Rachel Nichols on Continuum's Huge Season 2 Change, a 'Very Big Problem' & Kiera's Meltdown
As bleak as the future (or the prospect of returning to it) may seem for Continuum‘s Kiera Cameron, it shines that brightly for Rachel Nichols. Because just as Season 2 of the sci-fi series premieres Stateside on Syfy (Friday at 10/9c), Season 3 has already been greenlit (up north).
TVLine spoke with Nichols the day before that news broke, discussing her hit drama, how the time paradox presented in the finale brings about a “huge change,” her supersuit’s new trick and more.
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TVLINE | Looking at your tweets, you’ve been very busy shooting the show, this past weekend was not very weekend-y.
I’m not really that busy, I just like to joke on the weekends. I’m actually covered in bruises, which I think is secretly quite awesome. They’re like badges of honor. My legs, my arms…. My boyfriend and I went to one of his work functions this week and he goes, “You have to wear tights and a long-sleeve dress, because I’m not explaining why you look like you’ve been murdered.”
TVLINE | Too funny. Turning to the new season, how much time has lapsed on screen?
We pick up right where we left off. The building has come down, Kiera has gone to crazy Jason, she realizes that she’s not getting home [to 2077]….
TVLINE | She saw the time machine made out of bicycle tires….
…and Jason was wearing a tin foil helmet, God love him. And she hears from Alec that he’s read the message from himself, that he’s found out why he sent her [to 2012].
TVLINE | How things are different between Alec and Kiera now that he’s revealed that?
It’s a huge, huge change for them, and I love it because it’s a very different relationship. In Season 1, I’m his No. 1 girl and he’s my No. 1 guy; I need him and he loves helping me. But in Season 2, we go through our ups and downs.
TVLINE | Well, that’s the big debate. What does he do with this information? Do you work to avoid destiny or to fulfill it?
Absolutely. It’s very confusing for him and he obviously doesn’t know what the “right” thing to do is. Initially, he’s sort of working at a computer store, living in a decrepit hovel trying to figure out what he needs to do with the rest of his life. For Erik Knudsen, who is a fantastic actor, it’s a very dynamic season.
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TVLINE | Could it be that future Alec is not as sinister as we thought?
It’s funny — as Rachel, I want to say yes. As Kiera, I want to say no. It’s very hard to envision someone like young Alec turning into someone like old Alec. I have a line in Season 2, “Every serial killer was somebody’s baby once” — which is not to say that old Alec is a serial killer, but every monster was someone’s baby. Overall, I’m going to say that “he is as evil as he seems to be,” but then he also made the decision to send people back and change the future. I want to believe that he wanted to send people back to change the future for the better. Maybe he had that late-in-life realization that you’ve done wrong, and you want to make amends?
TVLINE | What is Kiera’s relationship with the Vancouver PD moving forward?
Kiera starts off Season 2 as a lone wolf. She has alienated Alec, not through her own doing, so Carlos is in many respects her only friend, one that she works with everyday. He’s her partner, yet she lies to him every day. He sticks his neck out for her. He defends her. Then she disappears in front of Agent Gardiner in the season finale, and Carlos is left holding the bag, like, “Great, way to be a deserter!” So she’s very much rogue now, working outside of the VPD to avoid the constraints — and [Inspector] Dillon is supportive of that. Carlos, though, the good, moral compass that he is, is very wary of Kiera having this sort of power. He’s very much “by the book” and yet it seems that Dillon and I are sort of branching out into this form of privatized police. It’s very straining for him, but I will say that it does end up bringing them very much closer than they were in Season 1.
TVLINE | Speaking of Gardiner, how much should we be worrying about Nicholas Lea’s character? He seems to be operating on some whole other, unspoken agenda.
Be very worried. We don’t know where he comes from, really. We don’t know a lot about where he gets his information. He talked to me about Section VI, which is something that Kiera invented with Alec. He’s a very big problem for her and it is blatantly clear that he’s not going to let it go. He saw her disappear, and I wouldn’t let that go either!
TVLINE | I think what makes him even scarier is he appears very much an Everyman. He doesn’t have the sinister goatee, he’s not 6-foot-4 and brawny….
He’s Mr. Ubiquitous. He can be smarmy, he can be charming, he can be sinister, angry. He can also be very sweet. He can do it all, so you’re never quite sure what to make of him.
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TVLINE | The “WTF?” scenes that bookend the Season 2 premiere…. Are we kind of planting the seed for a whole new branch of mythology?
[Those scenes] are very, very important. Absolutely. Without giving anything away, I can’t express enough how important it is. I can’t really say anything else, but… it’s very important.
TVLINE | And lastly, is the “supersuit” going to be doing any new tricks this season?
Yes, actually, it is — in Episode 5, which was the toughest episode of TV I’ve ever shot, and it aired here in Canada last Sunday. It was just as painful to watch for me as it was to shoot, but I was very proud of it. There’s a new mechanism in this suit, one Kiera has never experienced, that presents itself during a sort of “heightened” emotional meltdown of hers.
TVLINE | What, does it give her, like, a big digital hug?
[Laughs] Yeah, exactly. No, it’s an on-board shrink. And when your levels get to a certain point, the shrink comes in says, “Hi. I’m shutting you down until we talk through this and your levels are back to normal.” It’s an incredible mechanism within a very aggressive, beautiful and heart-breaking episode. It’s definitely my favorite mechanism of this season.
Want more scoop on Continuum, or for any other show? Email insideline@tvline.com and your question may be answered via Matt’s Inside Line.
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