Killjoys - 'A Skinner, Darkly'

Dutch wants a war, so it's time to get an army.

I say army; it's more of a logistical support corps.

With Johnny still on the lam and a data retrieval mission going bad due to lack of technical savvy, Turin decrees it is time to get a new brain. Thus he digs up three of the RAC's finest lab rats and sends them on a mission with Team Dutch to determine if they've got the stuff. The mission in question takes them into a facility where a contagion is on the loose. With all five infected and terminal sterilisation protocols in effects, the nerd squad will have to come good to get them out alive.

Meanwhile, Johnny gets Olli checked out – after asking the barkeep those pointed questions - and finds that her 'kill switch' was triggered. Learning that the false-faced assassin had received treatment from a rejuvenation clinic, our intrepid pair infiltrate and learn that the clinic is killing and skinning hackmod owners, in order to allow mods to wear their skins. The skins are preserved with plasma, which is of course of great interest to Johnny. Clara's friend Yuki, who works at the plant, warns them off, revealing that Olli is Clara, with her memory blocked and her face changed due to scheduling conflicts. They meet with Yuki later, but one of her mods emits a pulse that disables all of the hackmods in the bar, leaving Johnny to be captured so that Niko can infiltrate the RAC by giving someone his face.

Dutch's mission goes further south when bio-nerd Zeph sacrifices herself to complete the mission objective. The whole thing is revealed to be a simulation, and Zeph alone fails Turin's test by not getting out alive. She insists that she knew it was a simulation, but Turin is not interested, dismissing her and recruiting the two tech nerds to the fight. Dutch, however, finds Zeph at the Royale and tells her that she needs biologists to fight the Hullen.

"Let me tell you about my mother..."

Niko reveals to Johnny that she plans to destroy the hackmod owners and their factory using her skin-grafted infiltrators and the properties she is discovering in the plasma. Olli busts into the clinic and fights Niko. It's a close fight, but Johnny escpaes the surgical chair using his laser finger and calls in the other hackmods to shut Niko down. Johnny retrieves Niko's list of plasma sources and heads back to the Quad, leaving Clara/Olli to continue the fight for a hackmod homeland at the far end of the Jay.

As Dutch welcomes Johnny home, Delle Seyah revives in a ship, where she is taken to meet Aneela.

I have to say, I'm not loving that Karma Houdini at the end, although from her attitude Delle Sayah knows that she's not come up smelling of roses. Normally in control of every situation, faced with Aneela she's basically bricking it, and that's something. Olli/Clara is a pretty fair replacement for Stephanie Leonidas, and Niko subverts the classic femme fatale tropes of her look by being her own brains and muscle. Zeph looks like being a good addition to the team, although her male competitors are pretty forgettable. Also, she might be a mole; always so hard to say.

All of which pales beside the heartfelt reunion of Johnny and the team (I would say Johnny and Dutch, as the Brothers Jaqobis are sort of 'sup', but there's also Lucy to consider, who informs Jonny that if she could cry, she would be rusting.) Yay!