Continuum 2.10 "Second Wave" REVIEW

Continuum 2.10 "Second Wave" TV REVIEW

Episode 2.10
Writer: Matt Venables
Director: Michael Rohl

THE ONE WHERE Garza is captured at last! After interrogating her, Kiera discovers (accidentally) that she can share her CMR chip with Travis like a “conference call” and attempts to hunt him down, tangling with some Freelancers on the way. While she’s gone, Garza escapes – ending up in the hands of the Freelancers – while Julian whips up the crowds in anti-corporation protests. His following is growing… But it seems he’s not as bloodthirsty as Kiera would believe, as he peacefully lets her go after she’s captured.

VERDICT Midway through this episode, there’s a section so packed with action that there was no way I could bring myself to pause it and write notes. If that’s not a sign of a bloody good show, I don’t know what is. “Second Wave” seems to have it all: Continuum ’s usual bone-crunching fights (not to mention a disturbing rash of broken noses – a deliberate running gag?), a moral quandary to get its teeth into (Julian: good or evil?) and character development (we find out more about Emily). Oh, and if that’s not enough, there’s the shock of realising that Travis and Kiera can be linked and his military chip is now activated – yikes! We dread to think what he’s going to use that for…

We’ve said this before, but there are few shows on TV today that ooze confidence in the way Continuum does, and this episode is a magnificent example of that. There’s barely an ounce of padding; you get a strong sense that the writers know exactly where they’re going. The more complicated the plot gets, the more assured it all feels – a good thing, given that this season has been growing more complex every week. Take Lucas, for example: he’s done bugger-all this year, and yet suddenly he’s seeing the ghostly apparition of long-dead Liber8 partner Chen. It’s a daring move, and rather than Chen’s appearances simply being a side-effect of Lucas’s drug addiction, the future sections of the episode seem to imply something deeper. Talk about intriguing!

COOL TECH In a seriously cool move, Kiera uses her gun to emit some kind of shockwave that goes right through a door and knocks out Garza on the other side of it. And may we say how lovely it is that she does things like this in full sight of Carlos now? We’re so glad he knows the truth!

WE SEE WHAT YOU DID THERE? The protest led by Julian takes place in Vancouver’s Gastown. The police arrive and use tear gas to break up the crowd. Gastown... Geddit?

SPEAKER’S CORNER There’s a moment during Julian’s speech to the protestors that jars a little. He gets up to talk and they chant, “Terrorist! Terrorist!” (He did try to blow up a skyscraper, after all.) And yet he talks them round impossibly quickly – they go from heckling him to hailing him as some kind of messiah in the space of about 30 seconds. His speech wasn’t that good, guys!

FREELANCING WOES Kiera and Freelancers Warren and Miller have an absolutely spectacular fight in an alleyway – kudos, for the millionth time, to Continuum ’s stunt maestro Kimani Ray Smith. When she escapes them and uses her suit’s invisibility function, they zap her with something that drains the suit’s power. It seems that they’re from further into the future than she is and thus have better technology. What are they doing there? Could it be (and this is just my theory – feel free to add your own) that they’re trying to correct and contain changes in the timeline to ensure that their existences aren’t threatened? Although they don’t seem very good at it; they should have stopped the Liber8 gang and Kiera from going back in the first place. Unless they were meant to. Arrrrghh, my brain hurts!

THE DARK SIDE Both Alec and Carlos express concern for Kiera this week after she almost killed Julian in the previous episode. “You really went somewhere. I’m not sure I know who you are,” says Alec. What’s really worrying is Dillon, however: he’s so far off the rails that he’s more vigilante than police chief right now. Travis is right on the money when he says that the cops are acting “like a private army”.

TWUE LOVE Emily tells Escher that she’s in love with Alec and doesn’t want to spy on him any more. WE KNEW IT! Now we’ll have to see what Kellog thinks of her, as he appears to have rumbled her secret…

DON’T MESS WITH THE VANCOUVER PD! When Garza escapes from the station, the array of police firepower aimed at her is almost hilarious. And yet she still gets out. Damn, she’s good.

BEST LINES
Garza (about Carlos and Kiera): “Are you banging her?”
Carlos: “Are you banging Travis?”
Garza: “Every chance.”

Jayne Nelson

Continuum season two is currently airing in the UK on Syfy, Thursdays at 10pm

• Read our Continuum season two reviews
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