Continuum: Split Second is Never Enough – Timing Is Everything!

Welcome back Continuum time travelers!

MAJOR SPOILERS FOR NON CANADIAN VIEWERS!

The second episode of season two thirteen Continuum episodes begins with the introduction of some technology that we have waited to learn more about that Kiera (Rachel Nichols) uses to track down the “bad guys.”

The only problem is that the “bad guys” are the ones who have gained access to it, something not really expected to happen.

A nice plot twist by Simon Davis Barry who brilliantly wrote the episode directed by the talented Pat Williams that features a classic song “Never Enough” by Sweatshop Union!

Split Second:

Episode two opens with Travis (Roger Cross) receiving an upgrade in some tech similar to the tech that Kiera (Rachel Nichols) has. Sonya seems to be the medical specialist involved in creating and administering it to soldiers in the future. However, she has not kept it professional.

Sonya has had a torrid love affair relationship with Travis. When one of the funders, Greystone (Darren Shahlavi) drops by, he tells Sonya (Lexa Doig) that the cost of the program is too high.

The entire program needs to be ended, including the subjects who have received the tech. Sonya offers to eliminate the soldiers. She administers some sort of shot to Travis, then she kisses him passionately in front of Greystone.

 

Moving on to the next sequence of events after the opening credits, Lucas Ingram (Omari Newton), the one computer expert that might rival Alec (Erik Knudsen) in 2012, has broken into police surveillance footage.

Lucas is in process of observing Sonya lead Travis into the storage room at the hospital.

Two go in and only one comes out – Sonya. As Lucas watches, Sonya, getting dressed up for something, sees that Lucas knows what is going on. Sonya asks him not to tell the others. He agrees.

On his way to his new job, Kiera stops Alec in the street. She tells him he does not have, “to do this”. Alec disagrees. He has no money so he has to work. Kiera continues to focus on herself. If Alec does anything that would change the future, it might not be the future that she wants to get back to.

Alec points out that Kiera tried to stop the bombing of the building, and because she did interfere, she could have changed the future. She argues that she did not have a choice.

Alec raises a good point that those kinds of decisions will keep coming up. She will have to make a decision if she wants to protect her unborn family or the people who are living now.

Gardiner (Nicholas Lea) has a brief chat with a woman portrayed by Jill Teed (Stargate SG-1) named Agent Lewis, who appears to be his boss. He is convinced that Kiera is connected to Liber8 somehow. His boss agrees to let him continue snooping around, but warns him to, “keep it under wraps; no paper trail. And Gardiner, don’t embarrass me or this office”.

That is what it always comes down to in government and corporations. It is not about doing the right thing, it is about not embarrassing your bosses. Take note, young employees.

Garza (Luvia Petersen) is clearly not too happy. She figures that Sonya is taking far too long to liberate Travis from prison. Lucas, being the loyal minion that he is, defends Sonya’s position, and even lies to Garza about what he knows.

As they walk toward another area of their latest safe house hide-out, Sonya is there and tells Garza that she has already initiated a plan to get Travis and they will not even have to lift a finger.

The manner in which Sonya addresses the situation, it is clear that If Garza is not careful, she may be the next one to go, ruthlessly dispatched by Sonya Valentine.

Lexa Doig’s portrayal is absolutely brilliant as the evil Sonya and Luvia Petersen is fantastic as Garza!

Speaking of Travis, our next stop in the episode is to get a look at Julian (Richard Harmon) attempting to mind his own business by reading a book in the prison yard. Travis, of course, is not far away and joins him on a bench in the prison courtyard.

When a prisoner approaches Julian and offers to protect him, Julian says he already has protection. That is when Travis shows up and tells the skinhead (Ian Butcher) to stay away, quickly grabbing the skinhead by the throat to make it clear to leave Julian alone.

I believe this was all set up to let the viewers know that the prison population knows all about Julian and how important he is to the Liber8 movement.

 

Moments later, after discouraging Julian’s fan club, Travis tells him that he has a destiny to fulfill, despite what happens in prison. As they talk, the skinhead comes back with a few of his friends. Naturally, Travis has to educate them.

Carlos (Victor Webster) and Kiera now have their turn to have a nice pleasant chat with Inspector Dillon (Brian Markinson) about Travis’ hijinks in prison.

Because of his bad behaviour, and because Carlos also believes having Travis and Julian in the same area is just stupid, it is decided to move Travis someplace a bit more secure.

Kiera reminds Dillon that Travis is dangerous and requires extra precautions to get him from place A to place B. That is when Gardiner shows up.

Surprise, surprise, he has been assigned to the Liber8 task force. No one looks too happy about it. Dillon warns Kiera and Carlos to cooperate or Gardiner will cause trouble.

It does not take long for Alec to get into his own kind of trouble with his new boss(Keith Dallas). He takes the initiative to improve the way store sales and statistics are reported to head office.

However, that does not go over well. The boss tells him that he is first going to get him a coffee, then he is going to undo everything he did. Alec attempts to argue, which gets him nowhere fast.

As Alec, dejected, heads to get coffee, he is stopped by Kellogg (Stephen Lobo).

Kellogg provides a nice tidy anecdote about how his life was like that of Alec, that he was on his knees cleaning up after people more powerful than he was.

All it took for him to be more successful was for him to gain the will to make it happen.With this little offering, he tries to recruit Alec. Kellogg tells him he is looking for a visionary like himself and money is no object.

Alec is being very quiet during this exchange. We do not find out at this moment about how he feels about all this, since his boss shows up and asks Kellogg if he is being taken care of. Kellogg is full of praise for Alec.

It looks like Kellogg is very good at knowing which buttons to push. Kellog offers Alec his business card to recruit him. More on this later.

Lucas finds out about the fight in the prison. Apparently, Travis killed all six of the skinheads. He is concerned that Garza will find out about it. Sonya tells Lucas that she knew the skinheads would be no match for Travis, that she did not want him dead so much as she wanted him out of the way.

The scene changes to Travis, who is being transported. Carlos sits opposite him in the big blue prison van, making typical Carlos comments, such as, “you look good in orange”. Kiera gets to sit up front with a police officer we have never seen before.

Anyone familiar with Star Trek immediately knows that this makes the guy a “Red Shirt”, or someone who will be killed off shortly.

While the motorcade of the van and a variety of cop vehicles leaves, Gardiner and Dillon watch them go. Gardiner, ever the optimist, makes a comment suggesting that Travis could escape. As I said in last weeks review, I still think that Gardiner is connected to Liber8 somehow.

On the road, Travis has a few things to say. He calls Kiera a protector and encourages her to change sides, “doesn’t it ever bother you? I’m talking about inequality in the system. Bankers and CEO’s raking in fortunes while the rest of us fight just to survive and take care of the ones we love”. Carlos responds, “I guess I’m just used to it.”

Travis is getting a little angry, responding, “That’s your problem right there. You’re the reason these thieves get away with it. They need your complacency, your unwillingness to fight, to challenge the rules, to tear down walls”.

The speech that Travis states to Carlos and Kiera could easily be spoken by a leader today. This is why, in my opinion, this show is so popular. The masses are waking up to Travis’ future today.

On Kellogg’s boat, Alec has come for a visit. We see that Kellogg has added to his little empire. He now has three attractive women to keep him company. While he offers Alec the nicer things life has to offer, he is doing his best to sell his ideas.

Back at the convoy, Travis is continuing to egg on Carlos, “she hasn’t told you has she, how does she do it? It must suck to be you, always two steps behind her, almost like she can see things before they happen”. Sadly, Carlos does not realize when he is being told the truth. He does spend a fair amount of the series being clueless.

I am not sure who said it, but it seems like great advice that no one should know too much about their own future. Alec, unfortunately, has either not heard that advice, or is not listening. He asks Kellogg about what he is like in the future. Since this plays so well into Kellogg’s ambition, he is happy to share.

He tells Alec, “Here’s the deal kid, in 2077 you are, in today’s terms, Zukerberg, Jobs, Buffett, and Gates all rolled into one, beyond rich, epic wealth”. All Alec really wants to know is, what is he like as a person. Kellogg’s answer is very telling, “As a person? Who gives a shit? You’re loaded, powerful, like a king.”

As they talk, Kellogg asks, where are you going with this? Alec wants to know is he sent Liber8 back in time for a reason. Kellogg agrees that he had thought of that, and it was likely. But why? Kellogg replies, “to change the future. Your destiny is not to become Satech CEO, Alec Saddler, it’s bigger.”

Travis continues to tell Carlos that Kiera has been deluding him and that she and he are from the future. Carlos continues to look at him, expressionless so that we do not know if Travis is getting to him or not.

Moments later, there is an explosion as Liber8 remotely takes out the lead police car. Lucas, who has pushed the button, is thrilled, like a little kid with a new toy. The police jump out of their vehicles, returning fire. They soon realize the the enemy fire is being executed remotely and it is a diversion.

Betty (Jennifer Spence) uses her radio to call Carlos to let him know that the decoy is down. However, Carlos is not getting the message for some reason. Carlos attempts to send a radio message to Betty at that moment as well, and receives nothing in return.

I get that they are on a secure channel with the radios, but when they can not get through, would it not make sense to use a cell phone and text each other or something?

As Carlos tries to reach Betty, an SUV catches up to them and shoots through the drivers window, killing Mr. Red Shirt. It is such a good thing that Kiera learned how to drive last season.

Now Kiera is called upon to take over the steering of a runaway van. She moves over to the driver’s side as she valiantly steers the vehicle, running into the SUV a time or two as she struggles to gain control. Travis, meanwhile is laughing and adding his own dialogue to the experience.

While Kiera fights off the SUV and attempts to contact Dillon, Travis has his own plans. He uses his above average strength to free himself. A fight with Carlos ensues. While the two men fight in the back of the van, the SUV continues to fire an automatic weapon at the van. Odd, since I thought that the idea was to free Travis, not kill him.

How would the bad guys know that the bullets would not go through the van and kill the people inside. Another minor issue I wonder about is the likelihood that a cop sitting in the van with the criminal would have a weapon with him. As we can see, Carlos loses his gun in the excitement. Had Travis had the opportunity, Carlos could very well have been shot. and killed.

As the battle continues Carlos has lost his gun in the van but pulls out a taser and tases Travis, who seems just mildly affected. Meanwhile, Kiera notices a train track crossing the road ahead, and a well timed train approaching. Kiera steps on the gas and makes it to the other side of the tracks just as the train rumbles by. Unfortunately, it is not a very long train. Again, this is odd since virtually every train I’ve ever seen in Canada has been a long, long, long train.

Travis breaks free from the last chain attached to the side of the van. As he does so, Carlos has found his gun and fires toward Travis. It is unclear as to whether Travis has been hit or not, since he is not slowed down in the least. Fortunately, Kiera has some kind of weapon that, when fired at Travis, knocks him out cold. Both he and Kiera, and Dillon and Betty, wonder how Liber8 knew when and where to find the van. As the two groups of people wonder out loud if they have a mole on the inside, there is a close up of Gardiner as he talks on his cell phone, implicating Gardiner.

When he can get Dillon alone, Gardiner tells him that there are only two ways this will go, does he have a problem within his department, or does he need to take a closer look at Kiera Cameron. Since Gardiner has had a hate on for Kiera from the beginning, it is not hard to figure out what Gardiner wants to happen.

Desperate to escape the helicopter, Kiera takes advantage of a tunnel ahead. Bad timing, though, as the guys in the SUV catch up with them and block the tunnel from the other end while the chopper ensures they cannot go forward. At that moment, the helicopter fires a rocket at the SUV destroying it.

Kiera and Carlos get out of the van and take cover behind it. They believe that they are caught between rival gangs fighting over Travis. Kiera uses her tech to create some kind of energy field to deflect bullets from hitting her and Carlos as they run for cover.

Once Kiera and Carlos are out of the way, the bad guys swoop in and get Travis. Garza is sitting in the co-pilot seat. Travis is delighted to see her and waves farewell to Kiera and Carlos as they leave.

Gardiner is a real piece of work. He harangues both Carlos and Kiera for letting Travis go and again questions  Kiera’s loyalty. Dillon, angry now, stands up for them and tells Gardiner that he will file the report and take the heat for them, “the buck stops with me!”

Hey, all you bad bosses out there, pay attention. You should be acting like this instead of blaming your subordinates.

Later, in a sports bar with a hockey game playing in the background (Go Canucks Go), Kiera runs an idea past Carlos, “our department spy; the mole, knows just enough to screw us over, make us look bad and undermine our goals, like they want us out of the way. What if it’s Gardiner?”

On Kellogg’s boat it is time for celebration. He and his three girlfriends are enjoying some champagne. As the camera pans further, it becomes apparent that it is not just Kellogg and the three women with him.

No. Alec has decided to join Kellogg’s friendly little group!

I must admit that I got more out of this episode when I watched it a second time. There were some nuances that I found interesting, such as the hockey game on screen in the background in the second last photo.

For Canadians, watching something as familiar as a hockey game in the background of a show creates a warm fuzzy feeling since most shows that Canadians watch are made in the U.S and have no reference to Canadian culture. It may seem like a simple thing, but Canadians have historically not had these cultural references so available to us on television.

I also noted that the character of Kellogg used the word, sh%t more than once, which is a bit of a change in language in this show. Since Syfy channel and Showcase in Canada are both cable channels, there is more leeway for questionable language.

This episode was written by creator Simon Barry, which is the reason, I assume, that there is so much going on. This particular episode has given us more history about the characters and has hinted at future developments in upcoming shows. Well done, Mr. Barry!

Thanks to Kenn for final staging of the audio video embeds, inserting the Sweatshop Union music video and additional Continuum images for my analysis, and many thanks to you for stopping by WormholeRiders News Agency!!

We look forward to seeing more of you here at our review site dedicated to our wonderful science fiction series Continuum!

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Regards,

Thank you.

ArcticGoddess1 (Patricia)