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Continuum: 30 Minutes to Air

"Our childrens' lives are at stake."

The flashforwards this season have gotten better, haven't they?

Travis had a family. That was unexpected and sympathetic, especially from the standpoint of his wife and young daughter, who were forced to pretend that they didn't know Travis in order to protect themselves. The corporate stooge detective in the future completely creeped me out with his focused attention on Travis's daughter Tio, from using the direction of her glance to figure out where Travis was hiding in the ceiling, to rewarding her for being a good corporate citizen.

The thing is, Travis is actively trying to change the future. Kiera wants to preserve it because if she doesn't, it will endanger the existence of her son. What about the existence of Travis's daughter? Does Travis care so deeply about his cause that he can justify the possibility of erasing his daughter's existence?

Speaking of fatherhood, it was obvious almost immediately that Chrissy was Inspector Dillon's daughter, but the reveal at the end threw me. Yes, it's exceptionally clever on Dillon's part, setting up his own daughter as a Liber8 spy (which I'm betting will backfire on him since she's sympathetic to their cause), but what father worth his salt would put his own daughter in such terrible danger?

Like every other character on this show, Inspector Dillon's real motives are difficult to discern. Did he set up his daughter as a spy for the benefit of his corporate overlords, or was it just to bring down Liber8 and save lives? Was it his idea, or hers? The actress who plays Chrissy looks a lot like Kiera, which I thought was an interesting choice. It was also good writing that a loving daughter not acknowledging her genuine love for her father was key to both the Travis plot and the Dillon plot.

With Dillon taken hostage, Carlos was in charge of negotiation and he did a good job, even though he is still stuck in angry sarcasm mode. He does seem to be warming to Kiera again. Maybe he still enjoys having a secret weapon. Kiera's assault on the television station was fun. Especially the invisible fight scene.

Kiera blew it with CEO Alec, though, who reconnected with her CMR and discovered that Kiera is buddies with the other Alec. Kellog blew it with CEO Alec, too, and turned to Week Ahead Alec for help. I got the impression that Week Ahead Alec was hinting that Kellog should murder his other self. Do you think I'm just projecting? Hey, maybe Emily could do it, as Kellog appeared to suggest. She has the necessary experience.

Funny how I'm not considering that they might kill off Week Ahead Alec, when CEO Alec already comes across as a lot more ruthless. I loved how both Alecs told Kellog that they're evolving; they're just going in different directions. Gold acting stars to Erik Knudsen again. The two Alecs feel completely different, and it's not just the clothing and hair. Maybe he and Tatiana Maslany should get together.

Bits:

— Travis's daughter took an oath of loyalty to the Corporate Congress in school. Shudder.

— We're slowly becoming familiar with our future corporate overlords. This week it was Fermitas, the "Wal-Mart for warlords," who also own Channel One and the "Firing Point" show.

— On the freelancer front, Curtis wants to be Kiera's partner because her relationships with Carlos and Alec are fracturing. Does he really think she'll consider it? Who knows. Maybe she will.

— As a character, Betty is like a loaded gun that hasn't gone off yet, and we don't yet know what she will hit when she does.

— Future Alec will write a book on corporate negotiation and tactics.

— Nigel on "Firing Point" was a Liber8 fan. Maybe not any more, after getting shot in the leg.

— Loved Travis's expression when the makeup artist tried to powder his face.

Quotes:

Alec: "We both know that I'm not unique."
Kellog: "You're kidding me. You're the damn architect of the future."

Diana: "You're a take charge guy and we definitely need more of those, especially with our revolving door of mayors. It's like the seven dwarfs lately."
Dillon: "Yeah. Happy and Dopey are dead. I think Grumpy's in charge now."

Week Ahead Alec: "When did I become such a dick?"

Travis: "Busy day for you. Arrest your own daughter. Act the righteous man on TV. Get taken hostage."
Dillon: "Yeah. Tonight can only be a letdown."

Travis: "Most of you think you know me. Travis Verta. Liber8. Killer. Terrorist. Lunatic. And now here I am, interrupting your programming."

Alec: "I've evolving."
Kellog: "I'm experiencing some profound déjà vu."

Carlos: "Maybe we should skip to the end and they start calling us protectors."
Poor Carlos. He needs to jump one way or another, and can't seem to make himself do it this time around.

Kiera: "You are a leader of men, Carlos Fonnegra."
Carlos: "Yeah. Men."

Dillon: "Just don't go all Patty Hearst on me."
Chrissy: "Who?"

Maybe not the Marty McFly blow-out that last week's episode was, but quite good. Three out of four hostage crises, since they've been doing a lot of them lately,

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

8 comments:

  1. I think I took the flashbacks with Travis differently than you. The way I read them was that Travis's plan to protect his family was to have them turn him in. He went there expressly so that his wife and daughter would give him up to CPS. It was the only way he could ensure that they would be believed to be good corporate citizens and not a terrorist ally. He knew that it meant they wouldn't be able to see each other again, but that was worth it to him to protect them. So in the present, he's already made peace with never seeing his daughter again --- I guess he connected with Sonya after his arrest? --- and he is willing to do whatever it takes to make sure she never has to grow up in that horrific corporate future. Even if it means she never exists at all.

    It was all a striking contrast to what Dillon is doing with his daughter. Even though both daughters have to act as betrayer, Travis's approach is designed to keep his child from danger, while Dillon's is putting his directly in the line-of-fire. I love that again we get this double-sided glimpse at the "good guys" and the "bad guys." For all the horror of his current methods, we can still see that Travis has done decent things in the past, and isn't a black-and-white villain. And Dillon is a far cry from the decent cop we first met. Both seem to have goals that are ultimately sympathetic (assuming Dillon's end game really is about protecting the public and not pleasing his corporate masters), even as their methods range from questionable to deplorable. Fascinating.

    The actress playing Chrissy reminded me of Elyse Levesque from Stargate: Universe. I kept thinking, "Is that Chloe?" She didn't sound anything like her, but the resemblance was uncanny.

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  2. I read the flashbacks/forwards the same way, Jess. It was all staged so the seriously creepy agents of the Corporate Congress would think Travis' family loyal to the...can we call it a state? What do we call a nation controlled by businesses?

    I always thought that Dillon was a good man. A little misguided lately, but essentially a good man. Now I'm not so sure. How could he put his own daughter in so much danger? He knows how dangerous Liber8 are. If they find out she's a spy they won't hesitate to kill her or use her to get him to do their bidding.

    Is anyone else worried that present day Alec is going dark side a little too quickly?

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  3. I got the impression that Travis's wife and daughter were doing their best to make it seem that Travis had broken in and wasn't related to them at all. I'll have to rewatch the beginning again.

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  4. I'll have to rewatch, too. We could both be right. Perhaps they were denying any connection to him, familial or otherwise, but were doing it at his behest. I believe he wanted them to "betray" him, in order to protect them. In contrast to Dillon's daughter, who is betraying him at his behest, but in a play that puts her into harm's way. It's a terrific juxtaposition that upends our impressions and beliefs about both men, and makes Travis's line to the viewing audience (which you quoted) even more layered:

    "Most of you think you know me. Travis Verta. Liber8. Killer. Terrorist. Lunatic. And now here I am, interrupting your programming."

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  5. I just rewatched the flashforwards and you're right -- Travis got them to turn him in deliberately to protect them. I took out a sentence in my review. Thanks, guys.

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  6. I'm a bit confused on the continuity. Travis had the following things happen to him in some order: 1 fell in love and had a child. 2 was turned into a super-soldier (by Sonia?) 3 fell in love with Sonia, 4 became a terrorist.

    Now, he was apparently already a terrorist in the flashback. Did they recruit terrorists to become super-soldiers or was Travis already involved with Sonia before the flashback? Ideas?

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  7. I agree Mark Greig - CEO Alex went dark VERY fast. Too fast? Well, that depends where they take it. So far he seems so very certain in rejecting the people and things and way of thinking that are making week-ahead Alex the one to root for. But maybe that's so that can be dramatically subverted at some point by revealing it was a ploy? I just feel a bit odd disliking one of them!

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  8. I also think week-behind Alec seems to have become awfully ruthless rather quickly which bothers me. In my experience, people just don't change that much that fast. We know that he must get ruthless eventually from older Alec, but it doesn't really feel organic to me.

    @pucklady, my interpretation is that he was probably forced into the super-soldier program after being captured.

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