Continuum
Series 1 Episode 8
Play Time
By Andrea Stevens
Reviewed By Lara Luke
The future at Sad Tech: Lucas demonstrates a new piece of
technology that has the potential to neutralize aggressiveness in criminal,
using soldiers as test subjects. Kiera is present at the demonstration, where
Jaworski is the guinea pig. However, during the demonstration, Jaworski is able
to break through the control.
2012: A group playing paintball is shocked when a young man
comes in and shoots the CEO of their company as they are involved in a team
building project, and then proceeds to shoot himself.
A man is waiting for the train. A young woman walks up to
him and grabs him, pulling him and herself in front of an oncoming train.
Vancouver PD, seeking a connection between these two murder/
suicides, traces the two killers to a video game company called Ten Dyne
Systems. The two were employed as beta testers. Carlos, Kiera and Betty visit
the company and are introduced to Fred Nettinger, who supervised the testers.
He shows off a new immersive game that’s in the works. It uses an impulse beam
that goes directly into the retina in order to give one the virtual reality
effect. The programmer is concerned about a glitch he’s been working on;
however, Nettinger is confident it is safe for a demonstration. Kiera and Betty
don the head gear and find themselves in a snowy setting firing upon the enemy.
A “bullet” comes straight at Kiera and upon impact she goes down in real
life. With her HUD acting fried. Alec is
alerted and calls her on her cell phone. After explaining the situation he
feels he must reboot her system.
Meanwhile Kellog “accidentally” runs into Lucas at a
pugilist club. Getting Lucas drunk he learns some of what is going on in
Liber8. When Lucas is called away, Carlos follows him. Lucas meets with
Nettinger, while Carlos observes in the shadows. It turns out the demo was a
trap for obtaining the specs to Kiera’s chip. This information is traded to
Liber8 in exchange for the technology of mind control.
With Alec working to solve the issues Kiera is having with
her technology, she heads out to meet Carlos at Ten Dyne, with questions for
the CEO. They are following up on information they have regarding the
relationship between her and a rival company. As Kiera is driving, both Alec
and Lucas are battling for control of her mind. Kagame wonders who she’s
talking to that could oppose them. He reasons it must be young Alec Sadler.
Once Kiera arrives at Ten Dyne an all out war ensues for
Kiera’s mind, between Lucas and Alec. Liber8 want her to kill Carlos,
Nettinger, and then herself. Kellog arrives in time to warn Nettinger and as
the tug o war ensues, Kiera very nearly succeeds in shooting Carlos, before
Alec wins the war by “rebooting” Kiera. She comes to with no memory of the
incident.
Later, as Alec is going through Kiera’s files, he is shocked
to find one addressed to himself.
I liked this episode as it addresses some serious issues, in
my opinion. For all the advantages of the tech, how far are we willing to go to
achieve this? Do we allow someone to have access to our heads at the risk of
abuse? And how about our thoughts and the things we see every day? Do we want
someone to have access to those?
Secondly, I like how Alec is starting to get in touch with his
future self as he delves further into Kiera’s tech: his tech. And we are left to wonder what
message he sent to himself through Kiera, again, confirming her presence in the
execution chamber was by design.
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