This week’s episode of Killjoys finally brought some solid character building material after last week’s episode. In this latest episode, Comes The Rain, the show’s writers have gone with a long-standing trope, the ‘Locked In A Room’ episode. In doing so, they’ve finally given us a bit more depth.
Spoilers ahead!
Locked Room Episodes are ones that TV Tropes defines as: “Two characters, usually two characters sharing a large amount of animosity, get locked in a room (safe, elevator, etc.) and must spend the episode alone together. During which time they learn a new appreciation for each other.” This is definitely needed after last week’s episode, when D’avin tried to kill everyone. John, still recovering from his wounds, arranges for Dutch and D’av to go off together to pick up a low-priority warrant, in the hopes that they’ll get over the fact that D’av can be programmed to kill those closest to him.
After they leave for their mission, John stays at the bar to drink, along with Pawter, who’s looking a little worse for the wear. Right before she leaves, sirens blare: black rain is coming. A little bit of exposition later, and we learn that Black Rain is a toxic storm that’s the result of years of Company mining. To show off how bad it is, a squad of Company security officers drag out some prisoners and leave them in the rain to get burned alive.
In the bar, John gets a feeling about a couple of the men who’ve taken shelter: before long, guns are drawn, as a Company agent tries to arrest a couple of thieves. Shots are fired and before you know it, there’s a hostage crisis.
Back up in space, it turns out that the cargo Dutch and D’av are transporting is something that’s stopped Lucy dead in their tracks: it’s a puzzle that’s designed to get the pair to trust one another. Both begin to talk out their issues, but it’s a slow process.
On the planet, we learn something interesting about Pawter: she’s a drug addict who killed a patient on her table, and she was exiled to Westerly, with a steady supply of drugs. John has to go out to find a stash to get her to save one of the hostage takers, and finds that there’s a mole in the bar, calling out to a squad of Company soldiers. They’re about to burst in when John talks them down: if they give him some time, he can try and defuse the situation.
This is one of the rare episodes where there didn’t feel like a ton of things were crammed in to explain the world, but it feels like they accomplished a lot of things. Dutch and D’avin have their differences, and contrary to what I thought last week, they’ve actually carried some consequences over that seem to really be affecting the characters beyond just a single episode, which is fantastic.
Another thing that popped up is the recurring story of a revolution that’s coming to the Quad. Another tidbit is dropped, with a Company agent revealing some information to Alvis, who’s closely aligned with the resistance movement. With only a couple of episodes left in the season, it’ll be interesting to see how A) the crew reunites, and B), what this war looks like.
One final thought this week: can someone please go chat with the Killjoys writers about real science? A spaceship being pulled in by a toxic cloud is just cringe-worthy.