Killjoys‘ penultimate episode of season four, “The Kids Are Alright” (4×09) was not only a wild ride but also a gut-punched to the feels, it also sets us up for one hell of a finale to look forward to next week!
It’s been a couple of episodes since Delle Seyah Kendry (Mayko Nguyen) left Lucy (voiced by Tamsen McDonough) to apparently go to Qresh (though she told us — the audience — that that wasn’t actually her true destination, leaving her son behind with his father to keep him safe. Well, he finally get to see where she went and what exactly she’s been up to. The Jaqobis brothers crash the Red 9 base that Delle Seyah’s been staying at extracting information for them that Khlyen Kin Rit (Rob Stewart) left behind. So, we find out that Red 17 just was a reference to the base on Arkyn that made Sixes, which harkens back to season one and makes you wonder exactly how many of these bases are out there hidden away. The pendant/locket that she left with her son, Jaq Kin Rit (Jaedan Noel), was a map to lead them to Delle Seyah’s location and safe house. Johnny Jaqobis (Aaron Ashmore) asks her why she isn’t back on Qresh taking back The Nine and she responds with, “And I will, when Aneela can rule beside me” and it’s here that we see her human emotions back in play. Johnny sees it and points out how he used to dream to see her in the same kind of pain he’d been in after Pawter (Sarah Power) but that he’ll still free Aneela Kin Rit (Hannah John-Kamen). Before leaving Jaq, D’avin Jaqobis (Luke Macfarlane) in this that we’ve never seen him in before and he has a really hard time having to hand Jaq over and say goodbye. Dutch (Hannah John-Kamen) even tells Jaq before he goes to say goodbye to D’av, “he may be big, but he’s made of marshmallow” which was so adorable. Before they leave, Delle Seyah declares a new full name for Jaq in front of everyone: Jaqobis Ozzman Kin Rit. The family that has been built and how it has worked thus far on the show has been incredibly interesting to watch and so fun at the same time.
Dutch gets another painful attack, but this time it’s in front of both Johnny and D’avin. She believes that it’s indicating that Aneela is close to breaking. Johnny not only sees the scars, but also goes on a lecturing spree to both of them about keeping things from him. He’s fine with them being “badasses with benefits” but he’s not okay with the fact that they’ve been keeping everything that Dutch has been going through from him (and I feel a bit bad for D’av because he honestly just found out). The next stop for Team Awesome Force is a return to The Quad and their people on the Armada. They’re greeted with cheers and clapping while Turin (Patrick Garrow) is his normal grumpy and unimpressed self. With their small army on the Armada, Turin goes over their plan in order to get into the RAC and get the kids back home to Westerley. Dutch isn’t thrilled about using Weej (Ish Morris) since he’s Hullen and doesn’t feel that they can trust him, she ends up getting in trouble and called out by Turin. This ends up being a weird moment for me as someone who’s been watching for the last four years when Turin calls her Yardeen more than once. On her RAC ID she’s labeled as Dutch, though we know now from flashbacks that Turin has known all along that her name was Yalena Yardeen. This however is the first time he’s calling her that in front of everyone and it just felt odd and out of place to me. However, I did appreciate the throwback of everyone telling Fancy Lee (Sean Baek) to shut up and Dutch talking about how she just always used to get into trouble with the RAC, that all felt very much harkening back to season one to me.
They continue forward with the plan as Turin set out. Fancy and D’avin decide to have a friendly wager, whoever takes out the most Hullen is the winner. Fancy gets D’av’s gun and D’avin gets Fancy’s ponytail. It’s a super light moment that’s followed by the first ship getting destroyed trying to get to the RAC by a bioshield, which meant that they lost Weej. I love that his final words were “I’m your guy” and we really see Turin react to his death.
Zeph (Kelly McCormack) tries to convince Pippin Foster (Atticus Mitchell) that he’s going to be fine and that she explained everything. Everyone knows that the spider was controlling him before and that he won’t be hurt because of it. However, Pip is still unconvinced. No matter, Zeph continues with her science and looks over Dutch’s scars and the plan is to find out exactly what the scars mean because Aneela would put them there for a reason. Even though Dutch didn’t want Pippin to be looped in on the information that’s found, Zeph still takes him with her to Eulogy in order to talk to Fairuza (Anna Hopkins) about the scarring on Dutch after finding a close match to Scarback in the database. She explains that it’s a shadow scar, which is the language of their dead and that each Scarback designs it for themself to have it carved on them at their death. Fairuza shows them that the shadow symbol is actually three symbols with the meanings: ascend or evolve, elixir, and disappear or dissolve. Together, they form a meaning to the Scarback who created it. Zeph and Pip take some time to “think” while there and they have this really adorable talk about finding a middle between the two of them.
In order to get past the bioshield, Johnny finds a experimental machine on Leith being used in a cultthat will help them trick the shield into thinking that they’re all Hullen. There’s this extremely touching moment between Johnny and Lucy, where she voices her concern for him. Throughout this whole episode I keep wondering if there’s any chance of us getting Pawter back, even if she’s from a memory like Dutch was born. He goes back to working on how to use the jumpcube in order to get the green pool off of the RAC with it. Meanwhile, D’avin and Dutch go undercover in the cult in order to find it and get it back to Lucy. Dutch has the regressor used on her in the cult for a few brief moments before D’avin freaks out over her reaction to it and pulls her out of it. It’s supposed to connect you with your DNA and can actually be used to restructure, but Dutch connected with Aneela and saw more that she feels like it’s trying to tell her how to get into the green. They change their undercover outfits, grab the device, and get out of there while they can.
The plan is for Johnny to use the regressor to channel being Hullen with Zeph monitoring on Lucy, which gives them only so much time because it’s extremely dangerous for Johnny. Pree (Thom Allison) and Gared (Gavin Fox) are to get the kids and take them home while D’avin and Fancy make sure that they are clear to do so (which also gives them some time to do their shoot off. Dutch is to find the green plasma pool, with Pip in tow, and drop the mini cube in it in order to get the jumpcube all the info it needs for it to successfully get taken over to the Armada. Things seem to be going smoothly even with Pip complaining the whole way and D’avin setting off the RAC-wide alarms. Gared and Pree manage to get all of the kids and get them safely on their ship while Fancy and D’avin continue to compete. The green plasma gets jumpcubed successfully, but things stop going well after the ship with the kids head back to Westerley. The Hullen are now able to use the heavy cannon on the RAC with a heavy reboot in process, but the only way to do it is to put in Turin’s master code to auto-destruct which is suicide. They go back and forth about what to do and who stays. Pippin volunteers because he already knows he’s going to die and feels like the future needs them as Killjoys.
Johnny tells Zeph what’s happening and she and Pip get a very short conversation before he puts in the code. His last words are “meet me in the middle” and I really felt that that was him wanting her to figure out how to be her while also letting go a bit. Pip dies blowing up the RAC to keep them all safe and destroying the Hullen there as well.
The team has to destroy the small pieces of their brain that had the memories and information about where they left Jaq in order to keep him safe. Zeph gives Dutch all the information that she has put together on Dutch’s scars and finding Aneela, but she’s leaving it for John to science in her absence. She tells Dutch that everyone talks about Team Awesome Force saying that “D’av will take the bullet, John will fix what’s broken, and Dutch will bring you home” and she was supposed to bring Pip home.
In the end, Dutch finally decodes the shadow scar on her body. It’s a series of memories from Aneela that tell her exactly what she has to do. The elixir is the green plasma, evolve and disappear is going into the green like Aneela did in order to escape into the green space. She doesn’t tell anyone. The team goes to Old Town in order to celebrate at the Royale. Fancy asks for D’av’s fun as his win and D’av gives it to him as a stunning shot. While the trio is celebrating inside, she finally tells them that she was being told how to let Aneela out. She drinks the green plasma without telling them first and passes out on the floor…and Aneela takes her place. Dutch wakes in the green space ready to face The Lady.
What were your thoughts about this episode? Next week is the season finale and the previews are showing us a glimpse of what to look forward to. What are you hoping to see? Are you hoping that it’ll lead us to what we’ll look forward to next season? Tell us below!
Photo Credit: NBC Universal/Syfy