C R Sparrow wants desperately to throw off the shackles…
Killjoys’ Season Finale, Wargasm Makes A Strong Statement
Killjoys is a fun, sexy, action packed hour of entertainment. It doesn’t shy away from exploring serious themes, but generally, it softens the angst with a well placed one liner or a snappy bit of banter. In “Wargasm”, this tendency is used to both good and ill effect. We’ll talk more about that later.
The opening scene of “Wargasm” takes place at a Leithian war camp in slow motion. The full complement of Team Awesome Force and an assortment of Ferran, scarbacks, and killjoys are sharing the last bit of camaraderie before it starts raining down hullen. Dutch shares a drink and a laugh with the Jaqobis. Pippin and Zeph make cute googly eyes at each other. (Aww!) And the Farren commander performs a handfasting ritual uniting Pree and Gared. (Yay!)
Everything slows down, even more, to give us a cheeky Last Supper tableau. Just then, Dutch cuts in with a voice over to let us know, the time for smiles and sharing cherished moments is coming to an end. This is an example of Killjoys doing what it does best, pulling and stretching tone like taffy until it reaches its full gooey potential.
Johnny’s hullen disruptor gets set up just as Aneela’s armada comes into beautiful view wrapped in clouds. It’s on… or not. The hullen don’t attack immediately, which gives the RAC time to contact Dutch about Alvis’s death. As far as opening salvos go, sneaking into the Quad and killing your arch enemy’s spiritual touchstone and sometimes-lover is a pretty heavy payload.
I was a little confused as to what the Jaqobis’ plan was if they caught up with Dutch. I know they wanted to save her life, but they didn’t have a plan. As far as we know, Dutch was supposed to kill Aneela assassin style. Were they scrapping that idea to save Dutch and doom the Quad? I guess they were going to just hope an opportunity to save both Dutch and the Quad suddenly presented itself. Either way, it led to that adorable Zeph sandwich with two slices of Jaqobis bread so I can’t complain too much.
The real meat and potatoes of this episode is the meeting between Dutch and Aneela after two seasons. It floored me when I realized, Khlyen removed Aneela’s memories of Yalena, and so all Aneela knew was that there was this person running around with her face, receiving all the love from her Papa that she wasn’t getting. She had no memory of loving Yalena, and that’s the tragedy of their conflict. The speech that Dutch gives as she jams her memories into Aneela’s head sent my heart racing.
I cried for them. I cried for the girl whose father had irreparably altered her at such an early age, then locked her away when she became dangerous. I cried for the girl who was given shape and voice and life just to have it twisted and gnarled on a fundamental level by that same father’s idea of love and protection. They suffered because of the mistakes of their father, and united in purpose, I hope they can become whole again.
I can’t say enough good things about Hannah John-Kamen’s performance and the writing of this scene. They go from fighting to sitting beside each other and talking. That almost never happens. The point of action-adventure is to get to the bad guy and kill them nice and good, not pick apart the ways in which the conflict has shattered you both. Subsequently, this was one of the best moments in TV this year.
That’s why the last scene with D’av, Delle Seyah, and Johnny is such a let-down. As I stated earlier, Killjoys likes to change up its tone frequently. It’s completely inappropriate and clunky here. Dutch is dead for all they know, and they’re drifting in space while the Quad is being invaded. Why would D’av be joking around? It reminds me of the first season episode, “Vessel”, when Jenny suicide bombed herself to buy the team time to escape and they ADR’ed Johnny yelling, “I loooove the Badlands!” as they sped away from her bits of charred corpse. No, Killjoys! Bad Killjoys!
Overall, this season of Killjoys did such a good job of gradually building up the various elements necessary to move from being a show about bounty hunters to being a show about a band of revolutionaries. I’m also completely on board with whatever this show becomes in the future. The ratings have been very solid all year, so fingers crossed I see you back here next year! [Update: Killjoys has been picked up for another two final seasons by Syfy! RAC Pack, rejoice!]
Roses
- The opening monologue reminded me of Rose Tyler’s monologue from Doctor Who: “Doom’s Day”. Goosebumps inducing.
- This episode looked fantastic. Hats off to all departments from costumes to special effects.
- “You’re a really good person. I don’t think you get told that enough.”
- “Good joke!… Whatever, I don’t need your approval.”
- “Wow, wordplay and muscles. Save some for the rest of us.”
- Fancy and Turan squashing their beef. I love both characters.
- PREE and GARED LIVE. Finales are stressful because I’m waiting to see which minor but beloved character will die. I thought Gared was a goner as soon as he told Pree he was happy.
- Hannah John-Kamen has gone above and beyond this season. She’s such a star.
Thorns
- If Aneela didn’t remember that Dutch was from her green, how did she know she could throw her across the room with her magic green abilities before they started fighting?
- That damn elevator scene, ugh.
C R Sparrow wants desperately to throw off the shackles of wage slavery and live a life of leisure. Unfortunately, she hasn’t quite figured out how to turn her encyclopedic knowledge of Star Trek Deep Space Nine or deftness at playing Bioware RPGs on the easiest setting into a fortune. She’s still working on it though. Sci-fi/Fantasy blerd with a strong affinity for binging television shows and having lots of feelings about them.
Finale was pretty underwhelming but I did laugh a few times