“How do you know the future hasn’t already been changed?” – Kellog
“Second Chances”, Continuum‘s second season premiere, not only has to contend with the fallout of Kagame’s attempt to kickstart the revolution 60 years early with his suicide bombing in “Endtimes”, but with the added expectations of a sophomore season with a lot more plot threads and ideas to juggle than the first. While that ambition was admirable, “Endtimes” suggested Continuum might’ve already been getting a little too big for its britches, as it stretched out old plotlines while introducing a slew of new, unexplained ones in quick succession. Given that, you might think “Second Chances” would be a premiere looking to tidy and tighten things up a bit – surprisingly, though “Second Chances” doesn’t introduce as many new dramatic plots and heady concepts as the season one finale did, there’s a further widening of the narrative lens in Continuum‘s first sophomore effort, delivered with a confidence and relentlessness that is more than a little infectious, even if there’s still too much going on for the premiere to really double down on its most interesting ideas and characters.
This is no more apparent than in Continuum‘s cold open, a scene that opens on Kiera in a strange, unknown facility, falling off a gurney and running down a hallway. After she’s captured, injected with something, and thrown into a clear cell, “Second Chances” cuts to its opening credits, then to Kiera waking up from a dream in a flashback sequence in 2077. Was it a dream? A flashback to a different time, or a flashforward to events yet to come? Who cares – Continuum certainly doesn’t, as it is never referenced or shown again in the premiere, which then moves back to 2012 to retrace its steps and reset itself after the explosive (sic) season one finale.
It does so through an incredibly odd, if not effectively visceral choice: it doesn’t take long into the season until the mayor of Vancouver is killed by a sniper in public, kicking off an avalanche of shit that rolls right downhill into Inspector Dillon’s office and setting off a number of the season’s early storylines. As one might expect, it takes about two seconds before every person in a position of authority is willing to bend the rules, as Dillon agrees that Kiera should operate outside the bounds of the police department, essentially giving her carte blanche to break the law in pursuit of capturing Liber8 and the mayor’s murderer – something Carlos briefly brings up objections to, but agrees to keep his mouth shut on, especially as CSIS Agent Smarmy Gardiner pokes around Dillon’s office to get clues on Kiera.
Dillon’s logic, that “perception is more important than the actual letter of the law” in moments like these, are a perfect entry point into an examination of the facade of objectivity in modern policing, with a seemingly innocuous example of someone in a position of power perfectly willing to throw away their morals and rules when it stands to benefit themselves or the state. Carlos knows Kiera’s work is probably not going to hold up in court, but Dillon doesn’t really care: in an approach that will be familiar to any fans of The Wire, getting numbers on the board is more important than securing a logical or beneficial outcome – which subtly sets the stage for the slippery slope Kiera’s 2077 would come to represent the end result of in her future/past, a world where corporations can use the suggestion or assumption of crimes (we got a taste of this in both “A Stitch in Time” and “Family Time” flashbacks) as one of many reasons to control and subjugate a population. While Dillon has solid reasons to want to shut Liber8 down after a bombing and high-profile public assassination, “Second Chances” suggests that the VPD’s slippery slope is not only illegal, but incredibly dangerous.
Another interesting bit of dichotomy “Second Chances” finds is with Liber8 themselves, who have presented themselves to the world as a strong, formidably effective and violent front – which is somewhat true, but immediately compromised by the vacuum of power left after Kagame’s death. On supposed orders from Kagame, Sonya does end up shooting Travis in the Vancouver hospital – but when Travis lives and nearly escapes (after brutally murdering a number of orderlies, one of many scenes where Continuum ups the violent imagery from its first season), it creates a tension the series immediately leans into, which gives the entire group of Liber8 a bit more dynamism, as it allows some of the group’s less-defined characters (looking at you, Garza) to be accessible through the burgeoning power struggle forming between former lovers Sonya and Travis. That conflict only grows more interesting when Travis ends up in the same cell block as Julian, and immediately takes him under his protective, genetically-enhanced wing (a friendship we quickly find out is arranged by Gardiner, who is clearly up to some fuck shit with his CSIS clearances).
With most of its major players tied up in a rather straightforward plot, “Second Chances” takes advantage of a bit of extra space to check in on the most complicated character of the series, 2012 Alec. After reading the message he received from himself in the future (which we are privy to a brief glance at in the closing scene set in 2077), Alec is clearly shook; he moves out of his house, stops talking to Kiera and his mother, and gets a job at the local big box electronics store, trying to replace his science fiction lifestyle with a normie life that keeps him far away from his supposed destiny. It’s here where Continuum feels a bit like its older, slightly blunter self: while it wants to paint Alec as a brooding young man, he really just comes across as blunt and confused (at one point, he’s alone in a room and mutters to himself “I’m such an asshole”), in both his interactions with Kiera and his poor mother (who is now alone on a farm, with her husband dead and stepson facing a long prison sentence).
And for all the attention it draws, Alec’s new status quo is mostly only visual to start season two; it only takes half the episode before his running dialogue with Kiera resumes in her head, and Continuum is back to its usual rhythms, albeit with a bit more existential angst hanging in the air – especially when the episode ends with 2077 Alec embedding a message to himself into Kiera’s brain in the episode’s closing moments, a reminder that whatever advice is coming to the past, it isn’t coming from a benevolent, upstanding gentlemen.
One thing is clear; Continuum didn’t return to settle into the same semi-formulaic story as season one. With Liber8 proxy wars, government overreach, and time-travel shenanigans starting to creep their way into the narrative, Continuum returns not with new questions and explorations, but a refreshed perspective on how to present and build its story (without leaning as heavily on the crutch of its main character’s futuristic tech, another sign of the show’s growing versatility). Will that translate into a more consistent, emotionally dynamic narrative in its extended second season? Only time will tell, but with “Second Chances”, Continuum makes it clear it is moving forward with a new level of confidence, which makes even this mildly clunky season premiere an intriguing one.
Other thoughts/observations:
- Welcome back to the world of Continuum! If you missed season one reviews, you can catch up here. Reviews will typically publish on Mondays moving forward.
- Love Kellogg’s comment about the “ignominious way” Kiera used him in season one.
- The sight of Travis taking five bullets, only for an automated system inside his body to restart his heart, is a great bit of science fiction, that briefly veers into horror when he grabs scalpels and starts stabbing and slashing everyone.
- Noting that Kiera is very much committed to ensuring the failure of Liber8 in 2012, so she can return to her peaceful, corpo-governed world of 2077. A clear sign she’s still not Getting The Point.
- the fact Jim Martin (yes, he of “The Politics of Time”) just straight paid to get the mayor murdered is wild.
- Gardiner saw how Kiera survived the explosion in “Endtimes” – and let’s be honest, her attempts to throw him off the scent are hilariously bad.
- The Coalition Kings ain’t no New Day Co-Op, that’s for sure.
- “What you need to know, what I tried to do… listen to me carefully, Alec, I have gone down a dangerous path, and I have taken the world with me. Only you can prevent this future from happening.” Certainly doesn’t sound like future Alec and present Kiera have the same goals, doesn’t it?!
- a great shot of the city expanding and time passing as Kiera looks out into the harbor.
