This week on SyFy Friday: it's all about relations.
Dark Matter S02E06: We finally get a background episode for Nyx and an explanation (of sorts) for why she's such a good fighter: she has ESP and can in fact see what's going to be coming her way. That they made it a natural ability is a bit weird; despite being a science fiction universe, the only super powered beings we've seen so far are either androids or mechanically augmented in some fashion (Two).
In any case, this was probably the weakest episode of the season. It was good that Nyx got a story, and it's a good enough story. But the strength of the episode hinged on how much the viewer cared about the fate of her brother. At least as far as I'm concerned, he was a disposable character to begin with, so there's a lack of attachment to make the rest of the episode stick.
Meanwhile I appreciate that they're taking the long road on reintegrating Six and not fully trusting him right off the bat. At the same time I can't shake the feeling that Roger Cross was either working on another project at the same time, or get pseudo-demoted to Recurring. But at least it makes for a good time with Three as the two of them sort out their issues. Since Four doesn't talk much, those two end up being the big talkers among the men.
And as a consequence to last week's Android shenanigans, she shut off her human upgrade. Which seems a bit sudden, but I can work with that. As I said last week, the slightly belligerent Android is a humorous character in and of itself, so I am glad her stock personality is back. Though I think the actress may have had a cold; she sounded off/raspy there. Oh, and new duds!
Finally, poor NuOne (I think his name is actually Devon?) continues his long slide into addiction. We're nearly half-way through the season, and even before this episode he's had the least focus. Right now he's practically a background character, so I hope he gets a focus episode soon.
Killjoys S02E06: This episode was uneven, but at the end of the day it moved the overarching plot forward, which is probably the most important thing to do. Given that the show only gets 10 episodes/season, this is the episode that feels like too many things had to be crammed in there due to a lack of time. The entire first half on the Asteroid Ship really just seemed like a reason to drip feed us a little bit more about Dutch's history. Given how mysterious she otherwise is, that's nice to have, but at the same time I feel like we didn't actually get a ton in this episode.
Meanwhile it's nice to see Lucy get out of the ship now and then. I'm still not sure if that was Lucy's voice actress playing a physical role (and getting dubbed over early), or another actress getting dubbed over by the Lucy VA. But more importantly, Johnny got to make out with
his Monrobot Lucy, which is exactly as awkward and hilarious as it sounds like. The whole setup with the gynoids was basically an excuse to do this, but it works.
But on a serious note, we finally have a teeny, tiny bit more information about the supposedly forthcoming invasion. So it sounds like it's not the RAC or some other human faction that's threatening to invade the Quad, but rather a proper alien menace? Very interesting. But of course I'm sure they'll wait until S02E10 to show us the supposed invaders.
Finally: in case anyone missed it, a peach has
another meaning; so of course here it's a metaphor for sex. Everyone gets lucky here to some degree or another. D'avin and Sabine may have gone on just a little too long though; there's a tease, and then there's TV-14 LSV porn, which this was a solid case of the latter. I dare say it starts getting uncomfortable after a point. But a point there is, as Sabine starts leaking copious amounts of green plasma. Now the million-joy question: is she a Level 6, or some other kind of augmented human? Khlyen is the only high-level RAC agent that seems to give a hoot about the Quad, so it would be very strange for him to send a Level 6 after D'avin, knowing how he reacts to plasma.
The implication from Dutch's earlier talk with Alvis is that there may be more to the plasma than just Level 6s. Which coincidentally does a great job fleshing out the scarbacks: they weren't originally crazy religious zealots who cut themselves for worship, but rather crazy religious zealots who cut themselves to prove that they weren't infected with the plasma.
Finally, with everyone getting nookie for the night, it's occurred to me that they've toned down the series since season 1. Most season 1 episodes were TV-MA and made it a point to show off Hannah John-Kamen or other actresses. However all of the season 2 episodes have been TV-14, and this is the first real instance of T&A all season long. It's not a SyFy production (rather it's an import), but given that they put it in the 9pm slot, I have to suspect they specifically requested the producers tone it down.