Killjoys S01E07 “Kiss, Kiss, Bye, Bye” REVIEW

Killjoys S01E07 “Kiss, Kiss, Bye, Bye” REVIEW

0 comments 📅07 March 2016, 20:58

Killjoys S01E07 “Kiss, Kiss, Bye Bye” REVIEW

1

stars 4

Airing in the UK on SyFy, Mondays, 8pm
Writer: Michelle Lovretta
Director: Paolo Barzman

 

Essential Arc Plot Developments

  • Delle Seyah Kendry (of land Kendry) helps our Killjoys find Dr Jaeger…
  • …which means Dutch owes her a favour.
  • The Killjoys find Dr Jaeger, and learn that D’Avin is part of Project Chrysalis – a black ops scheme to create mind-controlled soldiers, designed to attack friendly targets.
  • Under Dr Jaegers control D’Avin attacks Dutch and stabs his brother.
Undercover on Utopia: sex, drugs, meds and tech.

Undercover on Utopia: sex, drugs, meds and tech.

 

Episode Recap

  • Trying to track down Khlyen, Johnny tries the neural link on himself. It doesn’t work and embeds itself in his spine.
  • They go to Dr Pawter to get it removed. She isn’t in prison anymore, and isn’t happy that D’Avin didn’t respond to her calls when she was.
  • She extracts the link from Johnny but breaks it in the process.
  • She has a lead one of Dr Jaeger’s former patients, who is now in a mental institution.
  • The trio “borrow” the patient: Grayson Hicks. He knows Dr Jaeger as Dr Bliss; she operates from a club called Utopia.
  • Undercover on Utopia, D’Avin takes advantage of some free samples and kisses Dutch (and even though he’s high, she isn’t complaining).
  • Dr Bliss turns out not to be Dr Jaeger, but her former assistant, and she doesn’t know where Dr Jaeger is.
  • Johnny takes the neural link to be fixed.
  • Back on Westerley, Dutch is arrested for kidnapping Grayson.
  • Delle Seyah visits Dutch in Westhole prison; she’s been doing some homework on her, and knows about “Yalena”.
  • Dutch makes a deal with Delle Seyah: in return for getting her off the hook for kidnapping Grayson, Dutch will owe her a no-questions-asked favour. Dutch manages to get some “alone time” with Dr Jaeger as part of the deal.
  • The tro find Jaeger, who tells D’Avin she can reverse the process and return his memories. D’Avin is all for it, but Dutch advises caution.
  • Back on board Lucy, D’Avin and Dutch get it on. Jaeger “activates” D’Avin and he fights Dutch but she manages to subdue him (by bashing him on the head with a massive crate).
  • Dutch goes to confront Dr Jaeger.
  • D’Avin stabs Johnny and escapes from his confines on Lucy.
  •  Lucy summons Dr Pawter to help Johnny; she calls for a med ship.
  • Dutch gets Jaeger to deactivate D’Avin, then wipes Jaeger’s memory (all at gunpoint, Dr Jaeger isn’t going to do it out of the kindness of her heart).
  • Doctors save John.
  • Although D’Avin is now back to normal, he remembers everything he did.
  •  Dr Jaeger escapes through the Stargate.*
Westhole prison, not a nice place to stay, but the lighting is fantastic.

Westhole prison, not a nice place to stay, but the lighting is fantastic.

 

Review

The very aptly titled, “Kiss, Kiss, Bye Bye” sees Killjoys moving from monster-of-the-week territory to more of a major-arc-driven format. When there’s so much going on in the Killjoys universe, it’s a better bet than trying to shoehorn a new story in every week.

So Dr Pawter isn’t in prison anymore, and we don’t get an heroic D’Avin-shaped rescue. She’s pissed at him for not answering her calls from prison, which leads to a, “I didn’t know this was a relationship” exchange between the pair, which feels a little 90210. Pawter being in prison doesn’t really seem to have served any purpose; not as yet anyway. In fact, Dr Pawter as a character seems to have been mostly ancillary to the plot up to now. She seems to have been downgraded from mystery high-born Doctor to sex-crazed therapist with a thing for broken bad boys.

The visit to Utopia is a nice diversion: a floating fetish club decked out appropriately with Das blinkenlights and filled with dodgily dressed patrons. D’Avin and Dutch’s initial canoodle may be drug-fuelled, but it’s been on the cards since episode one, and inevitably it leads them into bed. Although what follows is probably not what Dutch was expecting from a relationship, with D’Avin going all Angelus and trying to kill her. It’s a little hackneyed to hook up two of the main protagonists, make them happy and then turn everything around, and perhaps a little moralistic for it to happen straight after coitus. During the fight with D’Avin we see Dutch look genuinely frightened for the first time, but we suspect this is more to do with her not wanting to hurt D’Avin than getting hurt herself. She gets a little battered, but as usual she comes out on top.

Insert piece A into cross section E4 and wiggle.

Insert piece A into cross section E4 and wiggle.

Another link back to episode one is the explanation for the warrant that reunited the Jacobi brothers, created by Dr Jaeger in case D’Avin ever came back to the Quad looking for answers. Even though the Killjoys have been pinging around the Quad all series looking for Jaeger, she’s been hiding out on Westerley the whole time, and it’s Delle Seyah who leads them to her, not anything Pawter has been up to (we did say she’d become somewhat surplus to the plot).

It’s nice to see Mayko Nguyen back as the snarky Delle Seyah, and there’s some fun banter between her and Dutch. Dutch flirts with her as much as she does with D’Avin.

Rather randomly Dr Jaeger turns out to be played by none other than Stargate’s Amanda Tapping (maybe she could lay claim to being this episode’s monster-of-the-week but she probably wouldn’t thank us for that). She spends most of the episode looking startled and seems a little wasted here, although she doesn’t die at the end so maybe she’ll make another appearance.

"I'm not worried, Colonel O'Neill always rescues me."

“I’m not worried, Colonel O’Neill always rescues me.”

The latter part of the episode manages to pull out all the emotional stops. And even though we’re pretty sure Johnny isn’t going to die –this isn’t Game Of Thrones after all – it’s still a wrench to seem him lying on Lucy’s floor bleeding out. The final scenes give us a nicely done musical montage of Johnny being operated on and then recovering in hospital, with a few neat soft focus screen wipes.

We end with D’Avin wracked with the guilt for what he’s done. He managed to get together with Dutch at last and then ruined it by trying to kill her, as well as stabbing John. Maybe the fact that his brother survived the attack is worse for D’Avin, especially as John seems so ready to forgive him when Dutch can’t. He’s been seeking Dr Jaeger for redemption the whole series, and when he finally finds her all he gets is more remorse.

There’s not really anything new here (but is there anywhere these days?); the show’s not breaking new ground. But what is here is very well done. In what’s ostensibly an action series, it’s refreshing that characterisation doesn’t take a back seat. We’re not sure where we’ll be going from here as we head toward the end of the series, but we’re happy to be along for the ride.

Johnny Jacobi recovers in hospital, after being stabbed by his own brother.

Johnny Jacobi recovers in hospital, after being stabbed by his own brother.

The Good

  • Utopia is very well done, like a techno Torture Garden.
  • D’Avin seems more than happy to be Dutch’s leather boy while undercover.
  • Dutch and D’Avin finally get it on.
  •  Amanda Tapping.

 

The Bad

  • It’s a little clichéd to have D’Avin try to kill Dutch after they get happy.
  • Amanda Tapping.

 

And The Random

  • When calling a med-ship, Dr Pawter identifies herself as Illenore Seyah Simms of Land Simms. We know she’s of high-born descent, so does this mean Seyah is a title, as in Delle Seyah Kendry? Or is she using someone else’s credentials?
  •  Dutch’s captivating coiffery continues to astound us; this episode sees her enjoying some fringe benefits.
  • Amanda Tapping.
  • Quotes of the Week:
    • Johnny to Pree at the bar: “I may have walked in on Dutch and my brother in flagrant dictation.” (he means In Flagrante Delicto).
    • Dutch to D’Avin on Utopia: “Follow me, leather boy.”
    • Delle Seyah to Dutch in prison: “I snap and you come.” Dutch: “You must be one hell of a snapper.”

*No she doesn’t – there isn’t really a Stargate, because this is Killjoys, not Stargate.

Review by Arthur Scott

In her downtime, Dutch enjoys ice sculpting.

In her downtime, Dutch enjoys ice sculpting.


 

Read our other Killjoys reviews

 

 

No Comments

No Comments Yet!

You can be first one to write a comment

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.