CONTINUUM: “A Test of Time” (Season 1, Episode 5)

Family is such an integral part of everyone’s life and that is never more apparent than in Sunday night’s episode of Continuum where family plays a key role in the lives of the key players.

The episode opens with another look at Kiera’s life in 2077, as she and a team of CPS officers are flying over the city as they try to stop a high value target from being bombed by the terrorist. The fear level is even greater for Kiera because she believes her husband Greg is actually inside the target.

Meanwhile, back in present day Vancouver, the members of Liber8 are being prepared for a meeting with Kagame to discuss their next moves. Simply put, Kagame tells the surviving members of the team that they need to change their game plan. He wants to leave their weapons behind because they have “the knowledge of what will happen and the power to know better”. But, in order to proceed with their intentional (good, bad or otherwise); they need to get Kiera out of the way. According to Kagame, they need “to secure their position” by attacking Kiera but “not in the way she will expect”.

As it turns out, Liber8 – in a move reminiscent of the Terminator – will focus on family by going after Kiera’s grandmother: Lily Jones. After killing the first Lily Jones on their list, Kiera and Carlos take on the task of protecting the other 8 Lily Jones who live in the city. Kiera creates the back story that Lily Jones was a witness for the case being built against Liber8, but that she got scared, recanted and ran off before testifying. Kiera uses this ruse to hide the true agenda of Liber8 (targeting her own family) and to safeguard her own future.

Eventually, after tracking down another Lily Jones (guest star Leanne Lapp) and realizing that she is not her grandmother, Kiera is surprised to find her real grandmother in the back of a squad car after a confrontation turned into a minor altercation. Kiera knows that this Lily Jones (guest star Katie Findlay from The Killing) is the real deal because of a butterfly tattoo on her wrist and the butterfly necklace that she wears.

Hot on her heels, though, are Garza and Sonya (the remaining women on the Liber8 team), who are determined to get Lily and end Kiera’s family tree for good. Luckily for Kiera (and not so fortunate for the Liber8 team), the cops show up just in time to help keep the two Lily’s under Kiera’s protection safe from harm.

Soon enough, it is revealed that Lily (the real one) is pregnant, but as a 17-year-old emancipated adult with no real home, she is scared out of her mind and determined not to keep the baby (who is Kiera’s mother). Lily tells Kiera that she has no one she can turn to or help her; but Kiera relates her own scare with an unplanned pregnancy (as seen in another of the show’s flash forwards) before she and (husband) Greg were married; and then shares a “hunch” that Lily will have a daughter, who will have a daughter, and soon she will have more love than she knows what to do with. Kiera also encourages her to speak with the father: Jake.

Elsewhere, Kellog meets up with the Liber8 team and Kagame, attempting to bring them a “house-warming gift” of food as well as a small fortune from his financial “hit” on the market. Kellog claims the money can be used for Kagame’s revolution and that he seems intent on returning to the fold. But Kellog’s olive branch offer seems to backfire on him because Kagame kidnaps Maddie (guest star Olivia Ryan-Stern) – Kellog’s grandmother – to use her as a bargaining chip to get Kiera’s grandmother.

Kiera receives a phone call from Kellog, advising her of the demanded trade; and while she seems intent on making the swap – even asking Lily (the real one) to do something really dangerous for her; she has her own trick up her sleeve. She has Kellog present Kagame’s very own very pregnant mother to him for the trade and he gives up Maddie. Just as they think they are home-free Travis begins firing on them. Sadly, Maddie is the victim of his outrage, dying in the arms of her grandson; but a strange thing happens: nothing

It was believed by all of them that if something happened to one of their ancestors that they lives would be ended too; but it would seem they are either no on the same time line as their future selves or something else is at play.

In the end, Lily and Jake are whisked away from Vancouver on Kellog’s yacht (not too sure why Kiera is trusting this guy, but she is for the time being); and all is somewhat right with the world; except for the loss of teenager Maddie and the first Lily Jones victim. And, the episode comes full circle with future Kiera and son Sam (guest star Sean Michael Kyer) despairing over what she believed happened to Greg in the bombing only to quickly be relieved to learn that he is safe and sound as his meeting – that was to be held where the bombing took place – was moved.

What we learned in this episode:

• Kellog tells Kiera that guards in 2077 were involved in their time-jump and now Kiera begins to question who plotted out the events that took place to get them all back to 2012;
• Kiera is acting different now that she is without her futuristic cop uniform and it’s being noticed by Carlos and Alec;
• Maddie’s death (Kellog’s grandmother) did not have the believed domino effect that Kagame surmised, and that could change everything;
• Betty (Jennifer Spence) is not someone you want to mess with as she quickly nips in the bud the mini-uprising of the numerous Lily Jones’ and parents taken into custody at the station; and,
• Could Alec be coming around (even if it’s only very slightly) to the meetings being held by his stepfather based on his stepbrother telling him they may not be the family he wants, but the only one he has.

“A Test of Time” is the 5th episode of the debut season of Continuum written by Jeff King and directed by Pat Williams. Continuum will be a repeat next Sunday with an all new episode set to air on the Canadian channel Showcase the following Sunday, July 8 at 9 PM.

What are your thoughts on this episode? How long do you think Travis will follow Kagame’s orders of no violence and no weapons given his shooting Maddie? Do you think the older version of Alec in 2077 was involved with the time-jump? What role did Kiera’s husband play in that as well? How long before Kellog starts showing his true colors and Kiera finds herself in even more danger? Please share your thoughts about this episode in the comments section below.