After Three Seasons the time has come for the final chapter of this time bending series to begin. We begin our short goodbye with this action packed season premiere. This episode served to setup the season long storylines and remind us of the relationships that will surely be tested before the series comes to a close.
When the episode starts no time has passed since we last left Kiera and Brad at the beacon. For the briefest of moments, when the beacon produced nothing, Kiera got to feel hopeful for the future. Then that was all shattered away when Brad’s people made their destructive introduction. It is a true showing of their bond when Brad put himself on the line to protect Kiera. I also have major respect for the fight Kiera put up as she fought to get free of the soldiers who have marked her for death. She is a fighter and she pulled out all the stops to try and break free of their pursuit. In the end not even her super suit could protect her from injury and it is that injury that setup Kiera’s journey. Her fight against Brad’s people is sure to be one of the big stories of the season as they are out to eliminate travelers like herself.
Kiera’s injury induced hallucination was very telling of where her mind was starting this season. No matter how many timelines she has found herself in her goal to one day get back to her time and her son has never wavered. Even when her hope was dwindling and she claimed to have accepted the loss of that future it’s quite obvious she’s maintained a small fraction of hope to one day see her son again. Even if she were to get back to that time I wonder if she can even adapt back to that life after all she has seen, done, and survived. Given the fact they started off this season with Kiera hallucinating about her son I can’t help but expect them to be reunited in some way shape or form by series end.
What the injury induced hallucination did was set Kiera down a hyper focused path to getting home. As far as she’s concerned she’s completed her mission and has earned a trip home to her time and her family. I have a feeling this is a storyline that will play throughout the rest of the series and will either culminate in her actually returning home or to an encounter with her son. Either way this will not be an easy journey for her given the number of obstacles standing in her way.
The other big story setup was the war brewing between Kellog and Alec. After being asked to find a way to send Kiera home Alec tries to retake his company from Kellog. When that proves highly unlikely he teams up with unlikely ally Julian and his political hacker friends. With their combined effort and the aid of Emily and Lucas they shut Kellog out of his own system and reclaim all the data. With Alec’s refusal to repair the damage comes a war declaration. I’m betting that if Alec had been able to predict the future he would have handled things a bit differently. Emily finds herself caught right in the middle of this war and by the end of the episode she is in a fight for her life. Emily has never been one to give up without a fight and she gave Kellog’s men one hell of a fight. In the end they still captured her, but they had to resort to a stun gun to be able to accomplish their mission.
While those appear to be the big storylines for this final season there were some other interesting character interactions that seem to be setting up some interesting dynamics. I predict more than a few of these relationships will not survive the season and some will grow even stronger.
Kiera and Garza have declared an uneasy truce and while they certainly don’t trust one another they have proven to be a good team when they put aside their differences. When Kiera got herself into trouble with the future soldiers it would have been easy for Garza to just leave her to her fate. Instead Garza intervened and covered Kiera long enough for her to take cover in the back of Garza’s SUV. I predict a few more teamups between these two as the series winds down. They are both powerful badass women who don’t give up without a fight. They have a very interesting dynamic that has evolved and I’m interested to see where this duo ends the series.
Carlos and Kiera are still working together and he is still doing everything in his power to protect her. Temporarily in Dillon’s position he does have a little more wiggle room to do that, but he won’t be able to protect her forever. Victor and Rachel bring a nice chemistry to their characters as friends and co-workers, but I’m glad it never really turned romantic. I just don’t think their chemistry would have translated romantically to the characters. What does work is their ability to work together.
Brad and Kiera are a great couple and they’ve overcome a lot of time bending issues to be together. Testing the beacon was not one of their better ideas, but they were hopeful that they had succeeded. There is no guarantee Brad will survive the season, but if he does it will be interesting to see if Kiera ends up with him or back with her husband in the future. I personally think Brad is a better match for Kiera than any other guy, so I’m hoping for the perfect ending where Kiera somehow reunites with her son and still gets to be with Brad. I wish they had introduced Brad earlier because Rachel and Ryan have a great onscreen chemistry that she’s not really shared with any of her other love interests on the show. I was disappointed when they were separated so soon into the season, but Brad is in a place where he can aid Kiera. With so few episodes I hope they bring them back together sooner than later.
Alec and Kiera have had many issues over their years together. They’ve overcome a lot and lost a lot together and they have fought on opposite sides at times. He cost her the only hope she had to get home and now he’s setting out to make that right by finding her another way home. No matter what timeline or time they are in these two characters are forever linked. Wherever Kiera ends up as long as Alec is alive he will be a part of her life whether she likes it or not. Their fates are undeniably linked for as long as they live.
Emily and Alec have a beautiful love that has spanned time and death itself. Alec quite literally moved time to get Emily back and she is without a doubt his kryptonite and Kellog knows that. With Emily in his nefarious hands Alec will have some very tough decisions to make. She is the most important person in the world to him and to lose her because of a choice he made will devastate him. Getting her back is sure to be his main focus going into the next episode. Can their relationship survive her being captured as a ploy to get to him? I hope so, for them to not be endgame would be a tragedy given all they’ve been through to maintain this relationship.
While I’m on the topic of Emily and Alec, is anyone else wondering if Jason is also Emily’s son? I don’t think the topic has ever been brought up on the show, but I’ve been wondering it ever since she and Jason appeared in Alec’s life. I get a real family vibe whenever they are all in a scene together. If it turns out she’s not it’ll be a little disappointing given how much effort the show has gone through to bring all their storylines together.
Kellog has been a pain in the ass for Kiera and Alec for a very long time now and he’s poised to end the series in a very dark place. The confrontation he has with both characters, Kiera at the party and Alec on the phone, proves that a truce is extremely unlikely. Neither Alec or Kiera will take Emily’s abduction lightly, so if I were Kellog I’d be concerned for my life right about now. It’s too early in the season for anything to happen to one of the bad guys, so I’m sure he’ll find some loophole to survive, but I’d put the odds against him surviving to the end of the series.
Kiera, Carlos, and Alec started this journey together and it is their dynamic that has driven the show to this point. Carlos and Alec care about Kiera and are fiercely protective of her. It was nice that they were the first to be by her side when she was injured. It shows that the two men go out of their way to always be where Kiera needs them to be. Alec is helping Kiera find a way home, but will Carlos support the risks that involves when he finds out the plan they are working on? Can Carlos support a plan that will cost him his friend? It will be interesting to see where each character of the original team ends the series.
This is a show that has always valued making their female characters strong and independent. All of the fight scenes of this episode were headlined by the female characters. It’s also nice that while the show makes the female characters strong warriors it also allows the men to be strong and fiercely protective of the women they care about. All of the characters work together as a united force and they all save each other. I’m confident the series will end with an all out battle for survival and when it comes these characters will stand united against their common enemy. The big question is who that enemy will be? Will it be Kellog or Brad’s soldier friends? Who will the final war be against?
It would be insane to think everyone will survive the season, so leave your predictions in the comments on who you think will survive and who will perish. Do you think Kiera will make her way home or will a future version of her son find his mom? What are your hopes for this final season?
The fast pace of this episode indicates that the show was aware they had a lot of ground to cover in very few episodes. Since they knew this was the final season I predict that the ending will be satisfying, but only time will tell. I just hope that by knowing this was the end they plotted it out to close up all the loose ends. It is always frustrating when a show ends and doesn’t give appropriate closure to its characters.
Next week the team has to figure out how to get Emily back. What bargains are they willing to make? What are they willing to sacrifice to bring her home?
Tune in to SyFy next Friday at 11/10c for the second episode of the season, Rush Hour, and if you’re in Canada be sure to tune in to Showcase on the same night at 9 et/pt for the third episode of the season, Power Hour.
These reviews will be put up according to the SyFy airing which is a week behind the Canadian airing on Showcase. Because of that please respect international viewers who may be a week behind and do not post spoilers or comments for any episode beyond the one being reviewed here.
Hit the comments with your thoughts about this episode and your predictions of what may happen as the series nears its end.
About the Author - Aimee Hicks
Aimee works for a local newspaper and has a BA in Broadcasting and Cinema. She has been a TV lover since before she really understood what TV was. She has a long list of shows that she loves to watch and can be found on twitter (@ahicks83) live tweeting about each new episode whenever she can. A list of her favorite shows includes (but is not limited to) the following: 12 Monkeys, Orphan Black, Outlander, Chasing Life, Scorpion, The 100, The Night Shift, Bitten, Black Sails, 2 Broke Girls, Arrow, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Chicago Fire, Chicago PD, Continuum, Lost Girl, Faking It, Falling Skies, Finding Carter, Once Upon A Time, Orange Is The New Black, Switched At Birth, The Fosters, The Flash, The Originals, Teen Wolf, Under The Dome, & Z Nation. The upcoming shows she is most excited about are: Supergirl, Dark Matter, UnReal, Blindspot, Lucifer, Legends of Tomorrow, Stitchers, Recovery Road, Shadowhunters, Quantico, Code Black, Heartbreaker, and Chicago Med. She has a large and passionate dislike of ""reality"" TV, especially ""reality"" dating shows, but has a weakness for Americas Got Talent and So You Think You Can Dance. But those two don't really count as ""reality"" shows, at least that's how she justifies those guilty pleasures. She was the original creator and co-founder of LOST Video Island (lostvideo.net) which is still operating under the management of the very capable and skilled group she turned it over to.
You can email her at aimee@spoilertv.com.
