CONTINUUM Review: “Wasting Time” (Season One, Episode Three)

As we see a heavily armored team of CPS officers, including Kiera Cameron (Rachel Nichols), moving in on a dilapidated apartment building in 2077, it is clear they are on the hunt for serious dangerous people. And as it turns out, they are not only after some kind of super soldiers hold up inside the building but also end up with a prized prisoner – the woman known as “The Queen of Hearts” – Dr. Sonya Valentine (Lexa Doig), who is a member of the terrorist group known as Liber8.

Back in present day, Kiera is asked by Dillon (Brian Markinson) to brief the members of the newly-formed task force on the identities of the terrorists. As she goes through the motions of explaining who these volatile people are, what to look out for where each of them is concerned, it becomes obviously that Valentine is much more dangerous than expected and Kellog (Stephen Lobo) cannot be trusted no matter what he may be saying. In fact, Kiera’s explanation is “if his mouth is moving, you cannot believe anything he is saying”.

As if on cue, Sonya is seen in heavy foreplay with a random guy [later identified as Greg Doolan] who ends up as her victim. She uses some kind of weapon on him that burrows a hole straight into his brain; but what exactly her master plan in this brutal kind of murder isn’t revealed until later in the episode.

But before we get to those gruesome details, Kiera is getting a brief lesson in Bluetooth technology via Alec (Eric Knudsen) just before Kellog shows up in the little diner where she was to soon meet Carlos (Victor Webster). While she draws her futuristic weapon on him under the table and he holds what appears to be a futuristic-looking bomb, he offers her a mutual agreement: he will cover her if she covers him. He reveals to Kiera that he doesn’t share the methods of is “companions” within Liber8; he simply wants to remain in present day and protect his future; and he believes she is key to that plan. While they come to a tenuous at best compromise just before Carlos appears at the table, you can clearly see that Kiera doesn’t trust him at all.

Now back to that dead body! Kiera and Carlos pay a visit to the morgue to ascertain what exactly caused his death, learning that he wasn’t the only victim. It would seem there are two victims [another guy identified as Brian Young] with the same fatal injury – a hole at the base of the skull. After further investigation, Kiera and Carlos learn that the pituitary gland was removed from each victim; and thanks to a little help from the coroner and Alec, they determine that a human growth hormone in that gland is not only valuable on the black market but is a key component in what created the super soldiers that the CPS were hunting in 2007 [as featured in the opening scene; see how that all comes into full swing?]

Long story short: Kiera and Carlos need to figure out the connection between the two and eventually they track it down to, of all things, a fertility clinic where both victims were donors. And that the Liber8 team stole a high-tech piece of equipment that will allow Dr. Valentine to basically create a steroid that is needed in order to help Travis (Roger Cross) who has been hooked up to machines since earlier in the episode. Since nearly all of the members of Liber8 were former soldiers in their time, they were obviously all part of the super soldier program that requires this steroid to keep them alive and well. That explains Sonya going after the donors, the stolen equipment and the crazy-ass chemical set-up at the house they were using as a base of operations.

As Kiera and Carlos go after the next possible victim at a local college, Kiera quickly figures out it is a set-up; but not in time to help Carlos from walking into a well-set trap [arranged by who else but Kellog]. Carlos ends up in a firefight and then a hand-to-hand fight with Curtis (Terry Chen) while Kiera races across the school campus to intervene. She gets there in time to help take down Curtis, but probably not in the way she had hoped. Before he fatally wounds himself with her 2077 weapon [the moron aimed it in the wrong direction], he short-circuits her police uniform and she and Carlos both end up quite hurt. But, for some reason, Carlos takes the fall for what happened to Curtis [and to be honest I am not really sure how to read that]. And, Kellog – who was with Curtis as the college – gets away except for a homing beacon that Kiera shot into his neck as she let him leave before heading into the melee between Curtis and Carlos.

In the end, Alec is able to help Kiera track down Kellog to the house the terrorist were using as a home base; but, of course, they cleared out before she got there, leaving Kellog tied to a chair. Just as she sets him free from his restraints, we see a glimpse of Valentine’s future capture where she plants a bomb under one of the super soldiers that was arrested by the CPS officers interspersed with her situation with Kellog; and just as in the future the bomb goes off with a number of the CPS officers still in the room with the soldier while in present day Kiera and Kellog race out of the house, leaping into the swimming pool just as the bomb that Valentine set in the home-base house explodes around them.

Thankfully [well where Kiera is concerned anyway] they are both unharmed by the explosion and Kiera makes her way back to the police station where she decides to take fate into her own hands by taking the missing piece of the time-travel device, but just how much trouble will that cause for her with the terrorists as well as cops?

What did we learn in this episode?:

• Roland (Michael Rogers) is Alec’s step-dad and he seems to be in charge of a small but vocal group of anti-technology nutcases;
• Kellog can be devious with anyone, setting up his Liber8 “comrade” Curtis for a big fall, tricking Kiera into helping him out and getting away from the Liber8 somewhat unscathed;
• Kiera knows nothing about rock, paper, scissors and gets a quick, on-the-spot lesson from Alec; and
• That CMR unit of Kiera’s is a pretty amazing piece of equipment, but can Alec repair the problems in Kiera’s suit without a full-on face-to-face meeting, hmm?

“Wasting Time” is the 3rd episode of the debut season of Continuum written by Simon Barry and directed by David Frazee. The next new episode of Continuum will air on the Canadian channel Showcase next Sunday, June 17 at 9 PM.

What are your thoughts on this episode? Were you surprised how well Kellog could play everyone to his advantage? Why did Carlos cover for Kiera in the Curtis shooting? What exactly does Alec’s step-dad have planned and how will that alter Alec? What does Kiera plan on doing with the missing piece of the time-travel device now that she has removed it from the police evidence lock-up? Please share your thoughts about this episode in the comments section below.

PS: Thanks to the folks at Spoiler TV UK for the pictures!