Why It’s Okay To Be "Killjoys"
Soaring onto our screens Friday night was the action-packed space opera we’ve been waiting way too gorram long for. With a premise reminiscent of a live-action Cowboy Bebop and enough heart to bring Firefly-shaped tears to my eyes, SyFy’s Killjoys heralds back to the good ol’ days of on-the-ship science-fiction, features a trio of interplanetary bounty hunters (sorry, reclamation agents) played by Hannah John-Kamen, Aaron Ashmore, and Luke Macfarlane, and is created by Michelle Lovreta, the masterful creator behind previous series Lost Girl. That said – spoilers ahead!
Our series takes place in the Quad, a habitable foursome of planets and moons located in the J Star Cluster and controlled by a sort of at-this-time unknown entity known as The Company. Working for a faction known as the Reclamation Apprehension Coalition, these killjoys, as the citizens of the Quad call them, give up any allegiances and chase dangerous fugitives through a system on the brink of a bloody class war. Hannah John-Kamen plays Dutch, the strong female lead, who is a Level-Five Reclamation Agent with the RAC and has permission to execute kill warrants. Aaron Ashmore plays her partner, John, who is still training at Level-Three.
When John goes rogue in order to execute a warrant above his authority, Dutch takes Lucy, their smart-mouthed ship, and goes after her wayward partner. Locating his target aboard a slaver ship where the easiest way to pay your fare is to step into galactic cage matches a la Fight Club, John steps into the ring to face down his target and confirms the suspicions he had earlier that caused him to go rogue. Luke Macfarlane plays D’avin, John’s estranged brother, and the person whom John has come to break out. Dutch, however, has other plans and ‘claims’ her quarry with a well-placed dart before rival bounty hunters are able to do so. Doing so in front of these rivals presents the trio with a new problem in that once a bounty has been claimed, it must be cleared or there are repercussions that pass onto the claimant. This being a Level-Five kill warrant this means death for Dutch unless they can find something the client wants more than John’s brother.
After talking to a monk who suspends himself in mid-air via bait hooks through the skin, they learn about a rogue monk who stole data belonging to the Company – data that the Company desperately wants back. Flying off to a rather posh dinner party to find the monk gives the trio time to play dress-up, but when the rival bounty hunters from before show up, the party is crashed and Dutch is poisoned. As John and D’avin chase after the monk, Dutch is saved by a mysterious man who’s known her since she was a child. He’s also the same man that taught her some rather unsavory business practices with a knife during those formative years and, with this, a little more is revealed about Dutch’s dark past.
Meanwhile, John and D’avin corner their quarry who pulls a gun on them and refuses to go without a fight. With security coming after them as well, D’avin makes the split-second decision to kill the monk and retrieve the data chip hidden in his nose ring. On the lamb from the law, they become pinned down in a corridor when Dutch shows up with some rather nifty gadgetry and yet another badass display of her fighting prowess. Turning in the data chip clears both D’avin and Dutch and rescinds the kill warrant, but Dutch still has to face the RAC’s decision to either imprison her, execute her, or clear her of her betrayal. After all, “the warrant is all” as their maxim states. Despite some very salty words from one of her superiors during her debrief, Dutch is, much to everyone’s surprise, cleared of all charges. Could her tall, dark, and mysterious mentor from long ago be behind this?
The only way we’ll be able to tell is by continuing to follow Killjoys every Friday night at 9/8c on SyFy.
Finally, be sure to check out our very own Clare Pratt’s interview with the cast of Killjoys only here at Talk Nerdy!