Killjoys: Come the Rain Review

Last week in Killjoys; Kiss Kiss, Bye Bye had the trio falling apart, now in Come the Rain Johnny tries to help the team get their mojo back. Pree comes out from behind the bar again and we learn a lot more about Pawter Simms, as well as Alvis Akari and black rain is introduced. By the end of the episode D’Avin has moved off the ship and Johnny tells his big brother that if he wants to fix things, D’Av needs to figure out how to do it.

This episode is, perhaps, the most disturbing to date. While Killjoys is a fun series; lots of action, humor and clever dialogue, it has hinted that things are pretty dark in Westerly and Leith. The Corporation rules with an iron hand and this week teaches us that the underbelly of this verse is pretty bad but not as bad as the company that rules it.

After Dutch and D’Av arrive to John’s summons, they head off to collect their next warrant from Bellus, and Johnny has a brief moment with his “backroom” doctor. Pawter tells him off for leaving without telling her and Jacobi tells her that “no offense, but you look worse than I feel.” Simms cuts their conversation short to attend a medical supplies meeting. As she starts to leave the alarms go off. Black rain is on its way.

This is where the first disturbing event takes place. Soldiers from the corporation arrive with prisoners. These captors are nailed to the streets; suspended on a device which leaves them spread-eagled and upright. Exposed to the elements they are to be left in the black electro-chemical rain to die. The precipitation is made up of toxins and acid and as the rain hits, the prisoners scream in agony.

While this may seem all above board, perhaps even poetic if the crime were heinous enough, consider the nature of this world. Murder may still exist as well as other crimes, but in this verse, life is cheap and most crime deals with money; either owed or stolen. The dual plot-line in Killjoys this week deals with D’Av and Dutch trying to patch up their problems of trust, and lack thereof alongside another issue of 1,000 stolen and very valuable Seventh Gen identity claim cards (instant wealth essentially).

The ID card thread begins, and ends, in Pree’s bar. The bartender seals off the area and tells all the temporary patrons that they may take refuge there. A group of men enter just as Pree makes the offer and these thieves are spotted by a company captain who throws down on the criminal band. They then take the bar’s customers hostage and force Pawter to work on their leader, who was wounded in the very brief shootout.

John talks the captors into letting him assist Simms and he learns that she is a Jack addict and going through withdrawal. Cue a desperate attempt by Johnny to get the doctor some Jack, Alvis tells John that he can help and the “holy” man’s help and their journey explains a lot about his standing in the community and Jacobi learns that, to Alvis and his followers at least, this “uncle” and his cause are not scams.

Meanwhile back on the ship, D’Av and Dutch are awkwardly working together. They learn of the black rain storm, “Electro-acid” says Dutch and she leaves the bridge with their warrant. As they enter Westerly airspace, Lucy holds the ship in orbit and they prepare to wait out the storm. The device that D’Av and Dutch picked up, is a “team building” device (a lie detector) that takes the ship’s control away from Lucy and they cannot get going again till they resolve their issues. John’s recorded message to his killjoy teammates is that even though they hate doing so, they now have to talk through their problems.

Back in the bar, Johnny and Alvis head down into the old mine access routes to get Jack and medical supplies. Pree gets the line of the episode, in response to the temporary leader of the “bad guys” statement, “It’s black raining out there b*tches,” Pree replies, “That’s why the Gods invented basements…bitches.” Verbal spar score: Criminal cretin – 0 : Pree – 1.

The rest of the episode reveals that Alvis is a practitioner of a religion not too dissimilar from the one introduced in Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. This part of the book never made it into the film adaptation; Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, but fans of the book will see a resemblance between Alvis and his followers and Dick’s religion of “Mercerism, a universal religion that teaches empathy and community-feeling through repeated images of an old man struggling to climb a barren hillside…” The struggle entailed pain, rocks being thrown and the followers of this religion could experience the old man’s suffering.

Johnny talks the company soldiers in the access routes into waiting so he can fix the problem in the bar with minimal bloodshed. They agree but state that they will come in gun’s blazing if he cannot take care of the criminal band. On the ship, Dutch is struggling to answer the final lie detector question to unlock the ship. After trying several things, including dancing, Johnny’s creation still refuses to take her answer…any answer. As the ship begins to drift into the black rain storm, Dutch breaks the device and Lucy regains control of the ship.

Meanwhile, in Pree’s establishment, the criminals throw the corporate officer out into the black rain and Johnny goes after him. Outside, he spots the nail gun the soldiers used to nail the crosses down to the street. Grabbing the tool, he takes the captain back in.

As the company troops begin to break open the basement doors, the criminals in the bar demand that John fix things, as he promised. A rain scarred Jacobi looks at the leader without expression. John then tells the room that over the last 10 days he has, “been attacked by face-hugging biotech, stabbed by my brother, had major surgery, helped perform major surgery, been beaten, bullied and burned.” Glaring at the man he finishes, “I am done fixing things.”

After agreeing with the criminal that he has a plan, John picks up the nail gun and shoots the crooks in the head killing each one with a single nail.

By the end of the episode, the killjoys know that their little trio is broken. John reveals to D’Av that he is angry about his brother doing the one thing he asked him not to (sleeping with Dutch) and that the elder Jacobi now has to fix the problem. John helps Pawter to get through her withdrawal and later, reads his comic book, the one D’Av replaced, to Dutch while they act like brother and sister.

It was nice to see more of Pree and this character is now a firm favorite. His sage advice and wise observations, on top of his line delivery…b*tches, make this bartender value for money and a great addition to the verse.

Killjoys is part of SyFy Friday and great entertainment. This action packed space opera is getting darker, and considering all the dire predictions of other characters will continue to do so. Tune in to see if the team can be put back together again, or if they are the killjoy equivalent of Humpty Dumpty.