Reviews

Continuum, Season 2: Episode 2, Split Second (Review)

Continuum, the time-travel action show from SyFy keeps up the pace with this latest episode, despite a few convoluted plot elements.

By Jen Johnson | June 15, 2013 | | 0

The Season 2 premiere got things started with a bang. Will Continuum keep up the pace? Based on what I’ve seen so far, I would have to say yes. I’m also glad that the episode titles don’t all have the word time in them anymore. That was getting kind of silly.The beginning of “Split Second” opens with a flash-forward to 2077, when Sonia learns that her super-soldier program is being shut down and her subjects must be terminated, including Travis. She’s supposed to kill him, right then and there, but kisses him in front of her supervisor. Strange that she emptied her gun into him in the premiere.Kiera meets up with Alec again, asking him to keep things on track, but he makes a hard argument about playing God, looking out for her future family, etc. Agent Gardner seems to think Kiera is part of Liber8, and is allowed to keep tabs on her, but gets a stern warning from his supervisor to avoid embarrassing the department. Lucas is surfing the internet when he finds out that Sonia is the one who shot Travis. He agrees to keep her secret, but pretty soon Garza starts asking why they haven’t gone in to rescue him. In prison, Travis protects budding terrorist Julian from the rest of the population, and ends up killing six members of the Aryan Nation during a little misunderstanding. Not that that’s a huge loss to the world, as Kiera points out, but she offers her assistance in Travis’s transfer to another prison. Agent Gardner shows up to let everyone know he is the official liaison to the FBI of sorts, but Carlos doesn’t trust him. Personally, neither do I.Alec is trying to make strides in his new job, overhauling the computer system to make it more efficient, but his supervisor is not impressed, expecting this teen genius to get his coffee and fix paper jams in the copier instead. And in steps…Matt Kellogg. Everytime I see Kellogg, my stomach drops a little. This time is no exception. He knows Alec is a genius. He knows Alec is trapped in a dead-end office store retail job. Alec knows who he is, thinking Kiera has sent him, but Kellogg is there on his own to offer Alec some different…opportunities. With lots of money and knowledge that has carried him pretty far by now, it’s no surprise that Alec would want to cash in on his smarts and secure his future…but who will he be looking out for? Kellogg takes Alec onto his boat (where other, um, negotiations have taken place) and assures Alec that he will be a very wealthy man in the future. Alec is more concerned about why he was sent back in the first place; unsure he can trust Kellogg, he leaves without even getting to know any of the pretty girls in Kellogg’s harem.Carlos sits with Travis during the transfer, with Kiera in the front. Travis keeps calling her “the Protector,” telling her she’s fighting for the wrong side. He starts calling her out on her time travel, realizing that Carlos knows nothing about it. “How does she do it?” he asks. “Always two steps ahead of you.” As the convoy rolls along, Lucas sets off a roadside bomb. The police van is ambushed and the driver shot. Betty has already lost contact back at headquarters. Kiera takes the wheel and calls for backup, but Travis is so strong he’s able to break his shackles and attack Carlos. I know they’re in a moving vehicle, but why can’t Travis take out Carlos when he killed six giant Aryan Nation guys in prison? Even though Kiera is driving, she saves the day by zapping Travis. No backup has arrived, and back in HQ they’re suspecting that there’s an insider giving information to Liber8. A helicopter flies down, but it’s not backup. It attacks the police van. Agent Gardner keeps pointing the finger at Kiera, despite everything she’s done for the police department. She and Carlos end up trapped inside a tunnel…helicopter on one side, pursuing vehicle on the other.Turns out, the heli and vehicle are fighting over Travis. I have no idea who’s who at this point, but Travis gets busted out right after a very strange slow motion escape from the tunnel. It looked like Kiera was blocking the bullets from the shooters, but…how, exactly? We usually get to see how her technology works in real time, but not in this case, and everyone is baffled by it.After the attack, the inspector and Gardner have a little showdown regarding who was right or wrong, with the inspector favoring Kiera. But Gardner still accuses her of springing Travis, even though Garza is behind it. Travis makes a phone call to Sonia, telling her she doesn’t have much time. Things in Liber8 seem to be falling apart pretty quickly, which we got glimpses of in the first season. Sonia shooting Travis was a bit extreme, but maybe it’s the destiny she was meant to follow, much like the rest of the characters.At the end of the episode, Kiera expresses concern that Gardner is the spy, and Alec ends up back on the yacht with Kellogg. Why wouldn’t he, after having some kid spill a slushie on the floor of his store with an idiot dad standing by expecting him to clean it up?Final review: Time travel shows/movies can be tough in terms of plot twists, story lines, etc., but I really like this show. It’s smart, fast paced, and convoluted, but not so much that it loses the viewer. We learn much more about Sonia’s relationship with Travis here…how it originated, and how she chose him over the end of her program. But why did she turn on him so quickly after Kagame died? Sonia can’t be all about power, or she wouldn’t have been with Travis in the first place. What’s going to happen with her leading Liber8? She even organized the attack by the Aryan Nation on Travis! And I’m seriously worried about where Alec is headed. Kellogg has told him he can achieve even more than he did as the head of SadTech in 2077. I’m kind of afraid to think of what that means in future episodes, and I can see that this season will be harder to swallow than the first.Den of Geek Rating: Three out of five stars.Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for all news updates related to the world of geek. And Google+, if that’s your thing!

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