MovieChat Forums > Continuum (2013) Discussion > Can the series have a happy ending?

Can the series have a happy ending?

posted 9 years ago by gswan
15 replies | jump to latest

Can the series have a happy ending, without upsetting detail guys, like me, who really paid attention to how the show portrayed time travel in the first three seasons?

Last summer I was feeling grumpy, and betrayed, because the time travel technology used by evil Kellogg, and his minions from the alternate dystopia in an alternate 2037, seemed incompatible and inconsistent with that used by Alec and the freelancers. An interview with show creator Simon Barry seemed to hint at a happy ending, where Kiera was re-united with her son. That made me grumpy too.

I felt pretty sure, during episode 1.1, that Kiera shouldn't be able to return "home" to the 2077 of execution day. Subsequent episodes, particularly the one where a time traveler's grandmother is prematurely murdered, confirmed for me that when time forks, events on the forks are insulated from one another. Alec's time travel technology only seemed to enable travel along the current branch of time. It didnt let the traveler tunnel to alternate branches of time.

In some other works of fiction, members of the time patrol not only enter the spatial destination they are headed to, and the time they are going to, but they also enter other coordinates that let them navigate to all kinds of other branches of time. For this kind of time machine, travel up and down the current branch of time would be a special case.

Brad Tonkin didn't use the time travel technology Kellogg seems to have commissioned, to travel back to 2013. He was sent back via an abandoned freelancer time tram. It looks like Kellogg's time travel technology, unlike Alec's time travel, requires time transceivers at both the sending and receiving times. Brad's primary role seems to have been to carry back the beacon, a time travel receiver large enough to receive just one squad of soldiers.

Kellogg-2037's trusted lieutenant Marcellus convinces Kellogg-2015 to suply resources from Piron to build a mysterious device, to their specifications. It is a larger receiver, large enough to receive a small army.

Well, during my grumpy summer I complained Kellogg couldn't send comrades to help Brad unless they used a different kind of time travel -- one that could tunnel between branches. And Simon Barry has done that. Kellogg's time travel technology only works across branches.

So, I am now ready not to be completely disappointed by a happy ending where Kiera re-unites with adorable young Sam Cameron.

Alec called the Kellogg device something like a "bound wormhole". He told Kiera he thought he could hack it, to send her back to 2077.

Great! But since it needs a receiver, does he use the timesphere in 2077 as the receiver? Can he make it work without a receiver? If he does use the timesphere in 2077 he really can only use it to transmit to the execution chamber, right back to back to it transmitting Kiera and Liber8 to 2012.

But wait, Marcellus said the transmitter and receiver had to be at the exact same physical locations, on their respective branches of time.

If Kiera does arrive back home, in 2077, it should be the same terrible 2077 she left. She didn't know it was terrible then, but she does now.

[–] Ripe_Legend 9 years ago

That depends... would you call an ending to Battlestar Galactica a happy ending or not?

I can see an ending where they are successful and build a better future than they came from, but at the same time none of them get their own happy ending.

[–] gswan 9 years ago

That depends... would you call an ending to Battlestar Galactica a happy ending or not?

My opinion on Battlestar Galactica would be worthless. I never watched a single episode of the remake. I think I watched one episode of the original, but it had very little about the backstory. I have a vague recollection that the Galactica was escorting a fleet of refugees, who were seeking a lost mythical planet called "Earth".

If I got that correct, I have no idea if the final episode has them reaching Earth, or even if they settle on some other friendly planet.

[–] ChanceX74 9 years ago

This just invites numerous jokes about the Conquest of the Earth TV Movie and the ensuing Galactica 1981 series.

Believe me, other than the name, many design cues, and the most basic foundation between shared Macguffins, the two Galacticas have virtually no relation to each other.

[–] niks_foonts 9 years ago

An interview with show creator Simon Barry seemed to hint at a happy ending, where Kiera was re-united with her son.

Which interview was this? Can you post a link? I agree with you. I would be terribly disappointed if Keira ends back in the same 2077 she came from after knowing how bad a future it is. And I would be equally disappointed if they came up with some contrived way for the future to be happier and Keira to still have her son be exactly the same. The tragedy of Keira is what made her story more compelling.

[–] gswan 9 years ago

I mentioned the URL when I originally commented on the interview. Another viewer
had mentioned the interview in an earlier thread, and had offered the URL in it.

Sadly, the imdb's policy of erasing comments makes the URLS in those articles unavailable.

I'll do some google searches, and leave an update here, if I can find the interview.

[–] gswan 9 years ago

Which interview was this? Can you post a link?

Found it! http://www.indiewire.com/article/how-the-magic-economics-of-canadian-sci-fi-tv-helped-create-continuum-20141209

Among the threads where it was discussed: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1954347/board/nest/238048030

Enjoy!

[–] KthulhuX 9 years ago

There's always the possibility of the ambiguous ending. Kiera and gang stop the invasion from Kellogg 2037's future, and Kiera travels back to 2077....but we don't actually see her in 2077, and have no idea what the "new" 2077 looks like.

[–] gswan 9 years ago

There's always the possibility of the ambiguous ending. Kiera and gang stop the invasion from Kellogg 2037's future, and Kiera travels back to 2077....but we don't actually see her in 2077, and have no idea what the "new" 2077 looks like.

But didn't Simon Barry promise viewers a shocking surprise ending.http://www.indiewire.com/article/how-the-magic-economics-of-canadian-sci-fi-tv-helped-create-continuum-20141209

Is your speculation consistent with the promises he made in this interview?

Your reference to a "new" 2077. There is no question that the 2077 that unfolds from the current moment will be very different from the 2077 of execution day in episode 1.1. But why would Kiera want to go there? Adorable young Sam Cameron, her son, is back in the 2077 of execution day.

I can see ways she might travel to a 2077 that unfolds from the present moment, but I can't imagine why she would want to, since (1) young Sam Cameron is unlikely to exist in that 2077; (2) if he is born in the 2077 that unfolds from the present moment, he wouldn't be motherless. Her doppelganger, who knows nothing about the evil 2077, and probably knows nothing about her, will be that Sam Cameron's mother. There is no guarantee she will even like her doppelganger, or her doppelganger's children.

[–] gswan 8 years ago

I can see ways she might travel to a 2077 that unfolds from the present moment, but I can't imagine why she would want to, since (1) young Sam Cameron is unlikely to exist in that 2077; (2) if he is born in the 2077 that unfolds from the present moment, he wouldn't be motherless. Her doppelganger, who knows nothing about the evil 2077, and probably knows nothing about her, will be that Sam Cameron's mother.

Called it.

[–] DebLovesBeccy 8 years ago

Good call. I have done that a few times with other TV shows too and my friends say I am psychic. 😂

_____________________________

It don't matter if it's raining
Nothing can phase me
I make my own sunshine
And if you think you can break me
Baby, you're crazy
I make my own sunshine

[–] ManuelManipulation 7 years ago

I wonder what would have ended up happening with 'original' Keira in the new safe world..... Probably works for Sadler, but the pinning for her son might lead her to some aberrant behavior?

At least Kellogg becomes dinner.

[–] gswan 7 years ago

Probably works for Sadler, but the pinning for her son might lead her to some aberrant behavior?

She adapted to 2012 pretty quickly. Was the jump from her 2077 to 2012 more jarring than the jump from 2015 to the different 2077?

As you pointed out, she was friendless when she arrived in 2012. And she is not friendless in the new future. There is not only Alec, Julian and Kagame, but she is probably a hero.

She had a purpose, in 2012 -- neutralize Liber8. But she has a job, if she wants it, in the new 2077. She is a cyborg, carrying her 2077's Protector implants. Even if the new 2077 has technology that is a big advance over 2015, it will be a different technology, and bioscientists will want to study the other tech.

Cops, and the military in the new future may want to consider adopting some of the CPS technology, and she can provide training.

Let's not forget how hot she is... and maybe famous too. Her 2977 eqivalent to Tinder would be overflowing with offers.

[–] wossonjohn85 8 years ago

I've just this minute finished watching it. This was exactly the issue I was having in the lead up to the finale and even in the final few minutes I was still worried that they would give her the 'happy ending', as soon as they showed Sam I was just begging old Alec to stop her... and then he did, it would have completely changed my opinion on the show if they had given her the happy ending.

On reflection I'm glad they went this route as it makes complete sense that Keira wanted to go back to 2077, as she was clinging on to the hope that Sam would have been there. She didn't even consider that she was from a different timeline so there was no way that she could have been his mother. Rules of this were made clear very early on in the show and I'm glad that they stuck with them. Although it does bother me slightly that young Alec didn't even speculate that this was a possibility, but then again that would have robbed us of witnessing Keira's realisation of what had happened and the bittersweet ending that we were given... which I loved!

[–] tristaneverett-93859 7 years ago

She didn't even consider that she was from a different timeline so there was no way that she could have been his mother.

Hold on.

Are you all saying that dopelgangers aren't the same DNA?

Sam is still her (biological)son isn't he? Yes this Sam in "nice 2077" doesn't have the same experiences as Sam in "original 2077" since he grew up in a different environment.

But if you took DNA from both Kieras and Sams they'd be exactly the same right?

ie he is still her son. But she knows that unless she killed her own dopelganger and replaced her without Sam knowing that that would be the only way to "play mum" again.

[–] wossonjohn85 7 years ago

Are you all saying that dopelgangers aren't the same DNA?

Nope, I'm simply saying that she didn't consider that because she's going to a different timeline that the only way for there to be a version of Sam there, would be for there to also be a version of herself. Basically she couldn't be reunited with her son that she left in the first episode.

The "nice 2077" version of Sam is not Kiera's son in the sense that she didn't give birth to him or even raise him, all the memories that she has of her son do not apply to this version of Sam.