branford

It's great news, but why did Dark Matter get 13 episodes again, while Killjoys still only 10? :(

I guess you'll just have to watch Ep. 9 again online. :P

The handcuffs definitely both visibly and audibly sparked, and D'Avin gave a tough guy grimace and grunt.

The handcuffs emitted a strong electric shock when D'Avin shorted them out with the water. In addition to demonstrating his resourcefulness, I believe the escape was also intended to show his particular strength, resolve and overall toughness, and the implication was that lesser men would have been incapacitated or totally knocked-out. Note in the last scene of Ep. 9 where D'Avin holds Dutch on the bed, he has a burn mark across his entire wrist.

I would note that while we basically know why D'Avin left home and joined the army, it has not been explained why he had no contact with John for 8 years. The mind control incident where he killed his squad and search for Dr. Yaeger was at the end of his enlistment and does not explain D'Avin's prior lack of contact with John. There's still a lot of material to explore concerning D'Avin's background and psyche in upcoming seasons.

I'm not blaming John, I'm simply not blaming D'Avin for leaving a terrible abusive situation at his first opportunity. John is still responsible for his own choices, no matter how difficult, and his predicament was solely the fault of his parents, not D'Avin.

I'm not suggesting that D'Avin doesn't feel guilty, but I perceive it more as survivor's guilt and regret that John didn't leave and continued to needlessly suffer. As Alvis stated in Come the Rain, John is either a masochist or a martyr, but that is not the fault of D'Avin.

I believe D'Avin's reasons for leaving home are obvious and entirely understandable, and Come the Rain eliminated any ambiguities. John and D'Avin's father was severely abusive, his mother a drug addict who failed to stop the abuse, and life at home was effectively hell. If John had also left home, we would be commending them both as smart survivors. In fact, I find than John's anger at D'Avin is misplaced, and it should be directed solely at his terrible parents and his own choice not to leave. Blaming D'Avin is little more than insisting both them should have indeterminately suffered abuse.

It was more than just the mindless sex scene at the beginning of Ep. 8. Recall that in Come the Rain she also explicitly admitted that she regretted sleeping with D'Avin because she doesn't sleep with people she cares about. Additionally, in Ep. 3, Harvest, when John was trying to convince Dutch to accept the warrant to help his prostitute friend find and return her husband, Dutch chided him that being friends with the people he sleeps with is just weird.