Killjoys, “Come the Rain,” was written by Jeremy Boxen (“The Sugar Point Run”) and was directed by Peter Stebbings. While Stebbings may be best known as an actor, his directing credits include,
The Listener,
Rookie Blue, and
Saving Hope. This episode picks up in the aftermath of D’Avin’s (Luke Macfarlane) “re-programming” attacks on Dutch (Hannah John-Kamen) and John (Aaron Ashmore). Once again, the show takes a pretty standard plot – the hostage situation – and does much more with it.
The episode picks up ten days after the events of the last episode. John is healing well but D’Avin hasn’t left the ship and Dutch is sleeping her way through Westerley. John sets up an elaborate ruse, essentially holding Dutch and D’Avin hostage on Lucy (Tamsen McDonough) to try to get them past the incident, to fix the team. I loved that the two set off thinking that they are simply taking the warrant John took for them. Bellus (Nora McLellan) is clearly in on it with him. I also liked that she was protective of Dutch fulfills her promise to hurt D’Avin for hurting Dutch.
The device is John’s team building exercise that turns out to be a kind of truth or dare game. Lucy has all systems shut down until Dutch and D’Avin “truth” their way through the device. And of course, they also turn it into a drinking game. Dutch reveals that she regrets having slept with someone she cares about – D’Avin. D’Avin tries to lie and say that his biggest fear is not knowing what comes next. He admits that he joined the army to become a “hero” because he never stood up to their father. While it’s a lie, it’s also pretty close to the truth. What he really fears is that he’ll never be good enough – and that insecurity, no doubt, comes from his father.
The final question asks Dutch whether she trusts D’Avin. Neither yes nor no work to unlock the ship’s controls, however. Dutch insists that the problem is that she has to “feel” the answer – and feeling wasn’t something she learned in the harem. We learn that she learned three things: killing, dancing, and marrying into royalty. D’Avin wants to see her dance, and she wants to see him dance. He only learned one dance in the military and it requires a partner. There’s a terrific shot of the two dancing that we see through the window of the ship – nice use of VFX.
D’Avin tries to push Dutch and tells her to get angry at him. John-Kamen is once again excellent in this episode – from the flat expression on her face as she tries to forget caring about someone she had sex with by having sex with multiple partners she doesn’t care about to her utter frustration in trying to deal with the situation. She tells D’Avin it’s too messy. She can’t get angry at him because he wasn’t him when he hurt her and John.
I liked the use of a “bad-D’Avin” projection. It was a nice physical manifestation of the chimera of bad-D’Avin. Dutch turns the exercise around on D’Avin, telling him he has to face his own demons. D’Avin is ready to throw the knife after initially not wanting to touch it again, only to have Dutch unable to let him throw past her. She really doesn’t trust him. Of course the exercise is stopped there when the ship’s orbit starts to decay and it begins to be pulled into the Black Rain storm. The two put it aside to release Lucy by simply throwing the device on the ground and breaking it!
Meanwhile, John ends up a hostage in Pree’s (Thom Allison) bar when the Black Rain hits and traps him with some thieves and a company soldier – Hector (Dewshane Williams). I was thrilled to see Williams who I really enjoyed on Defiance. It would seem that we may see more of him in upcoming episodes too as we learn that he’s a mole in the company for Alvis (Morgan Kelly). The Black Rain is another result of the Company’s irresponsible management of Westerley as it’s caused by their environmentally unfriendly practices. They use it to punish prisoners in an absolutely barbaric way – leaving them staked out to be essentially dissolved by the toxic precipitation – it’s a fantastic special effect, though!
Ashmore delivers a terrific performance in this episode as well as we see some different facets of John. We see his more devious side that is motivated by Bellus and Lucy both help him and Pree also looks out for him. But we also see that he has a breaking point and can be pushed past always being the one to fix things when he takes the thieves out. I particularly adored the final scene when he reads Dutch a bedtime story. I like the dynamic between these two. John-Kamen is also excellent in this scene as it’s clear how much she needs and appreciates this relationship with John. I hope they can keep them as best friends despite Pree’s thoughts to the contrary.
Speaking of Pree, it was great to have more of Allison in this episode as well as more of Morgan Kelly as Alvis. The episode peels back more of the dynamics of life on Westerley besides just the weather. We learn that Pawter (Sarah Power) is a Jakk addict and has been since she got hooked in med-school. We also learn that she’s on Westerley because she killed a guy when she was operating high on Qresh. Her family supplies her with pure Jakk and that’s the medical supplies she’s willing to go out into the Black Rain for. She has to operate on the leader of the thieves after he’s shot but can’t do it because she’s in withdrawal.
Pree has been keeping Pawter’s secret. He knows of tunnels beneath the city – which it turns out so do a lot of other people. Alvis takes John through the tunnels to get the Jakk. John accuses Alvis of using religion to play politics, but it’s clear that Alvis is more complicated than that. He truly does care about people, and we get a glimpse into the reverence with which people hold him and look to Alvis for comfort and blessings – which involve Alvis cutting himself to anoint them with his blood. That does seem like a real commitment to me.
Alvis also provides us with some interesting insight into John, calling him on being either a masochist or a martyr. He’s not wrong, and that’s what makes John an interesting character. While D’Avin talks about wanting to be a hero and failing to be one, John quietly just goes about doing it. He tries to save everyone in the bar, including the thieves and even goes out into the Black Rain after Hector. However, when both the company and the thieves prove to be difficult, John declares he’s done fixing things and kills all the thieves.
In the aftermath of Pawter taking the dirty Jakk, John looks after her. Pawter remarks that he’s good at it and it’s clear she’s not his first addict. He admits that she’s not the first woman he’s had to score drugs for. John’s already admitted to Alvis that he didn’t want to be a killjoy. D’Avin comes to John to tell him that he’s off the ship and offer him the Captain Apex comic as a peace offering. It would seem that this is D’Avin’s MO – too little too late. We learn that the woman John was likely scoring drugs for was their mother. John also tells D’Avin that it wasn’t just looking after their mother that prevented him from pursuing his own dreams, it was also taking care of their father’s debts. It’s clear that John has been fixing things for a very long time.
I liked the parallel hostage plots in this episode and how both revealed a lot about our characters’ pasts. I also like how the world building continues to be nuanced and layered, slowly revealing itself. What did you think of the episode? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
About the Author - Lisa Macklem
I do interviews and write articles for the site in addition to reviewing a number of shows, including Supernatural, Arrow, Agents of Shield, Agent Carter, The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, Forever, Defiance, Bitten, Killjoys, and a few others! Highlights of this past year include covering San Diego Comic Con as press and a set visit to Bitten. When I'm not writing about television shows, I'm often writing about entertainment and media law in my capacity as a legal scholar. I also work in theatre when the opportunity arises. I'm an avid runner and rider, currently training in dressage.
