For a while now, Continuum fans have been in limbo, with no word of whether the show would be renewed or cancelled. The third season ended many months ago, yet there was no word on a fourth season, if any.

At long last, the wait is over, and it’s both good news and bad news.

The good news is Continuum will return for a fourth season. The bad news is that it’s the final season, and it will only be six episodes. It’s not so much a new season as it is a mini-series to wrap up the show’s story.

But at least we will get a proper ending. Far too many sci-fi shows have been left hanging without a satisfactory end. I even went so far as to say part of me wished the show had ended with the third season finale, purely because I worried we would never get a proper conclusion.

A mere six more episodes is nowhere near the four more seasons the show’s creator wanted, but it’s definitely better than nothing. And to be perfectly honest, as much as I love Continuum, I’m not sure there was enough potential story in the concept to carry it that long. It deserves more than just six more episodes, but seven seasons was always a bit pie-in-the-sky, for more reasons than one.

But in the greater scheme of sci-fi’s struggle on television, this is still a win. Six episodes is less than any fan would want, but it’s far better than no ending at all. Kudos to Showcase for letting us all have closure.

For my part, I look forward with glee to the final season, even as I wish for more. Every season of Continuum has been a marked improvement over the one before it. Given the utterly stellar conclusion to the third season, I can only imagine the final episodes will be nothing short of spectacular.

I suppose now would be a good time to begin speculating on what Continuum’s conclusion will look like.

Personally, I hope we don’t see some fairy tale ending where Kiera gets her future back and lives happily ever after with her son and her husband. Such a positive conclusion has its appeal, but it would waste the character development surrounding Kiera letting go of her future, and her husband was kind of a jerk anyway. Plus, it’d be a bit awkward, what with the whole Brad situation.

I get the feeling Kellogg is probably going to die. Alec was certainly giving him the death stare at the end of last season, and I don’t think six episodes is enough time to give him a proper redemption story.

I have a feeling their ultimate goal is to have Alec and Julian cooperate to create a better future, but I’m not sure how I’d feel about that. The problem is Julian has been portrayed as so nasty for so long that it’s going to be very hard to accept him as anything but a self-serving douchecanoe.

I hope Carlos gets some time to shine. He’s a pretty good character, but he’s always playing second fiddle. He deserves his moment to be the hero. I also hope we get to see Emily being badass some more, if only because I like Magda Apanowicz.