“I’m a time traveler kid, weird is my specialty.” – Kiera
By moving away from its procedural “conflict-of-the-week” elements into something more streamlined and serialized, the opening two episodes of Continuum‘s second season have been creations of unbridled ambition, widening the narrative with new stories and interpersonal relationships, while also introducing a surprising amount of new elements in the mix (some of which still have barely been referenced in season two, be it the freelancers we saw in “Endtime” or the fallout from the violence at the Sadler family ranch in “Family Time”). But where “Second Chances” felt a bit too sprawling in its nature, the more focused, interwoven elements of “Split Second” show a lot of potential for where Continuum is heading in its second season – not only with its story, but with a better, deeper understanding of its characters, on full display in another busy, entertaining hour.
There are really two major elements at play in “Second Chances” – Liber8’s discordant attempts to break Travis out from prison, and Alec trying to experience a bit of normalcy in this life – but from there flows a number of emerging plot threads for season two. Smartly, “Split Second” opens with a neat parallel of what’s to follow with a bit of Travis and Sonya’s origin story, with a flashback to the future, where we learn Sonya was a doctor on the super soldier program Travis was a part of (we also learn Travis has a CMR, which may have been mentioned in season one). When the program’s funding was abruptly cut, Sonya instead declared her love for Travis instead of euthanizing him, killing her supervisor and breaking them out of the lab where he’d been experimented on.
If anything, I wish Continuum would’ve spent a little more time in the past, because it paints such an interesting contrast of characters – and a bit more background of their doomed love story would give what happens in the present – Sonya tries to kill Travis to secure her leadership position, while Garza works against her to free Travis from prison – even more poignancy. It also might help inform a bit why Sonya is so terrible at getting Travis killed; she acts as if she’s not affected by her attempt to put him down like a god (in a hospital closet, no less), and them bumbles every attempt she has on trying to take his life, whether it’s sending a real dumb group of white supremacists to kill him in prison, or sending a pair of faceless mopes to try and take out his Kiera and Carlos-led prison transport.
It creates a bit of imbalance with her character and Travis; where Travis spends the episode talking shit and fucking people up, “Split Second” presents Sonya as someone with an irrational confidence in her own abilities, underestimating the man she’s loved for years at just about every turn. But it does present an interesting dichotomy, between the players of Continuum who are assuming a future that’s been told to them (Kiera and Sonya) with those working to enact their will on the now-changed future (Travis and Kellog) – and where those stories all converge, with Garza’s violent assault on Travis’s police escort, certainly sets the stage for an interesting dichotomy between the more militant, action-oriented faction of Liber8, and more careful, intellectual side of the group, as Sonya tries to keep Liber8 on the path Kagame set them on in 2077.
On the other side of town, Kellog is giving Alec his best sales pitch – which isn’t too difficult, considering Alec’s working in a big box store, getting yelled at by his ignorant boss whenever he tries to improve the inventory process or the store’s internet security. And though Alec’s new job is ostensibly to pay rent, the video Alec sent to himself in the future (which he watched in the weeks following his father’s death and brother’s radicalization and arrest) has clearly shook something loose in his brain, and “Split Second” finds him questioning his own morality – especially when Kellog details just how rich and powerful Alec becomes once he becomes the Silicon Valley Bro to End All Silicon Valley Bros.
Although Alec’s crisis of faith happens 60 years in the future, Continuum makes the prescient point that technically, 2077 is in the past now, so Alec’s really inherited his sense of insecurity from his own future self, a delicious bit of irony that pairs well with Kellog’s origin story of cleaning toilets and realizing that the only difference between himself and the rich and wealthy, was one part self-perception and one part opportunity, the latter of which Kellog spends the hour trying to do by saddling up to the future founder of what will become the most successful corporation in the history of civilization.
It isn’t all moralistic subterfuge and petty infighting, though (we do get a decent amount of the latter though, with Gardiner trailing Kiera and complaining to Dillon about it every step of the way); most of the second act of “Split Second” is dedicated to the prison transport sequence – an impressively budgeted and shot sequence that relies a bit less on unnecessarily drawn out, pointless gun fights with much more consequential, visceral action: Kiera’s reaction to seeing the transport driver killed and Carlos’s fight with Travis ground the action sequences in ways season one never really aspired to do, raising the emotional stakes of the scenes – and just letting the show do more cool action stuff, be it Kiera trying to outmaneuver armed gunman and a helicopter, or the masochistic bravado exchanged between Carlos and Travis as they fight for control in the backseat of the transport.
(We also get a great scene of Travis talking shit to Kiera, trying to push a wedge between her and Carlos by hinting towards her real identity and loyalties, chiding him for being an ignorant fool not to see through her facade.)
It all adds up to a very kinetic, focused hour of Continuum – a feeling it maintains, even though the second episode mentions absolutely nothing about Jason, the ‘freelancers’, or any of the political unrest caused by Liber8’s recent assassination of the mayor. At some point, it does feel like Continuum is biting off a lot more than it can chew in 42 minutes (or even the extended 13-episode order of season two), though “Split Second” does a strong job layering some of these stories so they can interact and grow alongside each other in the season’s first act. One thing is for sure; season two is wasting no time getting into the heart of its story, with a breakneck pace and a renewed, visceral sense of purpose that has kept the first two episodes tense and driven, even if it is still a bit messy and underdeveloped on the fringes.
Other thoughts/observations:
- big red flag is Kellog’s ignorance of the implications of Alec’s future success; where Alec wonders whether he becomes a good person or not, Kellog can only be impressed by the breadth of his power, and the potential for him to profit handsomely from it.
- Gardiner thinking Kiera actually works for Liber8 makes no sense. His character is quickly becoming the most extraneous, a distraction who is stupider than the script recognizes, and adds a layer of drama that is inherently unnecessary. Also, the casual nature with which one single agent is looking into a woman who basically conned her way into the job doesn’t exactly create a realistic sense of tension.
- Kellog: “All you have to do is look down and realize you’re on your knees, too. Only difference is you’re a genius.”
- Another Kellog gem: “There’s no paper in the future – or should I say, no future in paper.”
- Travis: “I don’t know why you just don’t tell him. We already changed the future. You’re never going back to what you left behind, Cameron.”
- Just when I forgot Kiera had her suit back, she whips out a wide field array to deflect gunshots as they run. Where was this in the season one finale???
- A rat in the VPD? Spoiler, it’s going to take some time before this story becomes even the slightest bit relevant.
- I love the idiot customer Alec is talking to before he quits: “I was told I need to get a lot of RAMs… ok, I want a terabyte of RAMs.”
- Kellog prophesizing to hookers while him and Alec grin about their new partnership is a great way to end the episode.