Killjoys
Season 1, Episode 8: “Come the Rain”
Air date: August 7, 2015
Grade: B+
After last week’s craziness on Killjoys Johnny, Dutch, and D’avin find themselves a broken team and the younger Jaqobis attempts to fix the situation. His older brother has isolated himself on the ship and is constantly drinking, while Dutch has been having meaningless sexual escapades to cope.
While we were all collectively shocked by Johnny’s (Aaron Ashmore) stabbing, he is in better health and is almost fully recovered under Pawter’s (Sarah Power) watchful eyes. The level 3 killjoy sends an urgent message to D & D who both rush to the bar, their concern adorably evident. While they expected some kind of emergency, Johnny lectures their current inability as a team to take on Khlyen (Rob Stewart) and on that note he’s accepted a low level warrant on their behalf. He is of course forcing the two to deal with their issues so things can get back to normal. Dutch (Hannah John-Kamen) gets onboard and reluctantly so does D’avin (Luke MacFarlane). The two leave to go see Bellus (Nora McLellan) for their briefing. At the Leith Bazaar, the pissed off warrant broker punches the elder Jaqobis in the gut for hurting Dutch then hands over a device that they need to deliver. Gotta love her.
Soon after they leave Westerly, a black rain warning goes off in Old Town with everyone panicking and sealing themselves indoors. Black rain is a deadly by product of nature and years of Company pollution filling the air with acidic particles. The Company apparently uses the bad weather it as a form of execution, where prisoners sentenced to death are bolted to the ground while the steady downpour slowly melts them away. Gross much?
Pree (Thom Allison) offers sanctuary to any patrons who found themselves stranded until the rain passed through. A group of shady individuals rush into the bar and you know they are up to no good. Sure enough, Johnny gets an alert for one of them, as does a Company soldier who stupidly decides to confront the man only to be outnumbered four to one. These folks had just hit an immigration center, killed two guards, and stolen a ton of seventh generation claim ids (that would allow entitle them to land on Leith). The situation escalates quickly and Johnny ushers Pawter and Pree out of the line of fire with a wise Alvis (Morgan Kelly) following them. The young Company captain starts shooting and all hell temporarily breaks lose. The criminals’ leader gets shot and Pawter offers to help save him. Johnny ends up having a heated conversation with the second-in-command criminal, trying to get into the other man’s head. The guy isn’t going for it though but at least allows Johnny to help Pawter upstairs.
We discover that good doctor, who had been acting odd since the beginning of the episode, is actually addicted to the drug jack and is going through withdrawal. She can’t operate on the injured dude because her hands are shaking too much. Pawter was actually on her way to meet with her dealer right before the black rain warning went off. With their lives on the line, Johnny volunteers to get her the drug so that she can function in the guise of getting necessary medical supplies. Unexpectedly Alvis lends a helping hand and acts as a guide in the underground tunnels below the bar after Pree shows them the entrance.
The scene with Johnny and Alvis in the tunnels is pretty fascinating to see as we learn a little more about the monk’s background. He grown up down there and new it like the back of his hand. It must be how his resistance group is getting around Westerly without getting caught. Alvis randomly comments that Johnny is really good at fixing things, noting that the killjoy didn’t have to help Pawter or anyone else at the bar and yet he did and continues to do so. We also come across a group of homeless people who treat the other man like he’s the second coming of Christ, though Alvis does convince one of them to give up his jack to the cause. You certainly get the feeling that there are more folks dedicated to this secret movement. The Company’s day of reckoning will likely happen soon.
As the two make their way back to the bar, they get stopped by a squad of Company guards. Johnny really has a way of with people and convinces the ranking officer to let him fix the situation upstairs before they come storming in (which likely will get all the civilians killed). Incidentally, the Company captain had been signaling his compatriots the whole time with a little beacon.
Johnny gives the jack to Pawter who takes the hit despite it being laced with something else. She momentarily freaks out though because she’s having a bad trip and is scared that she’s going to kill the injured criminal (the doc confesses to Johnny that the last time she operated high she killed her patient). The killjoy reassures her that she can do this and that he’s going to be there for her the whole time. Thankfully, Pawter performs a successful surgery. The younger Jaqobis then goes downstairs to tell the goons that their leader’s made it but he can’t walk and will have to be transported out. Second-in-command guy gets angry again and takes his frustration out on Company captain by throwing him out in the acid rain. Johnny goes outside after the man, saying to pissy dude that the captain was the way to get them to their ship.
When they get back inside, the Company squad is pounding on the entrance door from the basement and pissy dude is freaking out telling Johnny that he needs to fix this. This Jaqobis has had enough though and finally loses his cool.
“In the last ten days I’ve been attacked by face hugging biotech, stabbed by my brother, had major surgery, helped perform major surgery, been beaten, bullied, and burned. I am done fixing things!” You tell him, Johnny!
He then proceeds to swiftly shoot the three remaining criminals in the head with a nail gun. That was freaking badass. Cue shot of well deserved liquor.
Meanwhile, D’avin and Dutch are stuck onboard Lucy because it turns out that Johnny had set up the whole warrant as an exercise for his two teammates. He’d rigged Lucy to sit pretty until D’av and Dutch answered a series of questions truthfully. The two less than eager killjoys do their best to get through with lots of alcohol in the process. The whole endeavor finally got to the crux of the matter as Dutch confesses that doesn’t know how to trust D’avin anymore. She doesn’t hate him because he’s as much of a victim as Johnny and herself but she isn’t able to move on. She can’t direct her anger at him to start the healing process and so she’s stuck avoiding him. They really did try their best while stuck on Lucy. They were also about to be sucked into the black rain vortex and had to destroy Johnny’s little DNA device to enable the ship’s functions again.
D’avin goes to find Johnny in Old Town and admits that they are broken and until they can figure out the next step he’s off the ship. As a peace offering D’av gives his brother a Captain Apex comic book that he had given away back when they were kids. This isn’t going to fix the situation though and Johnny’s frustration boils over. We find out how hard it’s been for him since his older brother disappeared nine years ago and left him deal with their ailing mother and their abusive father. Johnny had to take care of their dad’s debts in addition and now won’t ever be able to go back home. On top of that he had asked D’avin not to sleep with Dutch and yet the guy did it anyway. Now he was done cleaning up after his brother who would have to fix his own mess. This is a defining moment for Johnny who’s been in more of a beta role to Dutch and D’avin’s alphas. Now he is clearly putting his needs first and to that I say bravo John Jaqobis.
We end with Dutch coming into Johnny’s room where he’s reading Captain Apex and she joins in on it. It’s nice to see them come back to a familiar sibling dynamic after everything that’s happened. We don’t know how they are going to get passed all of this but I’m guessing something along the lines of one of them being put in a terrible life or death situation. Regardless I loved this Johnny-centric episode as the character finally feels like he’s come into his own after standing up for himself both with the goons and with his brother.
With only two episodes left this season I’m looking forward to more Khlyen shenanigans, Dutch’s harem backstory, D’avin figuring out wtf he’s going to do next, and Pawter getting clean. Also I need more Fancy Lee, please come back!
Killjoys airs Fridays on Syfy at 9/8 central.
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Images courtesy of Syfy.
