Continuum Episode 4 "A Matter of Time" Review By @Rivergate31

Continuum
Ep 4
A Matter of Time
By Sam Egan
Reviewed By Lara Luke

Kiera arrives home to find Greg and a friend celebrating his promotion as project leader for Sad Tech. Gathering her baby in her arms, the power goes out. A nervous mother is concerned for the looting that tends to follow. Greg reassured her that the power will be back on in ten seconds. 

2012 As Kiera prepares for her day, the power fails. Alec reassures her that a car hit a telephone pole. Simultaneously Carlos calls with a case he’d like her input on as it reminds him of Liber8’s style.  A professor from the university perished in what appeared to be an accident in his lab. There was a single entry wound penetrating his body, and in fact through several floors, down into the basement. While Kiera is able to ascertain some details through her implant, without her suit, frustration sets in because she can’t obtain all the Intel she wants.  Alec offers to help with the suit, but Kiera explains it is not wired like a machine; it is regenerated like living tissue. Alec recognizes the technology from a theory of his father’s. 

Kiera and Carlos question Professor Ames’ graduate student. From him they learn that Ames was working on a project called Calisto which involves a way to contain and harness unlimited clean energy. The team suspect Ames had been murdered using Calisto. The student, Shane Mathers, claims all the files he previously backed up were deleted. 

The investigation further leads to a former partner of Ames, Melissa Dobeck. After a falling out with Professor Ames, she resigned, however he held the patents. It also comes to light that Dobeck had an affair with Mathers, who eventually confesses to murdering the professor. Kiera and Carlos can tell he’s covering up Melissa’s involvement, but they have no proof. 

Kagame comes to in a hospital and makes good his escape.  LIber8, seeing his photo on the television, race to meet him at a prearranged site. Kiera also becomes aware of Kagame’s presence in 2012. She warns the team that things will heat up with his arrival.

Finally, Kiera is faced with a moral decision. Alec brings to her attention that Melissa and her fiancé are about to leave the country for Costa Rica with a second copy of Ame’s work. Kiera, confronting her at the airport, realizes she plays a very important role in the future. She makes the decision to let her go.

Arriving home that night, she finds her apartment has been broken into. Cautiously entering, she finds Alec waiting for her with her suit. She confronts him with going through her things, but he explains that after going through his dad’s notes, he thinks there might be a way to trigger the self repair mechanism. 

What would you do if you went to the past and found out an important person in your present was not a very good person at one time? Here we see Kiera having to confront just this dilemma. Even Alec challenges her decisions. He accuses her of playing God. I thought this was a very good scene. We know who Alec becomes in the future and I had my suspicions of him at this point in the series. Given the first episode where Greg tries to have Kiera removed from the execution chamber and Alec denies him, he gives the impression this is his doing. 

Once again, Kiera is faced with gut verses tech debate. Alec admitted he noticed she turned off her HUD a few times during the day. Her earliest training drilled into her to trust her tech. But now, she is facing the reality that she may lose this advantage if her suit can’t be repaired. She confessed that it felt good. With all the technology available in her time to do the thinking, it’s as if humanity has forgotten what it’s like to be human. Now she is learning to see things the way Carlos sees things. She’s learning to use her own intelligence and I believe she is growing as a person. 

With LIber8’s leader back into play, group dynamics will become more stable. What is this to mean for the present? Kagame informs his team, “There’s a war coming.” Sonya asks “How can you be so sure?” His reply to her is “Because we’re going to start it.”  Kagame’s declaration throws suspicion that the jump ever was intended to be only 6 years. It seems perhaps his intention was to jump to predate the Corporate Congress and prevent them from rising. How does this mesh with Alec Sadler? 

Finally, in this episode we hear Alec bring up his father twice. Because his mother is remarried and in their family home, I was always led to believe his father was dead and a simple rancher. However, both times he’s mentioned, it is in regards to research, seemingly on the very technology with which Kiera has clothed herself. Who was his dad? What happened to him and how long ago was it?

I find this to be a turning point in the series with Kagame’s arrival, Kiera and Alec meeting and moral questions arising. And, as always, my own questions only increase. Another episode well played by the team of Simon Barry.