Starting in the future, with a woman who has clearly just
lost her parents having some of their property taken to pay their “life debt”
to the corporations. As an added bonus she has her “citizenship” barcoded on
her arm. The woman is Kira’s (a young Kira) mother, the deceased her
grandparents and her sister finds a stash of books. Apparently it counts as
“seditious printed material”.
To the present and Kira
is not very happy to see a dead her. She blames Alec – after all, when
there’s only one Alec Sadler, she didn’t get shot. Kira is also completely
unforgiving about Alec meddling with the time line and likely destroying any
chance she has to go back to her family. She shows him her new Freelancer
tattoos – and tells him she has to kill an Alec. He’ll do.
Meanwhile the mayor Jim Martin (remember him? I barely
do) is at a party where someone offers hm cocaine (you can’t offer the mayor of
Vancouver drugs! What do you think this is… Toronto?) The man is Solomon, a
lawyer who works for Liber8, just like Jim – and Jim has a problem because he
tricked Sonya and Travis, the two leaders of the separate factions of Liber8, into
meeting each other intending them to kill each other. Instead they
re-formed their alliance. And to make sure they’re not cross with him they want
him to hire Solomon and give him all kinds of power and influence.
Kira and Alec meet Carlos and show off the second Kira
body so he can dispose of it for her – and to help explain the oddness. Carlos
lets them know about Escher’s
murder – more blame for Alec.
The next day Kira discovers the next problem: Original Alec doesn’t understand who has been going through his lab. She arranges to meet him – and in the meantime he finds the full time travel device hidden in his lab. Kira also has to work through Carlos’s confusion and feeling that “his” Kira is dead. To top off the plot lines, Jim arrives trying to use the police to wriggle out from under Liber8’s thumb – he wants immunity in exchange for info; Dillon listens.
Cut to Carlos questioning Marco, a gang member who works
for Liber8 who just got ratted out by the mayor. Though Marco points out
everyone is corrupt – especially since the police force was effectively bought
by Prion Industries.
Time Travel Alec and Kira still have a frosty
relationship and Kira says TT Alec should leave Emily alone now he’s saved her
life – or risk her all over. She guesses that whoever killed Dead Kira wanted
the Time Travel Device she’d just recovered from Lucas at the time.
Kira has her meeting with Original Alec who is confused about
the state of his lab and worried about losing Escher’s research. Original Alec
also discovers Jason is his father. TT Alec goes to see said father to warn him
about Emily’s death than has to hide when Original Alec shows up. Bringing the
partial time machine (missing one piece TT Alec has) and, unfortunately, also
bringing Emily – this is where she gets shot. Original Alec wants to talk about
Jason being his father, Jason says no – time travel, other way round. Jason is
Alec’s son, hence the genetic match. While Original Alec is reeling from that,
TT Alec sneaks out the back to try and get Emily to leave.
And, just in case you’re not totally lost yet, the newly
escaped Jasmine joins Travis who is apparently up to new shenanigans. Those
shenanigans involve Sonya so Jasmine and Sonya have to get reacquainted.
Kira goes to the police station to find not only Jim
present and spilling his guts, but also Kellog there covering his arse and
making sure Kira doesn’t let anyone arrest him or he’ll tell all. Which is a
problem because Kellog was seen with Escher before he was murdered. Kira
confronts Kellog and makes him stay away from Alec or she’ll tell Original Alec
that Escher is his dad and Kellog killed him – which could cause something of a
rift. But in response, Kellog has guessed there are 2 Alecs out there.
Jim, meanwhile, is throwing Dillon’s deal (and board
seat) with Piron back in his face to show he’s just as dirty as Jim for working
with Liber8. Then… confusingly, he calls for an ambulance. But no-one is sick
or hurt. Jim seems to use it as a taxi. Of course that backfires when they get
a 911 call for a heart attack victim and, no, they’re not going to just ignore
it, Jim. Of course it’s a Liber8 ambush and he’s… invited to a little talk by
the Liber8 bosses and given a list of demands.
And they direct a little media spot for him calling out corporate corruption.
Meanwhile in the police station, Kira has dragged Original Alec in to show his tech wizardry to Dillon and free up his lab so TT Alec can access her CMR (brain computer) particularly of Dead Kira and figure out who killed her – but the video image is confused and needs descrambling. Kind of like the plot. Amusingly when it comes to tracking the mayor, Betty beats Alec using the worm in their system (much to both Alec’s disgust)
To an abandoned warehouse with a small army of police – I
love that Carlos lampoons the eternally abandoned warehouses. I swear if they
just kept a police presence at these places crime would be cut in half. In the
warehouse they find Jim – alone. Dillon isn’t going to press charges because
Jim in the witness stand is going to be a disaster – but calling out corporate
backers is a good move to political suicide anyway (which kind of emphasises
the whole corruption that Liber8 is trying to expose).
And just to show Kira should know better than to bandy
words with Kellog, he uses Escher as Alec’s father as a way to gain leverage
over Emily – the woman he used to kill Escher in the first place.
Cut to TT Alec (one of them) and Kira checking out an empty flat – it’s the flat she will one day grow up in. Time for a flashback – or flashforward – where we learn not only will the police search every inch of your home for “contraband” media – but they will charge you for it. Faced with her family being investigated for the contraband, Kira tells the man that she was bringing the box to him because she wants to join the police/military. Apparently he gets a huge bonus of 1,000 LifeCredits for recruiting her. In exchange they don’t get searched and her mother loses 10,000 of her life debt (which won’t zero her). Her mother and sister are horrified – more so when they think Kira actually WANTS to join the evil fascist forces and isn’t just doing it to help her mother
TT Alec gives Kira the time travel fragment he got as a
gesture of trust; and that he’s out of time travel business. If she wants to
head back to the future, Original Alec is the one who will help.
Angst montage! During which Carlos drinks and Jim commits suicide.
Last week I complained that all the excellent old plot
lines we’re being abandoned in favour of a whole new plot line. Well, I take it
back. We’re going to have ALL the old plot lines and ALL the new plot lines and
ALL the characters ALL doing their things, some of which have two versions of
themselves in one great big mass of confusion that requires a flowchart to
actually figure out.
There’s a lot going on and I’m really not sure it all
needs to be there in this huge mess. It’s giving me a headache untangling it
all. And I’m not sure it’s worth the effort to do so.
We do have an almost irrefutably truth now that that
future is a dystopia – which adds more to Liber8 being the actual good guys
which should turn to lots of nuance and drama – if it were the dominant
storyline.
