Big action scenes with lots of guns often leave me cold because I either don't care enough about the characters, or I know that the actors are in the cast and will be okay in the end. But this is the penultimate episode of the series, and I knew anyone could die. That changes things.
If you had told me in season one that I would cry because of the death of a Liber8 member, I wouldn't have believed it. And now I've done it twice. A terrorist just sacrificed himself to save Carlos and half of the police department. When Travis and Kellog were in adjoining cells, Kellog taunted Travis about how he would be remembered. "What will they say about Travis Verta at the end?" It's interesting that Sonya and Travis, lovers and comrades, both died blowing up the VPD, but their motives were completely opposite. Travis made his death count. He saved people. And I loved that it was Kiera who let him out of that cell. And that he could have just left, but he didn't.
I again thought it would be Carlos to bite the dust during that very Terminator raid, because it felt like they were going in that direction. Honestly, as hard as losing Travis was, losing Carlos would have been much harder. For me, harder than losing Kiera. Victor Webster has made Carlos lovable. Admirable, forthright, principled, solidly heroic, and yet he's never been a stereotype. He's the sort of guy that if I knew him in real life, I'd be crazy in love with him.
Carlos is also the sort of guy who is smart enough to tell Dillon the truth about Kiera and Liber8, knowing full well he wouldn't be believed. That was hilarious. It's also sad that Dillon just had his moment. He did the right thing, turning over that recording of Kellog and Emily plotting to murder Escher, and in doing so, he inadvertently caused the deaths of so many cops that I couldn't even count them. Kiera told Dillon that heroes slay dragons – they don't join them. Maybe it was always too late for Dillon.
Brad continued to play both sides against the middle, but honestly, even though he's a product of his time and I've always felt for him, he went too far for me. He joined the supersoldier raid on the VPD while trying to not actually kill anyone himself, but he had to know that way too many cops would die. Then he deliberately tortured Alec to get the Key – too much. I am betting the late Marcellus lied to Brad about his sister and nephews just to keep him on board, and that got even more confusing after that Brad/Zorin conversation about what year they wanted to return to, when their loved ones were still alive. Zorin said the portal was one way, but didn't Alec say it was two-way? Yes, it would be nice if Brad really could return to the point where his wife and children were still alive. Is that what they were setting up with that discussion?
Brad has the Key now. Maybe Alec should have kept it in a safety deposit box. No, wait...
Finally, I've been so frustrated that no one seemed to be seriously addressing the possibility that Kiera will travel back in time and Sam won't be there. In this episode, Kellog said she would be killing herself; Carlos told Kiera to give up her fantasy. Even Brad said it wouldn't work, and Travis was unhappy because if Kiera went forward in time, she wouldn't be fighting for the cause any more. Everyone seems to think that going forward would be selfish of Kiera, even though she could kill herself trying.
Next week's episode is the series finale, and I have no idea what will happen. Will Kiera go home and find her son on the other side? Will Kellog finally do something unselfish and stop the invasion? Kiera said something to Carlos about the lack of happy endings. Hey, as I said in an earlier episode, what I really want is for Alec and Julian to change the future for the better. Could they at least give us that, even if Kiera never gets back to Sam?
Bits:
— The Desperate Hours is the title of a famous 1955 family-taken-hostage movie starring Humphrey Bogart. I don't think it's that relatable to this episode, other than the fact that the hours were indeed desperate.
— Roger Cross has been underutilized this season, but they most certainly wrote out his character beautifully. That had to be satisfying for Cross as an actor.
— The VPD building is pretty much gone. And I just realized that all of the Liber8 members are dead now, except Garza. Well, and Kellog, but I don't think he counts.
— The supersoldiers have been like Liber8 in season one before the character development and ambiguity. Their numbers have decreased too, since Nolan and Rawlins died in this episode. Zorin, Weaver and Vasquez remain. And Brad, but again, I don't think he counts.
— Alec was trying pretty hard to excuse Emily's role in the death of his own father.
— Alec referred to the Grapefruit of Death as the "time ball." That was new. Maybe the writers finally realized that it was time to give the thing a name.
— Kellog and his buddies at Piron were all watching Alec and Kiera remotely. What was that about? Plus Kellog told Travis he'd use him to create future supersoldier technology. Travis deliberately prevented that by blowing himself up.
Quotes:
Carlos: "You want to kill your lawyer? Go ahead. I'll sell tickets."
Is Mr. Nasty Lawyer dead? Or was he just choked and tased?
Nora: "Unusual physiology and evidence of experimental self-healing technology."
Carlos: "That sounds like science fiction."
Nora thought that Travis was a Piron project gone awry. What's interesting is that technically, she wasn't wrong.
Kiera: "Sam may not be there. He may not even be."
Kellog: "People change all the time. And there's no time like the present. Unless my timing's all wrong."
Kellog: "I'm sorry about Sonya. And Lucas. Is Garza still alive?"
Too funny.
Vasquez: "Let him go."
Kellog: "Don't let me go."
Any episode that makes me cry gets four out of four. Four what? Honestly, I have no idea. Any suggestions?
Billie
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Billie Doux loves good television and spends way too much time writing about it.
Zorin said the portal was one way, but didn't Alec say it was two-way?
ReplyDeleteAren't they building it one way, but Alec can make it go both ways with the grapefruit?
Also, I'm voting for "four out of four time balls."