“Minute by Minute” is episode one of season three of Continuum.
In the season two finale, “Second Time”, it was revealed that those called Freelancers apparently protect the timeline from those who would abuse and exploit the past, present and future using technology. Which is Kiera, Liber8 and the Sadlers in this case. Escher had stated he was Alec’s father, even though Alec presumed Jason was, thanks to the DNA test he had carried out. Escher is Alec’s father, and he had faked his own death to escape the Freelancers; the reason the DNA test linked Alec to Jason is because Alec is Jason’s father, not vice versa.
Alec had duped Kiera into bringing back the time travel device so that he could use it to stop Emily being killed in “Second Last”. He escaped using it before the Freelancers turned up at Piron, but everyone else (bar Travis, who Kiera knocked down a lift shaft) was captured and is being held by the Freelancers. Kiera is described by them as being a glitch, an anomaly in the continuum. Kiera actually had seen this before; older Alec had sent memories of this to her CMR in “Second Chances”. One of the Freelancers is Curtis, which was revealed in “Second Wave”; he looks rather less dead than last time he was seen. Carlos, along with Betty, have gone to Alec’s mother’s to meet Julian, and Inspector Dillon has a document from Piron setting out a new plan for law enforcement, called City Protection Service – CPS, or what Kiera was in the future. It’s all gotten rather complicated; not unusual when time travel is involved.
For once, this episode doesn’t open in the future. Probably. It starts with Alec materialising ion the place where he departed but at a different time. Then it goes to the prison where Kiera and the others are being held. There is a reference to Sadler not being a problem in this timeline – which suggests that there are multiple ones. Kiera is then taken by one of the Freelancers and chained to a table. Curtis says that she allowed Alec to manipulate her, so that he would use the time travel device for his own needs. Curtis wants to know when Alec is. It then goes to one week earlier, so this episode actually opened slightly in the past. Alec is hiding the time travel device outside the city. Kiera tells Curtis that Alec has gone to save Emily; he wants to know the exact sequence of events that led to her death. Kiera says that the Freelancers should know, as they were there, but Curtis wants them repeating. Or does he?
Kiera wants to know how Curtis is alive, as she killed him in “Wasting Time”. He says that soon she will know everything he does, and she will see the battlefield for the first time. There was a war which started a hundred years after Kiera’s birth, a war for time itself. Time technology fell into the hands of criminals, and to prevent further abuses an organisation was formed, a thousand years in the past, to prevent time travellers abusing history. The Freelancers themselves are not from the future, and discourage time travel in general. Time is not static, and there are multiple timelines. Alec’s use of the device has moved him into another, which means that Kiera’s future will not exist. The Freelancers aren’t able to do much to fix this – but Kiera can. So they want her help. Alec has caused a much larger change than Kiera and Liber8; him being missing from the timeline causes a much bigger problem than Liber8 and Kiera did.
Kiera is less than happy by the idea of working with the freelancers, given that they set her up for Gardiner’s death. On her way back to her cell, she passes Garza being escorted the other way, and they start causing problems. Not a good idea having two prisoners on the move at the same time.
In the past (more past than normal; time travel is definitely confusing) Alec is watching Emily, and himself, which has to be weird, when Jason approaches him. He wants to know who Alec is, given that there is another Alec wandering around. Alec explains and enlists Jason’s help. Alec is already changing events, such as stopping Travis’s theft of the CPS suit in “Second Skin”. His knowledge causes Kellog to become quickly disturbed, and tells him to concentrate on the real threat – Escher. Alec thinks that his plan is going to work, but it’s hardly going to be that easy. It seems that Alec has caused huge problems for Kiera and the others.
There are clips from events happening over the previous week, although sometimes with changes, thanks to the interference of future young Alec. Not future old Alec.