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Continuum: Episode 404 Review – Zero Hour

By: Erin Conrad
Continuum syfy

With only 2 episodes left to go, Continuum is winding down. But we’re finally getting some answers to some big questions – like what’s really happening with the Time Warriors, and what is they’re doing? Why is Kellogg involved with them? Who is Jason’s mom? Will Keira ever get back to her own time? We don’t quite know the answer to that yet, but Alec sure seems to think that he can manage that for her. There’s an awful lot to answer in just two more episodes, and we probably won’t get closure for everything – but we’re getting closer.

Out of all Continuum’s characters, displaced or affected by time travel, fighting or being defeated, Alec is the one I feel for most. He goes from being an an ordinary (but extraordinary) teen, to the brains behind a multi-million dollar tech company, to being pushed out of his own firm, to learning that he’s responsible, years in the future, for terrible outcomes. In this episode, not only does he learn who ends up being the love of his life (and didn’t she look an awful lot like Emily?) and the mother of his child – “there’s no guide to parenting kids who are twice your age,” he tells Jason – but he confronts some of his biggest fears, in the person of his older self.

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I’m fascinated by the possibilities of messing things up when you start to play with time – for example, after Jason and Alec go to meet Annie, despite Jason’s protests that “this is weird,” Alec tells him that she isn’t his type (and why then did he get her phone number?). But knowing what is supposed to happen, he would be able to keep it from happening – where would that leave Jason? Would he just vanish? How would things be changed if Jason never existed? Alec believes that he has the ability to make different choices, which should worry Jason. Talking about the Alec that Jason knows as his father, young Alec says, “He’s an old man in another timeline who left you behind. Maybe that’s for the best.” Great way to instill confidence, dad!

And after Alec meets Annie, he ponders the position he’s been put in. “Sliding doors,” he comments. “They’re not like us. They don’t understand the implications of their choices. We’re trapped, Keira. Every choice leads us to different outcomes. I don’t know what to do any more. I’m terrified of making things worse.” And he has that capability – he know he does, which is not a good thing to know. He’s a young man with a strong moral sense of right and wrong, a great amount of empathy. He wouldn’t knowingly create a future that basically enslaves other people – how can he find a way to change what he things may be inevitable? But Curtis interrupts their discussion, and insists that it’s possible to create change. “Multiple timelines. You know they exist. Different branches, different versions of ourselves. My consciousness has been pulled from our reality, brought here, fused. The energy of one reanimating the other.”

He implies that Alec and Keira are the same as he is, that they can reconcile the various versions of themselves and their conflicting futures, and to convince Alec, brings the Traveler to him. “The Traveler is from far in the future. A moment is coming. A chance to fix everything.” The Traveler touches Alec, and he’s transported to a point where he meets his future self, and they can talk, if only for a moment. Old Alec doesn’t yet know about time travel. He confesses to having been the cause of Annie’s death, a huge source of guilt and conflict for him, and young Alec realizes that his choices have created this future. He suddenly sees the truth of what’s been happening, and realizes that if he accepts the path he’s on, with changes in the timeline resulting from time travel, that he can avoid the outcomes he fears. He tells Old Alec to go ahead with the time travel when it comes along; when he comes out of the vision, he tells Keira that he’s not afraid any more. He understands what needs to be done, and embraces it.

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But that brings up another set of questions. If the Traveler’s responsibility is to prevent time travelers from messing up the straight line, what is that line? Is it the future that Keira came from? Is that was is supposed to happen? Or is that the result of something that’s gone wrong? So if Alec changes anything here, will that future come about? Or is he now supposed to encourage Julian, fight against the Time Warriors, become his corporate self? What future does the Traveler want? What are the Freelancers trying to protect? Obviously something has happened that creates the future that the Time Warriors come from, which is very different than the future that Keira comes from. What happened there? Is that the true future? And… what’s so important about whatever it is that the Traveler is protecting? Oh, help, my head hurts.

OK, so  exactly what are the Time Warriors doing? Jason and Alec have figured out that they’re actually creating a portal, a “time elevator” as they tell Carlos. This will allow people to travel back in time – and forward, as Alec tells Keira. Sure, he tells her he can get her back, but will it be to the future she left, with Protectors and the Corporate Congress? At this point, there’s no real way to know that. Zorin tells Brad that they’re building a “lifeboat,” a way to rescue some of their people who were thought to have been killed in the wars. “There’s hundreds of names on that list,” he says. And then what? What’s so important that they have to come back 25 years? Is it just a rescue mission? Brad and Keira’s relationship is over – she doesn’t trust him at all, and he tries to assure her that what they’re doing isn’t dangerous, but I think he doesn’t know the whole story.

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Somehow, there’s something else involved. The team has been acquiring medical supplies – a kidney dialysis machine and blood – and Kellogg now knows that 25 years in the future, he’s in kidney failure. So they’re planning to bring back and help him? And both Kelloggs will be in 2015? Or are the supplies to go forward and help him there? This news upsets Kellogg more than you’d expect. I mean, who wouldn’t be upset to know this about their future, but at this point, he calls Keira and tells her that they need to work together – “I screwed everyone over, even me,” he says. “Brad, Marcellus – what they’re up to, it’s bad. For you and me. I’m dead serious – emphasis on the dead.” He’s the last person she can trust, he acknowledges, but says that’s exactly why she needs to trust him – because he’s “the guy holding your golden ticket – the only means to send you home. Think about it.” He’s got the time ball in his hands. He has figured out more than he was supposed to know, and it scares the hell out of him. And I think for Kellogg, that would take a lot.

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Now Carlos knows what Alec knows – “it’s a tethered wormhole,” he explains. Keira looks at the supplies they’ve stolen: “Blood, medicine – those are the kinds of things an army needs.” “For an invasion,” Carlos adds. “We have to stop it,” Keira replies. “You asked me to send you home,” Alec turns to her. “It’s a two way street. With the time ball and their power source, it may be possible. I may be able to do exactly that.” Two episodes left – can she go home, and if so, what waits for her there?

If you haven’t already, I suggest you read the background stories on the main characters that Syfy has available here. We’ve learned something about many of them – Sonya, Travis, Keira – but what do we know about Carlos or Kellogg? Not much. These little character vignettes are interesting, and possibly explain some of their motivation. Ready for the final two episodes?

Follow me on Twitter: @ErinConrad2 and @threeifbyspace

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