Dutch visits John in the Spring Hills compound where he is
being kept prisoner by Jelco. He reveals that he has been beaten as part of
captivity, though understands how his secrecy hurt Dutch worse. She asks him
how long he had conspired with Pawter at risk for their license, but he simply
explains that Pawter has had her own agenda with Old Town and Westerly just as
Dutch has her agenda with Level 6 and Khlyen. Dutch reminds him that they have
always been part of the same team, but John admits that he is in love with
Pawter, making her agenda more important to him. Dutch then decides to contact
Pawter to help release him with her status while also revealing that Khlyen had
sent her another red box after she killed Sabine. When John asks why she came
at all if it wasn’t to break him free, she admits it comes from habit.
In Old Town, D’avin delivers the list of Level 6 spies in
the RAC to Turin, and the two begin tracking a suspect. While Turin doubts the
suspect since they were members of the academy together, the two are
nevertheless attacked by the suspect and backup. In the fight, a Level 6 begins
choking D’avin to death. Acting desperate, D’avin tries to force the man off of
him. With great focus, D’avin then manages to force the man’s eyeballs to
explode.
D’avin returns to Lucy, desperate trying to wash himself
clean from the residue. Though neither he nor Dutch understand how it happened,
Dutch encourages D’avin to try and focus the power in another attack. In the
meantime, D’avin asks about John leading Dutch to explain that she asked Pawter
to help him instead of them. D’avin feels disappointed at abandoning his
brother, but Dutch explains that they need to talk.
Pawter arrives at Spring Hill to find John as Dutch
requested. She apologizes for actions leading to this, but the two are
interrupted by Jelco, who reveals to Pawter that he had work done to dismantle
the device she placed in his heart. Pawter orders John to be released, and,
although he initially refuses, Jelco lets John free when reminded of Pawter’s
new status. However, once the two leave, he demands a call to Delle Seyah
Kendry.
Jelco: I do like a reunion. It's like a divorce in reverse.
Dutch reveals that she is planning to suspend their
partnership with John until further notice. For now, she plans to focus on the
new red box. D’avin argues that they have little to go on besides speculation,
except that the weapon in the box suggests that Aneela is a Level 6. Dutch
reminds him that more details should be in Olin’s head on Leith. Now, they
should be able to speak with him for more information. Despite leaving John,
D’avin admits that since his brother lied to him as well, he chooses to help
Dutch.
In Old Town, Pawter and John move through the streets as she
explains what she learned. From what she has seen from the practice of the
Wall, she believes that it involves the practice of execution genetics. Like
animals, the Company slowly poisons the weak leaving only the strongest to
survive in a compound. With her own tactics, Pawter extracts blood from an Old
Town citizen and plans to examine it for any contagion.
Meanwhile, in Spring Hills, Jelco discusses John and
Pawter’s escape into Old Town with Delle Seyah. Knowing their location, Delle
Seyah orders the Wall to be activated. Jelco argues that it’s not on schedule,
but Delle Seyah uses her authority to order it activated now.
Dutch and D’avin travel to Leith to speak with Olin, but
Alvis is less certain given the circumstances. He reveals that Olin has broken
down from the information and even attacked his brother with an execution
stick. Needing answers, Dutch approaches Olin about what he has seen. She first
asks if he recognizes her, which he replies affirmatively. However, when she
asks him about the name Aneela, he breaks down and runs from her to the wall.
Alvis then tells her that the name Aneela actually means devil as Olin starts
drawing symbols. The monk recognizes the symbols from the skin of the monk from
the mines, understanding the words “Arkyn” and “plague” but nothing else. Olin
tells them that it is a map of the rivers of Arkyn, leading to the green pools
that drowned its people. While Dutch remarks that there is no water on Arkyn,
Alvis reminds her that there was centuries ago, when the Scarbacks traveled there.
The investigation on Old Town comes up short with no sign of
poison in ordinary blood. Pawter admits that she needs proof in order to
convince Arune, her only ally on the counsel, to work with her to take down the
Company. While they talk at the Royale, Pree interrupts them in a cheerful
mood, despite his last bartender running out with D’avin. As the bar keeps
running, John then notices that none of the Old Town citizens have lost weight
since their captivity. After being found out, Pree reveals that, like any war,
there are secret trading routes. John and Pawter decide to investigate.
Dutch, D’avin, and Alvis travel to Arkyn using the map from
Olin. In the meantime, D’avin speaks with Alvis, telling him that the
radioactive layer has been taken down taken down since Red 17’s disintegration.
However, Alvis is able to see through D’avin’s nervousness and invites him to
talk. D’avin then talks about his recent encounter with a Level 6, how he made
the man’s eyeballs explode. Alvis asks if he wanted the man’s eyes to explode,
leading D’avin to admit he wanted his whole head to explode. With that in mind,
Alvis suggests D’avin should learn to think calmly the next time he comes
across a Level 6 in order to avoid another outburst.
The three arrive on Arkyn where the river originally ran on
the planet. However, the location on the map leads them to another safehouse
designed by Khlyen. After some searching, they locate the entrance and walk
inside the box. Once inside, Dutch realizes that walls are not translucent like
the others, and the entire structure shakes before plummeting through the
ground. Suddenly, they stop as the doors open to reveal a secret hall.
Dutch, D’avin, and Alvis move through what looks to be the
central command of another station. However, none of them can tell what it’s
for or who would be running it, especially since it appears to be separate from
the Company. Dutch hands Alvis a gun to prepare themselves for what they might
find.
Alvis: Do you have anything bigger?
John and Pawter track down the food trade to Karl, the former
Company prison guard. While his former role as a guard made him an enemy in the
eyes of Old Town, his access to Company materials made him especially useful to
the others for food. Pawter pays Karl 5,000 joy for each substance so she and
John can examine them. Unfortunately, they find nothing of any interest that
could cause a pathogen. Pressing Karl, however, they learn that he was
expecting a new, special ration from the Company in a few days. That, they
expect, will be the substance for poison.
Upon further searching, Dutch, D’avin, and Alvis find a room
filled with bodies in the middle of experimentation. Although they are all
dead, the green plasma in their bodies retains a warmth from life. From this
sight, they conclude that this was the first site of the Red 17 experiments as
the bodies also cover more formulas. While Dutch and D’avin question what they
find, they overhear Alvis speaking to someone in another room. Alvis has
discovered one of the monks he believed was part of the original league to
fight the devil. The other dead bodies were the additional ten with the monk in
the mine being the one who came back alive. Now, they have another witness
behind a wall eerily similar to the one surrounding Old Town.
John and Pawter return to the back of the Royale, where
Pawter used to conduct her medical treatments. After learning about the new
rations, John believes that they should plan to distract the route in order to
prevent the poisoning. Pawter offers to use herself as a damsel, but, first, she
wants to make up for the trouble John went through to help her. Surprisingly,
she claims that she feels good about herself for the first time. John responds
in kind since he also feels satisfied and also tells Pawter that he loves her
for the first time. She also reveals that she loves him as the two kiss.
Alvis attempts to communicate to the monk while Dutch
destroys the wall’s system. The monk, however, sees Dutch and begins to attack
her. When she fights back, he then attempts to escape. Although D’avin worries
about the monk fighting them, Dutch insists they keep him secured since he’s
the only one who can tell them what happened.
The three track down the monk as Dutch tries to convince him
that she is not Aneela. The monk continues to fight the group with his Level 6
status making him a formidable opponent. In this struggle, D’avin then attempts
to use his ability to try and stop the monk, though he fears blowing up the
head again. Under this stress, Alvis convinces D’avin to meditate as though he
was a sniper aiming for a target. This notion allows D’avin to take control of
the monk to make him relax. Still, when Dutch probes further, the monk fights
back, forcing Dutch to knock the man unconscious.
On Old Town, Pawter practices her aim by firing cans off of
John’s head when the two are interrupted by Arune, her only ally on the
council. He comes to see Pawter’s proof of poison in Old Town to help fight the
Company, but Pawter and John prove to distracted to have any proof. While they
manage to reveal the Company food rations, they admit that they do not yet have
any proof. Arune tries to remind the threat his family suffers from him asking
questions, but they are further interrupted by the presence of Jelco.
The monk reawakens under captivity from D’avin and Alvis.
Dutch questions the monk as Alvis translates, but the monk refuses to believe
that Dutch is not Aneela. Dutch then proves herself by cutting her hand to show
she bleeds. With that knowledge, Dutch then asks about Khlyen, a name that the
monk recognizes. Surprisingly, he remarks that Aneela knew him by a different
name: Father. The news rocks Dutch that all this time she resembled Khlyen’s
distant daughter from two hundred years ago. Nevertheless, she plans to take
the monk with them as they torch the rest of the lab, but the monk instead
requests to be killed. Alvis offers to return the monk to Leith, but the monk
insists on death. Reading the monk’s emotions, D’avin convinces the others that
he simply wants his torture to end. Alvis performs last rites on the man while
Dutch strikes the fatal blow.
Jelco reveals to Arune that the Wall emits a particular drug
that turns anyone within Old Town’s wall into happy, complacent drones. He
remains immune due to an implant in his neck while Arune still functions from
having just arrived. For discovering the true purpose of the wall, Jelco
proceeds to shoot Arune as John and Pawter aimlessly watch. Since the drug
prevents them from reacting negatively, Jelco then stages the scene as an
assassination done by John and Pawter. The council will inevitably relinquish
Arune’s spot while Pawter will lose her power since the two refuse to fight
back under the influence. John feebly recognizes that what Jelco is doing is
wrong, but he finds himself unable to fight back. Instead, he reveals that he
and Pawter knew about the rations but not what the Company plans to do. Jelco
admits that the Company has planned to poison the rations but suggests that the
purpose is so much more before leaving them. John tells Pawter that they should
leave, but Pawter suggests to keep listening to the music in the back.
The group returns to Lucy. Although D’avin tries to reassure
Dutch that the monk died in peace, Dutch is more concerned with the other
possibilities. She wonders instead if she truly is Aneela after experiencing
dreams and visions of another woman and Khlyen’s experience in manipulating
memories. D’avin shoots it down as a possibility, reminding her that she fought
to create her new identity as Dutch. In the meantime, he had Lucy analyze the
wall substance guarding the monk, revealing it to emit a drug that pacifies a
human sense of fear and resistance. That substance now surrounds the people of
Old Town. Dutch tells Lucy to contact John, only for Lucy to reveal that John is
in Old Town himself.
The group attempts to contact John, but, in his state, John
tosses his communicator as he walks with Pawter through Old Town. Various
citizens act out their newfound glee in walking on glass and jumping off of
rooftops. On screens, Jelco reveals the Company’s plans to deliver new food
rations to the people of Old Town as a reward for their compliance. Despite the
chaos, John and Pawter share a kiss in the streets.
Level 6 Notes
- Shamier Anderson, who plays Arune, also features on Syfy's show Wynonna Earp.
- Karl from "Wild, Wild Westerly" reappears as a blackmarket trader in this episode.
- Aneela, Dutch's double, is revealed to be Khlyen's daughter
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