Killjoys 201 - "Dutch and the Real Girl"

“Hello. You might want to run in 5, 4,.. whoops! [BANG]” – Lucy

Yeah, Killjoys is back and there’s no subtlety about it. When your ship is as cheeky as Lucy, you know the rest of the crew are beyond reproach for sass, wit and butt kicking. And not in that order and often all at once. The season premiere has us knee deep in the action from the get go, making us all believe for just a tiny little minute that Dutch (Hannah John-Kamen) and John (Aaron Ashmore) have rescued D’avin (Luke Macfarlane) from the nefarious machinations of Khlyen (Rob Stewart). But alas, we find it’s just a fantastic dream of D’avin’s while he’s, surprisingly, resisting the “juice” that Khlyen and his minions have been administering to him on Arkyn. The team try and break through Arkyn’s defense shield only to almost destroy Lucy and themselves in the process and decide they need a new plan. And thus we have the makings of the episode, as Dutch and John, with the assistance of Pree (Thom Allison) — here’s where we get a lovely dollop of that sass – attempt to find the only known tech that can get past that shield. While John and Pree buy their way into a high stakes and high risk barter establishment where the tech was last spotted, they smuggle Dutch in to search for the tech in storage. And boy, do Ashmore and Allison steal the scene as a bickering couple! I can imagine the ad libs and laughs during takes on that one. (There better be outtakes on the DVD!) When Dutch finds the tech, “it” is actually a she, since it’s been embedded into Clara (Stephanie Leonidas), a young woman captured by the bandits who stole and used the tech. Dutch frees Clara from the hold, and they make a pact that Clara will help bust Lucy through Arkyn’s shields and rescue D’avin for her freedom. And seriously, that is one dynamic duo you do not want to mess with. And that’s not just because Clara has a freakin’ gun for an arm! She’s a hack mod with a bone to pick with her previous captors (I would not want to be a Connaver right now). With Clara on board – literally and figuratively – they can now go get D’avin.

But things are getting more intense down on Arkyn than Dutch imagined. Khlyen discovers D’avin is immune to the green goopy juice that allows Khlyen to convert people to his service as Level 6. And this is where things get interesting (as if they weren’t already): Even Khlyen has no idea why D’avin is immune to the drug, but in finding this out, Khlyen himself realizes that D’avin is too important to keep in the confines of Arkyn where someone else might discover D’avin’s uniqueness. But there’s more to D’avin’s experiences on Arkyn than just the attempted mind control. He’s recalling what he thinks are dreams but are actually memories from… other Level 6 members? It’s a good question, dammit, and we have to wait along with D’avin for an answer. In trying to escape, Khlyen is captured, but not before he helps D’avin to get out and reunite with the team. And as if there aren’t enough new questions, why did D’avin see Dutch in one of those memories of Arkyn and, as John asks, what the hell could scare Khlyen enough to let D’avin and the others go? We know Khlyen wants to protect Dutch, but not why or from whom. All we know is one of the guards mentions taking Khlyen to “The Lady”. I always love it when a show reveals our big bad might be overshadowed by a bigger baddie. The next episode can’t come soon enough!