Second Look: Continuum Season 1, Episode 7 – “The Politics of Time”

Continuum Season 1, Episode 7 “The Politics of Time”
Written by Sara B. Cooper
Directed by Patrick Williams
Aired July 15, 2012 on Showcase

“Houston, we have an upgrade.” – Alec

After a pair of episodes successfully widening the lens of Continuum – both in the present, and its known (and unknown) future – “The Politics of Time” takes a bit of a step back, shifting its attention ever so slightly away from Kiera for a story of political intrigue and corruption with Carlos at its center, rather than The Protector. And although some of its ideas are more interesting than its paint-by-numbers narrative, “The Politics of Time” is another strong entry in Continuum‘s first season, as it continues to refine its delivery and build out its 2012 world in more interesting fashion.

I particularly like how “The Politics of Time” spends much of its time observing how Kiera and Carlos’s friendship has grown – or hasn’t – in the time they’ve spent together since “A Stitch in Time”. After a seemingly perfunctory flashback to 2077, “The Politics of Time” opens on Kiera and Carlos after a long day of work, opining to each other the sad, lonely ways they are planning to spend their evenings. After some encouraging from the Alec chirping in her ear, Kiera considers reaching out to her partner, to maybe strike up a friendship while she figures out how to stop a revolutionary group and time travel sixty years forward into the future – that is, until Carlos quickly rescinds his offer to give her a ride and quickly leaves, of course.

Where Carlos goes – to his friend and political figure Jim’s house, to pick up their mutual friend Alicia – forms the core of “The Politics of Time”, which puts aside Liber8 and their ongoing mission to sow unrest in 2012 and begin their populist revolution way ahead of schedule, for a story about a man, his friend, and a local politician willing to cast them both aside for the sake of his own ambitions. After hooking up with Alicia – who we learn immigrated from Colombia with Carlos and their families as children – Carlos goes to work the next morning only to find himself back at her house, which has since become the scene of Alicia’s untimely death.

Her death throws Carlos into a story of local unions, beat reporters, and bureaucratic red tape, only complicated further when Carlos tries to hide his connection to the case by coming its primary investigator. From there, “The Politics of Time” plays out a rather rudimentary story of a politician having an affair, and the two women in his life (his wife and ambitious campaign manager) willing to compromise themselves for the sake of his ego and legacy. But it’s not really the point by point beats of the story, which are incredibly predictable and straightforward, where “The Politics of Time” grounds itself, instead offering a deeper look into Kiera’s inherent problems with trust, and the moral implications of someone in the position she is, with the tech she has at her fingertips (increasingly, as Alec continues to fix and experiment with her suit’s incredible data processing capabilities) – and how that can easily be challenged when the people she trusts the most are willing to lie to her.

Now, it’s certainly debatable whether “The Politics of Time” has enough room to tell this seemingly isolated story of politics and sex; ultimately, it kind of becomes an episode about the corruption of power, and the egoism of men driven by their own reflections, rather than their conscience. Entirely familiar and predictable territory for Continuum – which means much of it just circles around the mystery of whether Carlos was involved (which he clearly was not), and then whatever Jim’s underlying motives were, which include a strange $10 million donation his eager campaign manager is very excited to blab about. There are some interesting bits of subterfuge – like teasing the campaign manager and disgruntled wife as potential culprits, only to exonerate them later on – and a great fight scene where a naked, mid-shower Carlos fights off a masked figure trying to kill him, but it’s really what’s around Carlos that gives the episode a bit of emotional propulsion, and begins to tie this story back around to the show’s larger narratives.

Where it gets interesting is when the episode starts to tie the story back to Kiera. “The Politics of Time” eventually reveal Kiera was briefly sexually assaulted by her husband’s best friend – and then after telling his wife, she learns her husband had an affair with her best friend right before they got married. And when facing the truth of his massive breach of trust, everyone around Kiera blows it off and tries to tell her that she‘s the one overreacting. All of this happening just as her husband gets access to billions of dollars in funding for a project, opening him to wealth and power neither him, Kiera, or their friends have been used to in their lives – and once Kiera sees that reflected in Jim Martin, the slimy, cheating (and most likely stalking?) politician, she not only unlocks the mysteries of the case, but it reminds her of her conversation with Greg, when she confronts him with the news of his hidden affair before their marriage – trust is not easy to come by, and once it is violated, it isn’t something you can get back.

Ultimately, Jim is cleared of anything to do with Alicia’s murder – and Kiera’s perfectly willing to blame the campaign manager as she looks for a proper surrogate for her still-lingering anger over her husband’s infidelity. Neither Jim nor Greg walk away clean, of course; we still know Greg’s somehow involved in whatever SadTech has become in the future, and Jim’s campaign win comes at the cost of his neutrality, when we see his wife introduce him to Kagame in a limo following his political victory. But unlike the end of “Matter of Time”, where Kiera can speak to the benefits of her decision to let a killer walk free, Continuum doesn’t reveal anything about Liber8 and its interest in Martin – which leaves his presence feeling a bit undercooked, both in terms of the reveal (after not hearing their name for 40 minutes, it became pretty obvious someone from Liber8 was involved in Jim’s campaign and Alicia’s death), and as the introduction to a character we’ll see again over the seasons, as Continuum continues to explore the depths of corruption money and power can bring, even to those we’d think could never possibly be swayed.

In that sense, “The Politics of Time” works more as an intriguing tease of some ideas the series would flesh out further in seasons two and three; but as an episode trying to slowly push the narrative forward (Kiera also learns Kellogg stole her time travel device piece, and makes a deal with him to set up surveillance around his yacht), while also leaving some room to explore Carlos, a character who has mostly existed as a mouthpiece for exposition and a gullible accessory to Kiera’s various activities – which is where the episode ultimately ends, with Kiera telling Carlos that while they should trust each other, they shouldn’t agree to always be 100% honest with each other, both for the practical purposes of maintaining her Section Six fib, but also because she just doesn’t trust anyone like that anymore (as she has learned, even 24/7 surveillance doesn’t keep people honest). I can’t think of a more fitting way to end an episode full of individuals becoming disillusioned with things and people close to them – though Liber8 may not feature heavily in this episode, their presence, and goals, are acutely felt in the actions of its characters in “The Politics of Time”.

Grade: B

Other thoughts/observations:

• Sara B. Cooper is credited as the writer of this episode, in her only script of the series. May speak to why this episode feels a bit different, both in its approach to Carlos as Beefcake Boy, and how it centers its perspective on Kiera around the behavior of the men in her life.
  
• Only one scene of Julian and Alec snapping at each other; seems there’s been no brotherly love lost between the two of them since Alec “ratted” Julian out to his father.
  
• One of the CSI people mention a bunch of “kinky sex toys” in Alicia’s bedroom – great example of how people casually invade the privacy of others and feel the need to comment on their lives.
  
• I do like this episode forces Kiera to contend with her own behavior, as Carlos obfuscates and lies to her face to try and protect his supposed friend Jim.
  
• More great future tech! Kiera shows her suit’s ability to read cellular wave technology and its imprint over time based on archived data, so she can “see” people move around Alicia’s apartment, because the waves bounce off them, giving their shadows their human shape. It’s a striking little sequence.
  
• “You can always come up with an excuse to justify lying.” Sometimes it is the simple truths that hit the hardest!