Killjoys - 'Wild, Wild Westerly'

"When were you a warlord?"

So, I have decided to switch my recording time for Killjoys from 8pm on SyFy to 9pm on SyFy+1, in the hopes that it won't be cut for violence in a way that makes the series not make sense. I'll let you know how that works out.

Anyway, 'Wild, Wild Westerly' opens with the team seeking a warrant to re-enter Old Town. They have a surprise run in with their old boss - the one that Khlyen stabbed, but who is neither dead nor Level Six - and then get a docket for eight escaped prisoners, but first have to bypass a high-tech force wall which exercises an unhealthy fascination on Johnny - because that's how he is - and the new garrison commander, Smarmy McSleazhat. He has a name, but I'm convinced that's an alias. He's a nasty, supercilious, superior piece of shit who probably tortures puppies for shiggles. He can't keep them out while they're serving a valid warrant, but he is clearly among the ranks of those Company officers who feel that the RAC is an unnecessary liability.

"Did I mention how much I missed working with you guys?"

They find one of the escapees at the Royale while Dutch fights the interim owner to win the place back for Pre, but their quarry kills himself rather than be taken in and handed over to the Company. When they contact the monk Alvis, however, they learn that the remaining escapees have holed up back in the prison with, it turns out, a tank of hideous nerve gas. Dutch tries to talk them down, but a company drone drops in and kills the escapees. McSleazehat - okay, his name is Liam Jelco and we later learn that he's a torture expert, as well as just the kind of arsehat who'd gas a civilian population just to expedite the solution to a corporate problem - demands the return of the gas as part of the warrant, probably intending to use it on dissidents in Old Town. Or some puppies. When Dutch won't just hand it over, he puts out a hit on them.

Aspects of gender relations in Killjoys that I love, number 2 in an occasional
series: Pawter greets her friend Johnny when they meet, rather than her ex,
D'avin.

Prior to this, the crew found Pawter maintaining a clinic among the ruins, supplied with drugs by Alvis luring drug dealers into trying to beat him up and then robbing them. Johnny persuades her to try to reach her mother on Qresh for help, and the old garrison commander gets her into the Company bunker to make contact. Unfortunately, Jelco shoots the decent old fella in the head fro warning the population about the bombing, and leers menacingly at Pawter. He hasn't called her 'my proud beauty' yet, but I'm assuming he's just waiting until his twirling moustache grows in.

Alvis tries to gas the bunker, but they talk him out of it for Pawter's sake. They leave after another tense confrontation with Jelco. Pawter insists that she's staying in the bunker where she can help, and Johnny kisses her as an excuse to slip a communicator behind her ear. They then head for Arkyn with Alvis, to explore the Scarback Monk connection from D'avin's indoctrination visions, but are detoured by a signal from Turin, their boss at the RAC. He claims to be trying to root out the Level Six conspiracy, but that he needs their covert help to do so.

Back at the bar, the interim owner tries to roughhouse Pre, who reluctantly gives way and lets him have the bar. No, wait; that's just the impression you get if you cut the shot where Pre stabs the guy in the hand with his own knife. This is what I mean about the cuts. I keep expecting people to get back up when they've been shot in the head, had their neck snapped, or otherwise died horribly what is, for me, off camera.

Other than SyFy's misguided timeslotting and consequent bowdlerisation, I'm really enjoying Killjoys still. It has an interesting, organically revealed world and strong, likable - or hateable - characters, and a fair few shades of grey in between, as well as conspiracy on top of conspiracy like a mad Da Vinci sandwich.