S03.E02: Minute Man

[shapeshifter]

From TV Guide:

A reunited Liber8 kidnaps the mayor while Kiera has her hands full investigating the two Alecs in one timeline; at the same time, Carlos struggles with the reality-shattering truth of Kiera's predicament.

Not entering an air date because there are 2 of them. So meta.

[anstar]

I'm so lost. :(   The freelancers in *this* timeline just let Garza go? 

Print media is seditious?!? 

I have to watch it again (and again) I guess.

[shapeshifter]

I'm so lost. :( The freelancers in *this* timeline just let Garza go?

Did they? I thought Keira helped her escape.

Print media is seditious?!?

That makes sense to me. Digital media can be edited to align with the will of the ruling party. Print media stays the same, reflecting the thoughts and ideas of the author and society of the time. Edited April 12, 2014 by shapeshifter

[wanderingstar]

About that timeline that Keira and Garza escaped from - did it collapse, or are all the other time travelers (i.e., the rest of Liber8, Kellog, etc.) still stuck in it?

[madam magpie]

I'm so disappointed that Kiera shooting herself was a fake-out. I'd hoped she was going to be more hardened and cold this season. Oh, well.

I still don't understand why this Emily made the decision to shoot Escher. She was working with Kellogg, but...?

Did both Kieras join CPS the same way?

Mayor Tamoh shot himself, right?

Our Kiera let the Garza in this timeline go. I assume the freelancers know and didn't go after her, but it was Kiera's doing.

I think the other timeline was destroyed, but theoretically Kiera's family still exists in the current timeline that the dead Kiera came from...right?

Edited April 12, 2014 by madam magpie

[wanderingstar]

I'm assuming Keira's family still exists in the timeline we first saw at the start of season 1. As I'm understanding*, all the other timelines are distinct from that one, so her husband and son are still around in that timeline. Which is a shame because her family's always bored me.

*To the extent that I'm understanding any of this at all!

[John.G]

"Both Keiras" are the same Keira, the one still alive is just a bit older than the one who hadn't jumped back chasing Alec. So her backstory hasn't changed.

[ljp]

I actually still don't understand why Escher was killed in this timeline. What changed that prompted them to kill him. Emily doesn't know anymore now that she did first time around. What did the other guy learn? He just confirmed that the kid jumped back in this episode?

[shapeshifter]

I still don't understand why this Emily made the decision to shoot Escher. She was working with Kellogg, but...?

My understanding* is that Escher ostensibly hired her to become Alec's fake girlfriend so she could get the tech from him, but when she fell in love with him, she didn't want to work for Escher anymore, but Escher wouldn't let her out. I'm guessing Emily perceived Escher as a powerful man who did not have her or Alec's best interests at heart, who would hunt her and Alec to the ends of the earth--or something like that. This info from the Syfy linked Wikia (continuum.wikia.com/wiki/Escher) should be cannon:

Escher's association with Alec's new girlfriend Emily is further revealed in "Second Wave". During one of Emily's briefing sessions with him, Emily asked to be pulled out of the assignment as she has developed true feelings for Alec. Escher insisted that she continue as his main task is to protect him. He then instructed her to take him out to dinner that night. Once there, Escher appears and interrupts their dinner, introducing himself to the both of them, particularly to offer a business association with Alec and for leverage against Emily, telling her to stay on track if she does not want Alec to find out about them.

Eventually, Escher agreed, telling Emily to bring the sphere from his lab and she will be terminated from her job. This coincided, however, with Kellog's threat for Emily to let Alec revive Arc, which she had stolen to give to Escher. No longer wanting anything to do with the lies, Emily comes clean and confessed her association with Escher to Alec.

In "Second Time", Escher finally tells Alec that he is his father, not Jason. They decided to trick Kiera into bringing them the time travel device so they can use it to go to 2077. During a confrontation, Escher told Kiera that she put Alec's life at stake by exploiting his skills, using him for cases that involve Liber8 and ultimately to get herself home, thus exposing him to numerous threats. He is stopped, however, by the arrival of the Freelancers Miller and Warren.

I hope in the next episode or two they do a DNA analysis of Emily to determine if she is Jason's mother.

[madam magpie]

But Emily knew all that in the previous timeline and didn't kill Escher. Kiera said that Alec coming back is what changed everything, but I don't see what it changed to make Emily kill Escher except that Alec told her they'd run off to Thailand, which seems like a weak reason.

Good point, John G, that the two Kieras have the same backstory until now. But they aren't the same person because they know different things. If our Kiera follows a different path than the dead one, she could alter the future so that her family no longer exists. That's always been a concern. If she doesn't, she could find her son/husband but their future should be different from the other timeline's because she's already done things differently in this branch of time...I think.

Edited April 12, 2014 by madam magpie

[Maverick]

 I think the change is supposed to be that Kellogg figured out there's two Alec's.   Somehow from that he determined that Esher was an even bigger threat than he originally thought and had to get him out of the way.  He already knew Emily was under Esher's thumb (and had a shady past) so she was the perfect tool to eliminate him.

[TVSpectator]

But Emily knew all that in the previous timeline and didn't kill Escher. Kiera said that Alec coming back is what changed everything, but I don't see what it changed to make Emily kill Escher except that Alec told her they'd run off to Thailand, which seems like a weak reason.

Good point, John G, that the two Kieras have the same backstory until now. But they aren't the same person because they know different things. If our Kiera follows a different path than the dead one, she could alter the future so that her family no longer exists. That's always been a concern. If she doesn't, she could find her son/husband but their future should be different from the other timeline's because she's already done things differently in this branch of time...I think.

I am not sure why Emily killed Escher. It could be that in this timeline, the second Alex was willing to travel/run off with her to Thailand, but in the original timeline, he wasn't. This could've sent a signal to Emily that Escher had to be remove so she could be free from him. Back in the original timeline there wasn't any motivation to do anything with Escher but now their is.

As with the two Kieras; we do know both, but we are following the one that was sent back by the head Freelancer (what was her name again?), and she is the actual main character (much like how the Alex with the giant slash on his face is our Alex and the other one is just a double) of the show that we know. To the Freelancer, Alex going back to changed his past caused another branch in the timeline tree to be destroyed and another created another, thus in the end both Kiera and the Freelancers world's don't exist. So, they sent Kiera back to kill one of them (presumably, the one that went back to changed his past) to prevent the timeline changed. Because if they don't, then their futures (both the Freelancers' future and possibly Kiera's future) will not exist because Alex is choosing a path that won't lead him to found SedTech, time travel, etc.... The whole stated point of the Freelancers was to protect the future and the timeline because each major change causes another branch to form and/or destroys another. Sort of like the time cops from Time Cop; somehow the Freelancers are protected from the time changed (to a certain extent) but they don't allow a lot of time travel, to avoid the sticky issues of time travel, so they sent Kiera back (since she was already in 2013/2014 Vancouver) to fix things and in returned they won't frame her for Gardiner's murder (by the time Kiera comes back Gardiner is dead for about two weeks, so the second time travel/timeline it won't affect his death in anyway ) .

I hope in the next episode or two they do a DNA analysis of Emily to determine if she is Jason's mother. 

 

I doubt that she is Jason's mother, since it's pointing to the fact that she must die and/or she doesn't stay with Alex.

Edited April 14, 2014 by TVSpectator

[shapeshifter]

I hope in the next episode or two they do a DNA analysis of Emily to determine if she is Jason's mother.

I doubt that she is Jason's mother, since it's pointing to the fact that she must die and/or she doesn't stay with Alex.

After watching this 15 minute cartoon, heh...

If you want to understand how all this works, take a look at Disney's Little Red Riding Hood. It's a great little short and the best time travel film of the 1990s.

...I'm inclined to agree. Edited April 13, 2014 by shapeshifter

[Dovega]

I'm glad Keira saved Garza in the new timeline, she's my favorite Liber8 member but I wonder if Keira will feel responsible for the people Garza will kill in this new timeline, especially now that Sonya and Travis are together as well.

 

Was flashback-to-the-future-with-an-unfortunate-wig!Keira honest when she said she wanted to join the fight in the war? There was something odd about her then, and it wasn't just that terrible hair; I even felt like she knew something about what was gonna happen to her eventually. That whole scene felt very Farenheit 451.

 

Also, I wonder if Carlos already knows about Betty being the mole for Liber8 or if that was something he found only when he was desperate trying to help Keira. I felt so bad for him when he asked which Keira had been his partner and friend, both were but the one who's with him now is not the one he saw last and that's so sad. At first I thought Keira would use her other self's body to dissapear after getting framed but I guess in this timeline that won't be necessary since now that se is working for the Freelancers they won't frame her anymore for Gardner's death.

 

I thought Keira would shoot Alec when he told her that he wouldn't be able to help her now, he seemed so defeated but I can actually picture him more as the one who grows up to be his older self than the more innocent Alec who probably *would* have changed the future, as he told Garza last season.