“Matter of Time” is episode four of season one of Continuum.
In the previous episode, “Wasting Time”, Liber8’s membership effectively decreased by two. Curtis was killed when he tried to kill Kiera, and Kellog has effectively left the group. After Kiera tagged him, a recovered Travis left him behind tied to a chair. Travis used him as bait in an attempt to kill Kiera with the world’s dumbest booby-trap – when a bomb is activated after someone is longer resting on it, it should blow up immediately, not make an increasingly loud noise giving both Kiera and Kellog enough time to get away before it explodes. So Kellog may now be an ally – of sorts. Kiera also stole the bit of the time gadget that had been taken into police evidence at the end of “Fast Times”.
Once again, the episode opens in the future. Quite a few years earlier than previous times; Kiera’s son is just a baby. Then there is a power cut, which Cameron blames on terrorists.
It then goes back to the present. Past. Whatever. Alec is watching Kiera through her optical implants (or whatever they are) in the mirror as she tries to use mascara. Then the power goes out in her apartment. Carlos calls her and says he has something odd. Kellog meanwhile is making a lot of money, due to his foreknowledge of the future. He is also helping his family. The case Carlos called her about was regarding a scientist who has been killed with an unusual weapon. One which also went through multiple stories of the building he was in. Cameron can’t identify the weapon, partially because her suit got damaged in the previous episode. Elsewhere, Edouard Kagame, the leader of Liber8, arrives in the past. Some time after the others arrived. So why was his arrival delayed? The other members of Liber8 seem to be taking over a marijuana plantation.
The dead professor was working on antimatter containment. His assistant believes that the device that they were working on backfired. They had received death threats from a number of sources, including one that sounds like it’s the group that Alec’s stepfather is associated with, or a similar one. The military also wanted the technology, but the dead man refused. The backup files for the work are also missing. The assistant looks dodgy to both Carlos and Kiera. The research is a potential source of clean energy. Or advanced weaponry.
Then the military shows up and asks for all of the case files and tells them to drop the case. Carlos thinks Kiera might be to blame for this. She’s not, of course, but she takes it less personally than he does.
Both Liber8 and Kiera find out about Kagame’s appearance, and both want to find him. It’s also not clear who was responsible for the death of the scientist – there are a number of possibilities.