Continuum Review: “Endtimes”

Continuum‘s first season comes to a series-changing finale. Some questions are answered, while many more remain.

Title: “End Times”

Cast and Crew
Director: Patrick Williams
Writer: Simon Barry

Rachel Nichols as Kiera Cameron
Victor Webster as Carlos Fonnegra
Erik Kundson as Alec Sadler
William B. Davis as Alec Sadler
Richard Harmon as Julian Randol
Tony Amendola as Edouard Kagame
Lexa Doig as Sonya
Nicholas Lea as Agent Gardiner
Stephen Lobo as Matthew Kellog
Brian Markinson as Dillon
Ian Tracey as Jason
Roger Cross as Travis
Luvia Peterson as Jasmine Garza
Terry Chen as Curtis Chen
Beatrice Sallis as Mrs Kagame

Full cast and crew information may be found here.

Premise

Keira Cameron and the police try to foil a major terrorist plot, while CSIS finally catches up to her (the Canadian CIA, wondering how she knows so much) and another apparent time-traveller comes to her aid. Liber8 kidnaps Alex, and we begin to learn some dark secrets underlying the series’ premise.

High Points

Online chatter has criticized the show both for being too left-wing (“It makes the terrorists heroes!”) and too right-wing (“It favors big corporations and police control!”). I’ve always felt it was trying to paint its world in shades of grey, and this episode indicates the complexity has been intentional. The answers to certain lingering questions were not unexpected– but we don’t know exactly what they mean, especially for the next season.

On a minor note—that time-machine was one mind-twisting, beautifully crazed work of art.

Low Point

Kagame and Liber8 plan an intricate terrorist plot—but on the kidnapping front, they prove the world’s least competent criminal organization. I know that Kagame wanted Alex to escape, but everyone isn’t in on that particular plot. He leaves with remarkable ease and gets exactly where he needs to be without arousing suspicion.

The Scores:

Originality: 3/6 Shades of 12 Monkeys, but this show has its own direction.

Effects: 4/6. They over-reach their budget in the introduction; the explosive conclusion makes some amends.

Story: 5/6 The story makes some fascinating uses of time travel, and includes at least three twists that make perfect sense (one, I suspect, was anticipated by most viewers).

Problems remain. If the explosion was Liber8’s first recorded attack, and it happened in the timeline Keira knows as history, why does she know so little about it? This is her job—and yet this attack has never been mentioned before this episode, when it suddenly becomes terrifically important to her.

Acting: 5/6.

Emotional Response: 4/6

Production: 5/6.

Overall: 5/6 Continuum finishes its first season with one of its strongest episodes.

In total, “Endtime” receives 31/42

4 replies on “Continuum Review: “Endtimes””

  1. I noted that one huge niggle about exactly how Kiera managed to insinuate herself into the police department in a position of trust is answered in this episode. Assuming the usual detailed checks were done, they would have met with similar action from this mysterious superior officer who isn’t Alec. I mean, if CSIS can be put off by this guy….

    • It makes sense– at least, provided it makes sense when we find out more about Escher. Obviously, he’s not just someone making a call.

  2. I really enjoyed this episode, and thought it brought a great close to the season (though not exactly closure). A fair number of rambling thoughts follow.

    I don’t think the explosion was a Liber8 attack in the original timeline. It seems to be a historical note, and not connected to the current (future) events. The name the other time traveller attributed it to was “Theseus”, which seems to have some connection to Julian and Alec (enough for it to be the password on the “readme” file). But past that, we don’t know.

    This does raise some questions. It seems to be operating on a single timeline theory. But as a fixed timeline? Have the changes so far been small enough that it’s barely caused a ripple (the “tsunami on a beach” bit from this episode), or are things actually changing and the characters memory along with it?

    If the twist you expect was anticipated was Future Alec being behind the time travel in the first place, I agree. I had inklings of that since the end of the first episode, and was pretty much sure after “Playtime”.

    There was one scene near the end though, that makes me question how much of this is Alec’s plan, and how much is Julian’s.

    And I so didn’t see Kagame becoming a suicide bomber coming.

    And just who is Escher? It’s not Alec, and I chose to believe it isn’t Kellog (I don’t think he could have resisted taking credit for it if it was him). Something Kagame put in place, but I doubt it. So it’s likely a “new player”. But is it a player we’ve seen before from a future flashback?

    The “time machine” was indeed a fantastic set piece.

    I sense a power struggle for control of Liber8 next season

    • And !@$%&!#$& me, I used HTML brackets for the spoiler tags, and not square brackets.

      Sorry everyone.

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