Tag: Sarah Power

Killjoys: SyFy Approves Second Season “You Are Locked and Served Again”

Killjoys - Season 1

On the same day that Dark Matter, another popular science fiction series,  learned it now has a second season  Killjoys also heard that they were officially renewed. SyFy has announced that the series about bounty hunters in space, “You are locked and served,” will be around for another season.

SyFy announced on September 1, 2015 that  Killjoys has been given the greenlight for a further 10 episodes and a second season that will premiere in 2016. The joint produced series, Space are the co producers of the show, follows a trio of Killjoys, aka bounty hunters.  The interplanetary warrant chasers, who work through the “Quad,” is from Temple Street Productions (Orphan Black) and stars Aaron Ashmore as Johnny Jacobi, Luke Macfarlane as his brother D’Avin Jacobi  and Hannah John-Kamen as Dutch the kick-a** female leader of the bounty hunters.

Thom Allison is Pree , Sarah Power is Pawter Simms and Rob Stewart is Khlyen the mysterious level six.  Executive Vice President Original Content SyFy Bill McGoldrick  expressed confidence that the show has a great future with the channel, stating that the show was exciting and that show creator Michelle Lovretta would be bringing some great adventures to the next season. Killjoys averaged 1.5 million viewers  in its first season.

Co-Presidents of Temple Street productions and executive producers of Killjoys, David Fortier and Ivan Schneeberg also expressed excitement that the show will be back. The series is distributed worldwide by Universal Cable Productions, and the two men stated that they were looking forward to working with the SyFy team again.

Season two of Killjoys is another addition to an exciting 2016 lineup, Dark Matter based on the graphic novel by Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie , The Magicians,  based on Lev Grossman’s bestselling novels. Gale Anne Hurd’s Hunters, the 10-part space drama The Expanse (which will premiere this December), and a new season of 12 Monkeys was also announced one the same day.

Killjoys: Escape Velocity Season Finale Review

Dutch, D'Av and Johnny Three Monks So, the last episode of Killjoys, season one, Escape Velocity, shows us that, if nothing else, Khylen was telling the truth about level six. We also learn that, despite his claims to the contrary, Dutch’s old tutor is not a good guy, no white hat here at all. Before the end of the episode, Dutch meets another level six, D’Avin meets Khlyen and Johnny meets Pawter’s mother.

This last look at Killjoys, while the SyFy jury is still out on whether the show will be renewed or not, brings a lot of threads together. It still manages to leave much unanswered as well as bringing up new information which will hopefully be addressed in the next season. (If there is one.)

Memorable Moments:

Carleen: “Gonna be a long night, I don’t know about you, but I’m getting hammered…” Great almost last words from the gal who gets her throat cut by Khlyen. It seems that her last word was actually “please,” as the level six begins to make her final moments on Westerly painful as possible. Khlyen as boogeyman works very well, this guy is more than scary and cold blooded.

Johnny Jacobi: “I’m freezing my monk-junk” (“Eweh!” Is Dutch’s response.) This scene shows a John that is not afraid to step up and stand out. His “And the roots grew” blessing for the “soon to be doomed” sister of the Rat King, was lump inducing. Despite the fact that this mumbo jumbo only exists in the Killjoy verse, Ashmore makes it sound real and moving. Great stuff…Uncle.

Delle Seyah Kendry: Mayko Nguyen was brilliant as the conniving (Lovestruck?) Nine who flirts with Dutch at the voting ceremony while simultaneously staging her “Nine coup.” Nguyen is spot on as the Seyah with a devious not so hidden political agenda. The fact that she also knows, and is working with Khlyen, speaks volumes of the evil undercurrents in this world. Best line? Cooing seductively to Dutch, “My little killjoy…” sees Johnny, “Oh, you came too.”

Dutch: Meeting another level six at the voting ceremony. This steroidal mutant kicks the leader of the killjoys ragged and until John puts a bullet in the guys head, looked ready to send Dutch to Killjoy heaven. This RAC urban myth, is not a rumor, but real. The guy, who obviously missed the memo from fellow level six member Khlyen, tells Dutch as he begins to strangle her to death, that she never stood a chance. Presumably because he has been “upgraded.”

Hills: Frank Moore gives a command performance and has one stand out moment in Pree’s bar. This character was in the periphery throughout the season and after setting up Alvis as scapegoat as well as the excuse the company needed to blow Old Town off the map, had time to let Dutch go and toast his lineage before being blown off his feet.

Alvis: Morgan Kelly rocks it as Alvis. The Uncle tells Dutch that the prayer beads are just that. Apparently, despite the fact that Alvis is one of the “good guys” monks are not afraid to lie. Later the scene where he uses the beads to escape his own “personal” execution and his cell is brilliant. D’Av may not be too keen on the masochistic monk, “Freaky little dude,” he says at one point, but as an Uncle of the faith and revolutionary, Alvis is a great character.

The episode runs two distinct threads. Khlyen searching for, and finding, his stolen property and the Nine plot. As Dutch is put out of harm’s way yet again by her old tutor’s influence, Old Town is doomed. Seyah Kendry uses the DNA weapon to blast most of the Nines out of existence, and their lineage…if any. This was her plan all along.

Standout Moment:

Dutch is fighting the level six. He calls her Khlyen’s pet and says he is disappointed. The two fight and Dutch is losing. The level six is tough, he survives a long pin being shoved in his eye by the killjoy leader. “Don’t be ashamed,” he says as he bends down to lick Dutch’s face, “You’re just a girl. I’m level six.”

A shot rings out and blood spatters onto Dutch’s face.

“I’m Johnny Jacobis. Stop licking my partner,” John says as he approaches the now immobile level six. “You think guns can kill those things,” Johnny asks Dutch. She takes John’s gun and fires four rounds into the level six. “I don’t know,” she says.

Honorable Mention: D’avin has been soundly defeated by Khlyen. As he lays bloody and beaten on the floor, Khlyen leans over and tells him about Dutch, “She needs me back in her life,” he raises D’Av’s head, “to protect her from the mediocrity of you.” D’Avin responds by spitting in the level six’s face. This has to be one of the best insults ever. “The mediocrity of you…” Ouch.

Not only do we learn the significance of red 17 but we find out that Arkyn is not a desolate moon something lives there after all. D’Av wakes up after his fight with Khlyen and the first thing he sees is Fancy Lee on the bed next to his. He stumbles out and sees Westerly and Leith. Men in plastic biohazard suits come out and drag the elder Jacobi back inside the tall building with a giant red 17 on its side situated on the Arkyn moon.

Show creator Michelle Lovretta , who is also the show creator for Lost Girl wrote this episode and it shows. Everything comes together yet leaves much unanswered a clever and brilliant end to a great show.

Before the end credits roll, Pree leaves his beloved bar and boards the ship with Johnny and Dutch. Pawter Simms opts to stay with Alvis and head to the bunkers where, as they enter, Alvis tells her, “Welcome home doctor.” D’Avin wakes up in the big red 17 tower on Arkyn. He is being prepped for something, the implication is that he will be made into a level six and so will Fancy Lee. Kendra has wiped out all her opposition on the Nines and Old Town is being bombed into oblivion.

There is much left to learn. Who was Dutch’s husband, that Khlyen admits to killing, and what did Pree mean in his short exchange with Dutch. As they head into the tunnels beneath the bar, Pree hesitates. “It’s just a bar,” Dutch tells him. “Oh honey, you know that’s not true,” he tells her. While this could be the man mourning his livelihood, it sounds like Pree is much more than the sum of his parts.

Kudos to the cast and the writers, in this case writer, who put together this episode. Until SyFy steps up to obligate to a second season, fans will have to wait anxiously to see if we ever learn the secrets behind Killjoys.

Killjoys: Come the Rain Review

Pree in Come the Rain
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.

Killjoys: Kiss Kiss, Bye Bye (recap and review)

Amanda Tapping as Dr. Jaeger in KIlljoys
Killjoys last week saw Dutch get sidetracked by Khlyen who put a neuro-link transmitter in her brain and this week in Kiss Kiss, Bye Bye Johnny tries to crack the device so they can find her old tutor. On top of all that, D’Av and the rest of the killjoy trio track down the elusive Dr. Jaeger, played by Amanda Tapping.

Killjoys has, thus far, been a cornucopia of science fiction performers in terms of guest stars and it does not get much more iconic than Amanda Tapping; the Brit born, Canadian raised actress who is almost synonymous with the Star Gate verse and Sanctuary.

In this episode she played a baddie, somewhat of a departure from her usual casting as stalwart strong characters who fight for good. Her performance as the person responsible for turning Luke Macfarlane’s character from good soldier to homicidal maniac was perfect against type casting. Her character in Star Gate was also a scientist (and an Air Force captain) by profession, albeit in astrophysics and not neurology. The choice of Amanda in the role science bad girl is another nod and wink from the show’s creators to the genre.

At the start of the episode, Lucy and Johnny get an image from the transmitter and after some group input, they find a likeness of Khlyen just before the device stops working. John decides to put the link into his own brain stem with bad consequences. Meanwhile, Dutch and D’Av do a little bonding over auto-target practice.

One of the best lines from the show come from D’Av this week, “Why shoot the sh*t, when you can shoot at sh*t?” Cue some spontaneous fun from the two while Johnny disregards Lucy’s warning about putting the neuro-link device on his neck. Dutch and D’Av come back to the ship to find John on the floor and in pain.

They decide to take him to Pawter to get it taken out of him. Simms tells D’Av that Hills had her arrested for taking his code. She removes the neuro-link but breaks it in the process. Dutch is angry and D’Av reveals to Simms that he was “doing a fade” as she puts it. She tells him that he is, “officially an a**hole” and he points out that she was “nailing a patient while treating him.” After this little argument it looks like the bloom has gone off the rose in this particular relationship.

Before the two depart, Pawter gives D’Av the address of Grayson Hicks, the only other patient of Dr. Jaeger’s that they know of. He is in a mental asylum and the killjoys break him out. Hicks agrees to help but only if they take him with. The place he was treated in is Utopia a huge club and market, anything and everything is for sale in the area. “Dr. Bliss” treated Grayson and John takes the man to find her.

Dutch and D’Av stick together and he tries some “euphoria in a bottle” while Johnny visits a specialist in fringe science. He learns that the device Khlyen used on Dutch is partly organic, aka mech=organic, and is cutting edge technology while the other two bond a little bit more. A kiss or two later and they have become even more “aware” of each other. John makes a deal with the woman to track the device back to its origins.

Dr. Bliss turns out to be the one who messed with Hicks’ memories and she was Jaeger’s former assistant. She stole the doctor’s technique and modified them. The killjoys steal the procedural files back from Bliss. On the way back from the club, Dutch is arrested for kidnapping Grayson. Delle Seyah Kendry (Mayko Nguyen) who Dutch met, and bested, back in Vessel put out a BOLO on the killjoy leader.

The two strike up a deal where Dutch is released with no charges pending if she and her team do Kendry a favor, unspecified, later on. Dutch agrees, but only if she and her team are allowed 24 hours with Jaeger. They come to an agreement and the killjoys find the doctor in a Westerly black site.

D’Av demands answers, which Jaeger provides rather reluctantly and D’Av then tells her that he wants his memories back. Dutch orders him to back off and really think about what he is asking for. Angry, he leaves and heads back to the ship. Dutch and he compare notes, she reveals that the first time she killed anyone was when she was eight. The two connect.

The two are mid-coitus when John returns with the news that he got the Khlyen device fixed and discovers that they are now an item. He leaves and around the same time Dr. Jaeger uses her program to turn D’Av homicidal again.

After their long sex session, after which D’Av says they need a bigger bed and goes to give Dutch a high five, “Are you naked high-fiveing me right now,” she asks. She gets some clothes on and discovers that Johnny had been back and then immediately left. D’Av suddenly turns.

Dutch goes back to her room to tell D’Avin that Johnny knows about them and he tries to kill her. The two have a prolonged battle while Johnny tells Pree (Thom Allison) all about the problem. He explains that the two cannot possibly last and then he will have to pick a side. Pree tells him that John will pick Dutch’s side which makes him a good friend.

Back on the hip, Dutch finally overpowers D’Av. Johnny finally returns to the ship to find an injured Dutch who explains that D’Avin tried to kill her. She tells John that Jaeger is responsible and that the doctor will fix it, “or I”m going to break her one piece at a time,” she warns John to be careful around D’Av.

Dutch goes to see Jaeger who traps her in a small corridor with security fields on either end. John tries to connect with his brother, after first punching him, and D’Avin stabs Johnny. Jaeger admits that she turned D’Av into a weapon. She also admits that he was not meant to really kill anyone.

The doctor reveals that she was the one who put the kill warrant out on D’Avin as he almost found her once before. Using the auto target, Dutch breaks through the dual security field and gets to Jaeger. John asks Lucy to get a doctor just as he passes out. Lucy is stumped for a moment and then puts out an alert for any doctor to respond. Johnny is, after all, her favorite.

Jaeger explains to Dutch that her work is important and that the killjoy has no idea what is coming to the Quad. D’Av has followed her to the doctor’s office and Dutch forces the assistant to reverse what they have done. After D’Avin is back to normal, Dutch tells Jaeger that she is going to give her something she never gave D’Av…a choice.

“The gun or the memory-wipe procedure,” Dutch asks. Jaeger chooses the gun and Dutch replies, “Procedure it is.”

Pawter comes to John’s rescue. She orders the nearest med ship to come collect Johnny. The ship’s commander initially refuses and Simms responds angrily, “This is Illenore Seyah Simms of Land Simms and if you ignore my call, I will have you staked in the rain.” The med ship then confirms they are on the way and Pawter says, “You bet your a** you are.” Splendid moment for the woman that Hills said in the previous episode had no real standing with the Land family.

In the hospital, John is anxious that D’Avin know that the stabbing was not his fault and Dutch thanks Pawter for saving Johnny’s life. Dutch and D’Av talk about Johnny and he admits that he remembers everything he did. He asks Dutch to tell him she knows that was not really him. She says yes but that was really her and she is not alright with that.

Killjoys suddenly leapt from good old fashioned kick-ass type entertainment to a deeper more complex plot. Jaeger hints at something big and bad on the horizon for the Quad, Pawter Simms obviously is more important than she lets on and Delle Seyah Kendry obviously has something nasty that she wants Dutch to do. D’Avin and his brother may have to work a bit to get back a that brotherly love, but it appears that whatever started between Dutch and Johnny’s big brother has been broken…possibly forever.

Kudos to Sarah Power for bringing that blast of power to her character. Wow. Killjoys is a science fiction show that has not one, but several powerful and positive female characters as main players. This Canadian space action series is a winner and part of SyFy Fridays. Watch it if you like positive female role models along with great story and kick-ass action.

Killjoys: The Harvest (recap and review)

Still from Killjoys The Harvest John and Shyla
Before going into Killjoys, The Harvest, take a moment to appreciate the serendipitous casting of Lisa Ryder, aka Beka from Andromeda, aka Kay-Em 14 Jason X, as Keera Deen in this episode. Pause and savor the fact that the show’s makers obviously love the genre and that maybe Kevin Sorbo might be making an appearance along with many more science fiction television and film royalty.

At the end of last week’s episode Dutch provisionally hired D’Avin to be a Killjoy on her team and rather than kill the man her father targeted for her to assassinate, she captured him in order to lean why he had been chosen. This week, John goes with his brother to RAC and D’Avin applies, being accepted, by Keera Deen (Ryder) and starting at a higher rank than John, if he passes his psyche eval. Dutch is still questioning her intended target.

When the man insists he has no idea why he was marked for death, Dutch lets him go, telling the target to run and hide, she then sets fire to the room where she questioned him. D’Avin and John head to the bar and the harvest festivities are in full swing. D’Avin starts crowd control immediately and John heads straight for the bar and Pree pours him a drink.

Dutch comes in and calms things down, “I’ve got a gun and a badge, everyone calm down,” she says. Her appearance stops D’Avin from choking a man on the bar. Later John learns from a sex worker friend N’oa that her husband has gone missing from his migrant farm job at Leith. His visa is about to run out and the law says that if he is not found, she will be punished instead.

John talks Dutch into taking the job while D’Avin tries to get a RAC doctor to “rubber stamp” his psyche eval. Since he cannot go on a mission till he passes, D’Avin is to sit this one out and his brother and Dutch go undercover to find the missing Hock farm worker.

Entering the farm area as a worker John is tagged with an implant in his ear, that he soon learns is not just a deterrent but a incendiary device that explodes if he stops working. Dutch is posing as a Hock buyer and D’Avin takes the doctor to Leith Bazaar, to buy supplies, in return for her signature on his eval.

Once they arrive at the bazaar, D’Avin learns that Dr. Pawter Simms (Sarah Power) is not, strictly speaking, a practitioner of the “straight and narrow.” John is busy questioning a fellow farm worker while Dutch does some in-depth questioning of the farm owner, Martell (George Tchortov) and gets access to the farm files and the tracker in the missing farm worker Vincent Sh’ao’s ear.

When she and John run down the tracker device, they find not only Vincent’s ear but a lot more, all buried in the farmland. The question is whether or not all of the ear’s owners are dead, or just missing and why Martell has not reported it. D’Avin and Simms have a falling out after she triggers a stress attack in the former soldier and it looks like she may not sign his eval as a result.

John, whom Dutch ordered to lay low, talks to a coworker and it turns out that the ears have been cut off by the workers so they can escape. Dutch calls D’Avin to see if John has been in touch, she is tracking John’s tracker and finds it, and his ear, buried in the dirt. It turns out that the missing workers, plural, not just Vincent, are all working in the woods at a Jack “grow up”, a drug farm.

Martell discovers that Dutch hacked his system and called the authorities to report his Jack farm to avoid arrest, they are, he tells Dutch, on their way to kill everything in the woods, including Vincent and John. Dutch and D’Avin rush to the grow up and John has rounded up the missing workers along with Vincent. They, and Sh’ao, leave the area one step ahead of the deforestation ships, except for Shyla (Hannah Anderson) who says she would rather die than return to Westerly.

By the end of the episode, Dutch and John clear the air and D’Avin gets his eval signed by Simms. It looks like the doctor and D’Avin will be seeing more of one another since he has asked her to treat his Stress Response Syndrome and John gets his ear replaced.

Killjoys moves quickly and the fast pace, along with clever dialogue and some excellent one-liners makes for an entertaining show. This Canadian export is, like Dark Matter, a great example of what TV should be; fun and un-complicated. Aaron Ashmore, Hannah John-Kamen and Luke Macfarlane are a chemically viable trio of protagonists and SyFy has definite winner on its roster. Part of the line up.