Continuum – 3.01– Minute to Minute– Review: There is a great disturbance in the Force.

‘There is a great disturbance in the Force.’

‘Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future.’
― John F. Kennedy

Wow! That pretty much sums up the season three opener of Continuum. Am I right? This is the game changer that has reset the entire series. Or should I say, has finally made us privy to the big picture. I’m so excited for all of the possibilities this new chapter affords us.

I am kind of curious why this season’s theme aka the title episode structure is ‘minute’ and not a reference to the number three like season one and two had.

The Recap & Review
Title: Minute to Minute | Written by: Simon Barry | Directed by: Pat Williams

Synopsis: Keira Cameron's world in 2014 has disintegrated; Alec Sadler betrayed her best chance of getting back to 2077 and used the time travel device instead in hope of saving his girlfriend. It not only sent Alec into the near past, but condemned Kiera (and Liber8 itself) as prisoners of the Freelancers, a cult who 'collect' time travelers in order to 'protect' history's timeline. Carlos Fonnegra, Kiera's Vancouver PD partner, and Betty Robertson, computer whiz (and Liber8's VPD mole) are now allied with Julian Randol - the future Theseus - to fight Inspector Dillon, now gone rogue with Escher to create what will be the template for police state conditions in 2077 North America - CPS.
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My thought on this week’s writer…
I’m a fan of shows with short seasons, kind of but that is blog post for another day. Usually a show with a short season means that the creative team can be smaller, more connected and doesn’t have to come up with filler episodes so the story just flows better. It also usually means that the showrunner, especially if he is the head writer, can be heavily involved a lot more easily; as is the case with Continuum. You can always count on Simon Barry to bookend the season by writing the premiere and the finale. There is just something very poetic about that to me. But now I’m scared for the season finale because if this is what he wrote the premiere, I can only imagine what he wrote for the finale. This episode was fast paced, well plotted and even remembered to make room for some kick butt action sequences. Simon Barry definitely shook up the status quo and has now turned the show on its side and now we are really going to get a heavy dose of sci-fi as we explore the ramifications of changing the past and maybe quite possibly what happens when a person meets the other you in the same timeline. All I know is that Continuum gets better with every episode and every season the ante gets up. I think we are in for hell of rollercoaster ride this season.

My thoughts on this week’s director…
Pat Williams is prolific director on Continuum. This episode marked his 10th time in the director’s chair during the series run. I really love his directorial eye and I think it’s him to thank for capturing the darker shift of tone that is sure to follow us for the rest of the season. He just had a way making everything seem so bleak, dark and dingy. He also really pulled out the best in all the actors. I also enjoyed how he captured some subtle nuisances and let the important scenes breathe for a beat.
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Here’s what I gathered from this week’s episode...

By the end of the season Kiera will have to decide which Alec to kill, which will likely lead into season and dealing with the ramifications of having to kill Alec and if she did indeed kill the right one and if not, how to correct it.

Alec is on a mission, with the help of his son no less, to save Emily. He plans on just taking her to Thailand and has avoid his past self while eliminating all the things that conspired to seal Emily’s death the first time around. But every small change he made has led to the death of Present!Day Kiera. Does this stop him in his tracks or does he keep pursuing this selfish agenda?

Garza is on loose once more after her swan dive to freedom and I think she is the actual wild card that will make all the difference in tipping the scale one way or another. I look forward to seeing her interactions with Kiera as well as what’s left of Liber8.

We learned about the Freelancers, finally and here’s the gist of it:
• Shortly after Kiera left 2077, criminals got a hold of the technology and decided to go into the past to change history for profit and other nefarious reasons. A man made a sacrifice to leave everything behind and travel 1,000 years into the past to establish the order we call Freelancers. Freelancers are not from the future. They weren’t sure what to do with Kiera and Liber8 because they are seen as anomalies but anomalies that can tip the balance either way.

• Those tattoos are actually hi-tech codes embedded in the skin.

• The Freelancers want continuity (This is kind of funny, when you put into the context of the sci-fi & fantasy genre because after a couple of seasons even the best shows in the genre tend to lose just that. May Continuum never suffer that fate.).

Awards
Character of the Night
• Kiera (like duh!)

Best Character Interactions
• Kiera and Garza

Line of the Night
• Garza: You don’t mess with me, I don’t mess with you

Scene of the Night
• Kiera and Garza kick some major butt

Lamest Lie Award goes to Alec.

Highlights
Favorite Moments
• Garza swan dives to her freedom.
• Kiera frees Garza
• Kiera gets a new, more advanced suit. Hopefully, we get another showdown between her and some rocking another suit before the season ends.

Favorite Scenes
• Kiera travel back in time and turns the tables on the Freelancers
• Future!Kiera and Future!Alec run into each other at the lab and see Present Day!Kiera’s dead body.

Biggest Surprises of the Episode
• Garza becoming a potential ally for Kiera.
• Kiera is now a freelancer for intent and purposes.
• The freelancers have been around for a very long time.

Miscellaneous
Fun Fact: Did you know that the director Pat Williams has worked on some other pretty awesome shows that I highly recommend you check out such as ‘The Secret World of Alex Mack’, ‘Aaron Stone’ and ‘Smallville’?

WTF Moment
• Present Day!Kiera is dead.

Burning Questions
1. Will Present Day!Alec and Future!Alec every meet? If so, what will happen?
2. Which Alec is the Alec that will still keep Kiera’s timeline intact, Present!Day Alec or Future!Alec?
3. Did Future!Kiera kill Present Day!Kiera to avoid the issues of creating even more paradoxes/branch timelines and or to manipulate Future!Alec into doing what she wants?

Side Notes
• The death toll was crazy and surprising in this episode, I mean we had Future!Garaza, Present Day!Esscher and Present Day!Kiera.

• The best thing about Continuum to date is how they’ve set up the rules of their universe and it appears that destiny isn’t a fixed factor, everyone has time to change and become something/someone different for better or for worse and that’s just a brilliant take on the time travel trope.

Grade: A+
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Well, now it's your turn to sound off in the comments section below. I look forward to reading your thoughts.

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