CONTINUUM Visits "Enron"
Episode 106 “Time’s Up”
This week, the show tries to pull an Enron riff, while we get a chance to see the wheel’s turning in Kiera’s head as she starts to realize her job as a Protector may not be all its cracked up to be.
[SPOILERS AHEAD]
It’s interesting that we get a bit of the future time showing the “protesters” actually a group of people who are practically starving, rioting at a company that was stockpiling the supplies in order to inflate the price and make more money. It’s was a bit irritating, actually, to be reminded that the whole premise of this show is based on the assumption that corporations are evil and anyone fighting the system is in the right. I’m not going to say all corporations are lily-white pure as the wind-driven snow, but Hollywood tends to paint with a broad brush on this kind of thing, and it gets annoying that so many people just accept that’s the way it is. What’s the size threshold for a corporate entity to go from “hometown company” to “evil empire”? Can someone tell me that?
OK. Rant’s over.
Kagame and his gang kidnap the CEO of an Enron-type company that’s into oil and gas and such, and call for a ransom of $20 million to be handed out to the mob on the scene at the corporate offices. Of course, the show doesn’t paint a very flattering picture of the mob, either, so I guess that’s something. What’s the difference between corporate greed and personal greed? Is it only a matter of scale?
The Libr8 group farms out the riot fomenting to the local punk scene, which includes Alec’s step-brother, who doesn’t want to be bothered with chores like mucking out the stables. No, he wants to go into town and get a little wild, because Dad is just a bunch of talk and no action. The whole notion of being an “activist” and “making a difference” is skewed in this episode. No one ends up looking good — corporation or mob. Everyone’s placed in the position of greed and selfishness.
Is the world like that for real? Might be a question worth asking.
The gang uses the Internet and telecommunications to their advantage, taking control of big electronic display boards and sending mass texts to everyone. But ultimately, this is how they get located, which is probably the point since no one from Libr8 is anywhere nearby when Kiera and Carlos manage to find the CEO — with a bomb strapped to her chest. Realizing it’s fake, Kiera manages to get a confession from Ms. Bigwig about embezzling funds from the company’s retirement plan. Seems Enron is going to be fodder for stories for decades…
So, the Protector actually managed to do what the “terrorists” were trying to do. And I think this is were we may get more depth with Kiera. Since we got a glimpse of her learning that things aren’t always what they seem in 2077, and that her husband knows more than he’s letting on.
I’m glad to see more scenes at the farm where Alec is holed up. I’m sure we’ll get more out there as the series progresses, but right now a lot of that “conspiracy” group seems a little random. For the brother to be involved actually brings Alec into Kiera’s world a little more, which can serve the overall purposes of the show, if it’s handled right.
And Kellog somehow manages to find Kiera’s apartment? How did he manage that? Because it’s going to make things difficult when Kiera realizes the last piece of the Time Travel Orange is missing…
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[Official Show Web Site on Syfy] [Previous recap: “A Test of Time”]
