The Geekcap: Killjoys "Heart-Shaped Box"

Dutch continues making love with Alvis. From out of nowhere, someone rips them apart, another figure of Dutch. She tells Alvis that it’s time for him to die now then slits his throat. Dutch then wakes up from her dream to shock Alvis. She supposes that talking about Khlyen’s plans has gotten her worked up at night. Alvis places some of the blame on himself for discussing it, but Dutch maintains that she worries for him. She lets him go and leaves Leith.

D’avin stands over Sabine’s body as it is drenched in the green plasma. He quickly runs for backup to John outside Old Town who speaks with another woman. This woman, he insists, is the designer behind the wall surrounding Old Town. Although she does not openly admit to it, she reveals that she was placed behind the wall because of her own questions. John demands that she reveals the purpose behind the wall, but the woman refuses to answer. D’avin then interrupts the conversation to request help from John. Once he looks away, the woman disappears.

John examines Sabine’s body as D’avin explains what happened. To their surprise, they find Sabine is alive though she is most certainly a Level 6. John questions whether D’avin’s hook-up with Sabine had anything to do with the reaction, but the brothers have no idea from immediate reaction. With no choice, they are forced to stuff Sabine in a bag and transport her onto their ship.

On Lucy, Dutch also examines the body, being filled in on the other gory details. However, she questions why Sabine does not attack them if she is a 6. D’avin admits that he must have done something to her as a result of them sleeping together. Until they can figure out what happened, they decide investigate Sabine.

Through Lucy’s scanners, they discover that Sabine is actually a woman named Jenny Avery who is in fact eighty-nine years old. Despite the plasma, however, she doesn’t seem to be healing from her contact with D’avin. Whatever D’avin seemed to have done appears to have broken her connection to the plasma. Now, John deduces, she appears to be in an anaphylactic shock. With that in mind, he believes that he can wake her up using electric shocks.

Dutch: We finally have a Level 6 right where we want them.

John: In the bag!

In the meantime, John speaks with Pawter over holophone. He informs her that he will send the medical scans he found, but he could not secure the wall’s designer. Pawter requests him to go after, but he reminds her that he can’t unless he has a warrant. However, with Pawter’s new power, she can take out a warrant for him to act. Pawter reminds him that his actions could put his status as a Killjoy in jeopardy, but he remarks that it’s time for the RAC to work for him for once.

John then injects Sabine to wake her out of her coma. She sits up normally until Dutch slaps her down. She then orders the men to restrain her for questioning where they discover Sabine’s mission. Under Dutch’s watch, Sabine states that she was sent by Khlyen to protect D’avin. She, like the other people from Level 6, are trained soldiers for a purpose they do not know. Unsatisfied, Dutch proceeds to shock Sabine through her restraints to force her to comply. Sabine insists that’s all she knows, but Dutch insists that they can’t trust her. Although Sabine is still protected by the plasma, Dutch proposes that the best thing to try is old-fashioned torture. At this turn, D’avin takes her aside from questioning.

In the back, D’avin talks to Dutch about her methods. While Dutch insists she knows about torture, D’avin reminds her that they need to act smarter with Sabine. A wrong move could send her off with no answers. It doesn’t help that Dutch has an intense desire to punch Sabine in the face. Since they have no way of dealing with a Level 6, D’avin suggests that they find someone who does.

The group meets with Turin who has been searching the RAC for Level 6 spies. Now that they have a spy, he implements his own methods of interrogation with the help of an assistant named Phil. This method utilizes a machine with records of people in the RAC. With a device wrapped on her eyes, she can identify who she recognizes as a Level 6, even if they are a Killjoy. Before the interrogation begins, however, Phil nearly stabs Sabine with a silver weapon. Sabine fights back by wrapping him in a choke hold with wire before finally decapitating him. Despite the severity of the kill, Sabine apologizes for what she’s done.

Sabine reveals that Phil was a Level 6 who wanted to kill her before she revealed anything. To do this, she reveals that a Level 6 can be killed by an immediate execution. In this case, by the execution stick Phil carried. John examines the remains of Phil and discovers plasma healing the wounds on his decapitated head, proving Sabine right. Although Phil is dead, Turin congratulates Sabine on sifting out the mole.

Turin speaks privately with Dutch admitting that he is going back into hiding. He refuses to take Sabine for fear of the Black Root, which he calls a police of Level 6, from finding him. Instead, he advises Dutch to keep Sabine talking. Once that is done, he hands her the execution stick and tells her to finish her.

Meanwhile, D’avin and John keep watch over Sabine who begins crying over the death. They question her reaction, and she reveals that this is the first time in a long time that she has felt the emotion to cry.

Back on Lucy, Dutch attaches a detonation collar onto Sabine’s neck, preventing her from running. D’avin then speaks with her privately as he allows her to change clothes. Nevertheless, she still states that she was sent for protection but quickly points out that most of their relationship was his doing. She also deduces that this feeling came about from his attempting to move on from Dutch as most of his actions revolve around her in some way. Despite everything, however, Sabine admits that she enjoyed the night she spent with D’avin.  Looking closely, D’avin notices a wound on Sabine’s head that continues to bleed.

Sabine: I was the door-closer, the move-on lay.

D'avin mentions this fact to Dutch, believing that he somehow cured her of being a Level 6. Dutch, however, refuses to believe it, reminding D’avin that Sabine was just using him. As a Level 6, she is just a weapon and cannot sympathize. D’avin argues against this, but Dutch fires back that they are at war. D’avin only questions who they are at war with in the end.

John completes an analysis of Sabine and Phil’s physiology from the effects of the green plasma. From what he can tell, the plasma takes hold of the body like an infection and shuts down parts of the brain that exhibit empathy with others. Following her contact with D’avin, Sabine seems to be experiencing a shortage, explaining her new empathy. Still, John notes that the residual plasma is reforming inside her. By the end of the day, she will return to being a Level 6. The only thing they can do then is kill her.

Sabine, understandably, fears being killed by Dutch but also understands that returning to the RAC could be just as deadly. She reveals that agents are specifically chosen to become Level 6 in the RAC. Most die from either the physical or mental transition from the experiments, which she describes as losing everyone you love at once. As an emotionally distant candidate, she was among the best qualified. She then offers a deal for the team. If she can help them identify any Level 6 agent in the RAC, they can let her go. Otherwise, she reminds them, the RAC will eventually track her down anyway. For now, the team agrees to the deal.

Meanwhile, John travels to the Leith Bazaar to speak with Bellus about a warrant. She provides him the warrant to find the wall architect, something John advises her to not mention the details to D’avin or Dutch. Bellus stops John in his tracks and demands to know why he is keeping the warrant a secret from his team. John doesn’t explain the details and only states that he doesn’t have to mention the details to her. Bellus lets John leave but states that his team deserve better than that.

On the ship, Sabine helps the team reset the scanner with an additional feature. Using D’avin’s abilities, she plans to connect to the Green, the massive list of knowledge of the Quad. That way, she can identify the Level 6 soldiers she knows about in the RAC. Using their supply of green plasma, Sabine connects with D’avin, and the scan begins. The process goes off to a good start until both of them begin seizing back from the pressure. In their minds, D’avin and Sabine stand outside a snowy forest. Although D’avin questions why they’re here, Sabine leads him deeper into the woods.

In real life, D’avin tries to pull out, but Sabine insists they continue to look through the list. The process continues as D’avin and Sabine return to the dream. At the end of the woods, they spot a large silver box. With their bodies still shaking, Dutch finally cuts the search short by ripping D’avin away from Sabine. Although the process was interrupted, John discovers many names from Sabine’s identification. To his surprise, many of them were last seen in Old Town. Against Dutch’s better judgement, she and John agree to investigate Old Town for these soldiers while D’avin keeps an eye on Sabine.

In Old Town, Dutch goes undercover to find a Level 6 suspect. Using John’s tech, she marks him for further investigation. From what they see, Sabine’s insights have been proven correct. However, John is more curious that the Level 6 suspects appear to be doing nothing in particular in Old Town, as though they are waiting for something. Nevertheless, Dutch maintains her distrust of Sabine for likely knowing something more. Noticing the Royale, she suggests calling it a night for finding suspects. At the same time, John spots his warrant. With her time alone, Dutch begins investigating Sabine’s old room.

Back on Lucy, D’avin and Sabine wait for the others to return. Sabine suggests they could have sex again for the chance of permanently curing her, but D’avin is less sure since the previous time nearly killed her. However, he does let her indulge in some alcohol to numb her fears of becoming a Level 6. He then asks her about the silver box. She states that she wanted to show him her grandfather’s farm, though he remarks that it didn’t look like a peach farm. Still, Sabine maintains that her connection with D’avin is the first one she’s had in almost sixty years. He tries to deny it, claiming that the feelings she has now are only heightened emotions. Either way, she tells him to indulge her in her feelings since she feels them now.

Dutch: She's Black Root. She's not some Level Six guardian angel with boobs, or whatever the hells you thought she was.. 

John catches up with the woman and orders her to speak now that he has a warrant. The woman then admits about the previous test they conducted with the wall. She was hired to reconstruct the wall with a technology she couldn’t identify around a city. Shortly after the wall went up, the citizens inside were slaughtered. Those who survived were taken by the Company. When she asked the purpose behind the wall, the Company placed her in Old Town and threatened to send her family there as well should she persist. However, she reveals a possible glitch: the controls for the Wall are inside Spring Hill with Jelco.

On Lucy, D’avin entertains Sabine with a story about his first kiss. Unfortunately, her sentiment is cut short as she remarks that she will be killed once Dutch returns. In a tearful voice, she asks D’avin to tell her that she was a good person where it counted, since she will miss the time she had. He responds by gently hugging her.

Dutch continues to search through Sabine’s room until she is discovered by another soldier. This one fights off Dutch to locate Sabine in the name of the Black Root. Using the execution stick, Dutch manages to kill the soldier by stabbing his head. From this attack, she discovers the truth: Sabine is a member of the Black Root.

Dutch returns to Lucy only to find Sabine has left. D’avin admits he disabled her collar to allow her a chance to escape. Dutch rebukes his action, revealing that Sabine is Black Root. She had lied about working for Khlyen and instead used D’avin to try and find Khlyen. Now, she escaped from their grasp. Fortunately, D’avin reveals that he also placed a tracker on Sabine, understanding that his team is more important. Dutch hugs D’avin for his loyalty and locates Sabine on Leith. She asks Lucy to contact John, but Lucy reveals that John had deactivated his comms link. The two are on their own.

John sneaks into Spring Hill by breaking into the system. Inside Spring Hill, he finds the architect bound and gagged. When John tries to break her out, she reveals that she had informed Jelco about John, leading the two to be surrounded by Jelco and his guards. John tries to explain that he has a warrant for the woman, but Jelco reminds him that the warrant ended when he broke into an office. The guards then knock the Killjoy out and take him prisoner.

Dutch tracks Sabine to Leith in the same snowy forests she showed to D’avin. The two fight as Sabine states she is searching for Khlyen who would have a safe house somewhere in the area. In that time, she remarks that Khlyen has changed since he has met Dutch. Rather than be a soldier, he rebelled from the RAC and erased memory of Dutch from the Green. Sabine then recognizes that he was preparing Dutch for Level 6, teaching her to murder and act distant towards emotions. That’s why she is drawn to the Jaqobis brothers: they feel too much. With that outburst, Sabine realizes that she is close to reverting to a Level 6 and begs Dutch to kill her. If not, she will be taken back to the RAC to kill for them. Dutch then obliges by shooting Sabine in the head and leaves her body in the woods.

Before Dutch leaves, she wanders further and finds the silver box in the forest. She moves through the box, discovering the safe house within it. Inside, there appears to be weapons as well as a red box. Dutch realizes that the safe house was meant for her by Khlyen. Now, he wants her to take on another mission.

Dutch returns to Lucy to inform D’avin on what happened in the forest. D’avin asks if Dutch secured Sabine’s body in case she survived, but Dutch reveals that she left Sabine in the forest. Although the Black Root eventually dragged her body from the forest, Dutch admits that she left Sabine to give her a fighting chance. D’avin opens the red box to find the name of the person Dutch must kill: Aneela, whom Dutch believes is likely her double from Arkyn. 

Level 6 Notes

• The town that the Company experimented with the wall was named Green Wall. Any possible connections?
• The Dutch double is now referred to as Aneela.

Photo Credit: Syfy