Continuum, Season 1, Episode 3: Wasting Time, Review

It’s been a while since I’ve really gotten into a series, especially one that makes you ask a lot of questions. After writing up a review for last week’s Continuum, I suddenly realized that it was only the second episode and already, the terrorist group Liber8 was trying to return to 2077. Their goal was to start a war in 2012’s Vancouver in order to change the future, but so far, they’ve just killed a bunch of cops, nearly blown up a substation and kidnapped a scientist who was going to help power the time-travel device (which failed). We don’t know a whole lot about Liber8 just yet, but surely there must be more to their tactics than random acts of violence. Also, when are they going to reunite with leader Edouard Kagame, who did not make the leap back to 2012? If he didn’t go back in time, where is he?

City Protective Services officer Kiera Cameron is also still trying to find her way home and has a pretty big bargaining chip: The missing wedge of the time travel device, which was collected for evidence from the scene of the kidnapping/explosion. Will she be able to get her hands on it? Now that she’s been accepted by the police force as a special agent, things might get a little bit easier for her.

Parts of the show are in flashback, giving you some background on Kiera’s career as a protective services officer. Kiera has tangled with Liber8 before, so she knows what they’re capable of. She updates the 2012 police force on Liber8’s personalities and tactics; most of them are ex-military who joined after leaving the service. Sonya Valentine, who has the sweetest name for a terrorist, is the “Queen of Hearts” and the most dangerous of the eight. She is senior to Travis, who is hurt and it seems like there’s going to be some competition for alpha if he dies.

One of the other members, Kellogg, meets up with Kiera in a diner. He claims he’s not crazy about violence and is trying to convince Kiera, trying to strike a deal with her (even while holding a grenade). He wants to stay in 2012, feeding off the opportunities available to him and looking for win-win situations, but leaves abruptly when Carlos shows up. He takes Kiera to the morgue, where they investigate the death of someone who had a hole the size of a golf ball bored into the back of his head. Her medical knowledge kind of scares the mortician and it turns out there is more than one body. When they talk to the M.E., they find out that the endocrine glands are being sucked dry, but why? And why were these two men targeted?

Alec keeps trying to help Kiera, even instructing her on how to “use” an unconnected earpiece so it doesn’t look like she’s talking to herself, but when she needs him to do some more research, he’s called back to his house for a meeting organized by his parents. If he’s not in the barn, he’s not connected to Kiera, so she’s lost for a while without him. They haven’t yet met in person, but Alec’s relationship with her is growing stronger and more vital hour by hour. While Carlos is her “partner” on the force, Alec is invaluable as her mental adviser to help her survive the year 2012.

So, the victims of the murders are connected because they . . . wait for it  . . . donated sperm. Turns out that their pituitaries have a mutation that can be distilled into something used for super-soldiers in the military . . . which is exactly what Sonya Valentine was doing when she met Travis, and ended up being arrested. Back with Liber8, Kellogg tells everyone he is setting up Kiera, but the others don’t trust him. Kellogg’s problem is that he’s just an opportunist, while the others are hardcore psycho ex-military killers and, well, that’s going to create some problems within the group.

Kellogg is able to lure Kiera to a college, where she thinks there is a matching endocrine sperm donor, but . . . no “Herbert George” exists. Carlos gets in a shootout with two guys from Liber8, who are looking for “the bitch.” (I presume that’s Kiera, but you know, so many bitches out there.) A lengthy fight sequence follows, with the Asian Liber8 guy (I’m trying to Google his name but I can’t get it fast enough . . . ok, it’s Curtis) thinking he’s got Kiera until he fires her weapon and it’s aimed backwards, so he accidentally kills himself. Looks like Liber8 is now Liber7. SNAP!

Sonya is able to revive Travis with the endocrine fluids and when Kellogg returns, not only is Travis furious with him about what he did, but Kellogg has a homing device in his blood that will lead the cops right to the group (The Matrix anyone?). They flee, leaving Kellogg bound to a chair where Kiera finds him. Unbelievably, he is able to convince her to free him, claiming he can help her because he knows the way the terrorists think. She frees him just in time for both for them to escape an explosion at the house . . . so I’m thinking there are still hard feelings between the group members. The episode ends with Kiera zapping her way into the evidence room to get the final wedge for the time travel device.

Final review:  

I like this show and I like it more and more as the holes close up, explaining the relationships between the characters and why they’re where they are and who they are. I think Kiera is a little too trusting, but what choice does she have, considering that she’s simultaneously trying to stop a terrorist group while and get back to her home? The problem: You can’t have everything. However, at this point, with Curtis dead, it seems like Kiera has the advantage. Is she going to be able to take the members of Liber8 out one by one? More importantly, will she be able to take them out when they reunite with Kagame, who still hasn’t surfaced? Things are certainly getting interesting. 

Best of the rest:  

Kiera learning to use her “phone” headpiece; Carlos’ befuddlement at how Kiera gets her intel, provided by Alec. Despite the serious nature of the show, it does have its humorous moments that make it even more worth watching.