Second Wave

After this weeks 10th episode of Continuum’s second season there will only be 3 more left until the season ends. So far the season has been pretty much a roller-coaster ride when it comes to plot development and quality. Luckily this weeks episode seems to set the stage for the seasons inevitable conclusion and it does this well.

Kiera (Rachel Nichols) manages to capture Garza (Luvia Petersen) with Alec’s new Arc program that pretty much sucks in all real-time data of Vancouver. After Kiera’s run-in with Julian in the previous episode she is more than ever motivated to put a stop to Liber8. Now that inspector Dillon has developed a ‘live and let die’ attitude she is allowed to mildly persuade Garza to reveal where Travis is hiding. All this brings her in direct confrontation with Carlos (Victor Webster) who fears the police is starting to use Gestapo tactics to get criminals.

After unsuccessfully torturing Garza Kiera has the idea of re-activating Travis’s CMR implant to try and find him. Things go awry when Travis manages to get inside Kiera’s head and she has to switch it off just as she is being pursued by freelance time-travelers sent by Mr. Escher. Travis has problems of his own after his gang fear that he is hearing voices. They seem reluctant to help him find Garza. Garza meanwhile manages to escape the police station after overpowering one of her interrogators.

After managing to shake off the agents sent by Mr. Escher Kiera is captured by Julian’s militants at one of his rallies. Julian’s female groupies urge him to make an example of Kiera after her torture of him. Julian seems more interested in why she keeps on referring to things he is going to do instead of the things he did. He says that Kagame and Travis spoke I the same way. Julian releases Kiera as he doesn’t want to antagonize the police, though Kiera gives them Julian’s hideout.

Just as Garza is escaping police custody Alec reboots Kiera’s CMR, both Kiera and Travis are stunned for a few moments which allow two unknown men to abduct Garza. Carlos later tells Kiera that they were the two body snatchers working for Mr. Escher.

Meanwhile Alec is continuing dating Emily (Magda Apanowicz). She is having doubts about spying on him but Mr. Escher urges her to continue. Eventually at a dinner date between Emily and Alec Mr. Escher reveals himself and the reason of his interest in Alec. He wants to secure Alec’s legacy. Alec seems doubtful and states he has a deal with Kellog which Escher readily dismisses. The conversation is overheard by Kellog.

Sonya meanwhile is contemplating making a deal with Kellog. Lucas Ingram has doubts as he fears Kellog can’t be trusted. Lucas is having visions of Chen and fears he is going delusional. In the last scene of the episode it is revealed that Chen is/was/will be a freelance time traveler from the future.

Conclusion

I liked this weeks episode. It didn’t try too hard. It didn’t give us shootouts with helicopters or pointless drama with deceased time travelers. Instead it cleverly progressed the storylines of all important characters in the show in an interwoven way. Alec is the most affected by developments. His character and Julian’s too seem to especially shine during this second season. Kiera’s character gives me pause though. I think she is driven but also makes too many illogical moves. Alec definitely seems to have outgrown her in two seasons when it comes to character development.

This episode also saw the return of Carlos to the center stage, his interaction with Garza will know doubt promise to be fruitful for coming episodes. As we are reaching the end of season 2 it was only  a matter of time (no punt intended) that we would also see Sonya, Lucas Ingram and Travis return. And so they did, even Chen briefly returned from the dead as a vision of Ingram.

I hope Continuum can keep up with this weeks steady quality. I am not asking too much when I say I want to see logical and meaningful plot development. Mr. Escher makes for an interesting antagonists but he is perhaps too powerful for a show like Continuum. I believe the shows aims to have a resolution about him before the end of the season but I fear that will entail lots of ‘illogical’ plot development.

I was sad to see that the fate of agent Gardner has not yet been settled. I had at least hoped that his body would be fished out of river but that hasn’t happened so far. Are we in a for a surprise then?

Score; 8.5 / 10.