Spoilers Killjoys Season 2

[Wouter]

I was quite surprised that Dutch and co went back to working for the Rack (and by extension, the Company, as the Rack often seems to act as a private militia for the Company, at least on "official" business) - another seeming lack of consequences. This was addressed later in the episode, though.

That Killjoys, effectively de-facto working for the Company by all appearances, can walk around unmolested in Oldtown while more or less openly hunting Company enemies is rather hard to swallow, though.

Hills was a good character, sorry to see him go. Pawter is also interesting. The new villain is really chewing the scenery, but he is effective.

 

[Christopher]

I was quite surprised that Dutch and co went back to working for the Rack (and by extension, the Company, as the Rack often seems to act as a private militia for the Company, at least on "official" business) - another seeming lack of consequences. This was addressed later in the episode, though.

The RAC is neutral, and will take warrants from anyone. However, the Company is the biggest economic and political power in the Quad, so it stands to reason that they'd issue a disproportionate number of warrants. And I get the impression that Dutch & co. wouldn't have taken this particular warrant if they hadn't needed to get into Old Town.

Indeed, I felt that was a weakness of the episode. They needed any warrant they could get in order to get into Old Town, and it felt a bit convenient to me that the person they were going after just happened to be such a major bad guy who was willing to commit mass murder, since that made it too morally neat. I thought it might be more interesting if they had to take a warrant against someone more empathetic and deal with the moral dilemma of that. Although I guess the dilemma came from the fact that the Company man issuing the warrant was at least as evil as their target.

That Killjoys, effectively de-facto working for the Company by all appearances, can walk around unmolested in Oldtown while more or less openly hunting Company enemies is rather hard to swallow, though.

I suspect most people are aware that if they tried to molest a Killjoy, it would turn out badly for them. Indeed, the one guy who didn't know that -- the squatter in Pree's bar -- had it proven to him quite painfully.

 

[Vendikarr]

Initially disappointed when Hill turned up not only akive, but without a scratch from being inside the Royale as it was being bombed in the season one finale. But what happened later more than made up for it. That was a gut puncher after the teasing setup that there would be rainbows and sunshine for all the characters. Sort of a Defiance vibe with the eeeeevil new commandant sitting in his very pretty HQ with Old Town under a dome (let's hope he doesn't have a stash of monarch butterflies to unleash later on... ). And the muscled up thug who took over the Royale needs to hang around, he turned out to be fun, kind of like Orphan Black's Vic, Sarah Manning's ex boyfriend. Plus, Pree needs a flunky. Give Pree a minion. .
The stakes are raised even higher from the season premiere. Very good start to s2.

I really enjoyed Mr. Muscular Tough Guy becoming everyone's bitch. 8 year old girls on the street will be kicking his ass next.

 

[Wouter]

The RAC is neutral, and will take warrants from anyone. However, the Company is the biggest economic and political power in the Quad, so it stands to reason that they'd issue a disproportionate number of warrants. And I get the impression that Dutch & co. wouldn't have taken this particular warrant if they hadn't needed to get into Old Town.

Indeed, I felt that was a weakness of the episode. They needed any warrant they could get in order to get into Old Town, and it felt a bit convenient to me that the person they were going after just happened to be such a major bad guy who was willing to commit mass murder, since that made it too morally neat. I thought it might be more interesting if they had to take a warrant against someone more empathetic and deal with the moral dilemma of that. Although I guess the dilemma came from the fact that the Company man issuing the warrant was at least as evil as their target.

The RAC is neutral, officially. But effectively, they are mercenaries for hire, and for the reasons you state the Company is by far their most important customer. If another group or a person would order a warrant that went directly and significantly against Company interests (say, a kill-order with a top Company man or one of "the nine families" as target, on trumped-up or real charges), would they give it to their killjoys? From the way the RAC has been portrayed, what I think is more likely to happen is that the RAC would inform the Company and accept a hit-order for the one who asked originally instead. Attacking you main customer is bad business, after all.

The exception is that the RAC leadership itself seems to be more ambitious than running a mercenary company, and it appears that the level-6 guys (or the even more sinister guys who give even level-6 pause) may be aiming to take power from the Company (or even taking power beyond the Quad). But that part of the RAC has been quite carefully hidden, until recently.

As for the moral dilemma of the warrant, they did a good job to show the main target in a somewhat sympathetic light. But it did feel it was rather inappropriate that Dutch and co were so casual about the other men on the warrant, one of which killed himself because of their actions. There seemed to be zero signs of sympathy for Oldtown resistance against the Company, until they met Alvin.

I suspect most people are aware that if they tried to molest a Killjoy, it would turn out badly for them. Indeed, the one guy who didn't know that -- the squatter in Pree's bar -- had it proven to him quite painfully.

True for a single person, but when Company bad guy put a price on Dutch's head at the end she was worried enough. As soon as it became clear that the group was chasing men who were political prisoners of the Company, the crowd should have reacted the way Dutch feared they would at the end. Hills had to hide.

 

[Christopher]

The RAC is neutral, officially. But effectively, they are mercenaries for hire, and for the reasons you state the Company is by far their most important customer. If another group or a person would order a warrant that went directly and significantly against Company interests (say, a kill-order with a top Company man or one of "the nine families" as target, on trumped-up or real charges), would they give it to their killjoys? From the way the RAC has been portrayed, what I think is more likely to happen is that the RAC would inform the Company and accept a hit-order for the one who asked originally instead. Attacking you main customer is bad business, after all.

We were told in the pilot that warrant requests pass through an approval process and that Level 5 (kill) warrants are the hardest ones to push through, requiring a lot of power or money on the part of the issuer. So some random miner couldn't just ask the RAC to assassinate the Company guy running the mine, since there's no way they could have the clout to push the warrant through -- but the Company guy running the mine could probably push through a Level 5 warrant against the random miner. In theory, the approval process makes it egalitarian, but in practice, the powerful tend to get their way more often.

I'm not convinced the RAC would warn the Company if someone tried to take out a Level 5 on one of their members. After all, the RAC's operations aren't limited to the Quad alone. The Company is their main client in the Quad, but not elsewhere in The J Star Cluster. So compromising their neutrality -- or violating the confidentiality of a warrant's issuer -- might benefit them with the Company/the Nine, but if it got out, it would hurt their reputation cluster-wide.

The exception is that the RAC leadership itself seems to be more ambitious than running a mercenary company, and it appears that the level-6 guys (or the even more sinister guys who give even level-6 pause) may be aiming to take power from the Company (or even taking power beyond the Quad). But that part of the RAC has been quite carefully hidden, until recently.

Again, the RAC is already bigger than the Quad. Khlyen, like Dutch and the Jaqobis brothers, came to the Quad from outside. And it's been pretty clear from the start that he's been working to prepare for some massive threat that he sees coming from outside the Quad.

 

[Wouter]

We were told in the pilot that warrant requests pass through an approval process and that Level 5 (kill) warrants are the hardest ones to push through, requiring a lot of power or money on the part of the issuer. So some random miner couldn't just ask the RAC to assassinate the Company guy running the mine, since there's no way they could have the clout to push the warrant through -- but the Company guy running the mine could probably push through a Level 5 warrant against the random miner. In theory, the approval process makes it egalitarian, but in practice, the powerful tend to get their way more often.

Agreed. In theory they're neutral, but in practice the people in Oldtown know that they don't have the clout to get the RAC to do anything against Company people of consequence. Which makes the neutrality rather meaningless, in the context of the Quad. They may take token warrants from other groups in the quad, but the Company gets the lion's share. Which is a nice arrangement for the Company (they get to outsource much of the dirty jobs).

I'm not convinced the RAC would warn the Company if someone tried to take out a Level 5 on one of their members. After all, the RAC's operations aren't limited to the Quad alone. The Company is their main client in the Quad, but not elsewhere in The J Star Cluster. So compromising their neutrality -- or violating the confidentiality of a warrant's issuer -- might benefit them with the Company/the Nine, but if it got out, it would hurt their reputation cluster-wide.

That's a good point. I had forgotten the RAC is more than their operation in the Quad.
Killjoys has done well in worldbuilding on the level of the Quad, but beyond it gets fuzzy (the role of the military, or militaries, for example: who commands them, what are their enemies,...).

Again, the RAC is already bigger than the Quad. Khlyen, like Dutch and the Jaqobis brothers, came to the Quad from outside. And it's been pretty clear from the start that he's been working to prepare for some massive threat that he sees coming from outside the Quad.

Yes, Khlyen is a great character played by a good actor. His motives and capabilities are mysterious, and we can't be certain if he is a villain (with some redeeming qualities) or an ends-justifies-the-means guy whose goals are not necessarily nefarious, though his methods often are.

 

[Christopher]

Yes, Khlyen is a great character played by a good actor.

I dunno, I find the actor underwhelming. I'd probably think more highly of the character if he were played by someone more interesting. Imagine, ohh, Enrico Colantoni in the role. Or Michael Emerson, as long as we're imagining Person of Interest alums. Or David Tennant.

 

[JD]

The guy playing Khylen has been good, but any of those three would be amazing.

 

[Yanks]

The opening credits...ugh. The rest of the show was great. I think that was the first time I've seen Stephanie Leonidas without her alien make up from Defiance. She's cute and I really liked her character. Hopefully she'll be back.

Wow, nice catch! I didn't make the connection. I loved her as Irisa in Defiance. I too hope Clara and Alice return. She played the part VERY well IMO. I don't think we've seen the last of her. John seemed to take a likin to her (or her tech ) I would love to see Stephanie in our new Star Trek series.

I think Aaron Ashmore is an outstanding actor, Luke McFarlane not so much. Jury is still out on Hannah John-Camen.

I was lost for about 15 minutes of the first episode. I should have binge watched season one I guess.

I don't think this has started off as strong as Dark Matter. We'll see how things progress.

I'm not a fan of the comic book intro stuff.

 

[Unicron]

I enjoyed the new ep. Lots of interesting character development.

 

[Forbin]

They actually spent money on a wild new set instead of filming in a warehouse! Cool cave.

 

[sojourner]

Yeah, the irony. Instead of filming in a quarry/mine they built a mine to film in. End result: the spend another episode running around in a mine..

 

[JD]

I didn't think about that.
Lost of interesting new developments in this one.
The mossipedes are an interesting bit of info on origins of the green slime.
I loved Pawter putting the bomb on Jelco's leg.
Lots of nice character development for Alvis, and background on the scarbacks.

 

[sojourner]

OH, loved the bit when they're riding around in the buggy and they keep commenting about being in "the middle of nowhere" and "no one's been here in forever", meanwhile there are fresh vehicle tracks everywhere. LOL.

I loved Pawter putting the bomb around Jelco's heart.

 

[Christopher]

A lot of plot and character advancement and worldbuilding here, despite being a rather bottle-ish wandering-through-mines episode. I've rarely seen a story establish so much scope in such tight confines.

Also a recurring theme of women standing up to men's attempts to manipulate and control them -- though Dutch had Alvis's help in finding her focus while Pawter had to do it all by herself.

I loved Pawter putting the bomb on Jelco's leg.

She didn't. She surgically implanted it around his heart. If it were on his leg, he could've taken it off quite easily using his DNA signature.

 

[sojourner]

 

[JD]

She didn't. She surgically implanted it around his heart. If it were on his leg, he could've taken it off quite easily using his DNA signature.

You're right. I don't know why I was thinking it was his leg.

 

[Christopher]

This show is getting pretty intense, and still working quite well. I do miss the warrant-of-the-week format somewhat, but piecing together Khlyen's plan (hey, I've almost gotten to the point where I can spell that name without thinking) is interesting, and the mythology is being built up more and more. So Delle Seyah is working with Khlyen, and Dutch has an uneasy alliance with Delle Seyah. Meanwhile, it sounds like there was a third Jaqobis brother who died (since John said to D'Avin that they both know what losing a brother is like), and Khlyen and Fancy Lee are on their way to the Jaqobis' homeworld to investigate D'Avin's immunity to mossipede goo. A lot of stuff happening.

Meanwhile, Pawter is kicking all of the ass, as they say. She's become quite the self-rescuing damsel. But how far will her Nine blood protect her as she digs into the evils of the Company, given that the Company is the Nine?

I realized something last night: I actually like Aaron Ashmore in this. I've never had anything against him, but I've always found him kind of a neutral presence, affable enough but not compelling. But he's really come alive in this show. He seems to have more texture, more intensity. His character, the material he has to work with, is richer and draws more out of him. Maybe it's partly that the basic niceness he projects is so refreshing in this realm of tough guys/gals and ruthless elites and lawless scum; but he does have more edge here than he's had in other roles, and that makes him more interesting.

 

[Forbin]

When you said he has more texture, all I could think was, "that's just stubble."

 

[JD]

I really enjoyed this episode. Delle Seyah was one of my favorite recurring characters last season, and she was just as good here.
I loved seeing Pawter get in on the action this week.
We got some interesting new developments on the whole Khylen plot.
So it looks like we might actually be leaving the Quad for at least part of next week's episode.
Is Seyah some kind of title for members of the Nine? I think I remember them also calling Pawter Seyah Simms last season after they revealed she was one of the Nine.
Damn my spell check really hates all of the names in this show.