Continuum’s fourth episode is entitled ‘Matter of Time’ and is in my opinion on par with the quality experienced from the first episode. This episode also sees the return of Tony Amendola as Edouard Kagame, the leader of terrorist group Liber8.
As for the plot of ‘Matter of Time’…
The episode opens with a flash forward to the 2077 time period, Kiera’s husband Greg has just gotten promoted when a terrorist attack takes out the city power supply, boasting that it isn’t a problem he slowly counts down from 10 after which the power is restored, Greg states that to counter Liber8 he was put in charge of decentralizing power supply.
The next scene jumps back to 2012, Kiera is trying to do her make-up as she wants to blend in as much as possible, Alec is watching her through Kiera’s implants while noting down all the technology Kiera says exist in the future. Just as in 2077 the power goes out just as Kiera is trying her eye-liner, Carlos calls her saying there is a situation in a laboratory that is just her thing. A brief scene inserted here shows Kellog getting rich on betting the stock market. At the laboratory it transpires that a professor Ames has died in a freak accident while making anti-matter, Kiera isn’t so sure and believes he was murdered.
Meanwhile Edouard Kagame, the leader of Liber8, has finally emerged from his time travel ordeal and while unconscious is taken to the hospital. Kiera and Alec continue their discussion of the future and Alec promises her he will try to repair her suit with some notes that his father has left him. This is the first sign of the origin of Alec’s equipment that he uses in his barn. Kellog continues to make an impression on this timeline by buying his grandmother’s home and solving all of her debts. Carlos and Kiera meanwhile question the rather arrogant Shane about what he knows on Callisto, the Anti-matter device that Ames was working on. The man shows little sympathy for the professor’s death as he thinks Ames was about to sell his research to the military to create weapons. Shane does show surprise though when he finds out that the back-up database with all the research has been deleted.
Members of Liber8 continue their rampage through Vancouver, after they assaulted two bikers they managed to get a new hide-out in a marijuana lab. The female members of Liber8, Garza and Sonya, show of their vicious side by seeming to enjoy murder.
Carlos and Kiera search out everybody who may have a motive to murder professor Ames, after questioning a Luddite group they suspect Ames’s former partner Melissa Dobek (Mayko Nguyen), she confirms that they had a row some time back because she was sure that his research would kill somebody one day but is adamant about her own innocence. While all of this is going Carlos questions Kiera about her uncanny ability to recognise exact length en be so knowledgable in science.
Kagame meanwhile walks out of the hospital, which finally alerts the authorities that he is in Vancouver, Kiera of course has not mentioned he is from the future and the police think he is the gang leader who came over from Portland. When Carlos and Kiera have made their way back to the police station they are confronted by a member of JAG who tells them to stop their inquiries into the death of Ames. Carlos and Kiera intend to disobey their orders by doing so anyway. Kiera does feel a little bit of unease as Carlos seems to want to catch the killer out of a sense of enjoyment in the hunt.
Liber8 has found out that their leader has arrived through the time portal and is set out to look for him. Kiera and Carlos once more question Melissa Dobek and confront her with her relationship with Shane, which she comments on as saying it isn’t illegal. Though Dobek is forced to admit that she is also engaged to be married. Kiera also questions her about the fact that Ames got all the patents when their partnership was broken up. Carlos’s boss questions him about his continued search but Carlos states that it is unrelated to Ames’s murder.
Carlos and Kiera once again interrogate Shane, this time he admits to murdering Professor Ames but denies Melissa Dobek had anything to do with it. This causes Carlos to ask him why he is willing to ‘fall on his light saber’ for her, but Shane doesn’t answer.
Melissa is confronted by Shane’s confession but won’t budge about her own involvement, her fiancé is meanwhile introduced as Drew LaRouge and Kiera understands that she will become Melissa LaRouge and decides to let her go so as to not change history. Alec chides her for it and Kiera knows she will be often confronted by people from the future having a dark past. Kagame meanwhile is found by Liber8 after Kiera has first managed to catch up to him. Later she is visited by Alec and they meet face to face for the first time.
Review…
This episode is about as good as the pilot mainly because of its very tight writing. Almost all characters take part in significant events while some of Continuum’s downsides are also addressed. Alec is now being portrayed as more mature and Carlos finally seems to understand that Kiera isn’t what she seems. I hope that Carlos will manage to figure it out soon because the present situation will only work for a few more episodes before it becomes a drag. The return of Kagame will also make sure that Liber8 will become even more important in the coming episodes.
Score; 8.5 / 10.
