Sunday, August 21, 2016

The Geekcap: Killjoys "Full Metal Monk"

Dutch visits John in the Spring Hills compound where he is being kept prisoner by Jelco. He reveals that he has been beaten as part of captivity, though understands how his secrecy hurt Dutch worse. She asks him how long he had conspired with Pawter at risk for their license, but he simply explains that Pawter has had her own agenda with Old Town and Westerly just as Dutch has her agenda with Level 6 and Khlyen. Dutch reminds him that they have always been part of the same team, but John admits that he is in love with Pawter, making her agenda more important to him. Dutch then decides to contact Pawter to help release him with her status while also revealing that Khlyen had sent her another red box after she killed Sabine. When John asks why she came at all if it wasn’t to break him free, she admits it comes from habit.

In Old Town, D’avin delivers the list of Level 6 spies in the RAC to Turin, and the two begin tracking a suspect. While Turin doubts the suspect since they were members of the academy together, the two are nevertheless attacked by the suspect and backup. In the fight, a Level 6 begins choking D’avin to death. Acting desperate, D’avin tries to force the man off of him. With great focus, D’avin then manages to force the man’s eyeballs to explode.

D’avin returns to Lucy, desperate trying to wash himself clean from the residue. Though neither he nor Dutch understand how it happened, Dutch encourages D’avin to try and focus the power in another attack. In the meantime, D’avin asks about John leading Dutch to explain that she asked Pawter to help him instead of them. D’avin feels disappointed at abandoning his brother, but Dutch explains that they need to talk.

Pawter arrives at Spring Hill to find John as Dutch requested. She apologizes for actions leading to this, but the two are interrupted by Jelco, who reveals to Pawter that he had work done to dismantle the device she placed in his heart. Pawter orders John to be released, and, although he initially refuses, Jelco lets John free when reminded of Pawter’s new status. However, once the two leave, he demands a call to Delle Seyah Kendry.

Jelco: I do like a reunion. It's like a divorce in reverse.

Dutch reveals that she is planning to suspend their partnership with John until further notice. For now, she plans to focus on the new red box. D’avin argues that they have little to go on besides speculation, except that the weapon in the box suggests that Aneela is a Level 6. Dutch reminds him that more details should be in Olin’s head on Leith. Now, they should be able to speak with him for more information. Despite leaving John, D’avin admits that since his brother lied to him as well, he chooses to help Dutch.

In Old Town, Pawter and John move through the streets as she explains what she learned. From what she has seen from the practice of the Wall, she believes that it involves the practice of execution genetics. Like animals, the Company slowly poisons the weak leaving only the strongest to survive in a compound. With her own tactics, Pawter extracts blood from an Old Town citizen and plans to examine it for any contagion.

Meanwhile, in Spring Hills, Jelco discusses John and Pawter’s escape into Old Town with Delle Seyah. Knowing their location, Delle Seyah orders the Wall to be activated. Jelco argues that it’s not on schedule, but Delle Seyah uses her authority to order it activated now.

Dutch and D’avin travel to Leith to speak with Olin, but Alvis is less certain given the circumstances. He reveals that Olin has broken down from the information and even attacked his brother with an execution stick. Needing answers, Dutch approaches Olin about what he has seen. She first asks if he recognizes her, which he replies affirmatively. However, when she asks him about the name Aneela, he breaks down and runs from her to the wall. Alvis then tells her that the name Aneela actually means devil as Olin starts drawing symbols. The monk recognizes the symbols from the skin of the monk from the mines, understanding the words “Arkyn” and “plague” but nothing else. Olin tells them that it is a map of the rivers of Arkyn, leading to the green pools that drowned its people. While Dutch remarks that there is no water on Arkyn, Alvis reminds her that there was centuries ago, when the Scarbacks traveled there.


The investigation on Old Town comes up short with no sign of poison in ordinary blood. Pawter admits that she needs proof in order to convince Arune, her only ally on the counsel, to work with her to take down the Company. While they talk at the Royale, Pree interrupts them in a cheerful mood, despite his last bartender running out with D’avin. As the bar keeps running, John then notices that none of the Old Town citizens have lost weight since their captivity. After being found out, Pree reveals that, like any war, there are secret trading routes. John and Pawter decide to investigate.

Dutch, D’avin, and Alvis travel to Arkyn using the map from Olin. In the meantime, D’avin speaks with Alvis, telling him that the radioactive layer has been taken down taken down since Red 17’s disintegration. However, Alvis is able to see through D’avin’s nervousness and invites him to talk. D’avin then talks about his recent encounter with a Level 6, how he made the man’s eyeballs explode. Alvis asks if he wanted the man’s eyes to explode, leading D’avin to admit he wanted his whole head to explode. With that in mind, Alvis suggests D’avin should learn to think calmly the next time he comes across a Level 6 in order to avoid another outburst.

The three arrive on Arkyn where the river originally ran on the planet. However, the location on the map leads them to another safehouse designed by Khlyen. After some searching, they locate the entrance and walk inside the box. Once inside, Dutch realizes that walls are not translucent like the others, and the entire structure shakes before plummeting through the ground. Suddenly, they stop as the doors open to reveal a secret hall.

Dutch, D’avin, and Alvis move through what looks to be the central command of another station. However, none of them can tell what it’s for or who would be running it, especially since it appears to be separate from the Company. Dutch hands Alvis a gun to prepare themselves for what they might find.

Alvis: Do you have anything bigger?

John and Pawter track down the food trade to Karl, the former Company prison guard. While his former role as a guard made him an enemy in the eyes of Old Town, his access to Company materials made him especially useful to the others for food. Pawter pays Karl 5,000 joy for each substance so she and John can examine them. Unfortunately, they find nothing of any interest that could cause a pathogen. Pressing Karl, however, they learn that he was expecting a new, special ration from the Company in a few days. That, they expect, will be the substance for poison.

Upon further searching, Dutch, D’avin, and Alvis find a room filled with bodies in the middle of experimentation. Although they are all dead, the green plasma in their bodies retains a warmth from life. From this sight, they conclude that this was the first site of the Red 17 experiments as the bodies also cover more formulas. While Dutch and D’avin question what they find, they overhear Alvis speaking to someone in another room. Alvis has discovered one of the monks he believed was part of the original league to fight the devil. The other dead bodies were the additional ten with the monk in the mine being the one who came back alive. Now, they have another witness behind a wall eerily similar to the one surrounding Old Town.

John and Pawter return to the back of the Royale, where Pawter used to conduct her medical treatments. After learning about the new rations, John believes that they should plan to distract the route in order to prevent the poisoning. Pawter offers to use herself as a damsel, but, first, she wants to make up for the trouble John went through to help her. Surprisingly, she claims that she feels good about herself for the first time. John responds in kind since he also feels satisfied and also tells Pawter that he loves her for the first time. She also reveals that she loves him as the two kiss.

Alvis attempts to communicate to the monk while Dutch destroys the wall’s system. The monk, however, sees Dutch and begins to attack her. When she fights back, he then attempts to escape. Although D’avin worries about the monk fighting them, Dutch insists they keep him secured since he’s the only one who can tell them what happened.


The three track down the monk as Dutch tries to convince him that she is not Aneela. The monk continues to fight the group with his Level 6 status making him a formidable opponent. In this struggle, D’avin then attempts to use his ability to try and stop the monk, though he fears blowing up the head again. Under this stress, Alvis convinces D’avin to meditate as though he was a sniper aiming for a target. This notion allows D’avin to take control of the monk to make him relax. Still, when Dutch probes further, the monk fights back, forcing Dutch to knock the man unconscious.

On Old Town, Pawter practices her aim by firing cans off of John’s head when the two are interrupted by Arune, her only ally on the council. He comes to see Pawter’s proof of poison in Old Town to help fight the Company, but Pawter and John prove to distracted to have any proof. While they manage to reveal the Company food rations, they admit that they do not yet have any proof. Arune tries to remind the threat his family suffers from him asking questions, but they are further interrupted by the presence of Jelco.

The monk reawakens under captivity from D’avin and Alvis. Dutch questions the monk as Alvis translates, but the monk refuses to believe that Dutch is not Aneela. Dutch then proves herself by cutting her hand to show she bleeds. With that knowledge, Dutch then asks about Khlyen, a name that the monk recognizes. Surprisingly, he remarks that Aneela knew him by a different name: Father. The news rocks Dutch that all this time she resembled Khlyen’s distant daughter from two hundred years ago. Nevertheless, she plans to take the monk with them as they torch the rest of the lab, but the monk instead requests to be killed. Alvis offers to return the monk to Leith, but the monk insists on death. Reading the monk’s emotions, D’avin convinces the others that he simply wants his torture to end. Alvis performs last rites on the man while Dutch strikes the fatal blow.

Jelco reveals to Arune that the Wall emits a particular drug that turns anyone within Old Town’s wall into happy, complacent drones. He remains immune due to an implant in his neck while Arune still functions from having just arrived. For discovering the true purpose of the wall, Jelco proceeds to shoot Arune as John and Pawter aimlessly watch. Since the drug prevents them from reacting negatively, Jelco then stages the scene as an assassination done by John and Pawter. The council will inevitably relinquish Arune’s spot while Pawter will lose her power since the two refuse to fight back under the influence. John feebly recognizes that what Jelco is doing is wrong, but he finds himself unable to fight back. Instead, he reveals that he and Pawter knew about the rations but not what the Company plans to do. Jelco admits that the Company has planned to poison the rations but suggests that the purpose is so much more before leaving them. John tells Pawter that they should leave, but Pawter suggests to keep listening to the music in the back.

The group returns to Lucy. Although D’avin tries to reassure Dutch that the monk died in peace, Dutch is more concerned with the other possibilities. She wonders instead if she truly is Aneela after experiencing dreams and visions of another woman and Khlyen’s experience in manipulating memories. D’avin shoots it down as a possibility, reminding her that she fought to create her new identity as Dutch. In the meantime, he had Lucy analyze the wall substance guarding the monk, revealing it to emit a drug that pacifies a human sense of fear and resistance. That substance now surrounds the people of Old Town. Dutch tells Lucy to contact John, only for Lucy to reveal that John is in Old Town himself.


The group attempts to contact John, but, in his state, John tosses his communicator as he walks with Pawter through Old Town. Various citizens act out their newfound glee in walking on glass and jumping off of rooftops. On screens, Jelco reveals the Company’s plans to deliver new food rations to the people of Old Town as a reward for their compliance. Despite the chaos, John and Pawter share a kiss in the streets.


Level 6 Notes

  • Shamier Anderson, who plays Arune, also features on Syfy's show Wynonna Earp.
  • Karl from "Wild, Wild Westerly" reappears as a blackmarket trader in this episode. 
  • Aneela, Dutch's double, is revealed to be Khlyen's daughter

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