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Continuum: Lost Hours

Is that a wig?
"To going home."

What a jam-packed episode. And I don't mean that in a bad way. I've been worried that the final season of Continuum would seem like it was tacked on, making the series lesser than it was. If this episode is any indication, no worries.

Although I'm worried about one plotline in particular. My second favorite thing about last season was Kiera finally realizing that she was stuck in the past, and accepting it. She and Brad, both out of their own time, both having lost their families, came together as a couple and accepted their fate.

So yes, Kiera spent three seasons desperate to return to her son Sam (note how there was no mention of her husband this time) and I really liked how they brought back Alessandro Juliani as "Mr. Fairweather" the onboard CMR shrink so that it made sense that if Kiera had been seriously injured by the original explosion in the pilot episode, her CMR would have kept her subconscious preoccupied while she was in a coma. It made sense both ways, so good writing there. Not that I thought for a moment that it was September 25, 2080.

But I'm still peeved that they just retconned Kiera's acceptance of her fate, and now she's desperate to "go home" again.

How can she possibly do that? Her future no longer exists, so how can Alec send her there? Are they positing the possibility that there are multiple timelines still in existence? Since season three, I've thought that the Traveler's agenda isn't what we were told it was, and that Kiera's original timeline isn't actually the original, a "good" timeline that was supposed to be. Is that how they'll end the series, with Kiera finding Sam in the original timeline that we haven't seen yet?

Old home week

This series has always featured many factions with different agendas – Kiera, all three Alecs in three different timelines, Liber8, Julian/Theseus and his followers, the police, Piron, Kellog, Brad and his version of the future, Curtis Chen and the Traveler – and it was often hard to track them all without a score card. My favorite thing about season three was the way nearly everyone finally came together to pursue a common goal: a better future.

So my favorite thing about this episode was the Continuum Scooby gang hanging out in evil Alec's apartment. It just kept making me smile. Especially Lucas doing the hacking, and Alec making up and allying with Julian. I am so glad there is only one Alec now, and that he's Kiera's friend again.

The only part of this episode that I didn't track was that Alec got Emily out of jail, but now she's in trouble again. What was she doing, and who took her? Was it Kellog's guys? And how cool was that stunt where she rolled under a freaking moving car?

The enemy...?

It's also nice, considering that we only have six episodes until the end, that it's pretty much everyone versus Kellog now. Kellog has been causing trouble for the entire series, aligning himself with pretty much everyone and then betraying them, plus the Kellog-as-Warlord version of the future desperately needs to go away. (Poor Brad.) If Kellog was ever going to be the Big Bad, now's the time.

Carlos explained Kiera hanging out with Liber8 by saying she had infiltrated as a double agent. Interesting that that was pretty much what was going on with Brad and his six friends, too. This episode's focus was mostly on Kiera, which makes sense considering she's the star and she had so much focus-changing to do. But I expect Brad went through the most confusing emotions in this episode, and we didn't get much from his side. I assume we will. What are the six supersoldiers doing with the cannibalized supersuits? Whatever it is, it can't be good.

Kiera's supersuit wasn't very effective against the Kellog-future supersoldiers. So why did she use it twice? And hey, Brad's face as Marcellus threw Kiera off the roof was total shock; good thing no one was looking in his direction. (I knew her suit would save her, since there are five more episodes.) Subtle, Brad. I wonder how good a double agent Brad will be, if he is indeed a double agent. I think he is. He knows what's really at stake now.

The other hanging plot thread and the start of all this is the Traveler. Who is he? We got a much better look under the dreads and I think the only cast member he resembles is Kellog. However, according to IMdb, the Traveler was played by Vladimir Ruzich, not Stephen Lobo. (Plus he's listed as both "The Traveler" and "The Traveller." A little international spelling issue there.)

The cliffhanger was also Kellog-related: he received a little Princess Leia hologram message in the mail from his future self. I can't wait to hear what future Kellog has to say.

Bits and pieces:

— The credits are the same, with only one exception: Lexa Doig (Sonya Valentine) has been replaced by Ryan Robbins (Brad Tonkin). I wonder if they'll find a way to bring Sonya Valentine back in flashback before the end of the series?

— Season one titles included the word "Time," season two "Second," season three "Minute," and four is "Hour."

— When I saw the season three finale, I thought there were five supersoldiers. There were six: Marcellus (Ty Olsson from Supernatural and The 100), Rollins, Vasquez (a tribute to Aliens?), Nolan, Weaver and Zorin.

— Is this the companion series of The 100, or what? How many actors have we seen in both series? No, seriously. I've lost count.

— Carlos had a flask, which was new. Hey, he's had a rough couple of years. Carlos told Nora (geez, nearly everyone was in this episode) that Dillon had recovered and was returning. I suppose we'll be seeing him in the next episode?

— I don't think Syfy cares a lot about this series any more. 11 pm on Friday? Death slot, anyone?

— In this season's hair report, Carlos' was shorter and grayer, and Alec and Julian both went longer. Kiera's hair confused me completely; it looked both longer and lighter, and I finally realized she was wearing a wig. I can't blame Rachel Nichols for not wanting to dye her blonde hair black again, but it was noticeable and disconcerting.

Quotes:

Julian: "So which one are you?"
Alec: "The good one."
Julian: "I think you'd both say that."
And Julian is right.

Kiera: "Then give the Piron keys back to the Alec who isn't the problem."
Kellog: "I'd love to. But the Board doesn't know what we know and it might be a hard sell, what with the time traveling doubles thing. You know, paradoxically speaking."

Kiera: "Are you following me?"
Garza: "No. It's a total coincidence."
LOL.

Alec: "It's like time travel team six."

This episode was exciting and fun and very Continuum, and I really enjoyed it. Four out of four new season four hairdos,

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

7 comments:

  1. I had trouble getting into this episode. Maybe I should have rewatched the last few episodes of last season to re-familiarize myself with the characters and the story, because I felt very disconnected from the characters and what was happening. Kiera being overwhelmed to see her son again had no impact on me at all, and I’m usually a sucker for that kind of thing. I’m sure my total disbelief that she was really in 2080 didn’t help. And to be honest, for the rest of the hour, the wig kept throwing me out of the story. It was very distracting.

    I’m with you on the “going home” thing. First, because it does seem to completely undo her character development and her acceptance of all that’s happened. But mostly because, as you note, it doesn’t make a lick of sense. If she’s accomplished her mission and accepted that the terrible future will never come to pass, then how does she expect to get back there?

    I did really like Emily putting up a hell of a fight in the street. Of course, I’m extremely bummed that she didn’t get away and is now in “pawn used to control the men” position. Erg. My money is on those guys being with Kellogg.

    I hope that Sonya puts in at least one more appearance before the end. She was such a major player for so long, it would be a shame to finish the show out without her. With all the changing timelines and time periods, it shouldn’t be too hard to have her pop up again, despite being dead in the current present.

    I was dismayed by the 11:00 p.m. time slot, too. Seriously? Sadly, I’m sure they just get better ratings with the movie and Z Nation between 8:00 and 11:00.

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  2. Jess, I totally agree that Rachel's wig took me out of the moment a few times. But that was just a minor distraction. The rest of the episode was fabulous. Of course I just re-watched the last few episodes to get myself ready for this season, and I'm glad I did.

    The show didn't even attempt to ease us into the narrative. It is just as complicated and character driven as always. It gives me hope that the series will end really well. That is if they can wrap up all these characters and plotlines in five more episodes!

    I'm so looking forward to the rest of the season, thanks for the review Billie!

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  3. IT’S A WIG? Now everything makes sense in the world. I was distracted by it, but I just assumed that Rachel Nichols’ hair was really huge and she just didn’t mind to cut it to reach the same length it had on season three (that kind of lack of continuity also bugs me. I remember Carl Lumbly’s hair was much bigger when Alias returned from Jennifer Garner’s pregnancy break, and it was so distracting). Nevertheless, it’s a very beautiful wig. :)

    Moving on, Continuum tends to have very good season openers, and while this one was good, the many different moving parts didn’t really make for a coherent story and that hurt the hour a little bit. But I was so happy to have my current favorite show back (even if it’s for a short final ride) that I didn’t mind.

    I can understand where they are going with Kiera’s mindset. See, on Simon Barry’s original plan, this series would have AT LEAST seven seasons (damn you, Showcase). After season three ended and way before we started worrying Continuum was gone from our timeline for good, Rachel Nichols said we were going to see a very different Kiera on season four. My guess is that, after all the changes she went through on season three, Kiera (now a former CPS officer, former VPD officer and former freelancer) would be her own woman, trying to make her life happen on present day and still being a Warrior of Time. Then around season six something would happen (maybe a new time travel to screw up her life again, or the loss of someone she loved) that would lead her to miss 2077 again. Finally, on the final season of the show she would pursue returning to 2077.

    I always thought that a great way to end the series would be to send Kiera back to her original timeline, where she’d lead the revolution against the Corporate Congress herself. Maybe that’s how the series will end (hopefully Garza will return with Kiera as well, and they’ll both kick some Corporate Congress ass together. Now that would be the best series finale ever). So I can see why the producers needed to take a shortcut and have Kiera somewhat out of nowhere wish to go back to 2077. As of now, it looks like erasing much of Kiera’s character development, but I trust the writers to go deeper on her mindset and show us she’s not the naïve, all about protecting her future, Kiera from season one. Also, Kiera did say last season to Brad that deep inside her she still believed she would see her son again (or something like that, I don’t remember their conversation precisely).

    As for the rest of the episode, the soldiers from the future are cool, but we don’t know much about them yet. I realized I’m not as invested in Brad as I’m in other characters. He’s a nice guy, but I don’t have a three season relationship with him. In any case, why did everybody suddenly know Kiera had something romantic going on with him? And is Kellog going to work as the final big bad (is it going to be him?)? I really liked him on season one, and his interactions with Kiera were the best. But he has become very one note on later seasons. We shall wait and see.

    It was really good to see all the characters again, Carlos and Alec especially. That final scene of Kiera and Carlos (“to going home”) was lovely and reminded me how much I love their friendship. Awn, I can’t believe this series is ending.

    Bits and pieces all over the place: does Kiera ever go back to collect the clothes she takes off to go invisible?

    One down, five (FIVE!) to go. Be strong my heart.

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  4. I thought about the clothes too, Lamounier. Kiera must have to budget extra in clothing replacement costs. :)

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  5. I’ve been thinking a lot about the rules of time travel on Continuum, what with this being the final season with the big question of whether Kiera can go back to her original timeline or not.

    It’s been stablished that the time continuum is like a tree. When someone travels back in time they create a new branch (leaving behind the one they occupied before).

    The freelancers said that they existed to protect history... but if you leave your timeline when you travel to the past, can we conclude the original timeline remains untouched? And no time traveler (freelancers included) is messing with it? In that scenario, the war of time has affected the created timelines only... Unless we assume that the branches of the tree can somehow influence one another or bring instability to the tree as a whole.

    All that led me to wonder if Kiera’s timeline is the original or not.

    Alec Saddler created the time travel device, so it’s safe to say he’s the man responsible for time travel, and it’s safe to assume he had his finger on the first time travel ever (“ever” being a very subjective word here).

    However, the freelancers already existed at Kiera’s timeline (as seen on the flashbacks from season two final episodes), so either (1) Kiera’s timeline is not the original or (2) the original freelancer managed to “access” all timelines, including the ones that came “before” him and the original one.

    In any case, I think Kiera’s timeline is either the original or very close to it. Maybe Alec Saddler used time travel before 2077 to either test it (to see how the time continuum worked, maybe) or to augment his power.

    Man, I’m confused. Nevertheless, making it simpler: if you travel to the past, you jump timelines (either create a new one, such as Alec did in the end of season 2, or jump to an already existing one, such as a very pissed off Kiera in the beginning of season 3); if you travel to the future, can you change timelines too or would you be “stuck” on your current one? Would Kiera be able to go back to her timeline at all? The freelancers promised they could do it, but were they telling the truth or just buying her goodwill with false hope?

    All this leads me to this conclusion: never try to apply logic to time travel stories. What law is that again?

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  6. Also, I found on twitter this very cool schematic (albeit with very tiny words in it) compiling the different timelines on Continuum.

    http://originalsbyitalia.tumblr.com/post/128895450372/on-continuum-new-timelines-are-created-as-a

    My only disagreement with it is that Kiera wasn’t killed on timeline 3, but on timeline 4, because that’s the one with Brad. In fact, we never watched timeline 3 on the show, which is pretty interesting if we think about it (timeline 3 had two Kieras and Alecs alive, and now I’m wondering what the hell happened to all of them, and how all of that led to Kellogg as the big boss. Did Brad ever meet old Kiera(s)? Wouldn’t it be fun if old Kiera showed up?).

    There’s also another fun post, this one by the warlord himself:

    https://twitter.com/MrL080/status/642477454402056192

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  7. Billie said: Since season three, I've thought that the Traveler's agenda isn't what we were told it was, and that Kiera's original timeline isn't actually the original, a "good" timeline that was supposed to be. Is that how they'll end the series, with Kiera finding Sam in the original timeline that we haven't seen yet?

    Oh, interesting! I'd thought there were numerous timelines, but no sense of a prime timeline (or a particularly desirous one--do we ever have happy futures in pop culture anymore?).

    JD said: Of course I just re-watched the last few episodes to get myself ready for this season, and I'm glad I did.

    Yeah, I really should have done that.

    Lamounier said: IT’S A WIG? and so did I.

    ReplyDelete

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