After the many events of last week the whole team is
more than a little traumatised – D’avin hiding on the ship, Dutch ducking
between brief sexual encounters and John telling all of this to Pree at the
bar. The heat wave doesn’t help any.
And John is doing his best to bring his damaged team back
together. To do that he’s signed them up on an easy mission in Dutch’s name.
Everyone is, tentatively, getting back in the saddle. Though Dr. Pawter doesn’t
agree with John being up and about so soon after being injured.
But everything’s called when they get a super severe
weather alarm. A severe chemical storm no less. That’s very not good. Part of
that storm also has convicted criminals chained up to be exposed to the
chemical weather, their faces forced to turn up to the sky. Nasty.
At Pree’s he opens the doors to anyone who can’t get home
and to shelter. That includes John, Pawter and the preacher Alvis. Pawter
checks John out and finds him generally healthy but they also touch on the
mental state of Dutch and D’avin which they don’t think is nearly as good.
Pawter tries to leave when John mentions that Dutch and D’avin
slept together but Pree isn’t letting anyone leave his barred doors with the
storm coming. Which is a shame because John isn’t a fan of the people he’s been
locked in with. Several of them have just completed an armed robbery and there’s
an alert out for them. And there’s a Company employee in the building about to
enforce said alert (or, as John puts it, “do something stupid.”
Which he does. The captain and the thief have a brief
conversation about who is betraying his people more, the one working for the
oppressive company or the one who is stealing the future of people who earned
Leith passes from the company.
A firefight breaks out in the bar, a passing rookie is
killed and the main thief is injured badly. The storm breaks, the man chained
up outside scream in pain as the rain begins to kill them. It’s a hostage situation
time, with Pawter helping heal the shot thief while John manages to ingratiate
himself sufficiently to help Pawter and be left, almost, alone with her and her
patient.
Pawter also seems to be having her own health problems –
complaining of a headache and her hands are shaking. John talks to Pree clearly
realising that Pawter is in withdrawal. She’s addicted to Jack, a nastily
addictive substance she can normally easily find – and they need to get her some
if she’s going to be able to doctor the thief and his friends not shoot them
all in the head.
So that means using the tunnels and basements under
Westerly to find Jack. And if they’re not back soon, he will throw the random
civilians hiding in the bar out in the rain (and he doesn’t buy the whole “these
are your people!”)
While moving through the tunnels we see some more of the
hostility John has for Alvis – how he thinks his religion gives people false
hope and how he is using his faith to “play politics.” Alvis is sure they can
free Westerly but John considers that distant, unreasonable dream. They find a
man with Jack, his last dose, which he gives to Alvis in exchange for a
blessing while Alivs praises his sacrifice. The desperate people in the tunnels
queue up to receive his blessing.
Alvis also considers John willing to die for a cause –
albeit on a smaller level – willing to risk his life to return to the bar and
save the people there rather than just running and saving himself. John
considers this basic humanity. Alvis takes a poke at John always having to fix
everyone else’s problems just as company agents stop them with their plan to
raid the bar, find their men and kill the thieves. And likely most or all of
the hostages
Of course John insists on going in and trying to save
lives. Which gives John a time limit.
He gets the Jack to Pawter so she can do the surgery – though she’s worried that the Jack isn’t pure. She starts the surgery but paranoia and hallucinations make it hard, especially as her story comes out: she isn’t on Westerly by choice. She was high while in performing surgery and killed someone, because of her parent’s influence she was spared prison and shipped to Westerly (they also keep her supplied with Jack). It also pretty much shatters her image as a self-sacrificing do-gooder. John, of course, is there with an excellent pep talk to get her back in the game and guide her through her bad high.
They save his life but the next problem is he won’t be
able to walk which doesn’t please the thieves. They’re also not happy when they
find the Company man they have has been calling his bosses – and they throw him
out into the rain. John goes out into the rain to get him, followed by Alvis
(whose whole faith is based on masochism)
The company is moving in and the thief demands that John
fix this. John is officially done with fixing shit. He pulls a bolt gun (which
he also got from out of the rain) and shoots all of the thieves then returns to
his drink.
John is pretty epic when he is done
In the aftermath John helps Pawter through her withdrawal.
Apparently it’s not John’s first experience helping an addict.
The injured company soldier asks for Alvis’s blessing –
and delivers a message in the process, he is part of the resistance and passing
on information about weapons stockpiles the Company is gathering.
Dutch and D’avin got out before the storm and are on
Leith speaking to Bellus about their new warrant. But before Bellus will discuss
this she wants to talk to D’avin about hurting Dutch. And by talk I mean punch.
I do like her. The warrant is an apparently simple delivery. Why do I not
believe this?
Tension between Dutch and D’avin is high with Dutch
definitely avoiding him. They pause above Westerly until the storm clears and
then all the ship systems go down and Lucy won’t say why. The nice simple
object they’re carrying glows ominously. No way was it going to be that easy.
The object they’ve picked up is a lie detector which will
force them to talk out their issues and play nice together. And, yes, John is
behind it.
They talk and have some really good discussions on how to
move on past the terrible things in their past as well as D’avin’s problems,
self-image and shitty childhood. They also uncover the real problem why Dutch
can’t move on – because she can’t be angry at D’avin, she can’t attack him or
hurt him (unlike Bellus) because she knows he’s a victim. But that leaves her
with no outlet for her anger and hurt.
So they decide to take on an image of D’avin with D’avin
using knives (which he now has issues with after stabbing John) and Dutch
standing in the way because this reckless violence is how they deal with their
issues and she can’t afford him developing a huge fear of hurting her actually
holding her back while in battle.
It doesn’t quite work as Dutch’s faith in D’avin gives
out at the last moment and she stops him. But before they can angst about this
they’re warned Lucy is being pulled into the storm. Unable to figure out the
answer to John’s last question they break it. Really easily. Hilariously this
gets Lucy up and running again
John reunites with D’avin who acknowledges that yes he is
broken, yes he needs to be fixed and he will be off the ship until he addresses
that. John doesn’t let him off easily and demands D’avin address all the shit
he has left John to deal with – abandoning him with their problematic parents
to take care of them, sleeping with Dutch and jeopardising their team when he
asked him not to. John isn’t going to tell him how to fix this – because he’s
sick of fixing D’avin’s mess.
We have more nice poking at the Westerly class system but
also a nice overturn of the idea “we’re all in this together” that is supposed
to keep them united. The Company’s “7 generations of good behaviour and you get
land on Leith” is a very cunning idea to ensure there will be a section of
Westerly’s people who will play by the rules, bow and scrape and hope for
reward (which parallels extremely well with how a lot of marginalised groups
have been divided and exploited over the years) but to a fourth generation what
does that benefit him? He works hard and suffers and hopes his great grandchild
gets to own land on Leith? He supports his fellows and keeps his head down and
gets… what? Why should he feel solidarity with people who are getting out – or who
are stomping on other Westerlys so they and their family can get out?
That draws on John’s arguments with Alvis – both the idea
that faith is being used as a means to keep the Westelys content (false hope)
(which is also shown by the man giving up his last dose of a drug and
sacrificing in exchange for a gesture of faith) and, equally, Alvis’s grand but
illdefined wish for freedom for Westerly does something similar – hoping for a
grand, better future which isn’t likely to come to pass.
It’s a really good portrayal of an oppressive system
I also really like the look at John’s altruism and the
willing to risk himself in the immediate sense to save people currently under
threat with the idea that people willing to risk themselves for a cause are
trying to do the same thing but on a grander level. But then we come back to
the fact John’s immediacy means he is risking his life for a concrete,
obtainable outcome – while Alvis offers hope but not much more. But then, the
people of the tunnels don’t have more than hope… So is it exploitation to use
that hope and get services and respect on the strength of it – even if you
share it? Or is it trying no matter how little chance you have?
On top of the grand analysis, I also like the personal
aspect here. I really liked how we saw Dutch and D’avin both talking about
their huge grand issues and learning to get along because or John while Alvis
tells John he’s good at fixing people. This is something we see a lot in shows
and books but rarely get the kind of acknowledgement deserves. Main characters
carry around their MASSIVE EMOTIONAL BAGGAGE which everyone around them has to
shovel – but there’s never really a nod to the work those shovellers put in.
John fixes people, he shovels their baggage and he helps them move forward at great
risk and cost to himself (let’s remember it’s John who nearly died last
episode) and he deserves recognition for that. And it’s one of those rare
instances that the caretaker character finally gets to say “I’m done with this!”
