CONTINUUM Suits Up With Some Cosplay and ‘Splosions
Episode 2.04 “Second Skin”
[photos: Syfy]
What does it take to be a hero?
That’s the core question of this episode. What makes a person choose a life of heroics? Or going the other way, what makes a person choose not to be a hero?
When dry clean store manager Rex gets his hands on another Protector suit — courtesy of a garage sale and a girlfriend cosplayer — the two figure out the suit’s more than it seems. It’s fireproof, and bulletproof. Something they find out the hard way when Rex stumbles into a gas station robbery. It’s one of the bits that gets caught on security cameras, which everyone is tapped into.
Lucas and Sonya monitor as Travis and Garza escalate their attacks to include Big Oil — blowing up tanker trucks and knocking over gas stations, all the while handing out propaganda against the big corporations.
It’s a nice convergence of elements in this episode, as Travis and Sonya and Alec all get tapped into the CMR in the suit. And the fight over the suit leaves Rex in the middle, after he’s debated with his girlfriend whether or not to take up crime-fighting. The whole “bulletproof suit” thing has him thinking maybe he can do some good. Of course, being attacked in his dry cleaner shop puts the kibosh on that notion. But I’ll say Rex is the next best thing to Ralph Hinkley.
Meanwhile, Kiera finds out the second suit belongs to her 2077 partner, Elena, who came through and landed in 1975. Now much older, Elena has had her chip turned off, and she’s established a life for herself with a husband and four kids. She’s in the last days of her life, but still sharp as a tack when dealing with Kiera. Pretending a little dementia for everyone else, she’s kept her secret for her entire life. Turning it on, she’s able to let Alec cycle through all the CMRs to locate the suit. Kiera manages to retrieve it in the end, giving it to Alec to study.
Agent Gardiner continues to annoy me, which is either on purpose because he’ll have a turnaround and be a hero in the end, or just simply because he’s an annoying character. His obsession with Kiera, and his suspicion that Kiera has more of a connection to Liber8 than she’s letting on, is making him more of a stalker than a federal agent.
Nice bit between Elena and Kiera as Gardiner comes into the hospital. Kiera’s facial expression alone is enough to get Elena off on a dementia tangent — calling Kiera “Beth” and pretending to mistake her for a daughter. Except for the whole bit where she offers information to Gardiner after Kiera bolts from the hospital. Is Elena more than she seems? Is her “death” at the end of the episode really final? Because we never see a body. Elena mentions Escher. How does she know him? Did Kiera tell her?
The one complaint I’d have about this episode is the fight scene in the dry cleaner store. It’s too dark. The choreography looks pretty good, including the gun fight and the face-off between Sonya and Garza, but the lighting is such that it’s muddy with the movement in the shadows. It’s difficult to see everything that happens. And that’s annoying.
Alec has a couple of moments. He gets to call out Kiera on the fact that she’s always got him doing the IT Tech Guru thing for her. And he gets a couple of moments with the new girl, Emily. Now, of course, my first thought: “Aw, Alec gets a girlfriend” which is immediately followed by “Wonder if she’s a plant” and “Wonder if she dies soon” (I’ve been in the filmmaking business too long).
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[Official Show Web Site on Syfy] [Previous recap: “Second Thoughts”]
