Continuum: Power Hour
September 28, 2015 6:55 AM - Season 4, Episode 3 - Subscribe
Lucas challenges Alec and Julian to man up as authors of their own destinies, so Alec joins Carlos and the VPD in Betty's old position and Julian tries to destroy his Theseus legacy. Kellog meets with Carlos and threatens to pull funding for the entire police force. Kiera and Garza form an alliance and recon the new future soldiers' compound. Is Kiera's trust of Brad putting everyone in danger?
I wish I had a better handle on where this is all going. This paramilitary crew from the future is kind of baffling, now that they're playing evil-chemists in their warehouse hideout. WTF are they brewing? A global plague? A virus targeting only people from the future? Jell-o?
As I went to bed after watching this, their endgame totally hit me and I started explaining it to my girlfriend, who doesn't watch Continuum. This led to a hilarious, half-asleep conversation about how Future Kellog is trying to screw over Current Timeline Kellog. I'm not exactly sure how, but either Kellog knows some stuff that's crucial to these games:
* Kellog's grandmother was killed in an earlier season, but he remained alive. Ergo, Future Kellog knows that Current Kellog's survival has no bearing on his own existence. (Hard to get a purer Grandfather Paradox check than that, seriously.)
* The future soldiers aren't telling Current Kellog anything. They're taking his money and resources, and they are doing mysterious shit without putting him in the loop. They're obviously not concerned about damage to the timeline, as they're making some huge moves (laser gun battles in the open, giant warehouse project, etc.).
Mark my words, one of the final threads here will be Kellog vs. Kellog. I appreciate this: he was always the one who wanted to exploit time travel to the very fullest, out of the entire original crew. Almost everyone else was ultimately a pawn of Future Alec Sadler: Sadler gave Liber8 the time orange for his own purposes, he left himself instructions in Kiera's CMR, etc.
The people *I* find to be a baffling mystery are the only ones who weren't part of Sadler's original plot: I have no idea what Chen or the Traveler are doing, and I'm irritated by that because there's so little time left to flesh it out.
Also, while I like S4 a whole lot better than S3, I still loathe watching Beardy and Kiera together. Giving her a romantic subplot was a terrible idea.
posted by mordax at 8:38 AM on September 28, 2015 [1 favorite]
As I went to bed after watching this, their endgame totally hit me and I started explaining it to my girlfriend, who doesn't watch Continuum. This led to a hilarious, half-asleep conversation about how Future Kellog is trying to screw over Current Timeline Kellog. I'm not exactly sure how, but either Kellog knows some stuff that's crucial to these games:
* Kellog's grandmother was killed in an earlier season, but he remained alive. Ergo, Future Kellog knows that Current Kellog's survival has no bearing on his own existence. (Hard to get a purer Grandfather Paradox check than that, seriously.)
* The future soldiers aren't telling Current Kellog anything. They're taking his money and resources, and they are doing mysterious shit without putting him in the loop. They're obviously not concerned about damage to the timeline, as they're making some huge moves (laser gun battles in the open, giant warehouse project, etc.).
Mark my words, one of the final threads here will be Kellog vs. Kellog. I appreciate this: he was always the one who wanted to exploit time travel to the very fullest, out of the entire original crew. Almost everyone else was ultimately a pawn of Future Alec Sadler: Sadler gave Liber8 the time orange for his own purposes, he left himself instructions in Kiera's CMR, etc.
The people *I* find to be a baffling mystery are the only ones who weren't part of Sadler's original plot: I have no idea what Chen or the Traveler are doing, and I'm irritated by that because there's so little time left to flesh it out.
Also, while I like S4 a whole lot better than S3, I still loathe watching Beardy and Kiera together. Giving her a romantic subplot was a terrible idea.
posted by mordax at 8:38 AM on September 28, 2015 [1 favorite]
I wish I had a better handle on where this is all going. This paramilitary crew from the future is kind of baffling, now that they're playing evil-chemists in their warehouse hideout. WTF are they brewing? A global plague? A virus targeting only people from the future? Jell-o?
I'm convinced it's yet another time travel device. A way to travel back and forth, maybe? Either as a way to determine if changes they make to the timeline here in the present are effective, or perhaps so they can pull in reinforcements from the future if it looks like their mission will fail. An insurance policy of sorts.
The show no longer has the time (excuse the pun) they would need to believably show the paramilitary group crafting a perfect future.
I doubt Kiera's getting home to her original time line. Bet we get a Quantum Leap ending.
posted by zarq at 8:43 AM on September 28, 2015
I'm convinced it's yet another time travel device. A way to travel back and forth, maybe? Either as a way to determine if changes they make to the timeline here in the present are effective, or perhaps so they can pull in reinforcements from the future if it looks like their mission will fail. An insurance policy of sorts.
The show no longer has the time (excuse the pun) they would need to believably show the paramilitary group crafting a perfect future.
I doubt Kiera's getting home to her original time line. Bet we get a Quantum Leap ending.
posted by zarq at 8:43 AM on September 28, 2015
Giving her a romantic subplot was a terrible idea.
Well, let's assume for a moment that she's can never go home to her future and her son. The subplot could allow the audience to be okay with that. She can start a new life with Brad.
posted by zarq at 8:47 AM on September 28, 2015
Well, let's assume for a moment that she's can never go home to her future and her son. The subplot could allow the audience to be okay with that. She can start a new life with Brad.
posted by zarq at 8:47 AM on September 28, 2015
Oh: I also wanted to squee about watching Kiera versus Kellog's Future Guys every time they fight.
I absolutely love the differences in their tech: hers is all sleek and subtle and nonlethal. They didn't expect her force field, they can't turn invisible. All of her toys are much more compact.
Their stuff is cruder, but way more powerful. Their armor shrugged off her collapsible pistol, their guns blow holes in concrete walls, they can't cloak but they can counter cloaking tech.
The whole thing felt way more fully realized than most sci fi. It feels like almost every other show I see posits exactly one path of technological progress: Starfleet and Klingon ships are roughly equivalent, and so on. It was nice to see two disparate cultures making wildly different stuff even though their grasp of hard science was obviously similar, and then tossing them against each other like some kind of sci fi version of The Deadliest Warrior.
Continuum frustrates me sometimes, but I will miss that kind of thoughtfulness fiercely.
Upon preview:
Well, let's assume for a moment that she's can never go home to her future and her son. The subplot could allow the audience to be okay with that. She can start a new life with Brad.
It's entirely possible that's what they were thinking, and that is fine in theory, but their dialogue when they are together - and only when they are together - is absolutely dreadful. It's so much worse than any other two characters interacting.
posted by mordax at 8:49 AM on September 28, 2015 [1 favorite]
I absolutely love the differences in their tech: hers is all sleek and subtle and nonlethal. They didn't expect her force field, they can't turn invisible. All of her toys are much more compact.
Their stuff is cruder, but way more powerful. Their armor shrugged off her collapsible pistol, their guns blow holes in concrete walls, they can't cloak but they can counter cloaking tech.
The whole thing felt way more fully realized than most sci fi. It feels like almost every other show I see posits exactly one path of technological progress: Starfleet and Klingon ships are roughly equivalent, and so on. It was nice to see two disparate cultures making wildly different stuff even though their grasp of hard science was obviously similar, and then tossing them against each other like some kind of sci fi version of The Deadliest Warrior.
Continuum frustrates me sometimes, but I will miss that kind of thoughtfulness fiercely.
Upon preview:
Well, let's assume for a moment that she's can never go home to her future and her son. The subplot could allow the audience to be okay with that. She can start a new life with Brad.
It's entirely possible that's what they were thinking, and that is fine in theory, but their dialogue when they are together - and only when they are together - is absolutely dreadful. It's so much worse than any other two characters interacting.
posted by mordax at 8:49 AM on September 28, 2015 [1 favorite]
but their dialogue when they are together - and only when they are together - is absolutely dreadful. It's so much worse than any other two characters interacting.
I completely agree. It's like watching Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman in Attack of the Clones. Awful, awful dialogue.
posted by zarq at 9:05 AM on September 28, 2015 [2 favorites]
I completely agree. It's like watching Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman in Attack of the Clones. Awful, awful dialogue.
posted by zarq at 9:05 AM on September 28, 2015 [2 favorites]
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I wish I had a better handle on where this is all going. This paramilitary crew from the future is kind of baffling, now that they're playing evil-chemists in their warehouse hideout. WTF are they brewing? A global plague? A virus targeting only people from the future? Jell-o?
We have three episodes to go, right? Should we start taking bets as to whether Kiera gets back to her time, and all is well?
posted by Thorzdad at 8:23 AM on September 28, 2015