The Walking Dead, Vol. 25: No Turning Back by Robert Kirkman, Charlie Adlard (Illustrator), Stefano Gaudiano (Illustrator)

When we last left the survivors they had discovered how the Alpha of the Whispers decided to mark the boundary.  Not so long ago, an over confidant and certainly younger Rick would have seen this as a call for war and ridden out for battle, no matter who tried to talk sense to him.  Rick's impulsiveness is in part how he ended up in so much trouble with Negan, because he didn't know the size of the force he was facing. Rick isn't that person anymore but that doesn't mean that people who are reeling with grief won't demand their pound of flesh.

When we last left Rick et al, they were learning exactly what the Alpha meant when she warned them that she had set up a boundary between their lands.  Michonne is beside herself and immediately attacks Lydia who pulls a knife.  Carl's response is to pull his gun and aim it at Michonne.  Look, I know that Lydia is Carl's first but it seems to me that he is willing to risk a lot in order to be with her. How long as he known her again? Yeah, that's right, a New York minute.  Michonne regains control and releases Lydia.

Off to the side, Rick confers with Andrea.  His first thoughts are about the possibility that he will lose his leadership position.  What?!  The one thing Rick has always been sure about is his position in the pecking order.  It's telling that even as he is facing the heads of so many of his people, his first concern is power and not revenge or justice.

Once Rick tells the residents of Alexandria and all of those who gathered for the fair about the deaths, the rage quickly boils over.  Eugene in particular wants vengeance and points out that they have power because they have Lydia.  Rick is adamant that Lydia cannot be used as a tool vengeance because she's just a child and not responsible for the actions of adults.  Eugene is not trying to hear this at all.  Rick is forced to send away Andrea, Carl and Lydia in order to protect Lydia. The old Rick would have been suspicious of Lydia, but he doesn't bother to even question her and instead claims that he is putting his trust in Carl.  Rick just assumes that because the Alpha handed her over because the Alpha couldn't protect her and that Lydia wasn't in on this.  I'm not saying that Rick has to torture Lydia but he could at least have gone through the motions of questioning her.

After not getting an immediate response from Rick, the people turn to Maggie.  Maggie showed her grit when she chose to execute Gregory, unlike Rick, who still has the Negan imprisoned.  People feel that Maggie will handle things.  Rick of course has to call Maggie out for her decision. How dare she decide to make a decision counter to his beliefs in the community she runs.  Maggie gives Rick an old fashioned ass kicking and it is a thrill to see.  Maggie is not about to answer for her decision to Rick the almighty saviour. Jesus has to separate Rick and Maggie and they end up making peace. What irks me is that Maggie then falls right back into her subservient roll of supporting Rick and assuring everyone that Rick will come up with the right answer.  It seems that Maggie is only allowed to be a little bit rebellious.

When Michonne comes for Lydia, she and Rick have a nice long talk.  I think that this is important because in recent issues, we haven't seen a lot of Rick and Michonne together. Rick admits that he's happier with Andrea than he ever was with Lori and this is a tough thing to admit because to get to this point, both Lori and his infant daughter had to die.  Rick tells Michonne that the pain, loss and guilt that she feels will always be with her but she consider herself even for giving her daughters to her ex because she paid for that with the loss of Ezekiel.  How does that even make sense?  How the hell is that supposed to be comforting? How does that teach Michonne a lesson about walking away from people for fear of loss and guilt?  I think Michonne needs to find someone else to talk to about this.

Zoo, Season 2, Episode 9: Sins of the Father

Time for lots and lots and lots of Jackson drama

Starting with him and Abe finding his mother – whose knew super powers make lions afraid of her – and Jackson decide, since he made no plans at all – to talk his raging predator mother down.

Instead she tries to eat Abe. The only choice Jackson has is to shoot his mother,

ALL THE MANPAIN.

They get him to the super-hero-head-quarter-plane to confirm that, yes, she was injected by Jackson’s evil dad, just like Jackson

Ha, no, MOOOOORE angst. Because Jackson’s dad didn’t inject his mother. Abe did. Abe was paid by Richard Oz to inject Elizabeth – which he did and then she was such a shining compassionate woman that healed his pain and anger from his terrible upbringing. For moooar guilt.

Poor Abe is, of course, wracked with guilt. He plays this excellently, the grief is phenomenal and I’d praise the performance if I didn’t want to get on with the plot rather than see Abe and Jackson out angst each other

Wait, this is Zoo. There is no coherent plot

Sadly Abe decides he simply has to tell Jackson. Oh and that his dad is alive. I and everyone else screams “NOOOOOOOO!!!!”. Jackson, predictably, goes for Abe’s throat and Abe is only saved by Dariela’s return to shoot Jackson. Which is exactly what she wanted to avoid. Jackson runs away.

But Dariela is back! So were was she? She was running around in England telling a vicar how much she didn’t want to actually shoot anyone and be the team’s killer. Well, sucks to be you, Dariela. She manages to lead the convoy of people to safety despite an attack by a herd of horses with no casualties. Why? Because all the horses focused on her

Dariela assumes that there’s something wrong with her, she is the opposite of Jackson, she summons the animals. Or, the horses ignored the rest of the people because they’re all infected. This latter one is the one we’re supposed to believe – despite the fact she was leading them from their village because they were UNDER ATTACK by animals.

The Women of Zoo

When Zoo began it was fairly clear that Jackson was the protagonist. This was going to be the main character, he was going to be the one we followed, he was going to be the key

But at the same time, if someone argued that Chloe, Jamie and Mitch were co-protagonists as important and central to the plot, I wouldn’t agree with them but I would concede they have a point and wouldn’t laugh at them cruelly (now if they claim Abraham was? Maybe).

Unlike so many of these shows where a cishet, white man simply must lead us all to safety and freedom, Jackson’s efforts are matched by his colleagues and that includes the women (this shouldn’t be shocking. But, alas, it is). Chloe is clearly established as the leader. She is the one external agencies turn to. She is the one who controls all the resources. She is the one who decides where they go and why. It is her influence and connections that gets them to see powerful high level officials. She’s the boss, it’s undisputed and no-one even really tries to challenge it.

And Jamie? It’s her dogged research that drags a reluctant and unhappy Mitch on board. It’s her skills as a journalist and researcher that find them many answers, and her drive that certainly helps contribute to the group. In no way can she be considered a shrinking character and her efforts are frequently integral to the plot line going forwards

It really looked like this was going to be a show where the two women would step up alongside the men and be equally as important as their male co-stars. I was hopefully

Silly me.

As the show progressed we, sadly, saw this potential crash and burn rather messily. This is really epitomised by Chloe

Chloe was the leader. Oh, she started the first episode as a fleeing victim in Botswana, but she quickly stepped up. Chloe was the one with the resources and the influence… and it was all taken from her. Her influence turned out to be a long plot from Reiden Global. Her resources was their money. She had no official authority from the French government - or any government. The very essence of what she was, the role she fit in the group, was destroyed. She was the legitimacy, the authority, the one who was in control - and it turned out she controlled nothing, led nothing and didn’t even bring resources to the fight.

If this were a DnD team, Chloe just became the Cleric who forgot how to heal.

The revelation not only destroyed her role in the group, it also destroyed her expertise. Ultimately, Chloe is a spy. She’s an intelligence agent. She’s supposed to judge people and decide if they’re suspicious or trustworthy. She’s supposed to be able to expose conspiracies. This is who she is, this is what she does. Just how bad is she at her job?! Added on to that, the fact her sister was sleeping with her boyfriend just confirms that this is “spy” is absolutely incapable of discerning when people are lying to her! She even has an angsty moment with Jackson where she bemoans just how terrible she is at her job

She’s right. She is. She really is.

Wrong Side of Hell (Deathspeaker Codex #1) by Sonya Bateman

Gideon, transporter of corpses across New York City, does not lead a conventional life and he certainly hasn’t has a conventional upbringing

But even he wasn’t prepared for the corpses to talk back, a werewolf stalking central park and finding a whole world of Fae, magic and more

And a team of hunters dedicated to wiping them all out – and ready to use him to do it.

This book has a lot of wonderful elements I always love.

We have a very wide world of various supernatural creatures – with lots of hints of complex cultures and histories and different interactions which is definitely something I look for. There’s also a lack of info dumping (though that may be due to other issues later)

I really love how the werewolves are linked to moonlight which is a really original touch which I always appreciate. And bogeypeople? I love the bogeypeople. That’s a scary addition to the supernatural menagerie of this world. It’s fun, it’s broad and it has vast potential.

I also like the twist of the bad guys, the fear of the power they have not from just money and resources – but their knowledge of the supernatural. Normal humans who are determined to figure out every last weakness of the supernatural are considered utterly, unassailably powerful which is definitely different from what I’ve read before

The pacing of this book barely pauses for a second. The action starts very early, there’s very little delay or even introduction before we race into the story. We have lots of action, lots of information and this huge wonderful broad world to absorb as soon as possible. It’s a book that quickly drags you in then has you sprinting none stop all to the end.

We do have a little bit of a Chosen One scenario – because there really is no real explanation for why Gideon has the world changing super woo-woo. To say nothing to the pretty terrible magical-world-building of having Gideon master impossible-for-him-faerie powers with the power of imagination. I generally like Gideon a lot, I like his attitude, his humour, his resilience, his determination and the fact he’s been outspoken without being ridiculously foolish and annoying with it. But super powers just ‘cos is never something that I’m a fan of.

I do think this book was perhaps a little rushed in many way which, in turn, made some elements of it far too hurried.

For example, we get insights into Gideon’s past which was sad and tragic.  Of course it was sad and tragic. Isn’t it ALWAYS sad and tragic? But rather than just abusive parents he actually has brothers who hunted and shot him for fun.

Shot him. With a gun. A real gun. Not an air rifle. A gun. Isn’t that just… a bit too quick and extreme? And why is he afraid of having an actual address to hide from, what, 3 poor hunters who kill animals? What, they have access to FBI databases or something? They’re going to hunt you down and shoot you with rifles in New York City?

Or his relationship with Taeral which goes form “cursed human begone” to “brother mine we are united and loyal forever”

Or there’s Gideon’s reaction to the supernatural which is like 2 seconds of blinking (and a really nice shocked reaction to actual werewolves existing) to kind of taking it all in stride

Colony, Season 1, Episode 3: 98 Seconds

The personal conflicts of Colony continues and this episode throws into stark relief the conflicts that Katie and Will face

Katie has finally been called upon to join the resistance in an actual action – a raid on a truck to check what the reaction time is of both the alien drones (which are lethal) and the human collaborators (who are slower).

Katie is horrified by the death and the blood – and that when one of their members (Justin, alas poor Asian representation you don’t last long) is injured, Broussard kills him rather than let him be taken alive.

Katie excellently depicts how horrific this is to her, how utterly traumatised she is to see death up close and personal and to be involved in such extreme violence. Her trauma is poignant (even her trauma sex – though Will is somewhat belated in realising something is wrong there). Almost more painful is seeing Katie trying to live a normal life with her sister (and new uber-creepy tutor who is supremely creepy) while dealing with this trauma

And it all gets hard when Will is the one who starts investigating the case and his expertise (actually I’m going to say allegedly since I’m not entirely sure he did anything the others couldn’t or wouldn’t have done) helps lead the collaborators against the resistance cell much more quickly and effectively than they would have without him

On top of this Will is equally troubled by what he is doing – seeing innocents rounded up by the collaborators just for being related to Justin. Just seeing what he is a part of sickens him (and I wonder if this is being revealed as part of why Beau, former San Francisco PD, is less than eager to be an effective officer). He knows he’s not on the good guy side and doesn’t even seem to think he’s managing to change the system from within. He’s focused on the creepy vast resources and information the collaborators are collecting on everyone in the hope it will help him find his son

Glitch, Season One, Episode Three

Vic cleans up the next day but he seems confused by his own reflection..

James has done some research and we see that Maria used to be a teacher. He calls Elishia to demand to know where everyone is. The minute Sarah walks into the room James shuts down the computer, so she teases him about looking at porn. Sarah questions if James is making any progress on the break in and decides to print up some fliers about their missing dog. The conversation is interrupted by Vic knocking at the door.

James notices immediately that Vic looks banged up and Vic says he's fine.  Vic brings up the dead people and tells James that he believes him now. James explains that Elisha has taken them somewhere and Vic is adamant that they need to be found. When James says that he is trying to find them, Vic suggests that this be left to him now.

 (Yes there will be gifs throughout because this show bores the fuck out of me) Naturally, James doesn't bother to ask why Vic suddenly believes or why he feels that he should be in charge. 

Anyway, Sarah interrupts and invites Vic inside but Vic says that he has to go. Sarah asks what was going on with Vic and James lies about another break in.  James asks Sarah to just lie down and rest because when the baby comes she won't be able to relax. I  get that James needs to keep Sarah distracted but this constant push for her to lie down because she is pregnant is getting annoying. Sarah is pregnant, she's not dying of some disease. 

Kate, Charlie and Kirstie approach Elishia to ask for supplies to change Kirstie's bandage.  Elishia asks about Maria, but the group has no idea where she is. John Doe makes his way over with two rabbits and tosses them on the ground in front of Charles. He's as warm as ever I suppose.

Bayou Moon (The Edge #2) by Ilona Andrews

Cerise is trying to protect her large, poor family clinging to existence the Mire. This section of the Edge has long been used as a dumping ground for the Weird Kingdom of Louisiana – and is now used as another stage in the brewing cold war between Louisiana and its neighbour  

Which is where William comes in, dragged back into fighting for Adrianglia‘s secret service, The Mirror. He thought he was free of them – but the offer for revenge and to protect children like himself is too much to pass up.

How many times have I said that I love the world building of this series? In fact how many times have I said I love every bit of world building Ilona Andrews has ever done ever? This author (or authors since I understand it’s a husband/wife author team) is the supreme master of world building. I love it.

Particularly what I love about this – beyond the magic system, the world (with both the magical world of the Weird and the Broken and the Edge straddling the pair, eking out an existence between the two, helpless to be part of either and often suffering from the manipulations of their dominant neighbours), the creatures, etc is the way this contrasts with the last book in the series. It would be easy to just say “the Edge” has the same culture – or even to have the Weird just be our world with magic added. But we have different countries in the Weird with different technology, different cultures, different principles and specialties. But it’s the Edge that really shines here – because we have the same theme of low resources, extreme poverty and very localised society governed by ad hoc courts, local militias and constant feuding. It’s the same basis to both societies – but the larger Edge near Louisiana and the very different ways that The Weird Louisiana treats the Edge here – the Mire (a place to dump exiles) as well as the extremely dangerous swamp creates a very different cultural sense. The same rough land with similar themes but with a definitely different culture.

This also has Cerise sharply contrast with Rose. Because her family has powerful magic and numbers and connections she has many advantages that Rose does not. But all those connections and magic means she has less options – being mired in the feuds means she cannot isolate herself from that greater society, her family’s magic makes it much harder for her to cross the boundary. It’s interesting that we can take, ostensibly, two women in very similar situations (young but with high responsibility, beset by powerful outside forces, helped) and still have very different pressures in their lives. It’s the same story told very differently.

Between, Season Two, Episode Three: Hope

It's been 53 days since the outbreak.  Ronnie covers the body of Renee's brother and drives it out to the location she gave him. When he arrives, he finds an armed community who don't seem in a rush to trust him. When Lamar, (who names a white character this) spies the body, he quickly orders Ronnie to get on the ground.  Renee heads outside and immediately starts to grieve when she sees her brother's corpse.  Of course, Ronnie hallucinates his brother standing there silently judging him.

Wiley awakens and decides to go to the orphanage to try and get some food for the baby against the advice of Liam, who feels that she should try and get some rest.  What I want to know is if Chuck was up all night with the baby, why didn't he show some common sense and attempt to look for food? Adam offers to accompany her but Wiley is no mood to spend anytime with him. I'm with her on this because Adam's needy ass is getting annoying.

Liam questions Adam about what happened to his father, pointing out that he came back to Pretty Lake to save Adam.  Adam however counters with the fact that his father told him that there's no cure and therefore he questions whether or not Liam did indeed work with his father. I don't know about you but I'm already sick of the pissing contest between these two.

It's interrogation time for Ronnie, who of course goes the sarcastic route, which earns him a punch in the mouth. With a gun to his head Ronnie explains that the Mennonites found the boy and they were devastated at what happened to the child. Ronnie offers to go back into town to dig up information but is told by Renee that he has done enough already.  Alone, Renee and Lamar argue about Ronnie and his involvement in the death.  It seems Lamar is worried that Renee's feelings for Ronnie might be clouding her judgement.

At the orphanage with Jason, Wiley doubles over in pain. Wiley brings up her need for formula and Gord brings up his visit to the Mennonites. It's only been 53 days since Pretty Lake got closed off from the real world, how is it that the entire town is out of formula already?  Formula has a shelf life of a year and there cannot be that many babies just drinking it down.  This is just one of the ways that this show fails to make any sense. As a matter of fact, how the hell are they struggling for food so quickly?

Liam tells Chuck and Adam that the government wanted to destroy everything that tied them to what is going on in Pretty Lake. Adam explains that they didn't want him to blow the whistle and if the science works he's a hero.  The flip side is that if it doesn't work then he dies in Pretty Lake.  Adam asks about Art Carey and when Liam demands to know what Adam knows, Adam orders him locked up.

It Happened One Doomsday (A Dru Jasper Novel) by Laurence MacNaughton

Dru runs a magical shop and though she sells many books, items and spells, unlike her mother, her magical power is limited.  The one thing Dru wants to do is help people.  When Greyson comes into her shop complaining about having dreams about the end of the world, Dru vows to help.  What she doesn't realise at the time, is that she is signing up to save humanity because as luck would have it, Greyson is about to become one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse.

It Happened One Doomsday is a cross between urban fantasy and paranormal romance.  From the ending, it's clear that MacNaughton has more story that he wants to tell and so the rushed pace of this book combined with the insta love make absolutely no sense to me.  MacNaughton could have taken his time and actually built his characters, thus making them feel real; however, after reading 280 pages I don't feel like I know anything real about them.

The one thing Dru knows for sure is that she doesn't want a relationship with a sorcerer because of the instability that would result.  She has settled into a relationship with Nate - a dentist.  Dru worries that Nate's secretary is going to make the moves on him and the fact that despite the many things Nate has seen, he still doesn't believe in magic.  Nate is as straight and white as a loaf of wonder bread.  When Greyson walks into her shop, she's immediately attracted to him. He doesn't believe in magic either but there's nothing like growing horns on your head and having your eyes turn red to convince you that magic just might be real.

Dru's angst between Greyson and Nick really comes down to her questioning what kind of life she wants to live.  Nick leads to a house in the suburbs with 2.5 kids, a picket fence, a dog and no magic. It means security and safety.  Greyson represents the road less traveled.  There's no security because danger abounds and Dru will be forced to push her magical powers to their limits. The problem with all of this is that when the world is ending, it seems as though relationship angst could most certainly wait.  Travelling to try to stop the fifth seal of the apocalypse from opening, is no time to be wondering which man you should choose.

The Frankenstein Chronicles, Season 1, Episode 2: Seeing Things

Our protagonist Marlott decides to go visit the ailing William Blake. I have to call minor shenanigans at this – I mean you find that one of the missing girls has read a poem by William Blake and she has a dress the same colour so you go interview the author?

It’s a bit surreal especially with Blake maundering on about several kids disappearing and how it’s all the fault of a Beast with a Man’s Face and he needs to know the truth of the beast to find her.

William Blake then kicks the bucket and decides to leave his last work to this complete stranger on his death bed. And absolutely no-one considers that maybe someone should check that whole “sound mind and body” thing.

The last work is called “Prometheus”.

Let’s continue that theme with Marlott also visiting the office of the Home Office Pathologist (I’m not even sure why), Sir William. Instead he finds Sir William’s cousin Mr. Garnett there who we’re supposed to be all suspicious about because he gives Marlott shit for being a complete stranger in an important man’s office.

Beyond telling us we should see Mr Garnett who doesn’t want random strangers scuffing the furnishings, we learn that Sir William keeps creepy preserved body parts in formadehyde (because Regency Pathologist. This is not really unusual) and that he has a copy of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein: A Modern Prometheus

I’m actually surprised to see that Frankenstein exists as a fictional creation within the world. That is unusual and really does turn the whole story on it’s head. Clearly we’re not going to run across a Victor Frankenstein in a basement somewhere making monsters.

But seeing this book, Marlott decides he absolutely needs to check this out – and he doesn’t even know what’s in it beyond it has the word “Prometheus”.

This is all just a little abstract a little too soon. I mean, it’s the second episode and Marlott has started paying attention to his mercury hallucinations – and he KNOWS he’s hallucinating. We know he’s hallucinating so why are we treating the hallucination as relevant? And now he’s looking at a poet’s very tangentially related last work and deciding to check out a book just because the city’s pathologist happens to be reading it. Is he so out of leads (well, yes) that he’s flailing this desperately?

I think we needed more pushing to the woo-woo before we start going this abstract and Marlott pursuing this many weird possibilities.

Meanwhile poor Nightingale is not filling with faith this character will be well used – he literally spends the whole book following people (and it would help if the show didn’t present him as the Only Black Man in London. Honestly how the hell was he supposed to unobtrusively follow ANYONE?).

Shift (Shifters #5) by Rachel Vincent

Faythe’s pack is preparing werecats of North America are poised on the edge of the civil war…

Until a new threat appears – Thunderbirds. None of them are used to fighting the birds and they scrabble desperately to find some way to stop the assault

As ever, Faythe and her fellow tabbies are prime targets.

This book has opened the world building of the series a lot more to include another of the shapeshifter creatures that occupy this world. The Thunderbirds

It would have been really nice if “Thunderbirds” actually involved even a shred of Native American mythology beyond just the word. Instead it just means “werebird”. Actually, given the “spicy latinos” of the first book, I think I’m leery of wishing this book includes more than its two token latino characters.

The werebirds themselves are relatively interesting – especially since they seem to show a very different culture which should, really, be a wonderful challenge to all that is wrong with werecat culture. It’s not patriarchal and it’s completely non-hierarchical. I also like how they’ve adopted a level of avian nature into the shapeshifters with things like carrion eating. One of the many complaints I’ve had of the werecat world building is how it has failed to really establish them as cats (like they keep going for “runs”. Cats play in many ways, but they’re not wolves, they’re not endurance runners)

While the world building of the Thunderbirds is interesting and I’d actually like to see more of this new society, the plot is just a bit meh

The Thunderbirds are attacking… but the sheer inability of them to actually sensibly change their decisions is… dubious

Similarly the werecats inability to come up with any strategy to fight back seems equally dubious. All they did was cower inside, completely unable to fight back against a Thunderbird strategy that seemed limited to picking them up (sometimes needing 2 birds) and the dropping them. On top of that we had an equally dubious decision for Faythe and Kaci to go running off virtually unguarded for their own safety

Outcast, Season 1, Episode 10: This Little Light

Megan is now possessed and terrifying Amber and Holly

Far worse, she is poking her dead husband in the EYEBALL

Finger in the eyeball here, people! And it’s really realistically done?! Really Outcast no-one needed to see this! No-one wanted to see this!

Honestly and I thought the House of Night would be the worst thing I’d have to endure for Fangs for the Fantasy. I hope you all appreciate my enduring of eyeball poking

Anyway, Anderson and Kyle rush to the rescue and find Megan missing. They dump the kids on chief Giles and his wife Rosie (along with the duty to cover up Mark’s death because reasons) and now they need to find Megan

This starts with another excellent moment challenging Anderson’s eternal awfulness. Despite being at this for so long Anderson knows NOTHING about the beings he’s facing. The best he can come up with is “they’re afraid of the cross”. Well, yes – because a demented preacher is screaming at them and shoving it in their faces.

Kyle makes his opinion on this known – and goes looking for Megan without him. Because Anderson is worse than useless – he is so completely stuck on his own narrative of what’s happening that he’s learned nothing. He doesn’t know anything about the beings because he is fixated on the Biblical interpretation of demons. He can’t conceive of anything beyond that. It’s all demons, devils, demons, end times, demons – which is why Kyle leaves him behind. He just cannot trust Anderson to be remotely sensible.

While Kyle goes looking around ineffectually to Megan, Patricia’s awful child Aaron decides to kidnap Amber.

Really? Really? I get some teenaged rebellion. I get this kid hates the town. I get that he’s hanging around with Sidney because it pisses Anderson off. But child kidnap? He’s going to go that far

Speaking of – Kat Ogden has set up a whole rehabilitation facility for new possessed. This, along with Megan stumbling around – has really emphasised what Sidney said as true. The new possessed are not exactly violent or evil – but they are utterly overwhelmed and confused by their new situation. It’s excellently shown and, again, kind of shows how wrong Anderson is.

Killjoys, Season 2, Episode 7: Heart Shaped Box

This episode brought us a whole load of world building development and was fascinating and emotional and kind of awesome – as always because Killjoys is never not awesome.

So, last week Sabine had sex with D’avin and collapses with green goo spurting out of her. I actually assumed this was something wrong with D’avin like he has some kind of green goo STD and needs to head to the clinic pronto to check that his dick isn’t illuminous green or growing mushrooms or something

Actually it turns out that Sabine is a Level 6 and spying on them all and D’avin’s anti-green-goo presence means sex with him purges the goo out of the system. Sabine has been de-Sixed.

He grabs Johnny to help him (note to writers – not impressed by him apparently putting on trousers before rushing to see what had happened to Sabine. Bad writers. Terrible gratuitous clothed guy!) and they load her up in a bag and take her to Dutch. Dutch isn’t all that impressed with them delivering women to her in a bag but gets over it when she hears the story. She’s now super happy because she has a Six to play with – and by play with we mean brutally torture

Since D’avin isn’t all that okay with brutalising a defenceless prisoner – and we have a great exchange where Dutch claims they’re at war and D’avin fires back that a) she has a very fuzzy definition over who they’re actually at war WITH and b) if they are then rules of engagement apply (D’avin was a soldier). In general D’avin’s a bit too much of a softie to let Dutch go to town with pliers et al on a woman who no longer has green-goo-aided healing

Instead they turn to Turin who assures them he totally has a guy who is an expert at level 6 interrogation. Until Sabine kills him- because the expert turn out to be another level 6 who has infiltrated Turin’s little organisation. Oopsie. Turin heads for the hills since he’s been so badly compromised and will be out of it for the rest of the episode, leaving Sabine back with Dutch & co

We learn the following about the Sixes:

You can kill them with massive brain damage (as seen by Sabine killing the interrogator/mole)

They live a long time – Sabine is in her 80s

They’re all connected by the green goo which actually stories their memories as well so big top level 6s can manipulate it – hence Khlyen’s little mind merge with D’avin

The green goo doesn’t just make Sixes very hard to kill – it also destroys all emotional connections, empathy and compassion. Candidates for Level 6 are not just physically strong but also mentally and emotionally isolated so the shock of suddenly losing everyone they love (and losing the capacity to love) doesn’t destroy them