Killjoys Recap - S02E01 - "Dutch and the Real Girl"


Here we go - the first episode of the new Killjoys season. It primarily deals with resolution of last year's cliffhanger, but also weaves in clues to the main conspiracy plot. Plus, we get a kickass new cyborg female character.


We begin with the team seemingly reunited and storming the Red 17 facility where D'Avin was kept. But it doesn't take long for the show to confirm what everyone watching suspected from the start - it's all just a dream. Specifically, it's a dream D'Avin is having under the influence of some sort of green substance that's been injected into his spine. The techs give him more of it, ending his pleasant dream of being in Dutch's arms and causing him horrendous pain. Say no to green liquid, kids.

But as it turns out, his dream sequence is not that far off. Dutch and Johnny (joined by their buddy, Pree the gay former bartender) are on board Lucy, in orbit over Arkyn, having found out the location of the base he was taken to. Unfortunately for them, there's a defensive field covering the moon's atmosphere, which burns up anything trying to get through without proper authorization. After a head-on approach (courtesy of Dutch) almost kills them, they start looking for a more subtle way to land. Thanks to a tip/warrant from Dutch's handler Bellus, they learn of a family of pirates who used to operate from Arkyn, having a shield protecting their ship from the field. Unfortunately, the shield is in Eulogy - a bad guy bar on Westerley, where only people with a criminal record and a high entry fee can enter (as one of Bellus's Killjoys found out the hard way). Luckily for them, they have someone with a record - Pree. We don't learn what he did to end up in prison, but considering he gained not one, but two aliases - it's gotta be interesting.


They work out a plan - Pree gets Johnny into Eulogy as his plus one, and Dutch is smuggled into the bar's storage via their entry fee crate. While the two mingle, she locates the shield (with the help of a contact lense Johnny designed that searches for devices with traces of Arkyn's radiation).

Unfortunately, that shield is a person - a girl named Clara that the pirates kidnapped and took to The Factory. There she was turned into a cyborg, with a shield on her torso and a gun arm to keep any thieves away from her (with a friendly fire block that prevented her from shooting her kidnappers - they're criminals, not morons). She calls the latter Alice. When the plan to have Lucy hack her way into Eulogy's system backfires, they choose Plan B; Johnny and Pree use the bar's elevator (a.k.a. the slowest moving elevator ever), while Dutch and Clara fight their way through hordes of criminals in an awesome sequence that I wish I was currently able to GIF for you.


Meanwhile, D'Avin is in a pickle himself. The effects of the green liquid that's supposed to turn him into a Level 6 RAC Agent include a memory that's implanted into everyone subjected to it. It's a memory of a battle fought on Arkyn between two sides - the Westerlyn penitent monks and a unidentified group. After meeting Khylen in that memory, D'avin wakes up in a tub of the green liquid. Startled the techs explain to Khylen that D'Avin is immune to it, which is supposed to be impossible - the only results anyone's ever seen are a Level 6 Killjoy or a dead failure.


After a moment's consideration, Khylen kills the techs and helps D'Avin escape. He explains that he wanted to turn him into a Level 6 agent to protect Dutch from some organization called the Black Root. He helps D'Av get out of the facility, sacrificing himself and getting captured by the Black Root in the process.


Meanwhile the crew on Lucy get through the protective layer and into the Red 17 facility, freeing a fellow Killjoy and resident asshole, Fancy Lee. Lucy informs them that she located D'Avin's tracker and the team reunites. After returning to their ship, D'Avin shoots Lee, revealing that he was already injected with the green liquid and has become a Level 6 agent. They toss him outside and take off.

The team tells D'Avin about the bombing of Westerley's Oldtown, which is now off limits to everyone, and the fact that their two remaining friends - doctor Pawter Sims and Alvis, the revolutionary penitent monk - are still there. That's their next goal - but meanwhile they part ways with Clara. They (including Lucy) would very much like to keep her on board - but the Company law withholds personhood to anyone who's been cybernetically modded more than 26 percent. Dutch leaves her with a smuggler buddy of hers, who can help Clara get out of the Quad.

In the episode's final moments, D'Avin recounts everything he's learned from Khylen and surmises that everything the man has done might have been to protect Dutch from the Black Root, who D'Av suspects are the people he has to report to. While Dutch isn't ready to believe Khylen, D'Av believes she is more connected to everything that she knows. She says she's never been to Arkyn - but he saw her in the green liquid memory, as one of the fighters in the battle.


And thus, with an explosive premier written by the show's creator Michelle Lovretta herself, Killjoys is back with a new helping of fun, explosions and mystery. I'll see you next week for "Wild, Wild Westerley".

Dominik Zine is a nerdy lad from northeastern Poland and is generally found in a comfy chair with a book in hand.