In the future Kiera is having her CMR chip poked at and
she asks what happens to their memories which are constantly recorded – she
assumes they get erased every 36 hours. And the tech dodges the question. She
presses and he lies – which her CMR tells her. He admits that he’s heard that
nothing is erased, that the archive goes back years. Every waking moment Kiera
has had the chip has been recorded. Kiera is horrified that her entire life is
being recorded.
Kiera actually questioning! Will wonders never cease!
In the present at the police station there has been a
major cyber attack attributed to Liber8; everyone password to their email
accounts has been changed to Liber8. As to the fallout of that? One detective
attacks another detective because he was having an affair with his wife. As
Carlos says, hope everyone likes being in the glass house.
They consult with Dillon and he asks Betty to take
advantage of the absent security to check the email accounts of anyone
suspected of being close to Liber8 – both Betty and Carlos are very
uncomfortable with that.
At Liber8 headquarters, Sonya isn’t happy – Lucas’s hack
was supposed to get them private info not cause chaos. He claims it’s part of
his plan, which doesn’t help because she wants to know when he was going to let
her in on that plan. Lucas responds by acting more creepily and more
cryptically. He leaves and goes to a van, opens it and talks to… Kagame! Who is
also dead! Another Lucas hallucination? He tells Lucas to bring the city to its
knees.
Talking to Alec, Kiera thinks it’s a great idea to hack
Gardiner’s email while the attack is happening and see where he is. Alec passes
on breaking into a CSIS agent’s email (this is the same Alec who was perfectly
happy hacking into spy satellites and hacking to produce Kiera’s heavily
redacted false credentials…). And phase 2 of Lucas’s plan hits – all the
traffic lights are on green, causing a car accidents.
Back at the Police station the mayoral candidate Jim
Martin (Carlos’s
old friend, in Liber8’s pocket) is on the news promising miracles and
Dillon gives a big speech about the city falling apart and how they should use
the opportunity given to go after anyone who has considered a pro-liber8 or
anti-police agenda. He’s doubling down on his police state. A series of police
raids grand many people off the street at gun point. Police state is a go.
Dillon presses Betty about finding the hacker and they
talk about her extreme discomfort with using illegal acts to pursue him and the
drag net arrests – arresting people for looking at the wrong website or for
writing an email that says Liber8 may have a point. Dillon completely dismisses
her concerns.
As for the Jim Martin, Travis intercepts him to request
that he arrange a meeting between him and Kiera over
the disappearance of Garza. Otherwise he can kill Jim slowly and painfully.
His choice.
And at the police station, Julian releases a speech about how this loss of privacy is illusory. They never had privacy, people were already reading their emails and snooping on them. Kiera interprets this as claiming responsibility (I interpret it as very astute). And they introduce Agent Lewis from CSIS who clashes with Kiera almost instantly – she’s looking for Gardiner and suspects Kiera. Dillon asks Kiera for a written report on what she was last doing with Gardiner so they can brush it all aside.
Alec contacts Kiera after seeing Julian’s broadcast –
he’s furious because the hacker may be using ARC, his technology which would
mean Julian stole it. Kiera leans more towards Julian claiming credit for
something he didn’t do (I don’t think he actually claimed credit). And then Julian enters the police station and
gives himself up – predicting Kiera would be there to arrest him randomly
anyway (not inaccurate given the sweeps).
Kiera questions him and he says he’s not responsible and
says again that he’s not affiliated with Liber8, that he believes in winning
hearts and minds. Julian also says he turned himself in to ensure he didn’t
take a bullet in self-defence, Carlos tries to deny that would happen but
Julian’s almost amused by that naivety. And he’s there to report a crime –
reporting Alec for a dramatic crime against humanity
Actually the scale of hacking Alec does on a regular basis? And the scale of his ARC? Yup
Alec meanwhile has realised it’s Lucas who has created he
virus using code Alec left in his cell phone. Which means he’s confident that
he could track him. Lucas is still getting input from his Kagame illusion.
Kiera and Alec try to track him, but he needs to stop moving in his server van.
Meanwhile Jim Martin has a spot of bother with his emails
between himself and Sonya being revealed. He dodges but his wife is right when
she tells him he needs to get out from under Liber8. He probably doesn’t help
that with meeting with Sonya who isn’t amused with him either – and wants to
see Julian.
He goes from there to the police who want to talk to him
as part of their huge sweep, and Dillon wants to apply the metaphorical thumb
screws but Carlos, still friendly with Jim, goes more softly softly. Jim also
throws out that the police have been bought by Escher; which Carlos dodges.
Julian and Jim leave the police station at the same time;
Jim tries to undermine Julian and Kiera arrives to undermine him. Little barbs
all round.
Emily (Alec’s girlfriend, working for Escher) has
realised that all the chaos could only be caused by Alec’s highly invasive ARC
programme – and he could stop it by shutting it down. Alec talks to Kellog who
wants to know, using Alec’s information mining, what Escher’s moves are – he’s
going all out for fusion technology, anti-matter. Kellog asks Alec to think the
most nefarious possible use (Alec hasn’t clued in that Escher is not a nice
man) and comes up with it being able to power the time machine.
Kellog tracks down Escher and says lots of stuff that
basically amounts to “we’re both time travellers and you’re muscling in on my
territory”. Escher is completely cold, though Kellog seems to hit a minor nerve
when he suggests Escher has something to hide
Kellog, all nervous, turns to Sonya to, again, try to get
her to turn her attentions to Escher. And Lucas reveals he thinks Kagame is
alive – Sonya thinks Lucas has lost his mind (you think?) and is worried it
could be linked to time travel.
Dillon’s spitting his dummy out because he doesn’t get to
prosecute people without charges and Kiera’s pretty sure he’s starting to lose
it (you mean he hasn’t already?) Kiera decides to go annoy Kellog to find Lucas
and learns that Lucas is hallucinating – she’s already seen time travel can
affect people like that – look at Jason.
And Kagame hallucination tells Lucas that he should be
targeting the police. Cue Betty warning Carlos – Escher buying the police has
just gone viral, making them look like private police. Which is… accurate.
Dillon tells Carlos and Kiera they’re facing reviews of all their arrests and
convictions. Kiera suggests come clean and blame lack of resources (showing how
little she understands) Dillon counters that the public will claim he’s
beholden to Escher – which Carlos already thinks.
While Jim plots to send Sonya and Travis to their various
meetings, Alec shows Kiera his new toy – a way to fake Kagame’s voice and
convince Lucas they’re his hallucination. They call him to arrange a meeting –
and Kiera agrees with Emily that Arc is a major problem. Kiera wonders at the
use of a programme that completely invalidates privacy – and in comes Kellog to
claim they can use it to stop government control of what they see and hear
(assuming Arc isn’t in the hands of those in power which is a big if). Kellog
claims it could be a shortcut to the future but Kiera asks what future… the
same one Alec warned himself about?
This is me very sedately doing backflips of joy as Kiera
realises what a dystopia she was living in.
The police catch up with Lucas, he starts to reach for
a gun, but Kagame’s ghost tells him “not
this way” (the, uh “real” ghost not Alec) and he gives himself up. There Kiera
finds several pieces of the time travel device and Carlos pointedly turns his
back so she can remove evidence without him seeing.
Sonya and Travis go to their meeting – which turns out to
be with each other. Travis quickly disarms Sonya’s team. Travis points a gun at
her, ready to kill her, she tells him to do it… and he kisses her. And she
kisses him passionately back. Well before their rift they were lovers; this
rather confuses the goons they both brought – but Sonya and Travis are now
focused on Jim who tried to set them both up. Oh Jim, unlucky. They leave
together.
At the police station, Betty has found footage from the
cameras in Lucas’s van – half of the ghosts he was seeing were real – they were
Julian. And Dillon’s plan is to ignore the public outrage about the police
until it fades and something else distracts them. The corruption will continue.
With Emily, Alec takes ARC offline. He has one back up
and Emily tells him he can’t just think of what he will do with his invention,
but also what others will do with it. She offers to destroy it for him and he
gives her the backup. She goes and uses a disposer – but we don’t actually see
her destroy it.
Emily holds the drive she didn’t destroy and cries.
Jim Martin wins the election for mayor
With Alec, Kiera puts the time machine back together with
the new fragments, they turn it on.
Lucas is lead into a room where he seems many many
Kagame’s
This is watched on CCTV along with a lot of others by
Escher who has vast, possibly Arc-like access.
Kiera still has a lot of problems and has absorbed a lot
of messages from her future – but I love that she is beginning to realise her
future was not the right way. That her future ISN’T one she wants to exist,
that she wants to return to. We see it hitting her through the right she felt
was violated – her privacy – and how vast that is. I just hope it opens the doors
to a lot more.
I like Betty and Carlos’s deep discomfort with what has
happened to the police – but Carlos in particular seems to have been rumbling
over it for a long time without actually going anywhere with it. Maybe now
Dillon’s plotting is crumbling (which I also love) we’ll see a difference.
I just really like how both the nightmare future and the
actions of the present – including Alec’s invasive hacking, are now being put
under the microscope this season has done an excellent job of throwing a whole
lot of grey into Kiera’s rigid world.
