Continuum Review: “Second Truths”

As Escher moves in on Kellog, a serial killer stalks Vancouver. Cameron can remember details that help with the case—but revealing them will make her look suspicious. Meanwhile, Alec gets to know his new friend—- but not so well as we do.

Title: “Second Truths”

Cast and Crew

Directed by Pat Williams
Written by Jonathan Lloyd Walker

Rachel Nichols as Kiera Cameron
Victor Webster as Carlos Fonnegra
Erik Kundson as Alec Sadler
Peter Benson as Todd Sanchez
Kimberley Sustad as Patsy
Nicholas Lea as Gardiner
Jennifer Spence as Betty Robertson
Stephen Lobo as Matthew Kellog
Brian Markinson as Inspector Dillon
Hugh Dillon as Escher
??? as Nora Masters

Full cast and crew information may be found here.

Premise

A serial killer stalks the city. Keira recalls some aspects of the case, but not everything– and using her special knowledge may create new problems for her.

Kellog and Escher try for the same human resources, and we learn more about Alec’s coffeeshop friend.

High Point

I’m happy to see Liber8 in the background for an episode. “Second Truths” creates considerable suspense and creepiness while raising an issue that a time-traveler would face on a regular basis.

Low Point

Kiera finally reveals the truth to Carlos—but doesn’t bother showing him the tech that would help confirm her story.

Also—how does she know that a certain person’s cancer won’t go into remission? Or that the timeline hasn’t been altered in some other way that would allowe him to continue? She would of course check to see if he might be working with someone else, but she draws that conclusion very quickly, without considering other possibilities.

The Scores:

Originality: 3/6 The originality here is how much it resembles a more traditional TV genre show. It’s not original, but it’s original for this show. Keira (for reasons that make some sense) even charges alone, Starling-like, into the villain’s lair. And no one who gets close to a key character can just be interested in him.

Effects: 5/6

Story: 5/6

Acting: 5/6 We get some excellent performances in the final act.

Emotional Response: 4/6

Production: 6/6.

Overall: 4/6 This episode has an interesting, neo-traditional TV feel to it. It resembles a contemporary version of the kind of show Continuum would have been in an earlier era. We have a Case of the Week, and the obligatory scene where the hero with special abilities reveals the Truth to a trustworthy individual. In all fairness, she needed to bring Carlos in on her secret.

In total, “Truths” receives 32/42

4 replies on “Continuum Review: “Second Truths””

  1. To be fair to Kiera, Carlos didn’t give her a lot of options for revealing the tech when he had the predictable reaction and cut her off – it’s not like it would have been a good idea to do that in police headquarters, would it? What with the surveillance that would be there and all.

    Assuming the records in the future haven’t been altered by “someone” to make sure Kiera gets this information, it seems pretty clear that the timeline has now been altered. The question is how do they explain that in the context of the show now. (For the record, I wouldn’t put it past the old man to have altered records. After all, he knows basically what Kiera knew assuming an immutable timeline and he would have access to the full records of the interrogations and mad skillz with computers…)

    It’s interesting that we can see exactly how Alec can develop into the old man given his dealings with Kellog. Somehow I don’t think Kellog is going to like the results….

    • It would have been pretty simple for her to say something like “lets go to the parking lot (or the dark room next to an interrogation room) so I can show you how I get my information”. She would have thought about telling Carlos for a long time, there’s not really any excuse for going in with that poor a plan when there wasn’t any real emergency.

      ps. Her ‘please shoot me with my own gun’ speech was a cringingly obvious ploy. I understand they didn’t want to make the viewers feel stupid by trying to get them to fall for it, but I wish she could have tried to convince the killer a little more.

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