We learn something pretty quickly in Second Degree. That it’s quickly turning into Kiera, Alec, and Carlos versus Liber8. As loyalties are tested and people reveal themselves to be two-faced it’s turning into a race to stop whatever Liber8 is planning.
With the trial of Julian coming up, Carlos must testify in court, as well as Alec and his mother. It’s a very public trial, bringing with it Julian supporters and protestors. Because it’s such a big case, Jim Martin attends the trial as well. You remember him, Carlos’s friend, running for mayor, sometimes goes by the call sign Helo on the Battlestar Galactica. Anyways, so a lot of people are involved in the trial, but Kiera notices that one of the people on the jury stand looks anxious.
Investigating into his life, they find out that Liber8 has captured his family and threatening him with them in order to make sure that Julian gets off as an innocent. Carlos and Kiera use their abilities to take out the guards and save the family. It’s kind of hilarious watching Carlos see where all her skills come from, aka her suit, as well as watching him figure out her timeline.
I like that they haven’t made it that big of a deal for Carlos. He’s not always shocked and terrified by her power, sometimes he sees it and shrugs it off, understanding but no longer questioning. We also get to see what Kiera’s mind is like hooked up to the power of that slice of metal orange from the future.
Anyways, they save the family and get back to the trial. Alec’s mother takes the witness bench and lies in court, basically making it so that Alec has to either lie to save his mother or tell the truth and risk losing both of them. He decides to tell the truth, and just as he does Carlos and Kiera rush in with the news about the juror with the kidnapped family. Forcing them into a bench trial, the judge deliberates that Julian is innocent due to self defense.
It’s all bogus, but we slowly learn that everyone is in Liber8’s pocket. Whether it’s the judge or Jim Martin or even Betty.
On the other side of town, Gardiner searches for Elena’s missing body as well as some of the other time travelers. Kiera allows him to continue the investigation and this eventually works out into them working together to figure out who is impersonating agents from Sector 6 and bringing these bodies in.
Also, can we talk about how crazy Alec’s girlfriend is? While, I know that they’re going to make her side with Alec to some degree, given the nature of their relationship, but still she definitely killed a man in her own house. I’m still not sure what is her true intention, but she seems at the very least, loyal to Alec at some points.
We also get some flashes to future!Julian, paralleled to his own trial, in which he is tried as the Butcher of New Pemberton, for committing high treason and mass murder, but is not sent to be executed. Instead he is sent to corporate detention because of Alec. All this goes to show is that even in the future Alec is giving Julian grief.
A lot of this episode was me going “What?” and then gasping at the realization of what was going on. So this episode was a lot about Alec, more specifically future Alec. There’s a philosophical message about choice as the show continues to toy with time paradoxes. The enemies continue to blame Alec for things that his future self will do and Kellogg keeps pushing Alec to make him money for products he will invent. There’s a lot of expectation.
Garza, who we haven’t seen in a while, kidnaps him after killing everyone in his house. When Kiera arrives on scene Alec is gone already. Of course Emily is also there but has no idea what is going on. However, this gives Kiera a chance to scan Emily and she finds something about her not quite right, though doesn’t have time to ask more questions given Alec’s missing status. Anyways, Garza captures Alec and intends to kill him on the orders of Alec’s future self, giving more light to the involvement of Alec in Liber8’s plots.
The episode flashes back and forth, from Garza and Alec in the future to them in the present. Both mimic each other as Garza is given the choice whether or not she wants to kill Alec, both times she chooses not to. I thought this was some interesting character development for Garza, given the fact that she’s always been a cool character, but not very well explored. This episode proved that she is intelligent, observant, and even a little compassionate.
There’s also a fairly good portion of the main plot of the season with has something to do with Escher or the Freelancer time travelers. Kiera spends most of her time jumping between the checking up on Alec and then searching for evidence of the Freelancers. It’s shown that they have hand tattoos of symbols/dots between each finger of their hand and that is how they are marked. She works with Gardiner in tracking who these people are.
However, when Gardiner gets closer to the truth, Kiera is helping Alec survive. Going in alone he is shot point blank, three times. I swear I never saw that coming. I figured they would have used him more but they killed him off so early I was stunned. I wonder how Kiera is going to react when she finds out he is dead, or better what the hell is going to happen when she realizes that Escher’s got the same marks between his fingers.
Also an interesting side portion of the episode was Alec wondering about Jason being his father. I feel like the fandom already knows that he’s the father, however that doesn’t mean Alec does and how is it going to work when they find out the truth? Alec is so busy working with Jason on the slice that Kiera obtained that sometimes he doesn’t even have time for Kellogg, so that relationship is starting to go up in flames. We’ll see in the coming week what is in store for our favorite time traveller and her nerdy sidekick.
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