Killjoys: Come the Rain review

John tries to fix a hostage situation and D’avin and Dutch’s relationship all in one episode. Here's the latest Killjoys review.

This Killjoys review contains spoilers.

One mark of a good sci-fi adventure show (or any semi-serialized show, really) is the ability to pull off a filler episode that is as compelling and relevant as its plot-driven episodes. Killjoys does that and more with Season 1, Episode 8 (“Come the Rain”), which sees D’avin and Dutch trying to work through their trust issues on Lucy while John saves the day down on Westerley.

If you haven’t already noticed, John has a talent and willingness to both recognize and fix the problems around him. Sometimes, it’s the ship. Sometimes, it’s the interpersonal. This week, it’s the latter. After what was previously a D’avin/Dutch-heavy prior episode, it was great to see the show focus on John a bit more — arguably the most likable character on this show. But just because John is good-natured, is always up for a quip, and has empathy for the people around him, doesn’t mean he doesn’t sometimes get fed up having to play the fixer.

What makes John a hero is, even when he’s fed up, he still tries. He always tries.

Ad – content continues below

When John is trapped in the Royal with a group of armed thieves during one of Westerly’s “black rain” storms, he takes it upon himself to save everyone — a goal that doesn’t exactly go to plan. He helps Pawter perform surgery on own of the injured robbers, and learns some of her secrets in the process. She does come from a wealthy family on Qresh, but was banished to Westerley when she accidentally killed a patient when performing surgery high on jack.

But John doesn’t judge. He sees something worth trusting in Pawter. Besides, she did save his life only last episode, and he definitely hasn’t forgotten.

John’s quest to find Pawter another hit of jack so she can perform surgery leads him and hot monk character Alvis into the tunnels beneath the city. There, they interact with the wayward souls of Westerley, the most desperate and underserved. They help Alvis for the gift of his blessing, and John seems startled by it. Though he starts the episode skeptical of Alvis’ politics under the guise of religion, he sees how much Alvis’ faith means to these people. And we see how far Alvis’ web of resistance fighters stretches. A Company soldier spy passes on information about the stores of weapons the Company is building and hiding across Old Town.

It seems like a fight is coming — or, worse yet, a massacre. Could this have something to do with the Company’s promise that seventh generation Westerlians will be granted land on Leith? We’ve already seen that there is considerable resistance to that idea on Leith. Have the relatively powerful families there convinced Qresh and The Nine that giving the Westerlians any land would be a bad idea? Whatever the answers to these questions, kudos to Killjoys for continuing to build up the nuanced socio-economic politics of The Quad in subtle, yet compelling ways.

Meanwhile, D’avin and Dutch spend most of the episode floating above Westerley after John strands them on Lucy until they finish a game of Truth or Dare — complete with lie detector. Their relationship is understandably fractured following the activation of killer soldier D’avin last episode, and John is trying to fix it — or at least bring the entire thing to a head that will allow the team to move on one way or another.

Though D’avin and Dutch obviously still care about one another, Dutch still doesn’t completely trust D’avin and D’avin doesn’t completely trust himself. Normally, this would be sad. In the life of a killjoy team, it could be deadly.

Ad – content continues below

So D’avin agrees to leave the ship and the team — at least for now. When D’avin goes to tell John, John is hoping for his own healing of their fraternal fracture. But, for now, it’s not meant to be. John unloads on D’avin the hurt that, for us, has been a season in the making and, for the brothers, has been stewing for nine years: D’avin left John to deal with their parents. He left John saddled with the debts of their father, unable to go to school. He left him, period. And John hasn’t forgiven him for any of this — at least partially because D’avin has still not apologized.

But John still has Dutch.

The episode ends with John and Dutch curled up on John’s bed because Dutch can’t sleep and John is reading her a bedtime story from his favorite comic book. We get the impression that this has happened many times before and, more than ever, we understand this dynamic.

Sure, it was always obvious why Dutch needed John. He was there for her and believed in her when she had no one else, when all she thought she knew how to be was a killer. But we’re understanding more about why John needed Dutch. With his parents dead, his brother estranged, and the weight of debt weighing him down, Dutch became his family, too. They became the most important people to one another, and that’s not going to just change now that D’avin is in their lives.

Rating:

4 out of 5