Killjoys Review: Aneela and Delle Seyah Are a Match Made in Hullen

Killjoys review: the plan to retake the RAC

This Killjoys review begins in the Quad, where things get crazier as Team Awesome Force prepares to take back its RAC from the Hullen. The idea is sound on paper. With Turin’s help, the team kidnaps three high-ranking officers from nearby RACs to prove that the Hullen have invaded their territory, and the trio get front-row seats to watch the operation so they cannot dismiss Dutch and the others as crazy.

Dutch, D’Av and John recruit a few more soldiers and lead them in an attempt to kill every Hullen in the RAC. The method is a paralytic agent released through the ventilation system, which is supposed to neutralize humans and Hullen alike so that the team can scratch each person one at a time to see who must be eliminated. It does not work. The Hullen are not paralyzed, because they are wearing patches that counteract the toxin. Someone has told them.

One of the nerds dies before Dutch can save him. Outnumbered and outgunned, she decides they must go to the armory for heavier weapons, since they cannot back out now without leaving the humans on board to be slaughtered.

Captured by the Hullen

Before the group reaches the armory, uniformed Hullen surround them. Aneela sent them to fetch a package, and it seems her commander was indulging Delle Seyah, who is homesick and wanted something from the Quad. Dutch escapes through a garbage chute. Johnny and D’Av are taken for interrogation.

The Hullen unit leader, played by Noam Jenkins, is arguably the wittiest Hullen yet, and his banter with the brothers could run for hours if there were time. He implants chips in their necks and straps John to a chair with a device that scrambles his brain and slowly strips his memories while D’Av watches. The Hullen want to know how the humans poisoned the Arkyn plasma. When that fails, they bring in one of the nerds, who admits he sold the team out in exchange for assimilation, and he is promptly killed.

A furious D’Av uses his odd power over the plasma and makes another Hullen’s brain explode. The unit leader says he has only ever seen Aneela do that, and he understands why she wants D’Av. It turns out Aneela wanted the elder Jaqobis all along, after seeing him connected to the plasma, and not as a gift to Delle Seyah after her black warrant against John.

Dutch, Banyon and the weapon

Dutch reaches the armory and finds the dangerous weapon that once wiped out a bloodline at a meeting of the Nine. Banyon blocks her, believing Dutch is the enemy. They scuffle and Dutch stabs her, thinking she is Hullen. She is not, and Dutch apologizes, explains what is happening and gets the code to leave the sector. She leaves the officer bleeding to go find Johnny.

Once they reunite, she shows him the weapon. John drops some plasma and hopes it is calibrated to tell humans from Hullen. It is, and the aliens in the RAC are wiped out in one sweep.

Fancy in the bunker

In the viewing bunker, tension rises when one of the RAC officers decides Fancy is still Hullen. Visual contact has been lost since the ambush, and Khlyen’s former right hand volunteers to speak to the captured Hullen. The prisoner taunts him, saying he is not cleansed but in remission and will want to return, and she plants a seed that the others do not trust him. Turin briefly falls for it and does not open the cage door until the former level 6 kills the female Hullen himself.

At the celebration in the Royale, Turin brings Fancy a drink as an apology, and Fancy rebuffs him. There is only room for one jerk at the table, he says. It stings because he has a point. Fancy has been a lone wolf, and he has shown himself to be on humanity’s side, but he is being taken for granted, and the Hullen may find that useful.

Killjoys review: Aneela’s real plan

On Aneela’s ship, Delle Seyah and Gander are at war over their commander’s favor. Gander has been the Hullen leader’s right hand for a long time, and now that Seyah Kendry is here, she wants to replace him. In earlier episodes he warned her that their leader tends to break her toys when she tires of them, and for the moment the former member of the Nine seems to be a favorite.

Aneela then reveals the plan. As Dutch and the squad bring home one of the RAC officers from another sector, the entire station explodes. She wants her doppelgänger completely alone, as she herself was alone before she killed her, so she played Gander and Delle Seyah against each other while carrying out her real plan. She also destroyed the other RACs near the Quad, which were about to turn on the team. Delle Seyah is so thrilled by the duplicity that she kisses the Hullen leader. Aneela is rattled for a moment and then kisses her back.

This Killjoys review would not be complete without the loose ends. Delle Seyah has been attracted to Dutch since season 1, so the kiss plays as a twisted fantasy. A nerd was the traitor, which nobody saw coming, and Aneela has now outmaneuvered the team, so the next move belongs to the Killjoys. D’Av’s skill with the plasma is still unexplained. When Gander questions the decision to send a squad to the Quad, he warns of repercussions, which raises the possibility that Aneela answers to someone above her.

The episode works because it keeps three plots moving at once: the assault, the interrogation and the politics aboard Aneela’s ship. It also hands Noam Jenkins a memorable guest role and gives Fancy the most interesting arc of the hour. The Killjoys review verdict is a good one, with a satisfying twist and a final scene that changes what the team is fighting.

Killjoys airs Fridays on Syfy at 8/7 Central.

Sources

• Killjoys, Wikipedia — cast, setting and episode list