Season finale!
Aug. 9th, 2025 08:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessKilljoys - 1.10 Escape Velocity
Not everything came to a head in this season finale, obviously, but plenty of strands were brought together, and that convincingly enough, even if some of the rationale was basically ‘It’s the season finale!’ The previouslies reminded us of various things from episodes past, and highlighted the use of colour, blue lights in some scenes, green lights in others, against a generally dark palate.
The trio compared notes. At first Khlyen was the priority. But a flashback to an attack featuring the revolutionary order at Leith market explained the arrest of Priest Alvis. Although it was fairly obvious it was ‘the revolutionary order’, as they all covered their faces. The company broadcast Alvis admitting to his crimes, Dutch suspected coercion, remembered all the favours he’d done and begged a visit from Hills (The Company’s man on Westerley). Alvis asked her to go to the ‘Rat People’ to get access codes to bunkers in the tunnels below Old Town that might keep his people safe.
Cue the trio having to dress up as priests and convince the Rat People of their piety to get anything off them. Before Dutch could turn to her weapons, Johnny stepped in. Luckily he’d read those scriptures D’avin had passed on from Alvis and remembered the priestly blessing, though the Rat King would later suggest that he’d been called to this when guilt-stricken Johnny admitted he’d been faking it and the Rat King really should take his sick sister to a proper doctor. Conveniently, the trio also got the tags of the people who’d really carried out the terrorist attack as part of this. Dutch told D’avin to pass these on to Hills in the hope of making things easier for Alvis, while she and Johnny pumped their handler on Leith about Level Six in the hope of finding out about Khlyen.
Johnny’s friendly hacker, Carleen, who had just boasted she’d decode Khlyen’s files and arranged communication protocols with Johnny got stabbed by Khlyen. Uh-oh, her security wasn’t all that good then. Khlyen offered her a slow or quick death, depending on whether she told him where his computer juice was (unlike her, we knew that Johnny had hidden it in D’avin’s apartment.)
Dutch and Johnny heard that the RAC rumour mill about level six involved body modifications and never mind if that body had been a corpse.
As Dutch was trying to decide what to prioritise the Nine lady (Delle Seyah Kendry according to IMDb) called on her favour. The Nine were voting on the ‘sacred treaty’ they had signed to give the seventh gen of Company people on Westerley land on Leith. She wanted Dutch to play security guard and arm candy as this was going on. (She wasn’t too enthusiastic about Johnny turning up too.)
D'avin didn’t get very far in persuading Hills to reconsider Alvis’s guilt, (as in, he probably knew that he hadn’t been involved, but was willing to follow Company orders) and then saw Khlyen at his place and decided, all gung ho, to follow him. Stupid.
Johnny had learned that Pawter’s mother was one of the Nine and been tasked by the good doctor with passing on a message about the true situation in Westerley to her. (There was some lowkey Johnny/Pawter fodder all episode.) He tried, but Pawter’s mother pretended she had no daughter. Figured that she was an ally of Dutch’s Nine lady.
Johnny then found out that Carleen had been killed by Khlyen, Dutch that D’avin was following Khlyen and they decided to bail the icky drinks before politics set-up UNTIL Dutch saw some guy carrying the very targeted bioweapon from an episode past (helpfully shown in the previouslies). She made a scene, Nine Lady turned up and revealed she was behind it, setting the weapon off herself – getting rid of several rivals and initiating a coup, which she proudly admitted to Johnny. Also, she revealed that Khlyen had asked her to bring Dutch away from Westerley.
Dutch had to fight the guy, gouged his eye, he fought on (so much EWW.) He boasted about being level six and was generally arrogant and creepy. Fortunately, Johnny and a gun had her back. It was announced that bombers would be sent to Westerley as the revolutionaries were being blamed for the attack on the Nine, so Dutch and Johnny boarded Lucy and tried to get her to fly superfast.
Khlyen was thrashing D’avin, kind of admiring the whippersnapper’s persistence. D’avin pointed out that Johnny had made Dutch take the kill order, so Khleyn was mistaken in thinking that she was ready to return to assassinations, Khlyen let slip that going after Dutch’s husband had led to their estrangement. He intimated that he had different plans for D’avin – I cringed, because I expected more mind control.
Dutch and Johnny reached the Royale just before the bombers. No D’avin. They persuaded Pawter, the Bartender and some extras to go to the tunnels with them.
A guard (the most wooden actor in the whole ep) turned up at Alvis’s cell to beat him up, paying no heed to the fact that he was setting down the oh so innocent prayer beads Dutch had passed on to him on behalf of his brethren in a surely significant circle. Stupid guard. They worked like flying explosive eyes, and Alvis escaped, so that he could bump into our gang in the tunnels, and get the codes. Pawter decided to go with them to the bunkers, having figured out that her mother hadn’t said anything near as kind as Johnny claimed about her. The bartender and some extras decided to go with D&J to Lucy. They had to face down Hills and some Company guards. Hills was a bit conflicted, because the Company had used and betrayed him and was about to scapegoat Westerley. He let them go.
One second, Dutch was reluctant, because of D’avin. Johnny said they had to trust him. She accepted this. The next, after Lucy had flown away from Westerley, but just as the bombers were starting to attack it, she’d decided that Khlyen had him and started recording a message in the hope that D’avin would hear it. It mainly felt like it was for us, the audience.
Carleen’s colleagues/automated assistant sent a message, as if from the dead, to Johnny. She’d decoded the files. All we saw was a rendition of a double helix, but Johnny was horrified by what he was seeing.
The Rat King and his sick sister had come above ground to join the other Westerleyans as they were bombed, Hills had come to drink one last drink at the Royale with a few other patrons when it got destroyed.
And then we daw D’avin, waking up on a trolley in a lab, hearing screams a distance away, seeing that dead Killjoy from a few episodes back was lying on a trolley beside him. He got out of the lab to see the three other planets of the Quad in the sky, meaning he was on the ‘ruined’ first terraformed planet. As guards came to retrieve him, the camera pulled away to show ‘Red 17’ marked on the building he was in, meaning that Red 17, mentioned in the previous episode, wasn’t a rumour either.
They definitely had a bigger budget for this episode. So, the Nine, the Company and Level Six are in cahoots, and it’s the proletariat who get screwed. The team (and the canonical ship) are divided, the home many of the characters we’ve been rooting for is being destroyed. What next? I haven't yet got round to buying the next season, and may just put it in rotation, so who knows when I'll find out.
Not everything came to a head in this season finale, obviously, but plenty of strands were brought together, and that convincingly enough, even if some of the rationale was basically ‘It’s the season finale!’ The previouslies reminded us of various things from episodes past, and highlighted the use of colour, blue lights in some scenes, green lights in others, against a generally dark palate.
The trio compared notes. At first Khlyen was the priority. But a flashback to an attack featuring the revolutionary order at Leith market explained the arrest of Priest Alvis. Although it was fairly obvious it was ‘the revolutionary order’, as they all covered their faces. The company broadcast Alvis admitting to his crimes, Dutch suspected coercion, remembered all the favours he’d done and begged a visit from Hills (The Company’s man on Westerley). Alvis asked her to go to the ‘Rat People’ to get access codes to bunkers in the tunnels below Old Town that might keep his people safe.
Cue the trio having to dress up as priests and convince the Rat People of their piety to get anything off them. Before Dutch could turn to her weapons, Johnny stepped in. Luckily he’d read those scriptures D’avin had passed on from Alvis and remembered the priestly blessing, though the Rat King would later suggest that he’d been called to this when guilt-stricken Johnny admitted he’d been faking it and the Rat King really should take his sick sister to a proper doctor. Conveniently, the trio also got the tags of the people who’d really carried out the terrorist attack as part of this. Dutch told D’avin to pass these on to Hills in the hope of making things easier for Alvis, while she and Johnny pumped their handler on Leith about Level Six in the hope of finding out about Khlyen.
Johnny’s friendly hacker, Carleen, who had just boasted she’d decode Khlyen’s files and arranged communication protocols with Johnny got stabbed by Khlyen. Uh-oh, her security wasn’t all that good then. Khlyen offered her a slow or quick death, depending on whether she told him where his computer juice was (unlike her, we knew that Johnny had hidden it in D’avin’s apartment.)
Dutch and Johnny heard that the RAC rumour mill about level six involved body modifications and never mind if that body had been a corpse.
As Dutch was trying to decide what to prioritise the Nine lady (Delle Seyah Kendry according to IMDb) called on her favour. The Nine were voting on the ‘sacred treaty’ they had signed to give the seventh gen of Company people on Westerley land on Leith. She wanted Dutch to play security guard and arm candy as this was going on. (She wasn’t too enthusiastic about Johnny turning up too.)
D'avin didn’t get very far in persuading Hills to reconsider Alvis’s guilt, (as in, he probably knew that he hadn’t been involved, but was willing to follow Company orders) and then saw Khlyen at his place and decided, all gung ho, to follow him. Stupid.
Johnny had learned that Pawter’s mother was one of the Nine and been tasked by the good doctor with passing on a message about the true situation in Westerley to her. (There was some lowkey Johnny/Pawter fodder all episode.) He tried, but Pawter’s mother pretended she had no daughter. Figured that she was an ally of Dutch’s Nine lady.
Johnny then found out that Carleen had been killed by Khlyen, Dutch that D’avin was following Khlyen and they decided to bail the icky drinks before politics set-up UNTIL Dutch saw some guy carrying the very targeted bioweapon from an episode past (helpfully shown in the previouslies). She made a scene, Nine Lady turned up and revealed she was behind it, setting the weapon off herself – getting rid of several rivals and initiating a coup, which she proudly admitted to Johnny. Also, she revealed that Khlyen had asked her to bring Dutch away from Westerley.
Dutch had to fight the guy, gouged his eye, he fought on (so much EWW.) He boasted about being level six and was generally arrogant and creepy. Fortunately, Johnny and a gun had her back. It was announced that bombers would be sent to Westerley as the revolutionaries were being blamed for the attack on the Nine, so Dutch and Johnny boarded Lucy and tried to get her to fly superfast.
Khlyen was thrashing D’avin, kind of admiring the whippersnapper’s persistence. D’avin pointed out that Johnny had made Dutch take the kill order, so Khleyn was mistaken in thinking that she was ready to return to assassinations, Khlyen let slip that going after Dutch’s husband had led to their estrangement. He intimated that he had different plans for D’avin – I cringed, because I expected more mind control.
Dutch and Johnny reached the Royale just before the bombers. No D’avin. They persuaded Pawter, the Bartender and some extras to go to the tunnels with them.
A guard (the most wooden actor in the whole ep) turned up at Alvis’s cell to beat him up, paying no heed to the fact that he was setting down the oh so innocent prayer beads Dutch had passed on to him on behalf of his brethren in a surely significant circle. Stupid guard. They worked like flying explosive eyes, and Alvis escaped, so that he could bump into our gang in the tunnels, and get the codes. Pawter decided to go with them to the bunkers, having figured out that her mother hadn’t said anything near as kind as Johnny claimed about her. The bartender and some extras decided to go with D&J to Lucy. They had to face down Hills and some Company guards. Hills was a bit conflicted, because the Company had used and betrayed him and was about to scapegoat Westerley. He let them go.
One second, Dutch was reluctant, because of D’avin. Johnny said they had to trust him. She accepted this. The next, after Lucy had flown away from Westerley, but just as the bombers were starting to attack it, she’d decided that Khlyen had him and started recording a message in the hope that D’avin would hear it. It mainly felt like it was for us, the audience.
Carleen’s colleagues/automated assistant sent a message, as if from the dead, to Johnny. She’d decoded the files. All we saw was a rendition of a double helix, but Johnny was horrified by what he was seeing.
The Rat King and his sick sister had come above ground to join the other Westerleyans as they were bombed, Hills had come to drink one last drink at the Royale with a few other patrons when it got destroyed.
And then we daw D’avin, waking up on a trolley in a lab, hearing screams a distance away, seeing that dead Killjoy from a few episodes back was lying on a trolley beside him. He got out of the lab to see the three other planets of the Quad in the sky, meaning he was on the ‘ruined’ first terraformed planet. As guards came to retrieve him, the camera pulled away to show ‘Red 17’ marked on the building he was in, meaning that Red 17, mentioned in the previous episode, wasn’t a rumour either.
They definitely had a bigger budget for this episode. So, the Nine, the Company and Level Six are in cahoots, and it’s the proletariat who get screwed. The team (and the canonical ship) are divided, the home many of the characters we’ve been rooting for is being destroyed. What next? I haven't yet got round to buying the next season, and may just put it in rotation, so who knows when I'll find out.
