Continuum - Final Hour

It's not uncommon for a series final to feel rushed or drawn out, but it is less common for the final episode of a series to feel a bit of both. I'm curious to know how Simon Barry's full vision of the series (likely twice as long as the 39 episodes made for air) may have played out differently than the show's truncated final season involving an army from the future, Kiera's (Rachel Nichols) last chance to make it home, tearful goodbyes, final betrayals, unexpected alliances, and a melancholy ending that is befitting the tone of Continuum. As it is we can only judge the show that was, rather than how it might have been.

After allowing Travis (Roger R. Cross) to go out with a bang (literally) in the previous episode, "Final Hour" centers on Kiera's attempt to stop a full invasion from the future Kellog's (Stephen Lobo) soldiers. While too much of the show's First Season felt underdevoloped and unnecessarily stretched, the show ends with a six-episode final season that feels equally rushed. Thankfully the finale hits most of the right notes allowing Continuum to bow out gracefully. The final episode attempts to wrap-up the multiple futures, leaves more than a few question unanswered, wracks up an impressive body count, and allows out heroine to find a way to both save the day and make it home to a future that is better than the one she left.

There's certainly a cost to the time traveler's adventures which leaves her with a profound, if hollow, victory given the alternate timeline she returns to where her son already has a mother to care for him. We also get Kiera's reunion with both the older Alec (William B. Davis) and a more peaceful Kagame (Tony Amendola) than the Protector has ever had the pleasure of meeting. Although it still leaves several questions unanswered (Who was the Traveler?? What was in Jason's note? What happened to Chen, the Freelancers, and the remaining Liber8 members trapped in the past?), "Final Hours" is a fitting finale for a show better than most of sci-fi that Syfy has broadcast over the years allowing the characters, and show, an emotional farewell that echoes the themes of the entire series.