Killjoys
Season 1, Episode 9: “Enemy Khlyen”
Air date: August 14, 2015
Grade: A
Prepare to have your minds blown in this week’s episode of Killjoys, “Enemy Khlyen” as D’avin reunites with Dutch and Johnny in a high stakes gamble that forever changes the course of their lives. No pressure or anything.
At first we see how life has degenerated for poor D’av (Luke MacFarlane), who is stuck in Westerly claiming low-level warrants (since he has no ship of his own). Pree (Thom Allison) has graciously given him room and board while he helps out with odd jobs around the bar. Dutch (Hannah John-Kamen) makes an unexpected visit and, yes, it’s super awkward. D’av tries to tidy up quickly and, in an attempt to fill the silence, tries to play gracious host by offering her a drink. The level five killjoy though can’t really stay and was just there to drop off his stuff. When she asks how he’s doing he responds with, “This lone wolf absolutely. I’m a free man running wild and free.” Riiiiiiight.
John-Kamen and MacFarlane did a beautiful job in this scene with their forced smiles, awkward silences and small talk (cushions were mentioned!). I wanted to move on from that as much as the characters did I’m sure.
Back on Lucy (voiced by Tamsen McDonough), John (Aaron Ashmore) and Dutch are sparring and exchanging their usual banter when the younger Jaqobis tells his partner that he’s finally got a way to track Khlyen (Rob Stewart) down. With the help of a woman named Carlene, they are able track the ex-tutor by honing on his specific neural pathway. Dutch gets hooked up to a machine where she’ll be projected to wherever Khlyen is physically located. There is a high risk of bodily injury however as the procedure is completely experimental.
Once the program is engaged, Dutch finds herself in a generic looking hallway. She explores and comes across a strange bowl with liquid in it and then wanders into another area where the number 71 is printed on the walls. While she eventually she sees Khlyen walking towards her, she begins to experience severe pain and Johnny wants to pull her out. But Dutch still doesn’t know where she is exactly and refuses to go until she finds out. It’s a tense moment but as soon as she wakes up in her own body, she tells Johnny that she knows where Khlyen is. Her crazy former mentor is inside the RAC. YES, the same RAC that they are a part of. I screamed at my screen asking what the hell was going on.
Johnny and Dutch feel the same way as they decide to have a drink at Pree’s. D’avin cautiously comes up to them with some hoc, seeing that they could use another drink. You can’t help but feel like he’s trying to get invited back to sit at the cool table. Johnny though is mum on what they’ve discovered at first, but Dutch says that D’av’s tactical background could be helpful and they fill him in on Khlyen’s location. The other Jaqobis is dumbstruck as well as two explain that they need to get up all the way to the top levels (level 71 specifically) where the RAC executives are located.
D’avin excuses himself to go talk to Alvis (Morgan Kelly), a plan brewing in his mind on how he can help his former teammates. Once he’s gotten what he’s needed, he goes to Lucy and tells them that he knows how they can get into the RAC.
As they approach the station and are asked for their reason for landing, we find out it’s to formally dissolve their team. I’m crying a little on the inside at this point. In the next scene, a RAC officer is questioning their motives for terminating affiliations with D’av when Turin bursts in to take over. He’s out for Dutch and knows something fishy is going on. He turns the meeting into an inquiry into the possible suspensions of their reclamation licenses. The elder Jaqobis puts on a great act by confessing that he beat Dutch then stabbed his brother. Now he wants nothing to do with them because they ruined his life. Turin buys the bull momentarily and agrees to their request. He then leaves the room to fetch another rep for D’avin for attacking his former teammates. Also it’s hilarious that Turin dubbed them “Team Awesome Force,” albeit sarcastically.
Once the man disappears Team Awesome Force gets into action. D’avin releases a targeted pulse charge which takes out the power within the entire station. It was a little something something he picked up from Alvis. This buys them a bit of time to get up to level 71. Dutch goes off to find Khlyen while Johnny is in search of that weird bowl he theorizes is a computer of sorts.
After a lot of stair climbing, Dutch makes it up to Khlyen’s office where her ex-tutor has been waiting for her. They fight for a bit but the older man is seriously kicking her ass. Dutch takes out her trump card, a deadly poison that she is going to inject into her body unless he answers her questions (like what the hell is he doing inside the RAC). Earlier we had a flashback scene where a young Dutch almost ate a poisoned fruit but Khlyen had stopped her. In the memory, he still looked the same and had told the young girl that her father had hired him to train her. Back in the present, Dutch explains that she’s finally realized that his weakness is her and injects herself with the poison to prove that she isn’t bluffing.
Meanwhile Johnny finds the bowl and is able to access it by changing his voice to sound like Khlyen’s. He manages to store some of the liquid from the bowl into a small vial before the alarm goes off. Back on level 35, D’avin is tied to a chair being interrogated by Turin who knows that they’re behind the blackout. The officer asks what’s so special about Dutch that she started as a level five (the highest level supposedly) and that any complaints about her virtually vanished. He knows someone is protecting her from within (and now we know that Khlyen had something to do with it) but it’s infuriating him that he doesn’t know why. Lastly the man asks D’avin why Dutch has been slated as Red 17, but of course the elder Jaqobis has no idea what that means. Johnny then tells his brother through their communicators that he needs to get back to Lucy asap since he’s triggered the alarm and a lockdown has been initiated.
Turning our attention back to Dutch and Khlyen, she’s asking the man what he’s doing there and he in turn tells her that she doesn’t even know what the RAC really is and that she’s asking the wrong questions. She switches gears and shoots back, “Were you always a part of it, even in my world? Was that what you were training me for?” He responds yes to both. Khlyen then explains that he came back into her life now because she took a level five warrant (a kill warrant), which told him that she was done running and was finally ready. She then follows up with the question that’s been bothering her the most, why did he choose her? But before he can answer another killjoy enters the office and Khlyen shoots him in cold blood. Just as swiftly though Dutch grabs the weapon from him and stands up, very much not poisoned. Psych! Her ex-mentor gives a smile of approval for her acting abilities. He then attempts to goad her into shooting him but she refuses, saying that’s not how she’s gonna destroy him before bolting out of the room.
D’avin and Johnny make it back to Lucy, but the ship isn’t able to leave while the RAC is in lockdown. Dutch gets to the docking bay and tells the brothers that she’s going to disengage Lucy so that they can leave and that she’ll figure out her own way off the station. The boys try to stop Lucy to starting up the thrusters but Dutch has engaged a master protocol, code name “Free Bird.” After she sends them on their way and walks back towards the main floors, Turin appears and shoots her in the leg. He goes into a monologue about hunting these little critters and pulling their wings off, then telling Dutch that he’s not sure they’re on the same side. In the next moment he literally gets stabbed in the back. Enter Khlyen who says, “We’re not.” This is my favorite Khlyen moment ever.
In his own weird way, the creepy guy really does care for Dutch and is continually protecting her. As he carries the bleeding killjoy to an escape pod, Khlyen says that no harm will come to the Jaqobis since she’ll need her whole team for what’s coming. As he’s strapping her in, Dutch asks him why does he keeps saving her and he responds by asking her what was the moral of the story he had told her as a child. She answers that in the end the wasp and the bird save each other. And with that Khlyen says that he needs her to live and gets up to leave the pod. But Dutch still has questions though: did her father really send him and what is he? He turns around and says, “I’m level six.” Ok, uhh WHAT THE HELL!!!! That is both awesome and scary.
Back at Old Town, Alvis gets arrested and beaten by The Company for harboring weapons. This is likely going to spark the resistance movement to doing something spectacularly big in the season finale.
Dutch manages makes her way to D’avin’s room with her injured leg and Johnny leaves to find Pawter (Sarah Power). Still in shock, she tells D’av that Khlyen is level six and that she thinks he is telling the truth. He cups the side of her face in his hand, saying that he knows a thing or two about bad dads and that if he ever finds Khlyen, he’s going to kick his ass for hurting her. Aww shucks. But the awesome badass that she is, Dutch merely smiles and asks him how many breakups do they have to go through before he realizes that she doesn’t need him to fight her battles.
The episode ends with Khlyen dragging Turin’s body away to an undisclosed location within the RAC. The stabbed guy though doesn’t know how to shut his mouth when he threatens the level six agent that he knows what he is and what he does up there. There’s something so satisfying knowing that he’s now prey to a scarier and more lethal beast.
With the season finale next week, there are still so many questions left unanswered! What is the RAC really if Khlyen is actually a level six agent? Why is he still not aging? What is the master plan for Dutch and this mysterious “Red 17?” Johnny must have stolen something critical from the bowl computer since we saw Khlyen looking majorly pissed when he saw what happened. How do the Jaqobis brothers fit into Khlyen’s plan? Who is he sending them after? Does it have something to do with the resistance? Has D’avin redeemed himself in the eyes of Dutch and Johnny by reporting himself and causing the blackout so that Team Awesome Force can truly reunite?
Here’s hoping we find out in the next episode. I can hardly wait and we definitely need a season two stat!
Killjoys airs Fridays on Syfy at 9/8 central.
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Images courtesy of Syfy.
