Slowly I'm out of words to express my excitement for Continuum.
Episode 4x05 definitely topped any other Continuum ep so far (and there were quite some already!) regarding the outstanding action sequences. What an epic fight at the VPD. And what a body count! I take back my thoughts about considering any kind of negotiating solution with the Time Marines and Warlord Kellogg. Obviously there's only the mission that counts, no matter the costs, to bring Warlord Kellogg and his entourage back into 2015 through the portal, so he can get present Kellogg's kidney transplanted and escape the rotten future.
But I still don't get, how an open invasion of 2015 would be preferable to a quiet infiltration of 2015. Even with the advanced weapons, however terrifying they were shown to be during the attack on VPD, when the "fail-safe" came into play, they can't believe that they simply could "conquer" 2015 and take over out in the open.
Is it really only present Kellogg's kidney, that makes him so valuable that the Time Marines had to break him out of VPD that way, bringing all the attention on them? I think there's more to it, it might have to do with what Zorin said to Brad, that Warlord Kellogg invested a lot of research into time travel as the ultimate weapon (seemingly even tried, but failed to travel to the future) and believes that this time of 2015 is just the time for decisive choices, a "turning point", which would change the whole future. And according to Brad, they are on a time-critical schedule, so they couldn't wait any longer to break out Kellogg and get back "the key" device.
Which leads me back to Brad. As I already mentioned last week, that guy is screwed. He desperately (see the episode title!) wants to reunite with his sister and nephews and now sees a chance by that portal device. So the success of the mission of the Time Marines became personal to him. Ironically he likes to use the phrase "it's nothing personal", when he excuses a bad deed, like killing other Kiera and now breaking Alec's finger. And dammit, Brad, what bullshit was that at the end of season 3 with "Kiera and Alec being family"?? Though I still see that Brad doesn't want to kill Kiera and Alec or even anyone else directly - at the VPD during the attack he himself obviously tried to avoid deadly shots and "only" shot at the legs and knees (
Hello PoI!
) to take police officers out -, but in the end he contributed his part to the attack and is fully responsible too for having made possible the massacre. The thing is, he's trapped in a dilemma just like Kiera. Doing everybody right and still getting what one wants, is practically impossible. It's inevitable that someone gets hurt or will be sacrificed during the process. And seriously, by wanting to get home to Sam and therefore letting the Time Marines build that portal device instead of telling Carlos their location at once, isn't she responsible too in some kind of way that the attack on the VPD was even possible?
After all, when Kiera was with Alec and Kellogg at the Piron lab, Kiera herself asked, if she was too selfish, and Alec didn't answer actually, what pretty much spoke for itself. But, what did Kellogg say to her ... "You made your choice. You chose you." Her choices and her right to make them was also a topic in her talk with Carlos, who also used some pretty clear words about her having done whatever she wanted whenever it suited her. I think all this talks about choices and the consequences on others finally may have planted the seed in her to give Carlos what he's asking for at the end of the episode, the location of the Time Marines and the portal device, putting behind her personal wish to go home for her son, making a choice for her "family" of 2015. A choice Brad obviously will fail to make ...
Another thing struck me. Despite the huge fighting scene at VPD, which took almost 20 minutes of the whole ep, besides all this outstanding action, this episode also provided awesome conversations again. Just to name the talk between Kellogg and Travis, when it became very clear for the last one, that Travis wasn't just a brutal terrorist, but a true believer of the cause. He finally made his choice to not just walk away when he had the chance, but to go back and sacrifice himself saving Carlos and the rest of the policemen. To be honest, I was afraid that Travis wouldn't make it out of this ep alive as soon as Kellogg revealed his plans to exploit that bioengineered "hulk you call a body" by "patenting and replicating every nano-particle from 2077". I was sure, that Travis wouldn't let that happen, one way or the other ... as sad as it was to see him go, at least he went out with a blast!
I also loved the conversation between Kiera and Dillon at Piron, when they talked about Piron as the Dragon's den and when Kiera told Dillon that he had "other choices" (that topic, again!) and that in the fairytales she had read, "the hero enters the cave to slay the dragon, not to join him."
Just awesome! And I believe now that will exactly be what Dillon will try to do. He already started with handing over the evidence for Kellogg being behind the murder of Escher. I was only surprised a bit about the understanding reaction of Alec, when he finally heard that Emily killed his father. He doesn't seem to have much of an issue here, because Kellogg and Escher were blackmailing her. What? And that's enough to kill your father? No biggie? Wow, Alec, seriously??
Oh, and wasn't Dillon priceless, when Carlos told Dillon the truth, that Liber8, Kiera and Kellogg were sent from the future to change it? So another mystery is solved. Kellogg never told Dillon the interesting things, which might backfire big time. Obviously Dillon actually was believing in privately sponsored and strong police and that this way he could be someone relevant.
Finally one thing, that I'm waiting for a bit in season 4. Something I posted and commented already out there. For Kiera it's all about going back to her son, but - if he even still exists at all - what about the Corporate Congress shitty future of 2077? Does she want such a future for her son, after all she's experienced and learned??? Travis is dead-on with his question, when Carlos told him, that Kiera wants to go back to 2077: "She just woke up and now she wants to go back to sleep?" Yeah, Kiera, stop letting others address the elephant in the room! Ask yourself that question and answer it! After all Continuum with all the moral, philosophical and political questions was always way beyond focusing just on the usual family drama ... and it should stay like that!
Hopefully we'll hear and see in the series finale ... the preview video is already out and I can't wait ...
Ok, enough for today from my side ... I have to stop, I hope it's not too much already ... ;-)
Now I can't help, on the one side I'm looking forward to the finale, but I'm already pretty sad, that it will be over soon. I still just don't understand why it has to be. Was it really the ratings? Were they that bad? Is there something we don't know?
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Subject: Continuum 4x05 "The Desperate Hours" 
Thu Oct 01, 2015 3:06 pm.jpg)
