S03.E05: Attack The Rack

[The Crazed Spruce]

Quote

The Killjoy rebels take drastic measures to clean house with a secret attack against the Rack.

[johntfs]

Well, bye-bye to the non-girl geeks.  I wish I could say I'd miss them, but not really.  I kind of missed Zeph more than anything else.  I felt bad for the not-actually-evil commander lady and even worse for Dutch.  It was cool to see D'avin going Scanners on the Hullen although that whole interrogation scene felt odd in retrospect.  Presumably Aneela saw D'avin and could have described him, so the whole thing of torturing Johnny to get D'avin to reveal his power seems unnecessary.  I assume that Aneela couldn't quite tell that it was D'avin but somehow knew it was one of the Jacoby brothers, in which case, okay, whatever.  It's kind of sad that the whole Attack the RAC was basically for nothing in the end. 

Also, the whole Hullen are emotionless bit seems less than consistent.  Irritation is an emotion.  So is lust.  As well as curiosity.  And various Hullen have displayed all of those traits within this episode.

[thuganomics85]

Despite all the action and drama, this episode strangely felt like filler almost.  A lot of it was because it was obvious that their plan wasn't going to work, so it was a question of how was it going to fail and how where they going to end up getting out of it.  The non-Zelph geeks are also pretty much taken out of the game already as well, as the easily scared/nervous one ends up getting his neck snapped and Erik Khudsen's character ended up being the mole who betrayed them and ended up getting shot in the head for his trouble.  Fare thee well, I guess?

The Hullen who was torturing John and D'Avin looked very familiar and I thought he was a character from a past episode, but it turns it's just because I've seen the actor (Noam Jenkins), in a ton of stuff like Rookie Blue, Covert Affairs, Longmire, and even has Heratio on Lost Girl.  And he apparently voiced the lead character in the first Watch Dogs video game.  Just another case of it being "Hey, it's that Canadian Actor Guy!"

I am curious to see how Dutch will be effected over killing Bannion (?), after it turns out she wasn't Hullen.  Also will John continue to have effects over losing his memory or will this be forgotten about?

Poor Fancy.  I guess I can see why Turin would have doubts, but I don't blame him for being pissed.  I just hope he doesn't actually turn on them and go Team Hullen again.

Not my favorite episode, but they all can't be winners.  And, shallowly, I can't hate an episode too much that found a hilarious, gratuitous way to have Hannah John-Kamen strip down to a tank-top and short-shorts for... reasons?

[iRarelyWatchTV36]

As far as teasers go, they really pegged it tonight.  *buh-dum-tsssh!*

Even though we lost (most of) the rest of the RAC at the end - at least in the general area that TeamAwesomeForce inhabits - it was nice to get a bit of a look into the hierarchy of things within it.  An Intergalactic Captain outranks Turin, if I deduced that correctly? 

So, we know that the Hullen are emotionless and can't be bothered to give any fucks, but hey, let's interrogate/threaten one and hope for the best!  I realize it was played to give weight to the plot [Fancy being doubted + providing the yang to Johnny's yin with his own bout of torture], but it just lacked actual suspense of possibly getting any actionable intel from her.

Piggy-backing off that, here's a long shot prediction/theory I thought up while watching - not 100% sure of it, but its a possibility.  They've set it up blatantly that Fancy is the one to doubt, because of his past with the Hullen.  But if you watch, every time Kitanne tries to goad Fancy by saying he can't trust his allies, she ALWAYS looked directly at Turin.  Even when not directly being manipulative, she still kept turning her gaze out to him.   And then there was Turin's asking Fancy, "What's she saying to you?".  Theory/prediction:  Turin is Hullen.  No idea when it would be revealed, but there seemed to be too many direct *hint, hint*/*nudge, nudge* moments there to just shrug off.  OR, she's manipulating Fancy to suspect Turin, and Turin to suspect Fancy.  Either way, I expect see a big showdown between these two before the season ends.

Is Morgan Kelly (Alvis) doing another show?  This makes 4 straight episodes now he's been non-existent.  At least TA/Pree got a quick cameo.

Dutch sure is taking a lot of emotional flak lately [Benji & Banyan being the latest victims].  I would say that I'm not annoyed by it, just that its overplayed a bit.  But I get why they are having all these failed "I'll protect you" and tragic moments for Dutch lately.   Its to blatantly counteract Aneela's non-human personality and traits.

The whole Johnny torture scene was, well, it was not all that.  It could have set up ramifications for later on, but

Spoiler

in a post-episode review, ML spilled the beans that the brain torture/memories wipe would have no effect on Johnny the rest of the way.  He'll be 100%.  Talk about a waste of time and effort.

D'avin has went 'Scanners' on Hullen before - an early S2 episode - so why did it take that long to remember he could do that in this episode?  Oh, right.  The script said Johnny had to do some agonized yelling first while his brain got painfully scrambled.  My bad.

Hi Banyan.  Bye Banyan.

Color me stupid, but since she can boil Hullen's brains with her mind, why did Aneela have to pit Gander & DSK against each other so could go all "fireworks are fun!" on the RAC?  I just sat here scratching my head with a dazed look on my gob as that played out.  Its like, even if they *cough*Gander*cough* disagreed or tried to stop her, she would have went ahead anyways, so again, waste of screen time (imo).

I may have enjoyed the lip lock between Aneela & Delle Seyah at the end.  Just a little bit.

[shipper moment] Just before they set off the DNA bomb, Johnny's "Dutch, I..." and her kissing the back of his hand "I know" seemed to play a little more into deeper feelings than just conveying 'well, this might be it bestie!'. [/shipper moment]

[ottoDbusdriver]

8 hours ago, thuganomics85 said:

 And, shallowly, I can't hate an episode too much that found a hilarious, gratuitous way to have Hannah John-Kamen strip down to a tank-top and short-shorts for... reasons?

The easier it is to kick ass.  Which Dutch did.

 

[wanderingstar]

Dutch fucked up killing Banyon. She could have been an ally. Looks like Dutch's passion for eliminating the Hullen is clouding her judgment.

I loved seeing more Fancy Lee*. Sean Baek made the most of his scenes. He was live tweeting the episode last night, and mentioned that he'd been in a bad car accident shortly before filming the episode. As a result he had soreness in his torso and contusion on his chest. I don't know how he did those fight scenes. 

D'avin taking out that one Hullen dude was pretty awesome.

This ep had a lot of torture, and that was hard to watch.

Wonder why we didn't get any previews for the next ep.

 

*Now I just need them to bring back Alvis.

Edited July 30, 2017 by Gillian Rosh

[MostlyC]

Dammit, I blame Veronica Mars because now I'm watching.  This did feel like Filler, but man, the actors Turin and "the designated asshole". (Still learning everyone's names) did a great, gritty job.  I felt Dutch's running around the ship in her underclothes was pandering to the fans, but oh well- sex sells.

The beginning of the episode was hilarious- Dutch wanting to bleach her eye and brains while Da'vin wanted to let them finish.  Etiquette.  Hee.

Not thrilled with Aneela still.  She seems more like a sulky brat than a Big Evil Bad.  Gander and DSK are far more fun to watch- and they seem pretty human for all their Hullen-ness.

And have they explained why Da'vin is immune to the green slime?

[iRarelyWatchTV36]

4 hours ago, MostlyC said:

And have they explained why Da'vin is immune to the green slime?

Experiments did to him by the Army, and seems to be implied that Khlyen did something to him as well - or at least a few people suspect - but no clue what.

[snowwhyte]

Some of the episode was a bit too obvious. It was clear that the nerd would die as soon as Dutch promised she'd get him out. Dutch was very sure Banyan was Hullen so i always thought that she was exactly as she seemed, a no nonsense rac agent trying to restore order. I never really understood why they didn't test Banyan earlier to see if she was Hullen. They all had meetings with her. Get a sharp ring, shake her hand, cut her and see if she healed. It's a shame Banyan is dead. I think Dutch would have benefited from a mature, rational female influence. 

I felt sorry for Fancy. Having him standing there as an ex level 6 really negated Dutch's speech about how the Hullen were no longer their co workers and they should just kill them while they are paralysed. I'm sure if Johnny got turned into a Hullen she would try and cleanse him but I guess the problem is that they don't know who chose to become Hullen and who was changed against their will.

[iRarelyWatchTV36]

5 hours ago, Gillian Rosh said:

I loved seeing more Fancy Lee*. Sean Baek made the most of his scenes. He was live tweeting the episode last night, and mentioned that he'd been in a bad car accident shortly before filming the episode. As a result he had soreness in his torso and contusion on his chest. I don't know how he did those fight scenes.

So maybe that scrunched up face grimacing wasn't just acting when 'Kitanne' had him in the headlock.  That sucks that happened and when.
 

5 hours ago, Gillian Rosh said:

Wonder why we didn't get any previews for the next ep.

I don't know and was looking for one myself, but maybe ML wasn't just upselling when she 'previewed' next week's episode - and maybe there's no way to preview the ep without giving a lot away  *shrugs*;

Spoiler

TTVJ: What can you preview about Episode 306?

ML: Ha! OK well it’s a bit “Agatha Christie got drunk and wrote for Killjoys", from the profanely hilarious mind of Andrew DeAngelis, one of my favorite new Killjoys writers. It’s part trapped-in-a-box murder mystery, part OMG I DID NOT SEE THAT TURN COMING, SOMEBODY HOLD ME”. Let’s just say we will have muuuuuch to discuss next Friday and if approximately 5.3 fans don’t literally pee their couches that night I will be shocked. There’s a funeral, 2 kisses, 2 deaths, 3 betrayals, lots of awkward, lots of funny, and Aneela’s homage to Carrie’s prom night. Expect some old faces to return. Grab a beer, grab a friend, grab your balls. Shit is going DOWN on Killjoys next week.

Nobody has to wonder who I hope shares one of those intimate moments, but as long it isn't D&D, then the episode sounds like it could be something.

Edited July 29, 2017 by iRarelyWatchTV36

[MissLucas]

Hmm, so how did Aneela manage to identify, locate and blow up all the Rac ships ready to join the rebellion? Was she scanning D'avin's brain while he was on the Hullen ship? Hence the whole 'getting after the right brother - I fixed that'-speech. That'd answer the first two questions but not the last one.

Team not-so-awesome's plan was weird from the get-go. I thought finding and poisoning Hullen pools was the strategy they had agreed upon. Boarding a RAC ship and slicing everyone on-board within an hour sounds tedious - not to mention all the explaining you had to do when folks come back with cuts in their face (seriously?) and on their hands. (Dear tv shows: stop it with the hand-cutting, I know it's dramatic - it's also stupid. Don't cut the body part most likely to get into contact with all sorts of nasty bugs - even in the future.).

Never thought I'd say this - but I missed Zeph. And speaking of missing: Alvis where art thou???

The best things about this episode were the opening scene, Banyon's death - that should hurt and the rising tension between Turin and Fancy.

[johntfs]

15 hours ago, iRarelyWatchTV36 said:

Color me stupid, but since she can boil Hullen's brains with her mind, why did Aneela have to pit Gander & DSK against each other so could go all "fireworks are fun!" on the RAC? 

Because it's fun for her to watch her pets fight. 

[tennisgurl]

Fancy is back! Now we just need Alvis back, and the gang will be reunited! I can see why Turin would be nervous about him being Hullen still on some level, but I so don't blame Fancy for being pissed off. Fancy has been fighting the Hullen for awhile now, I think he's earned some trust at this point. He is the greatest of all designated assholes.

For as much as they talk about how the Hullen are emotionless killers, I don't think that's exactly true. I think they can feel emotions, they just lack any kind of empathy. They can feel lust or anger or betrayal, all in selfish kinds of ways. They're more sociopaths than robots.

Its too bad we likely wont see any consequences of Johnny getting some of his memories erased, that could lead to some serious tension, especially as Jonny is their resident brainy guy. I do always like when Da'vin goes into Big Brother mode, and man did he go Big Brother in this one. He made a guys head explode. That's not something to underestimate. The whole scene could have been a lot more effective if it had more consequences. The part that stuck with me the most was the way Johnny's voice kind of cracked when he realized that he couldn't remember the girl he lot his virginity to. It was the main time the whole sequence really landed. Ignore the evil jerk guys, Johnny. Dutch still likes you best.

Oh Dutch, your obsession with stopping the bad guys is making you trigger (knife?) happy! Her new/old boss could have been a solid ally, it sucks how it went so badly. Really, this whole plan was a mess. The gang has come up with some shit plans before, but this one was especially ridiculous and poorly thought out. I'm sure there's a lesson here somewhere. Somewhere...

Laughed super hard at the beginning, with Dutch and Da'vin getting ready to get the guy with the hooker. "Its Etiquette!"

[marinw]

On 7/31/2017 at 0:21 AM, tennisgurl said:

Oh Dutch, your obsession with stopping the bad guys is making you trigger (knife?) happy! Her new/old boss could have been a solid ally, it sucks how it went so badly.

That really bothered me. 

There should be bigger consequences for Dutch beyond her feeling sad about it. What’s worse is how she didn’t send help right away. We know from Season One that a stab wound like that can be treated.

Do we know if Banyon is really dead, or dead-ish?

Fancy! Sean Baek is a beautiful man.

Edited August 1, 2017 by marinw

[johntfs]

13 hours ago, marinw said:

What’s worse is how she didn’t send help right away.

Help from who?  Everybody else was paralyzed or Hullen goo stains.  Plus figure Banyon had pretty well locked herself in with those codes once Dutch left to deal with the Hullen.

13 hours ago, marinw said:

Do we know if Banyon is really dead, or dead-ish?

Not really, but from the quick bit we saw she looked pretty dead to me.  I hope there are at least some consequences from this.  Banyon seemed to be pretty high ranking.  Figure the upper reaches of the RAC won't look kindly on "Sorry, I assumed she was an body-snatching green goo monster, so I accidentally killed her" as an excuse.