wordyblerd

My computer went cablooey, I was in the middle of working on an important project, and Dragon Con is next week so my grand dreams of multiple Killjoys reviews queued up and ready to go weeks in advanced dissipated like so much smoke.

Let me just say, as much as I enjoyed Dutch and D’avin sharing intimacy and closeness and appreciated the difficult relationship dynamic between Dutch and Johnny this episode, my favorite parts of “About A Girl” were all of the Kendry and Jaq scenes. At the start of their journey Kendry is doing a pretty good impression of Mallory from Bird Box. I was just waiting for her to start calling Jaq “Boy.”

Kendry is a survivor and can turn setbacks and misfortune into an opportunity. One need only recall how she first became hullen. After D’avin sent a missile over to destroy Spring Hill, Kendry scavenged the Green from its severely crippled underground lab. Within a few days she also pretended to bring tidings of Westerley’s independence but instead stabbed lifelong rival, Pawter Simms in the gut and reasserted The Company’s grip on the beleaguered moon. At the time it seemed mustache twirlingly villainous. I said, “A ha, that explains it!” When she told Aneela she’d made herself hullen. But then, I remembered how she murdered whole bloodlines with a genetic bomb in the first season final, so despite my affinity for her, she has always been a pretty awful person.

Kendry has been pampered by servants her whole life, but she’s never struck me as delicate or incapable. It’s completely believable that she was taught archery by a private tutor or as an elective at the elite Qreshi academy where she and Pawter cultivated their rivalry. And now that she’s on the run, she’s putting her skills to good use because she doesn’t strike me as the type to quit until she’s mastered whatever task has been set before her.

Still, Kendry is different than she was in the first couple of seasons. There is enough of the calculated, domineering, dangerous, elitist to recognize her as the same woman, but she has also been through so much with our heroes that she’s at least a satellite member of the QS. (She would probably blanch at the mere suggestion, which makes it all the more appealing.)

She immediately recognized a kindred spirt in Aneela, and appealed to that to gain the favor of the mad queen. But what’s more interesting is that she genuinely built an affection for her that grew quickly into a compelling love story. Now that we’re in the endgame of the series, I have to admit though… I was more intrigued by her and Dutch’s dynamic in the first two seasons, (The hate flirting is all!). However, there is something very sweet and epic about Kendry and Aneela.

I will miss Mayko Nguyen and her stellar portrayal of this deliciously wicked, impressively resilient, and admirably cunning character, Delle Seyah Kendry.

In this episode, Kendry and Dutch’s arcs kind of mirror each other. The Lady has taken the stabilizing forces in both their lives. For Dutch that’s Johnny. Dutch doesn’t know how to mend the wound between her and Johnny. When she tries, she makes it worse so she pushes it out of her mind and focuses on the fighting tournament. Likewise, Kendry focuses on the brutal fight for survival in the forest rather than the loss of her partner and the responsibility of caring for her son who is in extreme danger. They both push their loved ones away with their actions. We have yet to see how or even if Dutch and Johnny will work through their issues, but Kendry affirming her love for Jaq in the end of this episode got me misty eyed. Seeing her reunite with Aneela and sink to her knees in relief and the ebbing away of grief made the tears actually fall. Things just got even more interesting!

Rose

• Nucy’s younger sounding, chirpier voice as Johnny teaches her
• Dutch talking about Westerley as home when I remember how she was all “take no sides” in S1… That’s growth.gif
• Every conversation between Khlyen and the Lady is a sparring match/ mutual tutoring session
• D’avin pretending not to want to fight but wanting desperately to be chosen to fight
• The manupa root tea scene subtly heartbreaking because the Lady is experiencing the residual happiness of the teenage girl whose life she snuffed out.
• Aaron Ashmore should teach a college acting course on various smiling techniques. He went from awkward “I’m hiding my feelings but trying not to be weird” smile to his dangerous smile in a few subtle moments. I coulda warned Dutch he was at his breaking point before he snapped at her.
• The Qreshi Champion was super hot.
• “…because you are my son and I am your mother and losing Aneela doesn’t change any of that.” *cries forever*
• Delle Seyah conjuring D’avin in her dream to work her shit out with
• Continuing the motivating theme of Dutch’s anger over being used as a pawn by others
• “Give me your hands, quitter.” How does this show have so much heart????
• Delle Seyah and Aneela remind me of my Renegade Shep!/Liara T’Soni relationship in Mass Effect

Thorns

• The Qreshi champion was wasted… not just because he was a tower of hotness but I just felt like he could have been used in the fight against the Lady in some way since he’s a tie to the Quad who also has been used as a pawn like Dutch
• I get we need to make things happen but sometimes the glaring convenience of things in TV shows can be offputting. From “Whatever will we do to bring the prison under our control” to the next scene being about the tournament just felt too convenient