We’re still in aftermath mode – and Keira asks for time
from Carlos so she can go all solo mission before Carlos sends in his own
forces.
Kiera and Alec again discuss the huge risk of going back
to an unknown future but she’ll take that risk if there’s any chance of seeing
her kid again. Kiera gets her assurance from Carlos along with a big
semi-goodbye speech about how he doesn’t want to lose her and how he’s loved
their time together despite all the chaos. Kiera also decides to show Dylon
some future tech and let him in about the whole time travelling thing.
Brad and the future soldiers now have their key so they
have their portal with its 90 minute window to bring all the future people back
to the past (and epicly screw with any timelines). Through the portal we see a
crowd of people but only a few get through before they have to shut it all
down. A woman comes through, not happy but clearly in charge and ominously says
that, if they don’t get the portal working, the only thing coming through will
be “the enemy”.
Brad saw what was coming through the portal and isn’t
impressed – that wasn’t a lot of civilian refugees. It was an invasion force
(hey, Kiera’s completely random guess was right, go figure). Brad is totally
shocked and appalled that he was lied to. Really.
Kellogg is being held hostage by the future soldiers and
his bodyguard while he rambles on. He has pretty much guessed what is going to
happen to him when future-him arrives while bodyguard Vasquez and future-people
boss try to reassure him with comforting lies. Vasquez seems bothered by this.
Kellogg decides to make a pitch – take young Kellogg rather than old Kellogg.
Also she can totally be young Kellogg’s queen – she’s all sad, but refuses.
When she is all sad that she can’t be with him forever he stabs her instead. As
she dies she reveals that she’s his daughter. Ooops.
Jason gets the Time Machine to Alec – and a note he wants
to pass on to his dad which is a bit weird with Alec right there. Curtis steals
the other time machine from the Piron safe and greets the newly escaped Kellogg
with it. Alec and Kiera have their own talk about he can now change his life before
they meet up with Kellogg. Time for Kellogg to make his ode to Kiera
Really can we stop the gooydbye speeches, they’re getting
tiresome.
Jason also warns Carlos and his team of armed police that
shooting future tech is a bad bad bad idea.
And they’re ambushed by Brad with a gun. Time for a
debate – fighting for self vs fight ideals and how time travel gives you the
illusion you control things because it’s the last episode and the writers
totally wanted to explore these concepts but don’t have time so INFO DUMP. Brad
is converted to team good guy – and Kiera makes the switch from self to ideals
and declares their new mission is to close the portal no matter what
Time for the whole gang to gather – Dylon joins Carlos and
Jasmine is happily killing people (I’m not sure of the reason but, hey, Jasmine).
Brad tells the super soldiers that Vasquez is dead and Kellogg missing which
ruins all of their plans.
Fighting time – unfortunately one of the guys is in one
of his war suits so it’s a massacre especially since Kellogg has ordered his
men to hold back. Kiera takes Kellogg hostage since the super-soldiers don’t want
him dead and breaking their future. She also knows his plan – he wants to go
back in time again since he’s pretty much uber-screwed on every level at this
time line and he can start again a few years ago. Meanwhile Alec is taken
hostage to fix the portal. Future Soldier Leader Zorin is sure Kiera won’t kill
Kellogg because she needs the portal to get back to her time (he doesn’t
realise her goals have changed).
Alec fixes the key and we have another fight break out as Brad tries to stop the invasion and Carlos reaches them. Lots of shooting and injuries and death and the portal is activated again. Kellogg kills Dylan (yeah) and Kellgog, announcing “ choose me” uses the portal which pretty much pisses everyone off since it ruins all their plans – the invasion is off – not only off but Kellogg going to a different time means he completely destroyed Zorin’s future (since he’s not there to lead the army etc etc paradox). It’s now Kiera’s chance to go home as Alec points out
She takes the time travel device and after brief
goodbyes, she enters the portal watched by everyone (and that Traveller guy
does some… woo-woo). Also jasmine and Curtis who are there for… reasons.
Curtis expositions that the Traveller used the portal to
go to his own time and they have no idea what happened to Kiera. Now Alec tells
everyone they have a duty to make a better future in her name (and also how he
totally screwed Kellogg who isn’t as clever as he thinks he is and Kellogg is
now waaaaay back on the past, apparently before civilisation. Or just part of
any number of indigenous tribes. He can now spread the diseases he is carrying
they have no immunity to and wipe out huge segments of the population).
Kiera arrives in a room with Kagame – who knows nothing
about Liber8 except as a story – he knows all about her time travelling when
old Alec joins them. They have created a new, special, shiny world together –
Kagame, Julian and Alec. And, yes her son Sam exists as well but he isn’t her
son….
And so ends the last episode of the last season of Continuum
I am so frustrated, so very very frustrated. For a long
time Continuum annoyed me a lot. It
was a show that failed to see the nuance of the Liber8 vs Corporation fight for
so very long and it was enraging to see us expected to follow this protagonist
championing a dystopia. Then there was the annoying alternate time line and the
Freelancers that seemed so very very very pointless and phoned in.
If the show had been cancelled then I would have been content
And then it got good. Then we had Kiera seeing Liber8’s points. Then we saw all the sides break up and become complex and it was more causes and debates and nuance and a real attempt to create a better future. Suddenly we had levels and layers and complexity
From that I can see how this season was supposed to go. We can see all of that mixed with the conflict of personal desires vs long term causes. As well as the debate over legacy and the whole complexity of how time travel gives people the illusion of control while, at the same time, not really giving it to them and just creating more problems and disasters as they fumble around trying to change things (embodied by Curtis and the Traveller) and this, in turn, linked to the personal vs cause debate as Alec and Julian worried about their legacy. Is that a cause goal or a personal desire issue?
But they didn’t have time to tell that story. So we just
had a whole lot of death, a lot of (admittedly awesome) fight scenes, a rushed
relationship with Brad that didn’t work for me at all and a total focus on
sending Kiera home. I can see the story they wanted to tell but they didn’t
have the time to do it and now they never will and I am supremely annoyed and
frustrated by that.
Continuum was
cancelled just as it was going well. Yes, annoying
Sadly this season has not done well with the show’s
diversity. As we shifted away from Liber8 we also shifted away from the bulk of
the shows POC even as we were finally validating them. They died in
increasingly large numbers until at the end on Jasmine was left alive. Curtis
didn’t do anything all season except play cryptic Asian guy. Even the POC who
came with the Future Soldiers died. We ended up with an almost all White cast (certainly among the most important characters
on the show) which is depressing for a show that HAD so many POC killed them
off as they were being developed.
The show also managed to go a depressing four seasons
without 1 single named LGBT character. No matter how the future changes, LGBT
people just don’t exist
Kiera is a powerful, skilled, intelligent and determined female character who deserves a lot of praise – but she also is another female character among a long list who moves in a sea of men. It’s not that there weren’t a few (though not enough) other good female characters – but many of them vanished seasons ago – this season we had Emily (who was awesome in some ways but existed to be kidnapped then to just leave) and Jasmine Garza (who was at the last fight and did absolutely nothing). Some random Future Soldiers didn’t exactly add anything – yes it’s nice that the future has a gender integrated military, but they were hardly main characters.
