CONTINUUM Courts a Plot of Twisty Threads
Episode 2.07 “Second Degree”
[photos: Syfy]
The trial of Theseus in parallel, both in the future and in the present, is what threads throughout this episode, as we delve into a new relationship dynamic between Kiera and Carlos. And between Kiera and Gardiner.
We start in the cemetery, with the discovery that Elena’s body is not in its grave. With this time traveler missing, Kiera figures the two bodies in the morgue will be next. And she’s there just short of too late, as the bodies are already gone. Taken by one of Kiera’s “colleagues” in Section 6.
Meanwhile, Carlos has to make an appearance at Julian’s trial. Labor boss Jim — who’s running for mayor — tries to convince Carlos his intentions are good, but Carlos isn’t buying it. And Sonya also makes an appearance, which causes Kiera to freak a bit. The whole thing is a feint, designed to corrupt the court process. One of the jurors is facing the threat from Liber8 to kill his wife and daughter.
So, while Gardiner sits in the morgue and goes through security camera footage (“Give a dog a bone…” Kiera says), Alec’s tapped into Juror Number Ten’s e-mail, finds the threat to his family, and there are a couple of humorous moments while Carlos and Kiera make adjustments in their partnership. “Dead time travelers, mysterious body snatchers, the usual” is a good line, plus the whole “using the phone” to call Alec. It’s a nice gag to show that Carlos is sliding into Team Cameron pretty well. “This explains so much.”
Carlos and Kiera make it over to Alec’s lab to figure out the prisoners are in a boat, and Alec uses the Orange Slice to amp up Kiera’s chip, giving her the ability to process thousands of images in seconds. It’s a nice hand-waving trick, and it gets past the time it would take to do a regular search. While the trial continues — including perjury from Julain’s mother, putting Alec in a very precarious position — Gardiner starts putting pieces together to track the guy who stole the Liber8 bodies.
And Alec faces the challenge of either telling the truth at the trial and exposing his mother’s perjury, or lying and committing perjury himself. In the midst of his conundrum, Emily has moved their relationship forward. And you remember what I said about her. She’s definitely got something to hide — namely some hi-ya karate-chop suey skills. She takes out an intruder in her house after Alec’s gone, so he doesn’t see what she can do. But two interesting things about it: bad guy in black has a 2077 gun handle like Kiera’s, and Emily works for Escher.
Fun bit when Kiera takes out a kidnapper on the boat while she’s cloaked. Good work by the stunt man.
And when Gardiner actually gets some material where he’s not being a … well… as soon as he and Kiera start sort of getting along, you know Gardiner not’s going to last. Remember when I predicted he’s going to do something heroic because he’s not the mole? And since we already know the identity of the mole, what’s left?
It’s a nicely complicated plot thread: teenagers disrupt the court, and combined with the threat to Juror Number Ten, the trial gets switched to a bench trial, and the judge basically throws the whole thing out. Time served. Meaning the judge got bought. Bought by Jim Martin, turns out. And just as he’s leaving his office, Travis pays him a visit. A deadly one.
Dun Dun Dunnnnn.
My only complaint is that this episode included the (for me) much-overused and trite music montage to show everyone being pensive and thoughtful and serious and stuff. It’s way overused, a tired trope, and … ugh. Enough already.
[Official Show Web Site on Syfy] [Previous recap: “Second Truth”]
