‘Continuum’ 2.12 & 2.13 Episode Recap and Review: Second Last and Second Time

Betrayal is the name of the game for the two season finale episodes of Continuum!

Carlos is getting himself back into the game when one of his law enforcement buddies locates Gardiner’s car. A quick check of the trunk reveals something a little larger and a little deader than just a spare tire. On Gardiner’s body is a flash drive with all sorts of information implicating Kiera in his murder. Gardiner convinces his buddy to hold off on following up until he has the chance to talk to Kiera himself. This only gets the heat off Kiera for a little bit, though. Carlos gets called on the carpet for trying to help and ends up promising to bring her in to keep the Feds from going public.

Meanwhile, Kiera’s got bigger problems. Alec is mighty close to figuring out how to use the time travel device to send her home, but there are a couple of snags. One is the lack of antimatter energy needed to power the device. The other is an angry Travis breaking into the lab in order to have Alec hook him into the second power suit in exchange for Emily’s life. Alec and Emily manage to get away, but not before the Suit is linked to Travis. No good can come of this.

Kiera finds out that that first problem might not be so much of an issue. Escher’s just acquired a company that’s working with antimatter and has managed to push their development ahead by about 30 years. He’s got the power, Kiera’s got the tech, so she proposes a partnership. With those pieces in place, she calls Carlos to arrange everyone meeting up at Jason’s place. Alec and Emily head there, as well, wanting to confront Jason about Alec’s parentage, as the two are a 99.9% genetic match (side note, wouldn’t that make Alec a clone, rather than a son?). Emily comes clean to Alec about her involvement with Escher, and Alec returns the favor by reading her in on the device.

Unfortunately, the Freelancers get wind of the party and show up shortly after Kiera arrives. A massive firefight ensues (I know, try to control your surprise). Emily throws the device away in a bid to get the bad guys off their tail. Kiera dives for it, leaving Emily unprotected and vulnerable to the handful of bullets that the Freelancers decide are the appropriate response to her gambit. Emily dies in Alec’s arms, sending him straight to Escher.

When the next episode opens, Alec is confronting Escher about Emily, holding him responsible for her death. Escher counters with more interesting information. Jason may be related to Alec, but he isn’t Alec’s father. Escher is. He faked his death to keep Alec and his mom safe from the other Freelancers. According to him, it was working swimmingly until Kiera showed up.

Kiera’s still in the wind. Carlos attempts to get Dillon off her back, but Dillon is having none. He has Betty track Kiera’s cell. Carlos knows that something else is up and puts in a quick call to Internal Affairs. Betty’s tag leads Dillon and his cronies to Escher’s office, where Kiera is still trying to get Alec away from Escher. Kiera’s arrested by Dillon. Alec makes a show of being all in favor of her being taken away, but secretly communicates with her via CMR.

Back at the VPD, Carlos’s call to IA has yielded the information he needs. He knows that Betty is the mole and uses that intel as leverage to get her to help him bust out Kiera. She heads back to Piron while Carlos and Betty leave the increasingly corrupt VPD far behind. They end up going out into the country to lay low with Julian and Alec’s mum.

Kiera isn’t the only one to show up at Piron. Travis arrives right behind her, initiating one of Continuum’s famous 10 minute fight sequences. This one ends with her pushing Travis off down an elevator shaft while Sonya, Kellog, and one of Travis’s minions watch through the combatants’ CMR feeds. The onlookers are all pretty sure Travis is dead this time, so Marco pulls a piece on Sonya. She’s saved at the last minute by, of all people, a Freelancer.

Meanwhile, back at Piron, Alec has done a bit of a Face-Heel Turn, betraying Kiera in order to get the device back so that he can use it to save Emily. The same Freelancer who just saved Sonya shows up to save Kiera from Escher. In the confusion, Alec activates the device and disappears from the room. The Freelancer calls Kiera a “glitch in the continuum.” The next time we see her, she’s in the tiny clear cell from her previous nightmares. As the camera pans, we can see that in similar cells around the room are Kellog, Travis, Jason, Sonya, and Garza.

Oh, those were good episodes. So common TV-watching sense says that Kiera’s going to get out of that box in the first episode or two of next season. I’m much more interested in what’s going to happen to the character relationships next season. Both Kiera and Alec committed major friend fouls over the past two episodes: Kiera by leaving Emily unprotected, and Alec by betraying Kiera to Escher and using the time travel device himself. There has to be some pretty major fallout from that coming next season.

Speaking of fallout, Dillon’s the head of the newly formed CPS, huh? With Kiera just declared Public Enemy Number One, how do you think that might affect her CPS career if/when she returns to 2077? You know they have to keep records with images. That could get interesting in and of itself. It certainly appears that these last two episodes set a lot of folks on the path to the dystopia that Kiera is familiar with. Has all this happened before, and will it all happen again?

It looks like we’ll have to wait til 2014 to find some of those answers. Til then, it’s almost time for the new Fall programming! What are you looking forward to the most?

Best Quotes:
Emily: “You’re an extraordinary a**hole.”
Travis: “He programmed that, too.”

Alec: “My mom thought tea would cure the apocalypse, if and when it happened.”

Kiera: “Ever since I got here, you’re the one person who’s never failed me”

Things to Ponder:

• Where did Alec actually end up?
• Is Escher actively trying to create the future that Sadler was trying to rewrite?
• The Freelancers are totally Time Agents, aren’t they? Jack Harkness is somewhere down that dark, creepy hallway.