Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Continuum Season One, Episode Eight: Game Time

Once again we begin with a flash forward to the future.  It seems that there is experimentation on soldiers, which is deemed no big deal because they are indebted to the corporations for 20 years.  It turns out that a persons state of mind can be controlled and specific thoughts can be implanted.  During the testing phase, something goes wrong and the soldier attacks.  It turns out that one of the scientist involved is Lucas Ingram who is a member of Liber8.  For the record, Kiera saw all of this and though she look slightly troubled, she had nothing to say about the morality of what was happening. After everything that she has seen, I cannot for the life of me understand Kiera's devotion to the corporations.

In the present day, Kiera goes to see Kellog and brings up the missing piece of the time travel device.  Kellog wants to know why she wants it, because it won't work by itself.  He tells her that even if she figures out a way to get home that it may not necessarily be the same as the one she left. When Kellog starts to flirt, Kiera makes it clear that she wants nothing to do with him.

Kiera gets a call from Carlos.  It seems that someone walked into a paint ball game and murdered the CEO.  It turns out that this is a tech company and the one witness, a Mr.Cogburn says that he has never seen the murderer before.  At a train station, a dark haired woman walks up to someone named Cole Barkley and pulls him in front of a train.

Back at the office Kiera and Carlos learn that both the woman and the murderer from the paint ball game worked as beta testers for the same company.  Betty offers to go with them and Carlos tries to blow her off, but Kiera says that it's a good idea.

At the company, they learn that Mark and Yvonne were working on the same video game. When Kiera uses her tech, she sees that Fred, Mark and Yvonne's former boss is nervous.  Kiera believes that he is hiding something and picking up on the clues Betty asks how the program works.  When Fred asks a worker to run a simulation, Zack says that he has not figured out the glitch but Fred is insistent. Inside the game, Betty and Kiera are shooting weapons when a bullet slows down in front of Kiera and she passes out.  Kiera says that she just needs air.  When she tries to use her tech, it's not working and she cannot contact Alec.  I suppose this means we are going to be subjected to more of Kiera going on about following her gut. Also what kind of sense did it make to put on this helmet when she had no idea who it would effect the tech implanted in her brain?  She's supposed to be smart and cautious right?

Alex realizes that he has been cut off from Kiera and he calls her. She explains that she was playing a virtual reality simulation. Alec believes that something has shorted out her CMR and says that he may need to reboot her.

Back at the office, Carlos says that  both Mark and Yvonne had amphetamines in their system.  Betty says that this is common for gamers and that this can cause paranoia and delusions.  


Kellog follows Lucas and finds him at an underground boxing match.  Kellog walks in and pretends that Lucas found him there, and pretends to leave.  He allows Lucas to covince him to stay.

Alec says that he has to meet Kiera to reboot her physically and even says that it gave him some ideas about her suit.  When he jokes about her coming to his home, Kiera loses her patience and asks him to hurry up.  I am sick of the way she treats him like an employee. She is highly dependent upon him but seems hard pressed to say thank you or even acknowledge her dependency.

Lucas tells Kellog that they are working on a plan that is a game changer.  When Kellog asks for more information, Lucas backs off saying that he has said too much already.  When Lucas gets a call, he tells Kellog that he was never there and they hug goodbye outside of the club, getting into different cabs.  Kellog tells his driver to folllow Lucas' cab.

It turn out that Tortion the drug that the betas were on was pulled by the FDA and the remaining supply was bought up by Cosgrove. Carlos reminds Betty that despite the fact that Cosgrove is her hero that she has to follow this through. Okay, Kiera does shady shit all of the time and Carlos hardly asks questions but the knowledge that Betty is a fan of a potential suspect is enough for him to question her integrity.  It's also worth noting that this is the same man who just last week hide his connection to a murder victim and a potential suspect.

In the meantime, Lucas meets with Fred and hands over all of the intel he picked up on Kiera, when he shorted out her chip.  In return, Lucas gives him the tech that we saw earlier in the episode, which allowed them to control a soldier. 

Kiera and Carlos see Gabriel Cosgrove and she has lawyered up.  It seems that she had each employee sign a waver. Carlos then says that the levels of the drug were not enough to causes psychosis.  Kiera gets a call from Alec and leaves. Carlos makes it clear that being open with your partner also builds team building when she isn't forthcoming about where she is going and why. At her place, Kiera asks how long it's going take, but Alec is not impressed.  She tells him about the experiment from the flash forward and wonders if someone from this time is doing that.  Carlos calls her to tell her that he has found a connection between Gabriel and all of the victims. 

Outside of the office, Carlos finds Kellog sitting in a cab and says that he looks familiar.  When Kellog rolls down the window, Carlos recognizes him and so he claims to be a member of section six.  Right, and Carlos has no reason to check his I.D or investigate more because of Kellog's shaky claim to be part of a super secret police group. Liber8 is checking Kiera's CRM and it turns out that the moment her system goes online that they will have complete control over her. 

Alec breaks into Tendine securities and when he puts on a virtual reality mask, he is forced to pull it off after a flashing light.  Kiera almost gets into a car accident when she goes back online.  What she does not realise is that Liber8 is now into her system.  Liber8 is shocked to learn that Kiera is talking to someone else and Edouard Kagame orders a trace.  Alec tells Kiera that Fred is behind this and she calls Carlos to tell him to meet her back at Tendyne. 

Edouard Kagame orders Kiera to eliminate Fred, then Carlos and then herself. Alec gets an alert that something is wrong with Kiera. When she sees Fred, she draws her gun but before she can kill him, Carlos pulls her gun to the side and overpowers her. Kellog asks Fred who is doing this, and he says that he has no idea how to stop her because he gave the codes away.  In the meantime, Alec and Liber8 are struggling for control over her and so Edouard Kagame orders Lucas to have Kiera target Carlos and then kill herself. Okay, how is Carlos a threat? Why wouldn't they have Kiera just kill herself? This whole scene reminds me of when the bad guy traps 007 in an elaborate trap, rather than shooting him outright; it's lazy writing.

Alec realises tht they cannot force Kiera to do anything if he turns off her tech, so he turns it off and Kiera collapses to the ground. Lucas is not pleased and claims that whoever was doing this seemed to be able to anticpate what he was doing.  Edouard Kagame says that there is only one logical person in this time period capable of dealing with this tech. Now that Liber8 is on to Alec I wonder if Kiera is going to give a damn enough to do something about it?

Back at the office, Kiera tells Carlos that she was exposed when she was playing that game. Carlos says that if it wasn't for Kellog that she would have killed him.  Kiera starts to cry and says that she doesn't remember anything.  Carlos tells Kiera that he knows that she is only human and that when she sees Kellog, to tell him that he owes him his life. When Carlos leaves the room, Kiera gets a call from Alec and he says that he is going to give her another reboot and beef up her firewalls so that no one can do this again.

Alec tells her that he found an old file in her memory traces.  When he opens up the file, 2069 flashes and on the screen it says, read me first. Looks like Alec is getting a warning from his future self.