
I love Dillon’s answer, “actually, it’s your boss and your agency I don’t want to mess with. You make this personal, and I’ll mess with you all day long.” I must admit that I enjoy Brian Markinson’s character much better on Continuum than I did on Sanctuary.
Carlos needs some help from Betty (Jennifer Spence), all the footage she can come up with of the assassination, and even video not pointed in the direction of the assassination. Betty is confused about what Carlos is after, but, since she still is attracted to him, it is anything for Carlos.
Alec returns to his new home looking a little dejected. When there is a knock on the door, he assumes it is Kiera, whom he still does not want to see, but it turns out to be his mom (Janet Kidder). Naturally, she wants to know why he suddenly left home.
She tells him, “I just want my boy back”. He reacts by backing away, “I’m not your boy anymore. I have to do this. I need to make my own way”. Mom grudgingly accepts Alec’s decision.
As he returns to his room, Alec finds a device left their by Kiera, the same device that Betty put all the information on that Carlos wanted. Finally, Alec responds when Kiera phones. Naturally, he wants to know what is on the device. “Surveillance footage from the assassination”, she tells him. He agrees to help. He uploads the footage onto the implant in her head.
Once the footage is uploaded, Kiera creates a moving image of the moment of the shooting in her head. With this technology at her disposal, she tells Alec that there are very few murders in 2077.
Kiera makes her way to the location she and Alec identified as the scene of the crime. As she looks around, noticing a spent shell on the floor, she hears a voice behind her. It is Gardiner. He, of course, wants to know what is going on.
He does not get much information, because Carlos walks in, “I got your message, Kiera”. Gardiner whispers under his breath as he leaves, “we’re not done”.
Once Gardiner is gone, Kiera asks of Carlos, “who stands to gain if Liber8 takes the heat for this”? Carlos lists the usual suspects, organized crime or maybe an ex-husband. Then the both of them decide it is probably a specific gang.
Carlos suggests that Kiera check out a club where the head of the gang can be found. Then he asks, “is there going to be a big bat projected into the night sky?” Kiera asks, “What”? Carlos responds, “Really? Never mind”. Now, this is back and forth conversation is clever and what makes this show one of the best on television.
While Alec finds out he got the computer store job, Kiera is busy breaking into the club owned by the gang leader Oddly, she is not using her ability to be invisible. Perhaps there was not enough money in the special effects budget for this. Kiera is discovered and has enough time as she informs Carlos, by phone, that he should show up at her location, before she is brought before the leader and Marco (John Cassini).
Kiera attempts to get the leader on her side by telling him that the shooter used his apartment. He tells her that he does not have an apartment. Since Kiera has her tech, she can tell that he is telling the truth. This shocks her. Deciding that he is done with her, he tells his thugs to take her out back and kill her. This is when she gets to talk really fast. Maybe it is a rival gang using them for it’s own ends. Marco tells the thugs to wait.
Given the opportunity to provide more information, Kiera tells them, “Someone went to a lot of trouble to implicate your gang and assassinate the mayor, and send me after you. They stand to gain in a number of ways.” Carlos, with awesome timing, bursts in, “Nobody move! Put your guns down”.
Once everyone who needs to be arrested is arrested, Carlos questions the gang leader, Wolford(Colin Lawrence). He places the incriminating evidence, a high powered rifle in front of the perp., stating that it has his finger prints on it and was found in his weapons cupboard in his nightclub.
The shell casing found at the scene of the shooting also has his finger prints all over it. Not that I feel sorry for the bad guy, but this is not looking good for him.
Kiera, Carlos and Dillon meet on an outside area of the police offices. She tells Dillon that she can be more effective if she is on her own without any oversight, but can still take advantage of the department’s resources and support. That way, the department is not accountable for what she does. This sounds a lot like Batman, or in this case, Batwoman (no, not Bat Girl).
Carlos is not so sure. He thinks that if Wolford’s defense gets wind of Kiera’s tactics, the charges might not stick. Dillon’s opinion is that perception is more important at the moment. Kiera then states that they have to be prepared for the possibility that Wolford had nothing to do with the Mayors killing. Carlos wonders out loud, “if not Wolford, then who?”
Jim Martin (Tahmoh Penikett), Mayor hopeful, meets with Sonya. She proceeds to explain to him that Garza was the one that pulled the trigger. Martin does not want to know. He calls it deniability. Sonya, to her credit, insists that he is as involved as the rest of them, or he is of no use to them. I wonder what she would do if he chose to walk at this point. Kill him maybe? Since he does not, she hands him a bag of cash, calling him, ‘Mr. Mayor’.
Meanwhile, Julian Randol (Richard Harmon), Alec’s half brother, in prison, is approached by Travis. Travis tells him he could use some protection. Unknown to them, however, Gardiner and the Warden watch their interaction on closed circuit television.
The Warden states that the two prisoners should not even be in the same prison, let alone talking to each other. Gardiner tells the Warden that his office needs intel. That makes everything okay, then. Well, not if the intel is for Sonya and not his office, at least, that would be my guess.
Kiera and Alec meet in a park. Kiera gives him the piece she has from the time travel device. Maybe he can reverse engineer it to create something that can send her back to her time. Alec takes the device but acknowledges that this could take a while. Alec departs since he has to get to work the next day.
Now on her own, Kiera asks to herself, “What are you up to, old man?” She is, of course, referring to the elder Alec (William B. Davis) as he would be in 2077. Continuum uses this opportunity to segue to Alec in 2077. As the old man, he is in the process of leaving the message to Alec.
He tells Alec that the world is not the place he wanted it to be. He hints at getting 2012 Alec to help him change the future. Then he pulls up an image of Kiera and looks at it until the show fades to black.
Thanks to Kenn for final staging of the audio video embeds, inserting additional images and the song “Retribution Blues” by One Bad Son that was featured in the episode for my analysis, and many thanks to you for stopping by WormholeRiders News Agency!!
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Regards,
Thank you.
ArcticGoddess1 (Patricia)