The season finale finally shows us the team-up we’ve anticipated, with Cameron, Fonnegra, Liber8, Tonkin, and an Alec working together to prevent future dystopia.
The end results prove problematic.
Title: “Last Minute”
Directed by William Warring
Written by Simon Berry
Rachel Nichols as Kiera Cameron
Erik Kundson as Alec Sadler
Victor Webster as Carlos Fonnegra
Ryan Robbins as Brad Tonkin
Stephen Lobo as Matthew Kellog
Luvia Petersen as Jasmine Garza
Omari Newton as Lucas Ingram
Roger Cross as Travis Verta
Lexa Doig as Sonya Valentine
Magda Apanowicz as Emily
Ian Tracey as Jason
Terry Chen as Curtis Chen
Vladimir Ruzich as The Traveler
Full cast and crew information may be found at the imdb.
Premise
Alec tries to take out Alec, so Alec goes after Alec in a plot that sees former enemies join forces. With the uncertain effects of time travel, however, will their efforts be enough?
High Points
Despite the implausibilities involved in Alecs’ divergent personalities, their encounter works well—and I liked Alec’s attempts to reason through where Alec might have hidden the device.
Tonkin’s beacon at least attempts to explain why key moments in history aren’t overwhelmed by time travellers.
Low Point
I can suspend disbelief over time-travel. I’ll accept people from variant futures sharing space. I have greater difficulty accepting that Alec and company, even with the future tech at his disposal, could possibly get Halo to this stage in development and marketing in this short a period of time. Think back to any technological breakthrough: how long between breakthrough and useful product? How long between useful product and market penetration?
The Scores:
Originality: 2/6 A good deal of this seems familiar, including the battle between Alec A and B, and Garza, Cameron, and Verta’s re-enactment of a scene from The Matrix.
Effects: 5/6 The effects used to create Tonkin’s future are serviceable.
Acting: 4/6
Story: 4/6 We have an interesting conclusion. If the show returns, we have a new reality which the characters must address. If it doesn’t, this episode makes for a fascinating unresolved cliffhanger. After all, it seems unlikely this can be resolved, without further time-travel– and we know where that leads.
We’re reminded, however, how quickly Alec turned evil, how quickly he rose to power, and how quickly Tonkin and Cameron became an item. These facts make the plot seem a bit forced.
Emotional Response: 5/6
Production: 5/6
Overall: 5/6
In total, “Last Minute” receives 30/42
I took the “Alec went evil really fast” thing to be an indication of his underlying character rather than a personality change. After all, he must have had that in him all along to become the manipulative bastard from the original timeline. Also, the “fall from grace” happened over a longer time frame than is immediately apparent, I think. He was already becoming quite an ass last season. Also, I think there were a couple of time jumps between some episodes, where more than a few days passed. At least, that was implied.
The longer time frame than immediately apparent bit also applies to Halo getting out so fast, too. Remember that he had help from Jason, a massively powerful corporation, future tech, and a fairly extensive knowledge of the CMR tech he “borrowed”. Also, remember that time travel is the family business so Piron could easily have had a lot of stuff already in development. Also, what’s to say another time traveller or twelve haven’t been “helping” on the sly?
I’m willing to give both of this a bit of a pass, though, even if they are a bit of a stretch, in the interest of not boring us to death with filler.
The Alec transformation makes sense, add to that a betrayal by his closest friends and the girl he loved.
Halo is a bit more of a stretch, we don’t know the actual timeline though you’re not going to be shipping in that short a timeframe. Even established products like iPods take longer to reach store shelves. Either way I’ll let it pass since you’d be stretching it over multiple seasons otherwise.
I accept a certain degree of stylization. However, the more artificial or forced elements we’re asked to accept, separate of the premise, the less effective I find the script. It’s still a fascinating series, and I hope they can sustain the interest created by the finale.