S01.E10: Escape Velocity

[The Crazed Spruce]

Season finale!

Tensions boil over when the Company arrests a friend; peace in the Quad hangs in the balance; the Killjoys must choose a side.

[ottoDbusdriver]

Good season finale cliffhanger -- Westerley being bombed by the Company, D'avin kidnapped by Khlyen and being experimented on at Red 17 installation on Arkyn, Fancy being experimented at Red 17 as well, Khlyen killing Carlene but neglecting to halt her automated analysis of the files, Johnny finding out that Level 6 Killjoys have augmented DNA, a coup with the 9 families that control the company when Dell Seyah Kendry set off that genetic bomb, and Dutch committing to save D'avin and stating her intentions via that broadcast.

 

Kendry confirmed that her family took over the Lahani family assets, despite the mission to save the Lahani heir a few episodes back.

 

Alvis' escape from jail via the prayer beads was pretty cool.  Dutch was bang on her assessment that they were some kind of weapon.

 

No hint of what is coming from outside the Quad unfortunately, but the episode flew by.

[thuganomics85]

I liked how a lot of the stuff from the past episodes ended up playing a part in everything tonight.  Not just the obvious ones, like Dutch's deal with Dell Sayah, Red 17 and Level 6, the tension between the Company and the lower class, and so forth.  But even stuff like that genetic bomb from the past episode, ended up mattering. Kind of makes me want to rewatch the season already, to see how everything all adds up.

 

Khylen an unstoppable, evil, hardcore bastard tonight.  Kills Calayne/John's hacker buddy to get his vial again, and then beats D'avin's ass, and has now taken him to Red 17.  It also looks like Fancy (!) is there as well.  I can only imagine what he has planned for D'avin.  He also confirmed that he was the one who killed Dutch's husband, which I'm not sure if that had been mentioned before.  Kind of being a bit overprotective there, Khylen.  Maybe tone it down a bit, buddy? 

 

Westerly has now been bombed to hell, but at least all the regulars seem to survive it.  Dutch and John take a few (including Pree!) with them on Lucy, while others like Ahlvis and Pawter, end up going into some kind of undercover bunker.  But the bar is gone!  At least Pree saved two of the expensive bottles (but I'm pretty sure he already drank one of them.)

 

I hope SyFy brings the show back.  I'm still curious about this world and the stories, and I want to see more of these characters, especially John and Dutch.

Edited August 22, 2015 by thuganomics85

[DearEvette]

Good season finale cliffhanger -- Westerley being bombed by the Company, D'avin kidnapped by Khlyen and being experimented on at Red 17 installation on Arkyn, Fancy being experimented at Red 17 as well, Khlyen killing Carlene ..

 

Do you think they were just being experimented on?  I thought maybe they were being turned into Level 6.  Obviously the guy that was fighting Dutch at the Qresh party was augmented.  As is Khlyen.  And  when Bellus said there were rumors of Killjoys disappearing.  My feeling is that the Level 6 are all some sort of super soldiers all answerable only to Khlyen.  And Dutch is supposed to become Level 6 too and somehow Red 17 is part of it.

 

But yeah, this was a kick ass finale.  All the little pieces from earlier came together to create more questions.  But everything had a place.  I was watching and ticking off all the players of the season so far who has made an appearance in the finale and was giving of hope of seeing Fancy and when I did, I was like.....Fuck.

 

But I loved the reveal about Arkyn.  And I like how so many characters had very interesting arcs that were allowed to play out some in this finale -- Pawter, Alvis (and his religion), that company guy, even Kendry who is the worst!

 

I hope it gets renewed and I hope Khlyen stays around. He's a good bad guy. Or a Good maybe anti-hero with a murky agenda-guy.

 

I also have to give Johnny big props this episode he delivered really big in key places and had a couple of great one-liners to boot.

[Snarkette]

The liquid? That's what Jonny stole last week?

[sluggish neko]

Honestly, D'avin being turned into Level 6 would make him more interesting, but Fancy needs no improvement, damnit!

 

I wonder what Khylen's ultimate plan for Dutch is. His distraction to keep her away from Westerley was as usual, his way of protecting her, but his fellow Level 6 agent had no qualms about killing her. (Btw, Johnny gets all the best lines. I'm John Jacobi. Stop licking my partner! Plus, his expressions when Kendry was hitting on Dutch were priceless.) I wonder if Khylen has his own hidden agenda that's not exactly aligned with the Company's.

 

After John did the blood blessing dressed in monk's robes, I thought hey, if Alvis ever got killed, he's got a replacement ready to take on the rebellion and I don't think many people would notice. They would probably wonder when Alvis developed a great sense of humor. In any case, they set up a lot of cool possibilities for season 2 if the show gets one. All in all, this first season was fun summer entertainment.

[Janimo]

Jeez, Syfy. Please renew this show.

I don't think I've ever been so sucked into a series. Each episode just seemed to be better than the previous, but that's just my two cents.

Man, what a cast of supporting characters!!!!

Edited August 22, 2015 by Janimo

[sjohnson]

Busy, busy, busy.

 

I'm not sure I bought Dutch's adherence to the Westerlin cause. I'd gotten the impression that it was Johnny who had the closest relationship to Alvis, and that wasn't close at all. But I guess the only dramatic choice of the evening had to be Dutch's. 

 

Khlyen's return and something coming to the Quad seems to have nothing to do with the hugger mugger in this episode. There's no reason to have the vote if there's going to be a coup and if the point is the bombing, there's no need for the coup. If the false flag operation couldn't be expected to prompt the vote against Westerlin, why bother to have it. If you wanted a coup and to bomb Westerlin, just have the coup, then blame the genetic bomb on Westerlin. Much better excuse for killing thousands of people.   

[Ariah]

 

There's no reason to have the vote if there's going to be a coup and if the point is the bombing, there's no need for the coup.

 

The vote was to have all the families in one room for the DNA targeting weapon to work. It has a limited span and the 9 are probably paranoid and won't be lured into one place unless something big was involved.

 

That's what I got from the story, anyhow.

 

Khylen seems to be involved in everything, but he still does not control his men / partners / other level 6.

 

Earlier we were speculating that John is going to leave to become level 6 and i wonderd if the little "I will find you" speech from one of the trailers was directed at Johnny - well, close but no cigar. The wrong Jaqobis brother.

 

I need this show renewed. Where should we write? Who should we bug about it?

[patchwork]

I admit I'm more upset about Fancy than D'avin. Fancy killing that other Killjoy is probably what earned him the "distinction" to be Level 6 and I assume the ones that have gone missing also did something noteworthy. 

 

I don't want to break up the team especially as it was a choice between Johnny or Dutch at that point but I wish one of the mains was in Team Bunker. I'm really curious about that storyline. 

 

It's a shame about Johnny's hacker friend, I liked her. 

 

I really hope this show gets a second season.

[Izeinwinter]

I'm not sure the entire thing can be traced back to Dutch's date. If the whole thing was her plot, it was a very complicated scheme. It's possible, but there are a lot of moving pieces, and most of them need to come out right for it to work. The coup could also be a reaction to the massacre and bombing plot, because if that was an independant plot from another family of the nine, that presented her with a justification for a coup.  - when the dust settles she can point at the Evil Scheme to break the word of the nine familiies and the bombed out city, look the hero for killing the people responsible and quietly sweep the fact that she knew about the plot in advance under the rug. 

[AzureOwl]

Kendry confirmed that her family took over the Lahani family assets, despite the mission to save the Lahani heir a few episodes back.

 

Not exactly. She controls the Lahani assets and vote because she's the guardian of the Lahani heir. She can't kill the baby and directly take over the Lahani assets until he is old enough to make a legal will and leave her everything. 

 

Khlyen's return and something coming to the Quad seems to have nothing to do with the hugger mugger in this episode. There's no reason to have the vote if there's going to be a coup and if the point is the bombing, there's no need for the coup. If the false flag operation couldn't be expected to prompt the vote against Westerlin, why bother to have it. If you wanted a coup and to bomb Westerlin, just have the coup, then blame the genetic bomb on Westerlin. Much better excuse for killing thousands of people.   

 

The Nine were really paranoid. I doubt anything less than an important vote could've gotten them all into one room. 

[ottoDbusdriver]

Some notes upon re-watching the season finale:

 

• We never found what happened to Turin when Khlyen dragged him off after stabbing him, but I suspect that Turin might also be in Red 17 on Arkyn -- we did see someone else in silhouette behind that wall as D'avin got up.
   
• What is Claim Day ?  Is that when 7th Genners on Westerley get awarded their land on Leith ?
   
• Balish's rumors about Level 6:  RAC agents go missing with the story they were transferred, RAC agents being forced in Level 6, gene-splicing, re-animation
   
• Info from Alvis about Arkyn -- when the Company terraformed Arkyn something went bad, so with Westerley they took precautions that included a network of self-sustaining bunkers underground that most people forgot about.  Somehow I doubt the Company forgot about the bunkers.
   
• I'm curious how Khlyen found Carleen so quickly.  He had to know her new remote location before Johnny even spoke with her and she had finished uploading the data from Johnny.
   
• Johnny: "They better hurry up, I'm freezing my monk junk."
  Dutch: "Ewwwww"
   
• The actor playing the Rat King, Noah Danby, also played Zachary Cain on 'Bitten' and Sukar on 'Defiance'.
   
• That was a hot outfit that Delle Seyah Kendry was wearing before she put her dress on.
   
• We did get some names of the other families of the Nine (not sure about the spelling of some of these) -- Ponia (red sash), Lansderash (gray sash), Simms (blue sash, but we already knew their name), Kendry (purple sash, also already knew their name) -- but it looks like the genetic bomb took out the family members with brown sashes (in 'The Vessel' episode there was a guy with a brown sash that looked a little POed that the Lahani heir survived, who looked a lot like one of the people killed by the genetic bomb in the Ancestral Hall).  I guess all the of the 9 families picked a symbolic color back in the beginning -- I wonder what color Land Lahani is ?
   
• There's even more tree symbology in this episode -- aside from the prayers/teachings/graffiti of the Scarbacks, that clock in the stairway of the ancestral hall had a tree in it, and the Level 6 who brought the genetic bomb had a pin with a tree on it (a pin that Dutch used to stab him in the eye).
   
• Johnny (about Delle Seyah Kendry): "So rich. So bitch."
   
• I can't believe that they left the genetic bomb just sitting there on the floor -- anyone could pick it up.
   
• Why did Khlyen get Delle Seyah Kendry to bring Dutch to Qresh ?  Better yet, why does Delle appear to be taking orders from Khlyen ?
   
• I knew that Killjoys was filimed in and around Toronto but I thought that staircase in the Ancestral Hall looked familiar because it's the clock and staircase of the Royal York Hotel in Toronto -- I've been there before on vacation.
   
• Dutch: "Hills, you piece of shit."
  Pree: "Sugar, maybe dial that down."
   
• I'm curious why the Rat King and his people were wandering the streets during the bombings.  Why didn't they stay underground or go into the deep tunnels or join Alvis in the bunkers ?
   
• Dutch: "It's a just a bar Pree."
  Pree: "Oh honey, you know that's not true."
   
• I don't think that The Royal is destroyed, just a nearby bomb blast blew out the windows.  Pree will be back in business soon.
   
• Looking closer at that last transmission from Carleen, that DNA strand appears to be heavily modified -- I guess Balish's rumors about gene-splicing weren't just rumors, with what looks like circuitry as part of the DNA strand.  More nanites involved, maybe ?

 

Not exactly. She controls the Lahani assets and vote because she's the guardian of the Lahani heir. She can't kill the baby and directly take over the Lahani assets until he is old enough to make a legal will and leave her everything.

 

Yep, I forgot about that.

Edited August 22, 2015 by ottoDbusdriver

[MissLucas]

That was great - hopefully they get a season 2. What I appreciate most is that they really made an effort to tie everything together. I don't think we had a filler episode, considering they had only 10 episodes for this season the pulled off an immense amount of world-building: Poltics, religion, social and economic strains - it's all there. Plus a bit of freaky mystery.*

 

Also impressive: all the secondary characters we came to care about. Pree, Alvis, Pawter, Fancy (damn - no!). I'm really interested in how they are going to play the religious angle if they get a season 2 and if John's interest is really just purely academic or if they are going to send him on a spiritual journey. Not likely since there's so much else going on but I would like to see it nevertheless.

 

*I don't think the coup on Leith and the bombing of Westerley are the great threat that was so often mentioned. Khlyen used Kendry for whatever his ultimate plans (or rather the plans of the authoritiy he has to answer to) are. She might think he's an ally but I doubt it. He just helped her destabilizing the Quad for whatever else is coming

[tennisgurl]

That? Was awesome. 

 

No! You leave Fancy alone! He is fabulous as is! 

 

So much just happened, I`ll need to think on it more, but something I love about this show is the spirituality that goes on in this show. You do not see it as much in sci fi shows, and I find it fascinating how much religion is a part of the culture in this universe. I`m especially interested in seeing if Johnny and his interest in religion is real at all. The Rat King seemed to buy it anyway, and he believes enough to tell him to get his sister a real blessing. 

 

The ending, with the Rat King and his sister, Hills taking his last drink, and especially the old couple dancing in the bar, was surprisingly affecting. Damn it if this show did not get me to care about this world, and its characters. 

 

Come on SyFy, give us a season two!

[TwistedandBored]

I enjoy this episode. I hope Syfy renews this show. Great season finale. 

[sjohnson]

Hills and the Rat King and his entire tribe all basically committed suicide. Hills turning out to be Claude Rains in Casablanca was sort of out of left field, but OK Killjoys isn't strong on character. I guess the rat people all die for grimdark. 

[DearEvette]

Johnny (about Delle Seyah Kendry): "So rich. So bitch."

 

 

Oh, I loved that line, especially coming after her 'So pretty.  So Smart.' line to Dutch and then handing Johnny her wine glass like he was a servant.  His delivery was perfect.

 

I got to thinking about Pawter's mother.  She's keeping her supplied with Jaxx.  If she really had written her off, then they wouldn't even be doing that.  I wonder if her response to Johnny wasn't so much that she had completely disowned her daughter, but admitting any sort of connection to her & taking communication from her, from  a complete stranger no less,  would not have been politically smart.  Especially since the Nine families are a vipers' nest and any weakness you show could potentially be used against you.

 

And finally, I loved that last scene at the royal.  Hills taking his drink, that old couple dancing and the sex worker sitting there with a resigned look on her face that clearly said 'Same shit, different day.'

[miracole]

Great episode. Johnny for the win, twice. Dell Seyah Kendry is all kinds of crazy. I really like the actress, I watched her a few years ago on Rookie blue where she played a policeman on the bomb squad and she was really nice and sweet. As johnny said  her character is not that on this show. I really like her though, crazy and all. 

 

loved Alvis' prison break. Really liked Pawter choosing to go with Alvis and his people.  I also like the friendship she and Johnny have formed.

 

Some great lines this episode as others have mentioned.  Pree grabbing the good hoc, awesome.

 

Sucks that Khlyen killed Carleen.

 

Westerly getting bombed had an even bigger impact after having already seen the bombed out town in sugar point. We know what that will now mean for the town and the survivors.

 

I was way more concerned about Fancy than Davin.

Edited August 22, 2015 by miracole

[Terrafamilia]

A strong cliffhanger for the season finale. I know it seems like a lot of people have divided themselves into competing Killjoys and Dark Matter camps but I have enjoyed them both.

 

Hey, that was Von Flores (Agent Sandoval, Earth: Final Conflict) as the Level 6 guy at the Ancestral Hall (Stop licking John's partner). Why does he have two entries at IMDB? Anyone can make those up, right? They should have done some research.

[nitrofishblue]

I love that SyFy actually gave us a strong Friday night lineup. It has been a long time since I enjoyed three shows like I have Defiance, Killjoys, and Dark Matter. They all have their strong yet different points with some small annoyances. Overall they made Friday night a good night for TV viewing. I got my husband into watching the shows and he loved them. Sure hope we get all three back for another season.

[cynic]

Nooo! Not Fancy! I'm gonna be mad if they hurt a hair on his beautiful head. Also, I felt so bad for Carleen. I really like how this show has made me care about a variety of secondary and tertiary characters considering the limited screentime they are able to devote to them in such a short season.

 

It's just too bad the show hasn't been able to pull off the same trick with D'avin, despite his copious amounts of screentime and plots that have revolved around him. Did Khylen call him 'the boyfriend"? Bah! I was hoping that the posters who thought that the hookup was going to be portrayed as casual/a bad decision/getting that out of the way were going to be right, but it seems like the show is treating it more like a Last of the Mohicans situation. Sigh.

 

Johnny continues to be awesome and I liked the hints of a spiritual journey in store for him. I also have grown to really enjoy his friendship with Pawter. 

 

I hope that this show gets renewed. It would be nice if the second season got a few more episodes too. While the show did a good job, I'd really like to see what they could do with some extra time to work on characterization and let the storylines develop in a more organic way and just breathe. Sometimes it kinda felt we were getting the shorthand, Cliffs Notes version of things and we just had to accept what the characters were saying was happening as opposed to really seeing it.

[Pyralis]

otto

 

I didn't know that about the staircase (I haven't been in the Royal York in years) but I did recognize the R. C. Harris Water Treatment plant in the 2 seconds they showed Lucy landing - the outside of which building has been a bunch of things, most "famously" the Center in "the Pretender". 

 

I have to watch this again - I was dividing my attention and missed things.  Clearly though, the Company is doing a bunch of different experiments with gen-engineering, nanites, and enchanced/cyborg creations.  It's like Jackson's Whole come to the screen (bonus points if the not yet Season 2 contains a supersoldier with fangs or someone who is blue).

[DearEvette]

It's like Jackson's Whole come to the screen (bonus points if the not yet Season 2 contains a supersoldier with fangs or someone who is blue).

Ooooh extra points to you for your Vorkosigan reference!

[Locutus]

The procedure on Fancy may simply be how you become Level Six. D'avin looks to be next.

[Hanahope]

Yeah, it looks like D'avin and Fancy are in the level 6 'readjustment' area.  That makes sense, if they take anyone who's been a level 5 Killjoy for a bit and 'readjust' them.  I bet Khylin is going to 'readjust' D'avin, and not only turn him into an unkillable whatever, but also able to mind control him via the brain chip.  What I don't understand is that if Khylin's plan for Dutch is to turn her into a level 6 as well, why return her to her "team", and then kidnap D'avin?

 

I wonder if the level 5 warrant on D'avin was intentionally supposed to be Dutch's test, push her to take the warrant even if she wasn't really "ready" because Khylin was getting inpatient, and John fell right into the trap.

 

I like the backstory that we got about how Dutch ended up in a bloody wedding dress when John first met her.  Was she already a Killjoy then, who maybe was thinking about giving it up for marriage, but Khylin didn't want to "lose" her to love, wanted her to remain alone, and thought that by killing her husband he'd push her back into the Killjoys and to be tough and emotionless again, willing to take a level 5 warrant, but he didn't count on John finding her and by his goodness keep Dutch from going down that road.  I hope we get a flashback at some point.

 

Was the genetic ray gun already set to the particular dna? Because it didn't look like Dell Seyah Kendry aimed it at anyone, she just turned it on with her foot and it went zap.

[MissLucas]

Was the genetic ray gun already set to the particular dna? Because it didn't look like Dell Seyah Kendry aimed it at anyone, she just turned it on with her foot and it went zap.

Looks like it had been pre-programmed to match all the families (i.e. lands) that land Kendry does not consider allies -  Della Seyah Kenry named only one of those families: Land Hyponia.

 

Lands Derrish and Simms (so Pawter's mother survived the coup) are allies, land Lahani is under land Kendry's guardianship. So there are four lands more (or rather there were) which haven't been named yet.

 

Still no explanation how the DNA killing machine was able to handle intermarriage between lands.

[Izeinwinter]

Well, the families reproduce exclusively via lab and surrogates, which means they might well be keeping the bloodlines separate. Heck, maybe they even have to. It's a setting with fairly advanced genetic engineering, and if the families have customized their bloodlines heavily, the mods might easily be mutually incompatible.  

[innocuouspuff]

What I am wondering about is Khlyen's interest in the machine. What's his angle? I thought he might be worried about Dutch somehow but if she's the last of her line then no one really needs a complex bomb to wipe her genes out. So he...cares about Qreshi politics and who's in charge there? And he keeps trying to get Dutch tangled up in it? Why?

More questions than answers, that finale.

Edited August 24, 2015 by innocuouspuff

[MissLucas]

Definitely agree about the more questions than answers part. Khlyen seems to be interested in disrupting the Quad but no idea why. What I find even more confusing is that Dell Seyah Kendry used the favor Dutch owed her to grant Khlyen's wish (who wanted Dutch away from Westerley).

[Emily Thrace]

What I am wondering about is Khlyen's interest in the machine. What's his angle? I thought he might be worried about Dutch somehow but if she's the last of her line then no one really needs a complex bomb to wipe her genes out. So he...cares about Qreshi politics and who's in charge there? And he keeps trying to get Dutch tangled up in it? Why?

More questions than answers, that finale.

 

I suspect it has something to do with why the RAC is producing trained killers in the first place. In my head either they're creating an army the nine can use when the quad decides to fight back. Or the RAC is planning to overthrow the Company and is creating an army for that purpose.   The RAC could  be trying to start a military coup and take over the government for themselves. All things considered they can't be worse than the Nine. Like the Louis XVI the Nine seem to have forgotten that a government serves at the pleasure of its people not the other way around. All the bombs in the world won't keep people down forever. Not to mention the Company needs Westerly as a workforce to survive so killing off all them isn't a viable option.

Edited August 27, 2015 by The Crazed Spruce
removed unneccesary and redundant duplication that was redundant and unneccesary

[Snarkette]

If I remember this correctly, Khlyen suggested that the "RAC" is just one preliminary operation as part of a greater whole. Sounds like a big power broker, which by supplying policing becomes a virtual imperial government in and of itself. Who doesn't want galactic domination?

[innocuouspuff]

The Level Sixes are I guess an off-shoot of the RAC, but they can't strictly be said to work for the Nine (who on rewatch, apparently owns the Company but not the RAC) if a) they just helped to kill some of them, b) Delle Seyah is wasting her favours owed by Dutch, to protect Dutch on Khlyen's behalf. Leaving the question of who is ultimately in charge. Khlyen, or someone yet unseen? Maybe Khlyen's more of a Darth Vader, terrifying but relatively powerless in the grand scheme.

So maybe it is more a question of the goals of whoever wields Level Six being in line with at least part of the Nine, for the time being. Heck, maybe the extinguished families are sleeping with the fishes because they thought bombing the Quad (again) was some sort of bridge too far? A quest for galactic domination definitely seems to be in play. But, whose exactly?

Edited August 28, 2015 by innocuouspuff

[wanderingstar]

I just binge watched this show. Is this where I come to talk about my Rob Stewart love?