Between a killer fog and mind swapping, this episode was jam packed! Shout out to Luke McFarlane (Davin) and Rob Stewart (Khlyen) for doing an awesome job acting like each other! On to the recap!
Freaky Friday
We start the episode this week with Dutch (Hannah John-Kamen) and Davin back in Old Town catching some criminals with a warrant. It was a cool fight scene and one of the guys had an electrical glove that zaps folk. While they are subduing the miscreants, they both admit that they miss John (Aaron Ashmore), who is busy escorting Pawter (Sarah Power) back to her family. More on that later. Dutch also wants to give John some breathing room about Pawter even though she doesn’t see the appeal. Davin invites her to The Royale for drinks. Dutch knows that Davin has his eye on one of Pree’s (Thom Allison) bartenders, Sabine (Tori Anderson), Davin doesn’t deny it either.
So he goes to the bar attempting to flirt. Sabine requests peaches the next time he’s in town because they remind her of home. Things get a little awkward when he mentions his home planet. Before he can make any further moves, he starts hearing humming and collapses. We see Khlyen, the cock blocker, connecting mentally with Davin like he neuro-linked with Dutch last season touching the green goo. Fancy Lee (Sean Baek) lets Khlyen know they are approaching the planet Telen. I love how Fancy got sarcastic about not seeing signs of the Black Root, a group that’s after them. Khlyen connected with Davin so he could find is father.
Mr. Marris Jaqobi, dad to Davin and John, wakes up to find Khlyen standing over him. Fancy covers his mouth to prevent him for calling for help. Khlyen has Fancy inject Dad with the green goo. Davin is back on Lucy doing chin ups when Dutch asks how things went with Sabine, when he tells her about his collapse and his head feeling funny, she has him hand over his gun. Don’t want to relive the whole trying to kill her situation that happened last time his head felt weird. Davin hums as she walks away. Recognizing the tune as a song Khlyen wrote for her (creepy), she pulls Davin’s gun on him wondering why that song would be in his head. They figure out that Khlyen has mentally connected with Davin, for what reason they don’t know yet.
Khlyen can now eliminate daddy Jacobi as a reason for Davin’s resistance to his green goo. Marris is alive but out of it. Fancy suggests that maybe the mother had some kind of immunity. Khlyen tries to link with Davin again so he can find his mother. Back on Lucy, Dutch wants Davin to try to use his connection to glean any information about what Khlyen may be up to. Davin was in the midst of unbuckling one of the prisoners when the connection happens again. He tries to describe to Dutch what is going on. The prisoner, now unbuckled, takes advantage of Davin’s weak state to try to escape. Dutch tries to re-subdue him again when the brother tries to double team her. Meanwhile she tells Davin to try to fight the connection or improvise. Davin improvises all right, to the point where there is a mind swap!
Davin as Khlyen, sees his fingers covered in green plasma and notices his father. Fancy is initially confused when he calls Marris father. Khlyen as Davin feels one of the prisoners hitting his back with a tool and quickly kicks his butt. Dutch figures that it is him somehow in Davin’s body, confirmed when he calls her Yale.
Fancy isn’t fooled when Davin tries to act vague as Khlyen. They fight and Davin notices how strong Khlyen’s body is. He zaps Fancy with the weapon Fancy brought with him that also zaps with electricity.
Khlyen meanwhile doesn’t even feel the bleeding cuts near Davin’s abdomen as he stands. Khlyen wants to send a message to Fancy to attempt the mind switch back before Black Root catches up with them. Dutch thinks Khlyen for once is scared. He reveals that usually the Root listen to him but not right now. When Khlyen makes a dig at Lucy’s technology she was like:
Dutch staples the wound together. He claims to care about Davin, which is why he is doing what he’s doing. I don’t really buy that but okay. He surprisingly admits that he wants to figure out why Davin can resist his plasma. Khlyen is still vague about the plans he has for Dutch and I’m with her in getting sick of the top-secret BS. Lucy alerts Dutch that Davin’s body is in critical condition. Khlyen needs to switch back, but doesn’t know how. Meanwhile Davin tries to get his Dad to leave before Fancy wakes up. He tells him to hide in a cave he used to leave him at to toughen him up. Marris tries to apologize but we don’t have time for that. Bye! Fancy wakes up and puts Davin to sleep.
Dutch calls John during his crisis (more on that later) and he suggests a strong electrical charge should switch minds back to their original body. Dutch tries that using the glove one of their prisoners had. It doesn’t work at first. Davin’s body is starting to fail. Khlyen asks for any last words. Dutch confesses she doesn’t hate him anymore, but now she’s at a lost. Khlyen starts chuckling because Davin’s neural scan held the answer he was looking for all along. Before Dutch zaps him again he notices that Davin had a brain operation. He asks Dutch who did it and she says the Army. He thinks this changes everything. He does tell Dutch that she’ll find her answers in the last Red-17 transmission he sent. She wonders why she was on Arkyn but he says it wasn’t her.
Then who was it then Khlyen? Darn it with your crumbs of information? Dutch zaps him again and Davin comes back. When Dutch asks where he went, he says, “seeing family.” After that experience Dutch just wants to see John. Time to pick him up!
Khlyen wakes up back on his ship. Fancy is glad that he’s back. Khlyen reports that Davin was part of a military experiment that he wasn’t aware of. Next road trip: to find out how to replicate the results by talking to the army. Fancy wonders if he will see Davin again. Khlyen seems confident it will happen. I think Fancy wants a rematch!
Killer Freeze Fog
John and Pawter arrive at her family home. The Qresh home is on a freaking island! John is confident she will get the wall to Old Town rescinded so they can celebrate, but Pawter is still nervous. She is first greeted by her sister Louella Simms (Kimberly-Sue Murray) and her jerk of a fiancé Hank (Marco Grazzini), who had to nerve to crack a joke about John being short for a Killjoy. Apparently Pawter and Hank have some history. Less than 30 seconds in her past drug issues are brought up by her sister and hinted at by Hank. Ugh. Her father walks in to warmly greet her.
Pawter’s Dad Weymar (Andrew Gilles) is happy that she’s home. He is reluctant to have her talk to momma Adaline Simms (Jayne Lewis). Even though he sympathizes with her cause, he feels that her mother will still refuse to help because of the other families. Pawter even throws in that she wants to take her rightful place as a daughter of the Nine but her father thinks that will not help the situation. He doesn’t understand why she cares so much. Well considering that Pawter was exiled to Old Town, she now considers it her home, so yeah she would care about something effecting where she lives.
Pawter finds John swimming naked in the pool, not realizing it was used primarily for family baptisms. Pawter wants to go over the rituals of a traditional Qreshi dinner with John so he doesn’t embarrass himself. Poor girl is a nervous wreck because momma is intimidating. John thinks his dad, the sheriff is worse.
At dinner, the rituals of banging a small gong, standing up every time someone gets introduced are just silly. “The Lady of the Land, Daughter of the Nine, Protector of the Soil and Sea, “ Adaline finally makes her entrance so everyone can sit down to eat. The food doesn’t even look appetizing. Louella tries to make light conversation by telling Pawter she’s taken up deep sea diving. She tells the butler Castor to get the boats ready. Dinner goes downhill from there when Mom says no before Pawter makes her request. Pawter, upset, walks out and John goes after her. John thinks they should leave but Pawter wants to try again to convince her mother. Before they do anything further, they hear a shout and see Castor walk in and literally freeze to death. He falls frozen and breaks up into pieces. I felt so bad for Castor, that was a rough way to go. Before he died he mentioned there was something in the fog.
The rest of the house is alerted. Louella blames herself because she sent him outside. Adaline takes charge asking for Weymar to start collecting samples. She refuses Pawter’s help. John wants to assess the situation and plan an exit if it’s an attack. Hank is quick to make accusations against John. Adaline thinks she has everything under control. She’s taken care of the family for over 20 years so she knows what she is doing. John agrees that they should stay inside just in case it is a bio attack and for Pawter to help her mom while he makes a distress call.
While the computer is analyzing Castor’s frozen parts, Adaline and Pawter get into an intense discussion about Pawter’s experiences as a doctor and Momma Simms wanting her daughter to follow in her foosteps as a leader of the family. Pawter wants her mom to let her in mentally. The computer has finished its analysis. It found a pathogen. Pawter is confused by the results on the screen.
The fog is creeping in. Louella remembered there was staff in the boathouse. She runs to the house and John goes after her. Hank disappears. The fog touches her hand when she opens the door. She sees her hand freezing. There was too much staring by both her and John before getting her to the house. Pawter saves her life by cutting off her hand before the freeze could spread.
John wants to plan an exit strategy. So far the only exit is from the roof if they can get an aircraft to hover. To help ward off the fog, Weymar puts wood furniture that he made as a carpenter into the fireplace. Weymar explains that Adaline fought for them to be together, almost getting disowned by her family. Johnny doesn’t think that it was right that Weymar didn’t fight for Pawter from getting exiled but Weymar had to choose between which person made him a better man. The escape by roof isn’t going to work because the island is protected by an Alpha Shield. That means that the fog started within the shield. To get rid of the fog John will need to take the shield down. Time to blow stuff up!
John asks Adaline about the shield and accuses her of creating the pathogen. She admits it and has even infected herself to test a potential cure. That’s hardcore. While she created the pathogen, she didn’t release it. Someone else did as an attempt against her family. John is concerned about leaving so he planted a bomb to blow up the shield thinking the fog will just disburse. Adaline panics because the fog will adapt and freeze the sea around it killing anything within its path. Pawter overhears and tells John to stop his bomb. He barely makes it!
Pawter is wondering why the fog was created. Adaline wanted to make the planet uninhabitable but miscalculated somewhere. The Nine are expecting an invasion, which makes what Seyah (Mayko Nguyen) did in the episode “Schooled” make more sense. Adaline has the computer doing a body scan so Pawter can figure out how to stop the fog. Her last words are, “To protect the ones your love, you have to become something you hate.” That sounds foreboding! While understandably upset, Pawter gathers strength to figure out this deadly fog.
Adaline should be thankful her daughter became a doctor. Pawter discovered fog is mutant hybrid of about 10 different viruses, which seemed to be Adaline’s specialty according to Weymar. She notices that one of the compounds of the fog is Keltric 0-9, a virus she treated at a mining colony. The weakness is extreme heat. John comes up with a plan. Blow up the fog! He talks with Dutch to get her take. She advises that he would need just enough bombs to set up a directional charge from the main gas line. The main line is of course outside in the control building where the fog is. So how will John get there without getting killed? Louella thinks of a diving suit because it’s nonporous and can withstand extreme cold temps.
John makes it over to the control building which is still breathable. He gets clocked in the back by Hank. I knew I didn’t like the bastard. He has a hazmat suit which is why the fog hasn’t gotten him yet. He stomps on John’s bomb so it won’t go off. Hank has the nerve to offer John a split in the money he’ll make if John lets the family die and they escape. John looks at him like he’s crazy. Back at the house in the lab, Pawter regrets Adaline ordering her instead of saying she loves her. Adaline ordering them around was probably her way of showing she loved them, Louella thinks. Weymar is wondering why it’s taking Johnny so long to get back. Pawter and Louella try to convince him to not go after John but he insists. Pawter and Louella are the family now. So there’s only one diving suit laying around? Does Weymar have to die?
Weymar manages to get to John before Hank shoots him. He provides a brief distraction so John can punch him in the face and knock him around some. The bomb still works but it will no longer work remotely. Someone will have to stay to set it off. Weymar makes the sacrifice. He asks that John takes care of his daughter. Weymar will give John two minutes to make it back to the house. Better run quick John! He makes it just in time. The bomb works which coincidentally also knocks out the shield. The house and other parts of the island appear to stay intact.
Pawter takes her vows becoming a leader of the Nine. John comes to the ceremony, reporting the wall still up at Old Town. He offers to help her go against some people to bring the wall down. She doesn’t want him to do it just for her. Even though he’s a Killjoy, he wants to do more. John wants to “give a sh*t” with Pawter. She says that he can’t tell Dutch and Davin so they aren’t compromised. John thinks about what Weymar said before about choices. They kiss. I’m a little leery about where this will go.
Being the Gravity
Back on Lucy, John asks Davin how it felt to be Khlyen. Davin describes it as “sleek.” I think that was a good word to describe it. Seeing their dad again surreal because he seemed so much smaller than he remembered him. Dutch comes in to mention they have two new warrants to catch. Davin goes to gear up. Dutch and John are glad each of them are physically okay. Dutch, in a show of emotion, hugs John tightly. Dutch is just glad that while things are changing all around her, John remains constant. “You’re my gravity John Jaqobis.” Well! Now things have just taken a turn. Dutch hopes John will tell her if that changes. He says, “of course,” instead of starting to explain to Dutch about Pawter with “now that you mention it.” Reassured, Dutch goes off to prepare to go after their warrants. The show ends with John looking shocked, confused, and conflicted.
More Thoughts
What the hell John!? Why didn’t you tell Dutch? That was the perfect opportunity! Pawter shouldn’t have told him he couldn’t say anything to Davin and Dutch. They need to know something. I feel like Dutch told John that because she felt him pulling away, especially when she feels like she needs him now more than ever.
I thought this was an interesting episode because of the two storylines happening at the same time. I felt bad for Pawter for losing her parents in a day. I also felt it was an unique way of introducing Marris Jacobi so Davin could see him again after so many years. While they didn’t talk long, it was enough to bring a little bit of peace to Davin.
The stuff that was revealed in this episode has left me with some questions:
- Who is trying to invade Qresh? Who hired Hank to take out the Simm family? Would that have happened if Pawter had not come back?
- Who the hell was on Arkyn if it wasn’t Dutch? Does she have a twin or was that her mother?
- Why does Khlyen not tell Dutch what is going on? Why does she still need to figure out the last transmission?
- Did the army realize that the mind control they put on Davin would have an effect on his ability to resist the green plasma?
- Who knows about the effects of the green plasma other than Khlyen?
- Are we going to meet other Killjoys that don’t die by the end of the episode or become Level 6?
- When is Fancy going to get his rematch with Davin?
- Is Pawter going to become eventually like her mother?
- Is John going to regret helping Pawter?
Those are just scratching the surface of my brain. Until next week!
What are your thoughts of the episode? Sound off below in the comments!
