Killjoys Recap - S02E02 - "Wild, Wild Westerley"


Now that the team is back together, they can finally start working towards uncovering the many mysteries in the Quad. Their first goal is to get into Old Town and find Alvis, their friend and one of the penitents - the only person they who can tell them what happened on Arkyn. Unfortunately, the city is surrounded by an impassable containment field, so the team needs a warrant to be allowed passage. And to do that, they need a RAC official to clear D'Avin for active duty. With Turin stabbed to death by Khylen, and the latter AWOL, the only one available is...


...Turin, who gets throttled halfway through his "rumours of my demise" speech. The team suspects he's a Level 6, but once they discover his stab wound still hasn't fully healed (ergo no Level 6 healing factor), they proceed with the formalities. With a warrant in hand, they attempt the get through the wall, which scans them. Remember how last week we learned Pree has a criminal record? We still don't know many details, but we do learn that he was a warlord. And now I want a prequel spin-off about Pree as the space warlord.


Last week Pree's secret past helped them, but this time it gets them knocked out and taken to a Company compound, where they meet their client -- a Company official named Liam Jelko. And you know he's evil, because he has a British accent and acts like a complete prick.  He gives them their assignment: during Old Town's rebellion, a Company bomber was shot down and crushed into a prison with eight people convicted for political reasons. Dutch's team is to capture them alive; especially their leader, Tarren Tighmon.

They find the first of their targets in Pree's bar, but after revealing his compatriots are still in prison he shoots himself because that's a better alternative than the Company prison. At that location they find his six former buddies--dead and dried up like thousand year old mummies--and a prison employee. They learn from him that when the bomber crashed and the inmates started getting out, he followed the instructions and pressed a button that ended up releasing a puff of gas that caused their gruesome deaths. With seven targets dead, only Tighmon remains, and here's the bad news: after his escape he returned to the prison to clear out the weapons room and took a whole tank of that gas.


With the help of Pawter and Hills (the Company official formerly in charge of Old Town who seemed to have died in the bombing in last season's finale) they finally find Alvis, who helps them get to Tighmon. The man agrees to be taken and to return the tank - if Dutch speaks on behalf of Old Town's mine workers and convinces the Company to drop the containment field. But before she gets a chance to reply, a Company drone arrives and shoots Tighmon down. Turns out Jelko put trackers on the team and now would like his gas back. And when they decline, he announces across the entire Old Town that whoever captures Dutch (alive or dead) and gets the gas tank to him will be allowed to leave and get a nice new home elsewhere on Westerley. Prick.

With the entire town on their tail, the team and Alvis return to Pree and split up. Alvis will take Dutch and D'Av out of the city via tunnels under Old Town, Johnny will get Pawter and Hills to go with them. Pree decides to stay, having finally returned home. Meanwhile Hills convinces Pawter to go with him to the compound and try to contact her mother (a matriarch of one of the Nine Families and one of the Company's major shareholders) and try to convince the Company to drop the containment field. Unfortunately, during their meeting with Jelko he shoots Hills as a traitor and refuses to honor Pawter's request, basically imprisoning her "to keep her safe." Prick.

Alvis takes Dutch and D'Avin underneath the compound and then locks himself in a room and connects the gas tank to the ventillation. After the bombing, the Old Town's lockdown, and what just happened to Tighmon, he decided his religion can go to hell. He'd rather have revenge. But after Johnny arrives and tells them Hills and Pawter are in the compound, he tries to stop the gas and gets a breathful of it himself. Thanks to D'Av and a conveniently placed reservoir of water--the only thing that can save him from drying up--he lives. That's unfortunately one of the show's flaws: often it telegraphs its plot points. As soon as Pawter tells the team that the only thing that might stop the effects of the gas is a lot of water, you know someone's going to get under its effect and the only cure will be nearby.


With all eight targets dead and the gas tank empty, the team meets with Jelko, demanding release of Hills and Pawter. Jelko claims the former has a headache (hilarious) and brings the latter, who claims she'll stay in the compound, because she'll be able to help Oldtowners better this way. No one's buying it, so Johnny sneakily leaves a communication device with her. They also learn that Jelko's plan for Old Town is to starve them out until any thought of rebellion leaves them and they tell the rest of the Quad "We need the Company. The Company is good.0" And only then will he lower the wall. Prick.

Now it's off to Arkyn with Alvis! Only for Lucy to be remotely hijacked by a special beacon.


Their hijacker turns out to be Turin - he needs their help in finding out what the hell is going on in RAC and how many Level 6 agents are there. They're going to need each other - especially since the Red 17 facility is gone following the team's infiltration and breakout. Turin is going to give the unofficial tasks, "unsanctioned warrants", that should help all of them get to the truth.

How their cooperation works out, we'll see in next week's "Shaft". I'll see you then.

ASSORTED THOUGHTS

- I love how Dutch seems to be unable to come up with zingers when she's angry. After she discovers Jelko's trackers, she tells Pree to flush them with words, "He tracked the shit out of us, we'll shit the track out of him".

- The episode begins with Dutch hallucinating her reflection moving separately from her. It's obviously important, but there's not much more to say about it.

- When the team brings up of the gas victims' bodies to Pawter, Johnny warns her that it's pretty gruesome. Pawter reminds him that as a doctor she saw much worse things, but in case it makes him feel better she says: "Oh no! A mummy!" Pawter doesn't give a damn.

- So when the team gets to Pree's bar, it turns out a muscle-bound guy named Gareth has taken it over in his absence. Dutch challenges him to a fight for it and, because he is too slow and dumb, wins and breaks his leg. He later goes to see Pawter for some medicine for his leg because "some bitch stepped on it". Pawter gives him a painkiller, only for him to pull a knife on her and demand all of the pills. She casually kicks his crutch and then steps on his leg, breaking it even more, which causes him to yell "What is wrong with these bitches?!" And the he reappears at Pree's bar again, after the Killjoys are gone (possibly to try to take the bar back)... only for Pree to take his knife from him and pin his hand to the table with it. I almost felt sorry for the poor S.O.B.

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