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Continuum: The Politics of Time

"You were just being a good friend. It speaks highly of you and poorly of them."

Unfortunately, this episode featured a rubber stamp "framed for murder" plot. Fortunately, it also gave us some interesting character development.

Carlos Fonnegra is not the stereotypical good-guy Dudley Do-Right cop he appeared to be. He lied in order to take primary in a murder case that would implicate him, and he deliberately contaminated a crime scene to protect himself. He's also human enough to have casual sex with an old friend, and smart enough to use a condom. But he's not a murderer. I was certain it had to be Jim Martin's campaign manager, but no -- there was a Liber8 twist and a Garza reveal at the end.

I liked the parallel of future Kiera realizing that her husband wasn't as perfect as he appeared to be. In Kiera's time, everyone is under constant surveillance, and Kiera genuinely believes that it makes everyone safer. It was futuristic tech that cleared Carlos of murder in the present day, after all; in the future, he never would have been a suspect. And yet, I liked that Kiera could have easily spied on Greg, but she never, ever did. Kiera believes in love, trust and fidelity. Is Kiera's husband Greg a bad guy? Or is it just that, like Carlos, he's not perfect and makes mistakes?

Kiera and Carlos work together every day, but they don't truly know each other. They both work too hard and don't have a personal life. There is the potential of a real friendship between them that they both need. But can they ever really connect when Kiera can't tell him the truth about herself? How can he ever trust her when he knows she's not telling him everything?



The best thing about this episode, other than the nude shower fight scene which was visceral and well done, was the futuristic tech that Kiera and Alec used to recreate the murder. It was cool to watch while simultaneously uncomfortable in a privacy-invading sort of way. It was also amusing how, the moment sex was involved, Alec turned into a snickering teenager with a running commentary about porn and three-ways. Of course, he is a teenager. And at least he got upset when he saw the murder take place.

This episode introduced Tahmoh Penikett as Jim Martin, who was just elected as head of the biggest union in the country and whose campaign manager just took a whole lot of cash from Liber8. I'm of the sincere belief that pretty much anything is better if Tahmoh Penikett is in it. We'll just have to see if Jim Martin is as principled as Carlos used to think he was.

Bits and pieces:

— It's been a "few months" since Kiera's arrival in 2012.

— Kiera has discovered that the Grapefruit of Death segment she was hiding in her bathroom is missing, and she came to the correct Kellog conclusion.

— The recreation of the murder was similar to an "ectoplasmic reconstruction" that occurred in "Definitely Dead," one of the Sookie Stackhouse books by Charlaine Harris.

— I also liked the different colored fingerprints being eliminated visually. Wow, there were sure a lot of them on that headboard, weren't there?

— Betty the IT specialist was willing to hide evidence to cover for Carlos.

— Carlos's family was originally from Colombia.

— During the flashforward double date with Vicky and Trevor, Kiera went to the ladies room to apply magnetic eye shadow.

— The murder victim, Alicia Fuentes, was played by Pascale Hutton from the now defunct series Sanctuary.

— I want the lampshade in Alicia's apartment.

Quotes:

Alec: "It ain't just a river in Egypt. Denial. Get it?"
Kiera: "No."

Kellog: "Look at you. Inspector Cameron making a joke."
Kiera: "I'm not just a pretty face."

Alec: "What? Miss the bow-chica-wow-wow?"
Kiera: "I have no idea what you're doing."
Alec: "Don't they have porn in your time?"
With twenty-four/seven surveillance? Possibly not.

Not the best episode. Two out of four colored fingerprints,

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

3 comments:

  1. I liked this episode because it featured Carlos and Keira and was rich in character development. It had more personal moral implications and then linked them to larger moral issues. If Jim Martin does accept the help of Liber8 is he still "clean"? A real means and ends kind of conversation. I also liked learning more about Keira. In many ways Keira is naive but it makes me like her more. And I am so on board with you Tahmoh Penikett makes everything better.

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  2. The futuristic tech was very cool. It kind of creeped me out, but the way it was filmed was fantastic to watch.

    I loved the line, "I would rather keep a secret from you than break a promise to you." May have to purloin that some day.

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  3. In the pilot episode, Keira's husband freaked the freak out when he saw she was now in the execution chamber with Liber8. It seemed to imply that he knew they were going to disappear. Not knowing then who older Alec was, I thought his smug smile might indicate that this had proven to him that Greg was involved with the escape. I don't trust Greg one bit. Also, there's the whole trope of building romantic tension by having one of the leads already married, but it's okay that they fall in love with someone else, because their spouse is a jerk.

    Super minor detail, but I kind of love how they portray the future as architecturally different, but don't do much to make the characters dress or talk "futuristically." It always looks so cheesy. Keira's suit is super sci fi, but her evening dress and their red wine consumption are just classic.

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