Contributor: Bronzethumb
Written by Jeremy Smith and Jonathan Lloyd Walker
Directed by Rachel Talalay
The premiere season of “Continuum” is continuing to hit all the right notes and escalate the narrative in ways both organic and dramatic. “Time’s Up” beautifully makes the leap from last episode’s character-centric action and tension to a story with more players, a broader canvas and wider-reaching implications for this universe, but without losing the focus that keeps the show grounded and engaging.
In “Time’s Up”, Liber8 set a plan in motion to hijack the local Occupy movement and turn it into a violent protest, while at the same time abducting a CEO for a steep ransom. While Kiera, Carlos and the VPD try to save the CEO and figure out what Liber8′s real objective is, Alec discovers that a family member has ties to the growing movement. This is exactly the kind of story that “Continuum” has been pushing towards since the first episode, and it doesn’t disappoint: there are high stakes and big plot developments, and after five episodes of getting to know the characters and the mythology it gives what could’ve been a case-of-the-week story and gives it an epic scope.
Liber8 continues to establish itself as a credible, dangerous villain for the heroes to take down. If Kagame’s cleverness and manipulative abilities were in doubt, he really drives home what he’s capable of by playing the VPD, the protesters and the corporations like a futuristic fiddle. There’s almost a Joker quality to how the scheme plays out: we can see the few places were Kagame and the rest of Liber8 are applying pressure, but the consequences ripple out, causing more chaos and more fanaticism. And in the best, most Xanatosian way, the villains’ true goal doesn’t come into view until they’re within a hair’s breadth of reaching it and there’s seemingly nothing the heroes can do about it.
That increased sense of danger filters down to the rest of the Liber8 crew. The way Sonya sits at Kagame’s feet while he preaches violence and destruction is downright creepy, as is the merciless way Travis guns down security personnel at a relatively early point in the episode. Even Kellog was getting in on the action as his helpful phone conversation with Kiera, where he goes deeper into the “one man’s terrorist” argument, is juxtaposed with the scene of him doing something pretty decisively antagonistic. The lack of acknowledgement of what happens in “A Test of Time” was somewhat glaring, but nonetheless the character remains a fun and interesting wild card.
There was also a solid plotline for Alec to chew on as his step-brother gets caught up in the rioters, not only giving him some dramatic material but using characters we already know to further demonstrate the growth of Liber8. Both Alec himself and his family became a lot more layered; they’re antagonistic towards one another, yet protective when it comes to dealing with the outside world, in the very real, very human way that families do. There was also an interesting aversion of how many people expected the plotline with Alec’s step-family to go, with the stepdad in particular rejecting what Liber8 does in this episode, and it’s becoming clear that much of the moral conflict is going to be fought in the Sadler household as the series continues.
The one major complaint about the episode is that Kiera, Carlos and the VPD had pretty typical cop roles in this episode. There was little growth, little understanding or realisation, no big character beats like we saw in the previous episode. It’s not necessarily bad, given than the series up to now has been very good about developing these characters and that buys some credit for doing plot-heavy episodes without a lot of big moments, but it’s still disappointing in the face of Liber8 and the Sadler family getting more meat to chew on.
There are nitpicks to be made, but “Time’s Up” is another incredibly strong installment of a consistently strong premiere season, building on the arcs to deliver payoff and at the same time keeping the plot going strong. The villains are getting more villainous, the stakes are getting higher, the scope is getting wider — it’s almost impossible not to get sucked into the unfolding saga and be as giddy as a schoolchild for each new episode.
Score: 8.5/10
