KILLJOYS – Season 4 Episode 1 – SPOILERS

The episode’s title is “Warrior Princess Bride”, and Dutch‘s origin story does parallel Xena‘s. Both women have many skills and both are attempting to atone for “Sins of the Past“. (That was the title of Xena’s first episode.) Immersed in “greenspace”, which seems to be an interactive virtual reality, Dutch, wounded by The Lady, is carried to temporary safety by Khlyen, who tells her a story from her own memories that he says will save her life — the tale of how she and Johnny came to be Killjoys. We learn that, when interrogated at Killjoys headquarters, Dutch beat an unbeatable lie detector, and the only way to do that is to tell a different truth instead of lying. So Khlyen tells her a story to help her conceal what she needs to conceal from The Lady.

The legend of Dutch and Johnny begins at Laryon Docking Station, a spaceport in the Outer J. In the background we hear a PA announcer saying: “Last call for boarding – Q cluster.” ‘Q’ is the seventeenth letter, so there might be at least that many colonized clusters, which in turn would seem to indicate that colonial expansion followed one of the galaxy’s spiral arms because that’s the way star clusters are distributed. We still don’t know who exactly did the colonizing.

“Look,” John says to Yalena, after she admonishes him for running an (unsuccessful) shell game, “You’re a big, fancy royal lady. You’re used to a softer way of life. I get that, and this is probably all beneath you, But good manners will not fill your ship’s tanks, and we are this close to being out of fuel.” Does this mean that Lucy’s engines run on liquid fuel? What sort of liquid fuel would fit in a ship that small and be sufficient to get them across a star cluster at FTL speeds? Another interesting thing about Lucy’s propulsion system is how it maneuvers into a parking spot. When Lucy docks on Westerley, she enters what looks like a parking garage for spaceships, makes a right-angle turn, and sets down gently. People walk by just a few meters away, undisturbed by her arrival. She is not using conventional thrusters to change direction.

To raise money for fuel and other things, Yalena contracts to deliver twenty-four cases of beet wine to The Quad. When they arrive on Westerley, Hills Oonan (Frank Moore) impounds their cargo and ship, advising them that only The Company and Killjoys can legally import stuff and anyone else attempting to do so is smuggling. He further advises them to try the sexers and avoid the pork. As it is unlikely that there are pig farmers on Westerley or anywhere else in The Quad, the pork is probably vat-grown. Beets, however, grow everywhere, and making wine from them is not a complex procedure, so that product is an unlikely import. Also, the partially empty bottle displayed by Johnny contained a clear liquid, and beet wine is most often red in colour. Beets grown in the Outer J might be different from those on Earth. (There are white beets here, but apparently they are not used to make wine.)

Faced with a ten thousand joy fine for smuggling, the two head for the local bar, which turns out to be the Royale, and meet Pree, who also recommends the sexers. John asks him if they’re hiring for that sort of work, and, for some reason, Yalena reacts with disapproval to that idea, though she seems otherwise to be not at all prudish.

The shipment (it turns out) contained a hidden remotely-operated device that, once inside the storage unit, generated an EMP that disabled The Company‘s electronic security and enabled an assassin (Maylene, played by Karen Glave) to steal the poison she intended to use on a Qreshi target. Killjoy Joseph Ciano (the guy Fancy killed in “One Blood“) is completely out of his depth dealing with this, but is smart enough to enlist Yalena’s help.

Qreshi marriages are subject to renewal every ten years, and that there is an associated ritual (called a tenyer) that allows married Qreshi to experiment with different partners before committing to renewal. Yalena and Johnny infiltrate one of these ritual gatherings and capture the assassin. Johnny is poisoned in the process, and Yalena wants to torture their captive to obtain the antidote, but Johnny prevents her from reverting to her old ways. (Extending the Xena comparison, that would make him Dutch’s platonic version of Gabrielle). The assassin is sufficiently moved by Johnny’s willingness to sacrifice himself that she unlocks the antidote and John is cured.

In the process of all this, John makes friends with Yalena’s ship. (It is unclear why Yalena calls Lucy by her name, while John only refers to her as “ship”.) He explains to Lucy that humans rarely say what they mean or ask for what they actually want, getting her to trust him by implying that he is an exception to that rule.

Lucy (Tamsen McDonough) has the best line of the episode: “John? John, Are you dead yet?” Also, we finally find out why Dutch is called Dutch. It seems John’s original nickname for her was Queenie. After the two agree to a two-year partnership, Yalena tells him: “Hey, you can’t call me that anymore. We’re starting over, remember? New life, new identity?” So he calls her Dutchess.

NOTES

Kimberly Sue-Murray (Louella Sims) will be Danika in at least one episode of V-WARS, a 10-episode drama based on the series of graphic novels by Jonathan Maberry. In the series, Dr. Luthor Swann (Ian Somerhalder) watches his best friend Michael (Adrian Holmes) be transformed into a vampire by a mysterious disease. Michael eventually becomes leader of the vampires, while Dr. Swann searches for a cure. V-WARS began filming in Toronto on 4 July, and should be on Netflix later this year.

Murray won the the Brian Linehan Actors Award for her performance as Laura in the short film SHE CAME KNOCKING, about a woman who witnesses what she believes is a husband abusing his wife and takes matters into her own hands. (The film also won the A&E Short Filmmakers Award at the National Screen Institute Short Film Festival.) SHE CAME KNOCKING, directed by John Ainslie, can be streamed on Vimeo.

Eileen Li (Qreshi hostess) is Noreen Yang in TOM CLANCY’S JACK RYAN, a spy drama based on Clancy’s series of novels. Noreen, who has an obsession with baseball, is the youngest member of Ryan’s CIA analyst team. In the opening episode, Ryan uncovers suspicious transactions that alert him to a powerful new threat. John Kransinski will be the fifth actor to play the role of Ryan. (The other four are Harrison Ford, Alec Baldwin, Ben Affleck, and Chris Pine.) The series is set to premiere on Amazon Video on 31 August . TOM CLANCY’S JACK RYAN has already been renewed for a second eight-episode season.







