Starting in the
future with Kiera and her fellow corporate enforcer looking at the body of a
murder victim, a Sadtech engineer. Kiera thinks it’s silly because it was
obvious the murder would be covered – but when they get a playback of the CCTV
drone, the image of the murderer is fuzzed out. Showing cloaking technology
more advanced. Talking to her boss, Kiera has the victim’s email one of which
shoes an image of what could be the time travel device. The engineer’s
speciality was anti-matter – and she kept visiting the prison for reasons
unknown. Kiera tries to follow up on the case but her boss takes her off it.
In the present,
Sonya is very unhappy that Kellog decides to pay her in monopoly money -
because Kellog wants her to target Escher who is meddling in his financial
goals. Sonya threatens him with Travis but Kellog isn’t impressed - Travis
hates Sonya! Which shows that Travis is working with out of date information. As he finds out when Travis
appears behind him and the pain and strangling starts. Travis isn’t amuse that
one of the Liber8 people they brought back to help them change the system is
becoming such a complete part of said system.
At the police
station Kiera is trying to track Gardiner’s last movements but the law firm he said he was visiting doesn’t actually exist; the law firm has
been completely cleaned out. Carlos floats the idea that Gardiner may be
involved in another case but Kiera doubts it. Carlos also marks off Lucas is
dead - Kiera protests but Carlos points out he’s in a medical facility telling
the staff he’s from 2077 and talks to dead people, so we can assume he’s out of
the picture for the foreseeable future. Kiera’s worried though - between Lucas
and Jason, there’s a definite hint that time travel can do something to your
mind.
Kiera calls Alec (who is playing with the time machine) to ask him to hack the CSIS database to find anything on Gardiner - something he’s told her before he won’t do (which I still don’t think makes sense since he’s willing and able to hack military spy satellites but maybe he has a super duper fear of the intelligence services). That argument is shelved by Alec telling her that the time machine allows her to travel through time (really? I am shocked by this revelation!) and that she can use it to go home as soon as he figures it out.
But there’s a problem - it needs a power source. Kiera’s concerned that Laroche, the company that discovers anti-matter energy source won’t do so until 2040 though Alec points out that Escher has bought the company now so it’s likely that that may be accelerated somewhat. But Alec also asks her what she’s returning to - they have changed things, it may not be her future. Also, without Kiera, Liber8 is going to be much more free to change history however they like (I... am completely ok with this. Team Liber8 all the way. Escher is a more concerning possibility). Kiera is determined to take her chances and return to the future
And Carlos has been called to get a heads up on an abandoned car. An abandoned car with no owner - but with Gardiner’s wallet and ID in it. And Gardiner’s manky body in the boot. The man who gave him the heads up points out Gardiner was checking out Kiera pretty hard, but Carlos says she and Gardiner were working together (true, briefly). And the man finds a flash drive - he starts to call it on but Carlos demands to see it first “we take care of our own.” Uh-huh, and you were the last cop on that force with a shred of ethics, Carlos.
He takes the drive to Betty who points out “hey CSIS drive, we shouldn’t be doing this.” Looking through the drive they see a massive case about Kiera being Liber8 connected which is compelling. Betty adds that she can understand it because she agrees with some of the things Liber8 stands for - watch Carlos’s head spin. Go Betty! Go Betty! Carlos focuses more on “how dare you say Kiera is Liber8” than “oh hey, Betty’s a Liber8 sympathiser”
At Escher’s office, Emily is still angsting over how she is betraying Alec who she has come to really love. Escher offers her a deal - she bring him the Sphere (time machine) from Alec’s office and she can walk away, stay with Alec, whatever she wants - all ties to Escher cut. If you believe that Emily then you’re a bigger fool than... well... anyone.
Things don’t get
better for Emily because Kellog catches up with her, pissed that Alec’s new
“piece of ass” (seriously, he’s from 2077, couldn’t they have at least dropped
the reductive language by then) convinced him to get rid of ARC (the super
computer). He grabs her arm and she looks like she’s ready to break him messily
- but Kellog knows her real name and her criminal record. And he knows about
Escher - and she needs to get ARC back or convince Alec to resurrect it or
he’ll expose her.
Emily goes to
Alec and he senses something’s up. She tells him she has to go away for a
few... months because her past has caught up with her but she can’t tell him
any details, ciao! Alec is a little poleaxed by the news. He tells her he has a
passport - he intends to go with her which makes her super-happy. No way is it
going to happen, hon, in fact I rather suspect Emily is not long for this
world.
As they set off to head for Thailand and nude beaches, Alec gets the DNA results back he had performed on Jason. And yes, Alec, Jason is your father. While Alec frets about this Emily tells him they have to go - he doesn’t understand why it has to be right now - and then Travis enters the room.
Emily attacks,
slicing his arm with a knife and threatening to kill him if he doesn’t leave.
She attacks and has considerable skill but super-soldier Travis disarms her and
gets her in a painful hold. He knows Alec activated his CMR - and he wants Alec
to make it work with the spare super-suit Alec has. While Alec works, Travis
starts telling Emily the evil things Alec will do - including the super-soldier
chip that increases aggression and drains compassion
Carlos catches up with Kiera and warns her she’s just become a prime suspect for Gardiner’s murder, especially since Dillon and CSIS are hardly going to believe that random time travelling Freelancers killed him - they decide she needs to keep her head down.
He goes back to the police station and Dillon is not amused. The CSIS agent Lewis is even less -suppressing evidence about a CSIS agent’s murder is going to have him put in prison. She also has a recording of that time Kiera lost it and attacked Gardiner. And if she doesn’t get some answers from Kiera soon she’s going to bury them all.
Kiera goes to Escher to tell him about the Freelancers and ask his help (and power source) to get her back to the future, to stop all of it happening, to stop Liber8 returning at all. Escher refuses, even if he destroys the time machine and can control Alec, Kiera carries too much destruction. He calls her the Time Bomb. And he’s not sure their interests still coincide. Meeting interrupted by Alec opening a feed to what’s going on in his lab - Kiera heads off to the rescue.
Under the excuse
of rebooting Travis’s chip, Alec causes Travis massive pain and makes a run for
it. They escape - but Alec has already successfully linked Travis’s chip to the
super-suit. By the time Kiera arrives, Travis and the suit are long gone.
Outside Emily freaks out, wanting to know what Travis is talking about, chips
in his head, super-strength et al and wants an explanation from Alec. I wonder
how much in the dark Escher has been keeping her?
Kiera goes to
see Kellog and, as is common with Kiera, she starts torturing him. Am I
supposed to sympathise with this protragonist at all? Because I’d kind of be
happy if something would shoot her. Kellog shifts the blame quickly to Emily
and reveals she’s working for Escher, a common enemy to all of them, including
Liber8. Alec calls her to say he and Emily are safe with the device and heading
somewhere safe - to his father.
She gets Kellog
to call CArlos to meet them at jason because... she needs Carlos for reasons
unknown. Carlos does some erratic driving to lose his CSIS followers and ensure
that Agent Lewis will be Most Displeased.
At Jason’s, Alec begins the awkward task of questioning the confused and confusing man. Jason impliedly admits to being Alec’s father and says he left but he kept watching Alec. He had to leave to protect him. Emily also takes the chance to confess all to Alec, but assures him she really loves him which leaves him very stunned and Jason asks them to put the time machine away because the Freelancers can track them using it - and they’d kill for it.
Kiera and Carlos burst in with guns and Emily grabs a metal pipe. Yeah not the best comparison of arms, Kiera tells Alec Emily is in Escher’s pocket - old news Kiera! And Emily tells Alec she wanted to leave the country with him because Escher wanted her to give him the sphere in order to get out of the assignment and just be with Alec.Oh and Kellog let Travis in the lab to get the suit so he could get Escher.
Confused yet? Emily certainly is! So Alec decides to tell Emily all about the time travellers. And both Emily and Alec come to the conclusion they need to destroy the time machine to stop Escher and the Freelancers. Kiera is really not thrilled with this idea.
They argue - but then a lot of Freelancers arrive with guns. Jason declares he’s not going back, whatever that means. Kiera and Carlos are disarmed, they use their technology to turn off Kiera’s suit and one of them hit’s Alec. To which Emily responds with a low tech but very effective boot to the face. Fight time! Carlos and Kiera get guns, Emily just keeps kicking arse. Sportingly, when Carlos runs out of bullets, the Freelancers decide to engage him in hand to hand. Nice to know they have standards. Kiera covers Emily with her bullet-proof suit. A number of the Freelancers get shot dead while Kiera & co all manage to get out the building
They escape onto the roof and the firefight continues. Another Freelancer dies and one of them yells to get the device no matter what to give Emily, who has it, ideas. She stands up and throws the device as far as she can - Kiera chases after it screaming in horror. Emily is still stood up out of cover and a Freelancer shoots her
Told you she had
a limited life span.
Kiera follows the time machine through a series of massive jumps from roof top down to roof top down to still lower roof top. The Freelancers (the 2 still alive and conscious anyway) keep shooting the woman nearly covered in bullet proof body armour. It makes for a dramatic background noise. And damn they must be carrying a lot of ammo.
Alec runs to Emily who is dying for her tragic apology and death scene. With dramatic, even ominous, music and close ups to emphasise how much this has affected Alec.
Kiera, all kinds
of roughed up, returns to the lab with the time machine. She puts it in a large
urn there. And, I think, destroys it, judging by her sad face. It’s witnessed
by the CCTV
Alec barges into
Escher’s company, Piron, of course. Escher invites him up.
Y’know it is
actually a nice touch to have people like random side people be GBLT in a fully
inclusive show. It shows an integrated world. What isn’t a nice touch? To have
random murder person no.19696 be a lesbian (and Kiera not only mentioned she
had a wife, she actually EMPHASISED the fact the second time, y’know, in case
the audience missed it) or nameless couple 8979 be gay if that’s the sum total
of your inclusion. Between the Liber8 factions, the police, the freelancers,
politicians and who knows how many other random characters we have on this show
– there are a lot of characters – we have no GBLT people. But, hey, we have a
body in the future and part of the plot took place at unnamed gay men’s wedding! BEHOLD INCLUSION! Without actual
characters to back this up, it’s just the gay equivalent of the mole people. Should I be happy this is happening rather
than Continuum being one of the 23 shows we’ve followed/continue to follow that
have no GBLT representation at all? Not really - not if it just boosts it to
being one of the 9 that only have a 1 or 2 episode token presence.
Why do people on Continuum constantly say “we shouldn’t be doing this” and then do it anyway? Whether it’s hacking, covering up information, destroying evidence, torturing people, beating suspects - every time someone says something is wrong or unethical IT HAPPENS ANYWAY. Is this supposed to make the questioning people look moral or ethical? Because it just makes them look complicit and weak. Is it just to flag up that what’s happening is not ok? Is it a comment on the routine lawbreaking shown by police in crime dramas that we actually need to lampshade these things as not ok?
I can’t say I was surprised by Emily’s death, from pretty early on she looked like a character who was going to be expendable, doubly so because she was perfectly placed to provide Alec with dramatic, character changing pain as is so often the use for temporary female love interests.
Ok, cynical and
worrisome prediction time? Alec will get into bed with Escher and for
completely random reasons that make no sense, will blame Kiera for Emily’s
death.
