Continuum: Second Thoughts, Review
A new designer drug called Flash leads us down a very strange rabbit hole...
Looking back, I just realized that in the first season of this show all the titles had the word ‘time’ in them. This being the second season, all the titles have the word ‘second’ in them; A bit gimmicky. What will the writers do if it gets picked up for a third season?Well, the titles may be goofy, but the show itself is not. One improvement I’ve noticed in just the first few episodes is better depth of character as far as the members of Liber8 are concerned. Sonia shot Travis. Lucas knows, and is okay with that. Garza doesn’t, and will probably flip out once she does find out about it.Aside from fate, power, and control, this episode features a futuristic drug called Flash that was used by Kiera’s younger sister, Hannah, and has now appeared in 2013 among Alec’s new group of friends. The rift between Kiera and Alec is becoming more apparent as he brushes off her concerns, but she’s worried enough to take what she knows about the drug to Carlos. Sonia, in the meantime, gets into the thick of things with a local gang, doing things the old fashioned way in 2013. The Coalition King gang extends all the way into the prison where Julian is being held, showing that Liber8 has their hooks in him for good.Kellogg, I think, makes a mistake in telling Kiera about his new business alliance with Alec. “It’s like finding Steve Wozniak at eighteen,” he tells her, claiming he is innocent regarding Flash, but he plans on using Alec not only for his own benefit but to keep a connection with Kiera, which she is obviously not happy about. Alec interrupts to tell Kiera about a shooting at the airport, carried out by a single gunman that can only be Travis.As Kiera meets up with Jason, a supposed fellow time traveler who could easily be mistaken for a nutty homeless person, she seems more and more resigned to the fact that she may never get back to the future (ha ha!), and that she wouldn’t be the same person if she did. Which is true. I mean, she cheated on her husband, so….yeah. There is that. But if she’s not going back to 2077, I guess it’s a non-issue.During a shoot-out between Kiera, Carlos, Sonia and the Coalition Kings, all I can think of is Superman. Kiera can go invisible in her futuristic suit, but not in front of Carlos! She can shoot a tracer into the enemy’s car, but Carlos can’t see it! In fact, when she tells him about the tracker and he asks how she did it, she coyly replies, “I give away all my secrets, I lose my mystique.”Biggest shock of this episode: Alec taking Flash and seeing his late father, who is… Jason the crazy time traveler? But the drug isn’t completely reliable, and even caused Kiera’s sister to commit suicide, so who knows what’s real or what isn’t? I wouldn’t take it. Sorry.Final review: Again, Liber8 confuses me. We know there are tensions among members, and things are getting more violent and out of control, but their message remains ambivalent. Sonia gets in deep with a street gang, but ends up talking to Lucas about being nonviolent and spreading ideas instead of guns, blah blah blah. The problem? They’re in 2013. They don’t know what the hell they’re doing, or dealing with. It’s hard to put all the layers of the show into a short review, because there’s so much to wrap your brain around, but it remains fast paced and surprising, and I love seeing who among the bad guys is going to be the worst now that Liber8 has become fragmented and Alec gets drawn further into the dark side.