Home Featured TV Shows All TV Shows Movie Reviews Book Reviews Articles Frequently Asked Questions About Us

Continuum: Minute Man

"Nostalgia's a waste of space and energy."

I thought Kiera would have taken out one of the Alecs by now. But if she isn't the one who killed her earlier self, and that appears to be the case (did I unfairly malign our main character?) maybe she's finding it hard to kill her friend. Is this going to be a season-long dilemma?

The big question is, if Kiera can do it, which Alec does she kill? It seems logical to me that One-Week-Ahead-Alec already has a different agenda and seems to be getting off on outwitting his earlier self, and it's original Alec who is more likely to send Kiera home to her dystopian future. But One-Week-Ahead-Alec has more knowledge and is now up to date on the Timecop issue, and that hoodie he's wearing makes me think of Sith Lords. Plus he knows Kiera might have to kill him, and he's too smart to allow it to happen.

This whole going back one week thing has been a fascinating way to reset the series. Poor Carlos. Will Carlos figure out it was Betty this time? Will he still go to Julian? Are there two Grapefruits of Death, too, along with two Alecs? The re-do of Alec realizing that Jason was his son, not his father, was fun. It made me want to go back and watch the entire series again. Which I'm going to do so that I can write reviews, but not yet.

I almost don't even want to talk about Kellog because what he does is so confusing. So he stops by the cop shop to blackmail Kiera, and Kiera won't play. What's next? At least we know now that Kellog made Emily kill Escher.

The Kiera flashback to 2067 (or would that make it a flashforward?) made me realize that it's the third season, and I really don't know who Kiera is or what motivates her, other than returning to her son. The Fahrenheit 451 thing with the seditious material – what really happened there? Did Kiera know that ordinance by heart because she wanted to be a cop, or was she just covering in order to save her mother and sister? Is that why she became a cop, because she had to follow through? If so, why did she move into her future family home? Wouldn't she find it almost unbearable, being so close to her family but not?

If they're burning books, then Kiera's future is even worse than we thought. If that's possible. It's more fuel to the obvious fire that Kiera's future should not be preserved, that Future Alec is correct to try and change it.

In other news, I'll be honest: I'm not all that interested in Liber8 any more. But I was surprised that Tahmoh Penikett's Mayor-Elect Martin was removed from the story so quickly, leaving me confused about his motivations. (I'm confused about everyone's motivations on this show.) Did Liber8 kill him? Did he kill himself?

At least Garza and Sonya have kissed and made up. I am now rooting for Garza to make it as long as possible. I've grown fond of her. And she and Kiera have sort of become allies.

Bits:

— Brand new and very cool credits, with no saga sell. It was wise to drop the saga sell, because at this point, how could they possibly explain what's going on to a new viewer in thirty seconds?

— The flashback included Kiera's sister Hannah. If I'm remembering correctly (and I went through the first two seasons quickly) she killed herself. Right?

— We have a new character at the cop shop: Cord Solomon, slimy problem solver, who apparently works for Liber8. Ick.

— In this week's hair report, they made Kiera look ten years younger with a futuristic short do. It sort of worked, didn't it?

Quotes:

Kiera: "Who killed me?"
How often does anyone get to say that phrase? (I wanted to use it as an opening quote, but it gives too much away.)

Carlos: "Which one of you is my partner, my friend?"
Both of them are, but it does feel like later Kiera is removed from Carlos somehow. And I don't like that. I'm very fond of Carlos.

Kiera: "I was at the lab looking for Emily."
Alec: "Emily?"
Kiera: "Don't worry about it too much right now, but you and I need to have a serious discussion about her."
Alec: "Okay, This isn't going to be about the birds and the bees, is it?"
Very cute, but sad. Kiera and Alec had such a big sister/little brother relationship before. And they're moving away from it.

Bad guy: "Shit, I can't even tell you who the bad guys are any more."
And so say all of us.

Kiera: "Escher was Alec's father."
Kellog: "Huh. That I did not see coming."
Best Kellog scene ever. Loved his expression.

Kiera: "Stay away from Alec."
Kellog: "Which one?"

Emily: "Never mess with a girl who shows a propensity for deadly force."
Emily inadvertently killed Alec's father, and she loves Alec. Oops. Poor Emily. What on earth are they going to do with her character? I haven't a clue.

I'm still confused, but enjoying it sooo much. Three out of four Fahrenheit 451 references,

Billie
---
Billie Doux loves good television and spends way too much time writing about it.

9 comments:

  1. I'm watching on the Canadian schedule, so I'm a bit ahead. It was so fun watching everyone so confident that Kiera shot herself.

    Anyway, I've had this one ready for a couple of weeks now.

    And now, Mayor Martin departs
    (Though Tahmoh, you were dear to our hearts)
    To be Vancouver Mayor
    In a car, on a stair
    Is like teaching Defense of Dark Arts

    ReplyDelete
  2. I still think the Kiera killed herself (a sentence that would make no sense to anyone who has never seen the show before) and is lying to Alec so he won't suspect she'll do the same to him.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Kiera's short haircut just reinforces the fact that her hair color is far too dark for her complexion.

    The flashback/forward scene was really interesting. Kiera's plight has always fascinated me. She wants to get back to her son and husband (who, by the way, is definitely involved in this somehow) but in order to do so she has to make sure the future becomes a dystopian nightmare. Apparently she believes all the corporate congress's lies. We really shouldn't be rooting for our protagonist to succeed, which is definitely a bold choice for the show. And I definitely agree, any society that burns books is not a good society.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'm loving it, too! And I also still think that Kiera killed herself and is just working some angle with Alec. She's too calm about the whole thing. If it was someone other than her, then someone out there wants her dead, right? So shouldn't she be more concerned about being out in the open and such? I'm also still open to it being Kellogg (or Kellogg via Emily), since he had an inkling about the two Alecs.

    Bits to love: Kiera dressing much more like a Freelancer now, Bill Dow in 2067 with that skeezy mustache, and Jason's "maybe" response to Non-Sith Alec saying "I'm your father?" I really love how that response highlights the confusion with the branching timelines and multiple Alecs.

    I'm with you on Garza and Carlos, Billie. I like Garza a bunch, and feel like there's more to her part in all this then just the Liber8 stuff. And I feel so bad for Carlos. Because even though both Kieras are his partner, so much happened in that one week that this Kiera doesn't really feel like his partner anymore. (Shades of Farscape.)

    I think Non-Sith Alec may be on to Betty. She might have given herself away with how quickly she found the Mayor. He seemed rather suspicious, and might be the key to outing her this time.

    ReplyDelete
  5. You guys are right - Keira offing her doppleganger and then leading everyone on a merry chase to find her killer is exactly something she would do. Maybe she did pull the trigger, I don't know. But my money is on a Freelancer.

    What I've been wondering is that I don't remember Keira ever going into the military. Travis did, which is why he has a military-grade CMR. Keira's is police-grade. Has the future changed, or have I remembered wrong and Keira is a military veteran?

    I really liked that wig in the flashforward/backs. Rachel is a natural blonde, and I find her roots a big distraction - as much as the mole she had in the first season.

    Then there is Kellog. He has gone through a lot of changes since the beginning. In the pilot, he is a full-blooded terrorist, manning the assault weapon like a champ. Then later in season 1, we learn that he was swept up in the arrest accidentally and that it was actually his sister who was the believer. He becomes the Biff Tanner of Vancouver, making money off of his knowledge of the future and becoming a lovable cad. Now, he is ordering, or at least encouraging murder like a Mafia don. Kellog, where are you going?

    ReplyDelete
  6. The Freelancers are definitely still a possibility. If it was them, I'm thinking Kiera already knows --- which would explain her pretty much taking it in stride --- and is still working an angle.

    I rewatched some of the final episodes of S2, and I now find myself wondering why the Freelancers recruited Mark Sadler in the first place. The timeline they are trying to preserve features Alec Sadler as a player with major influence, but without their interference, would Mark have faked his death when Alec was young? Supposedly he did that to escape from the Freelancers and protect his family. Did he die in some other way in the "original" timeline the Freelancers want to maintain? Why get so directly involved in Alec's history? It doesn't all quite fit for me. Yet.

    I'm also wondering if the Freelancers have the ability to revive the dead. Curtis continuing to be alive still isn't making sense to me. Are we now dealing with another version of him, or did they bring back the version that jumped back from the future?

    ReplyDelete
  7. It must be a different version of Curtis. The Freelancers/Timecops said that they only use time travel when they have to. Maybe they had to.

    If the future is so terrible, I keep wondering what would motivate someone to go back a thousand years and create a cult to preserve the timeline. Wouldn't it make more sense for them to want to change it?

    ReplyDelete
  8. Now you've got me wondering if we should take all these questions we have as an indication that the Freelancers were less than forthright with Kiera about their goals and methods. Maybe they use time travel more than they indicated. Because the Black Guy Freelancer's timeline seems hinky, too. He jumped back with Jason. Possibly arriving closer to the time when Kiera and crew arrived. But then he talked to Mark Sadler like he recognized and knew him. "All these years I thought you were dead, Sadler." If Sadler has been out since Alec was a baby, then why doesn't Black Guy Freelancer look any older? Maybe I'm just misinterpreting his comments to Sadler. Maybe he knew about him, but didn't know him. Or maybe these guys are jumping around in time a lot more than they told Kiera they were. We probably shouldn't take anything they say at face value.

    (I've been thinking about this show entirely too much.)

    ReplyDelete
  9. I've been wondering why the freelancers (?) took the dead time travelers. Those guys can't have an impact on the future. And that leads to Elena.

    She lived, she raised children, she died. Why in the world would they take her body? If they wanted to minimize her impact, wouldn't they have taken her a long time before?

    We've seen resurrected Curtis, Travis and Jaworski. Where is Kagame and Elena? Kagame may be a greasy spot under the crashed building, but we know for certain that Elena's body is missing. Is she possibly Keira's killer?

    ReplyDelete

We love comments! We moderate because of spam and trolls, but don't let that stop you! It’s never too late to comment on an old show, but please don’t spoil future episodes for newbies.