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Continuum: Split Second

"Nothing like a nice drive through the countryside."

Liber8 versus Liber8. Factions, factions, factions.

Much of this episode was about Travis, who acquired his military CMR from Sonya in the flashforward. Just a bit of a contrast there, since in the future, Sonya pretended that she would kill Travis in order to save him, and in the last episode, she put five bullets in his chest. And then she set him up with the Aryan Nation in order to keep Travis away from Julian, who goes on trial in a few weeks. At least she didn't actively try to kill Travis this time. No, wait. She did.

The chase action sequence was a good one, mostly because of the accompanying character interaction. Travis kept telling the truth about time travel in front of Carlos, and Kiera was going, yeah, time travel, la la la. It was fascinating that Travis actually made a serious attempt to recruit Kiera. His methods suck (killing people all the time is quite possibly bad) but he's right that Kiera is fighting for the wrong side. And Carlos is not an idiot. Time travel may sound ridiculous, but Carlos is aware that there's something critical about Kiera that he doesn't know.

I tend to worry about Carlos a lot, and I certainly did during that long fight scene while Travis was slamming Carlos around the prison van. Even though he's a big tough cop, and even though he did manage to take Travis down, Carlos didn't know what Travis was, and his lack of knowledge made him vulnerable. Kiera really, really needs to tell Carlos the truth. It's way past time. Pun intended.

The Kiera-Alec relationship is one of the best things about this series, and it keeps getting more complicated. Alec knows that the Elder Alec wants him to change the future, and of course, Kiera wants to go home. Alec was probably right when he said that if Kiera keeps interfering with the present, she's endangering the existence of her family. And yet, Kiera and Alec are still friends, and he is continuing to help her bring down Liber8. It seems to me that Alec just doesn't know what to do with the knowledge he has. Not yet, anyway.

I liked how Alec dismissed the fact that he was going to be massively powerful and epically wealthy when he asked Kellog if Elder Alec is a good person. But I most certainly did not like the ending, with Alec drinking champagne with Kellog and his harem. It was like Alec was trying to answer his own question about the Elder Alec's character. Not that Alec should be wasting his time at the BuyMore, but he really shouldn't be working with Kellog. I like Kellog as a character because he's charming and a lot of fun and his motivations are a mystery, but I'm pretty certain that Kellog mostly cares about Kellog.

Meanwhile at the VPD, someone is a Liber8 mole. And the repulsive Gardiner has learned that Mr. Escher, Kiera's "boss," is the CEO of Piron. That's one of the corporation names we see in the 2077 sequences in the credits. Gardiner doesn't understand how Escher can be Kiera's boss.

I'm not happy that Gardiner is such a nasty character. Must be residual X-Files love; I like Nick Lea.

Bits:

— Alec tried to do a good job at the Memory Express by Alec-ing the computer system. Another reminder of how young he is. You get coffee for the boss and stay out of the way. How sad for Memory Express. I bet they don't end up as a member of the Corporate Congress.

— Lucas manipulates everything via computer with a smile on his face. I just realized that he sees life as a computer game, doesn't he?

— I want Kellog's yacht. I'm never going to own a yacht. Could someone please buy me a yacht like that? :)

Quotes:

Travis: "Seeing her makes me homesick."
Kiera: "Your new home is a four by four cell, Travis."
Four by four? That sounds more like Kiera's nightmare in the season opener than a real jail cell in Canada.

Carlos: "I'll sit back here with Mister Happy. (To Travis) You look good in orange."
Lines like this are one of many reasons that I'm so fond of Carlos. He is also, um, somewhat attractive.

Alec: "Can I ask you something that might sound a little bit weird?"
Kellog: "I'm a time traveler, kid. Weird is my specialty."

Kellog: "Here's the deal, kid. In 2077, you are, in today's terms, Zuckerberg, Jobs, Buffet and Gates, all rolled into one."
Alec: "Rich."
Kellog: "No, no, no. Beyond rich. Epic wealth."
Alec: "No, you don't understand. What am I like as a person?"
Kellog: "As a person? Who gives a shit?"

Kiera: "We should be taking you to the psych ward."
Travis: "Yeah. I guess that's where time travelers would fit in best, huh?"
Carlos: "Time travelers?"
Kiera: (doing the "la la la") "Time travelers. We're all time travelers."

Travis: (to Kiera) "I don't know why you don't just tell him. We've already changed the future."
Have they? Again, how could they tell?

Good episode, although they left us with way too many unanswered questions. Three out of four blue slushies,

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

3 comments:

  1. Great review Billie! I found this episode really disturbing and it took me a while to figure out why. Kiera and Alec and even the surviving Liber8 seem to have lost some sense of hope and/or purpose. Only Travis seemed to hold on to some values even if his means was nasty. Sonya was buying a previously honest, good guy. Kiera just seems unmoored and Alec ended up giving in to the dark side with Kellog. It sure looks like the corporations or something equally corrupt is going to win the day.

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  2. I'm going through the series for the first time, and I don't think Gardiner is a particularly nasty character. he's perfectly right to be suspicious of Kiera's intentions, she is extremely shady. he can be forgiven for thinking she's a mole if the alternative is thinking she's from the future. just wanted to say i'm loving these reviews, your coverage is what led me to this show, even if it happened a while ago!

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  3. Thanks so much, Sam Smith, and I hope you continue to enjoy Continuum. It's a unique show; I loved it.

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