History Series / Killjoys

** In a season 4 episode, Dutch decides to fly in close circles around a sun to create a higher g-force after her lab centrifuge wasn't strong enough to separate the cells from the suspension medium in some AppliedPhlebotium. This means that Dutch supposedly survived more than the 5000 to 15000 g[[note]]or rather Relative Centrifugal Force equivalents[[/note]] that even a small, low-speed desktop centrifuge can easily reach. Even if human tissue/bone could actually survive more than about 25 g for more than a second, at those kinds of g, her blood cells should have clotted at the bottom of her heart and all her blood vessels, killing her through oxygen deprivation and heart attack / brain aneurism. So the nonsense in this episode isn't even internally consistent: Separating suspended cells from liquids is literally what this kind of low-power centrifuge is for, and what she was trying to do with their spore sample by pulling this stunt. But somehow it only happens to the sample, not her blood. Also, if it was actually acchievable the way she was planning, higher power (higher rotation speed) centrifugation than what the small desk centrifuge could do would have destroyed the spore cells in her sample, because separating the parts of cells (organelles, DNA strands, proteins, etc.) is what higher power centrifuges are for.[[note]] These are about the size of a desk, due to needing a bigger diameter, a bigger motor, bigger anchoring mass and sometimes even having to be bolted to the floor. If you don't roughly balance out the load of a small desktop centrifuge, you might damage the machine. If you don't ''very carefully'' balance out the load of a high-power centrifuge, the machine will likely fling itself out to break the next wall. Also, you just cost the lab several hundred thousand Dollars.[[/note]]

** Basically, there's ''a lot'' of ColdBloodedTorture happening on this show and ''everyone'', including the "good guys" seems to believe it's no big deal and TortureAlwaysWorks (except maybe not on inhuman SuperSoldiers). Partly 'justified' in that, unlike in the real world where lie detectors aren't admissable in court for good reason, there's a wide array of technobabble-based infallible lie detector technologies and truth serums in this setting. But even when those aren't used, nobody ever seems to think of just providing false information or saying whatever the torturer wants to hear until they can't believe anything the victim says anymore. The only reason torture fails to work in this show is if the victim genuinely doesn't know anything or if they are tough enough to make jokes and stall until they're rescued within the hour.

** Zeph is using them to get food at the start of ''Johnny Dangerously.''

* NameMcAdjective: Going hand in hand with his tendency to use BuffySpeak, D'avin also gets creative with names from time to time. Highlights include Baroness von Batshit (Delle Seyah) and Chest Wound McGee (John).

* SomethingOnlyTheyWouldSay: In season 3, a Hullen is trying to save Pree and Gared on Turin's behalf ([[ItMakesSenseInContext long story]]), but they're unwilling to believe he's on their side. He decides to imitate Turin's "Goddammit!", and they immediately believe him.

--> "Hells, we share fifty percent of the same genetic materials as that... soft, yellow thing with the peel."
--> "What?"
--> "Did I mention that my brain has been set to scramble for the past hour?"

* ArtisticLicensePhysics: When D'avin detonates an EMP inside the RAC headquarters, it disables internal comms, security, and primary lighting, but not life support, ArtificialGravity or emergency lighting. (Though this might be justified, as it's not physically impossible to shield against EMPs (farrady cages) and it would make sense to put those essential survival systems in separate computers shielded against possible attacks. On the other hand, not shielding the security systems as well would be a clear case of IdiotBall on part of the RAC engineers.)

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: Pretty much everything in the show that's connected to biochemistry / genetics / microbiology is utter nonsense. Like all the alien-microorganism- or nanobot-caused instant healing of even major injuries without any of the necessary additional energy / nutrient intake. (Plus, it's biochemically impossible for human cells to reproduce and grow that fast, even if you could stimulate them to do so through artificial means.) Or the "virus" that almost instantly freezes people starting on the point of exposure[[note]] Aside from the fact that the freezing thing makes no sense at all in terms of thermodynamics, viruses - no matter how alien or specially designed - are defined by their need to use the human cells' own metabolism to reproduce in large numbers before they have any noticable effect on the human body, which takes time that cannot be sped up. This is why the symptom-less incubation period for even the most deadly viral diseases is at least half a day, by which point the virus has spread throughout the body evenly. This plot point would have been a lot less stupid if they'd just said that it was some sort of toxin or a cloud of nanobots.[[/note]]. Or Dutch turning out to be [[spoiler: Aneela's "chiral" mirror image]] even on a molecular level, with her DNA helix supposedly turning the other way around[[note]] That's chemically impossible no matter the order of ATCG nucleotids.[[/note]] and the two strands supposedly being switched.[[note]]Since only one of those strands is "read out" by the human cells and since the genetic code that translates the "ATCG" chain of DNA into the chain of aminoacids in a protein is fixed for all life on earth and doesn't mirror (i.e. "TGC" calls for a completely different aminoacid than the mirror version "ACG", and even just one aminoacid switch can make the resulting protein take on a different shape and have different chemical properties, thus making it unusable for its function as e.g. an enzyme), this would mean Dutch has a completely different genome than Aneela and should look very different. Or actually, it would mean her genome wouldn't be viable for a living organism at all, as all the genes necessary for basic biochemistry would be wrong, too. (I.e. all the stuff that we humans share with, say, cauliflower, which is about half of all protein-coding genes in the human genome.)[[/note]]

* ArtisticLicensePhysics: When D'avin detonates an EMP inside the RAC headquarters, it disables internal comms, security, and primary lighting, but not life support, ArtificialGravity or emergency lighting.

** The planet and moons are also almost SingleBiomePlanets, with Leith for example being covered in lush vegetation and apparently (sub)tropical temperatures all over (There aren't even any major bodies of water to be seen from space - How the hell does the water cycle on that moon work and generate enough rain for all that vegetation?!), except for a small area at the poles that's covered in snow and pine forests. Meanwhile, Arkyn is apparently constantly frozen over, despite getting basically the same amount of energy due to being at the same distance from the sun. (Though that ''might'' be possible if there's almost no carbondioxide in the atmosphere due to a lack of volcanism or much inhabitation by people. They did establish that there's no plant life viable there for some unexplained reason, so the atmosphere, and especially the oxygen, must be completely imported.)

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: Pretty much everything in the show that's connected to biochemistry / genetics / microbiology is utter nonsense. Like all the alien-microorganism- or nanobot-caused instant healing of even major injuries without any of the necessary additional energy / nutrient intake. (Plus, it's biochemically impossible for human cells to reproduce and grow that fast, even if you could stimulate them to do so through artificial means.) Or the "virus" that almost instantly freezes people starting on the point of exposure[[note: Aside from the fact that the freezing thing makes no sense at all in terms of thermodynamics, viruses - no matter how alien or specially designed - have to use the human cells' own metabolism to reproduce in large numbers before they have any noticable effect on the human body, which takes time that cannot be sped up. This is why the symptom-less incubation period for even the most deadly viral diseases is at least half a day. This plot point would have been a lot less stupid if they'd just said that it was some sort of toxin or nanobots.[[/note]]. Or Dutch turning out to be [[spoiler: Anneela's "chiral" mirror image]] even on a molecular level, with her DNA helix supposedly turning the other way around[[note]] That's chemically impossible no matter the order of ATCG nucleotids.[[/note]] and the two strands supposedly being switched.[[note]]Since only one of those strands is "read out" by the human cells and since the genetic code that translates the "ATCG" chain of DNA into the chain of aminoacids in a protein is fixed for all life on earth and doesn't mirror (i.e. "TGC" calls for a completely different aminoacid than the mirror version "ACG", and even just one aminoacid switch can make the resulting protein take on a different shape and have different chemical properties, thus making it unusable for its function as e.g. an enzyme), this would mean Dutch has a completely different genome than Anneela and should look very different. Or actually, it would mean her genome wouldn't be viable for a living organism at all, as all the genes necessary for basic biochemistry would be wrong, too. (I.e. all the stuff that we humans share with, say, cauliflower, which is about half of all protein-coding genes in the human genome.)[[/note]]

** The planet and moons are also almost SingleBiomPlanets, with Leith for example being covered in lush vegetation and apparently (sub)tropical temperatures all over (There aren't even any major bodies of water to be seen from space - How the hell does the water cycle on that moon work and generate enough rain for all that vegetation?!), except for a small area at the poles that's covered in snow and pine forests. Meanwhile, Arkyn is apparently constantly frozen over, despite getting basically the same amount of sunshine. (Though that ''might'' be possible if there's almost no carbondioxide in the atmosphere due to a lack of vulcanism or much inhabitation by people. They did establish that there's no plant life viable there for some unexplained reason, so the atmosphere, and especially the oxygen, must be completely imported.)

** By the time of "Attack the Rack", Fancy has invented a new, creative way to torture information out of a captive Hullen: a device that dials up their perception of their own internal noises (blood pumping, eyeball movement, etc.) up to 9000, which apparently is both painful and will drive them insane very quickly. (It works to a degree, but the Hullen is tough enough to last a few rounds and good enough at psychological manipulation to turn the tables on Fancy - partly because they didn't think [[IdiotBall to tie her to the chair]].) Also, some Hullen (Black Root?) specialists torture the Jacobi brothers by putting Johnny in a MindRape chair that slowly strips his memories from him (which also physically hurts him), while simultaneously making D'avin (who is tougher and doesn't cheerish his mental faculties so much) [[ForcedToWatch watch]] his brother suffer. (Though the torturer gives up after just a few rounds because D'avin shows off his special powers and thus makes abducting him a higher priority.) Meanwhile, Aneela [[spoiler: thinks she]] keeps her Hullen servants in line by manipulating the plasma in their bodies to perform something similar to Darth Vader's force choke - she uses this to force her right hand man to thank Kendry, whom he despises for usurping his position.

** Turin also has a dedicated blacksite specifically to "interrogate" Sixes. Though at least he plans to extract information on other moles with technology (basically a sci-fi lie detector combined with face recognition software). He says he developed this interrogation technique because Sixes don't break because of pain - implying that he did try that first on other off-screen captured Sixes.
** Dutch has no problems torturing people in general, even people who could be innocents for all she knows, which is part of the whole "raised to be a borderline sociopath" thing Khlyne put her through as a child. For example, in the first season, she ties the random guy Khlyne orders her to assassinate to a chair and leaves him alone without water for several days, just on the off-chance the guy might know ''why'' Khlyne wants him dead. Apparently, he really didn't, so she roughs him up some more and then tells him to run and hide.

** In the season 3 episode "The Lion, the Witch and the Warlord", D'avin, of all people[[note]] He'd been the one horrified by the military torture ship and who demanded that Dutch treat Sabine like a Prisoner of War and refrain from torturing her.[[/note]] takes a Killjoy colleague (who had a perfectly legitimate warrant for hunting Johnny and who was also not characterized as a bad person) and holds him upside down, dropping him on his head a few times[[note]] Which could realistically have led to a skull fracture, lasting brain trauma or at least a severe concussion.[[/note]], so the guy will tell him who took out the warrant on Johnny. This example is especially awful because it's played as a ''[[ComedicSociopathy comedy scene]]'', instead of serving to show how ruthless the interrogating character is. It's like the writer thought beating up the equivalent of an internal affairs officer who's going after a cop who broke the rules and shot someone without it being self-defense somehow doesn't count as torture / police brutality.
** Basically, ''everyone'' in this show seems to believe TortureAlwaysWorks (except maybe not on inhuman supersoldiers). Partly 'justified' in that, unlike in the real world where lie detectors aren't admissable in court for good reason, there's a wide array of technobabble-based infallible lie detector technologies and truth serums in this setting. But even when those aren't used, nobody ever seems to think of just providing false information or saying whatever the torturer wants to hear until they can't believe anything the victim says anymore. The only reason torture fails to work in this show is if the victim genuinely doesn't know anything or if they are tough enough to make jokes and stall until they're rescued.

* JackBauerInterrogationTechnique: Dutch uses torture on Sabine when she's trying to get information from her, and is apparently an expert from her days under Khlyen. It doesn't do much good, as Sabine was already open to giving away secrets thanks to the serum in her brain having been depleted.

* ArtisticLicenseMedicine: In "The Harvest", Pawter diagnoses D'avin's PTSD by deliberately putting him in a triggering situation--she asks him to stay and watch the Leithians pop off fireworks to celebrate, which causes him to have a flashback because [[TruthInTelevision they sound like guns]]. Suffice it to say that it is ''not'' accepted medical practice to force a patient into a bad episode to make sure you're right about what they have--especially if they're not even actually your patient yet. This would not be the last ethics violation on Pawter's part, and Westerley isn't exactly well-regulated. Not to mention she has sex with him, which is prohibited under medical ethics (and has been going back thousands of years, to Hippocrates).

* BountyHunter: Our heroes job. As a matter of fact there's an entire organization of them called the '''R'''eclamation '''A'''pprehension '''C'''oalition, commonly known as The Rack.

** Likewise, the first few episodes of season 3 splits time between [[spoiler: Dutch and D'avin's fight against the Hullen, and John's encounter with the Hack-mods while searching for Clara]].

** Likewise, the first few episodes of season 3 splits time between Dutch and D'avin's fight against the Hullen, and John's encounter with the Hack-mods while searching for Clara.

** By the end of the first season, the fate of every character is known, except for Turin, who was last seen being dragged away by Khlyen, severely injured but still alive, who eventually turns up again in season 2, almost fully recovered from the injuries.

* WhyDontYouJustShootHim: {{Played with}}. Johnny jumps through amazing hoops to try to resolve a hostage situation in Pree's bar peacefully. In the end, he fails to placate the hostage-takers and winds up just shooting them with a bolt gun, the implication being he could have just done that all along but didn't want anybody to die. He's unhappy with the resolution, to say the least.

* BadBadActing: In 'Reckoning Ball', D'avin and Dutch are trying to implant a memory in an imprisoned Hullen and the plan to do so requires them to convincingly act out a scenario where Dutch has decided to leave the team. Their performances are not convincing in the slightest (at least initially).

* BountyHunter: Our heroes' job. As a matter of fact there's an entire organization of them called the '''R'''eclamation '''A'''pprehension '''C'''oalition, commonly known as The Rack.

* CampGay: Pree, the proprietor/bartender at our heroes' favorite bar on Westerley.

* CuttingTheKnot: When John locks down Lucy with a device meant to make Dutch and D'avin tell each other the truth, he fails to anticipate them being parked over an acid rain storm at the time. The storm causes the ship's orbit to decay and the device won't allow them to fire the engines. Unable to get it to shut down, Dutch and D'avin just smash the device, restoring Lucy.

* FaceStealer: "A Skinner, Darkly" has an underground clinic providing face transplants using the green plasma as a bonding agent. Surprisingly, it's not connected to the main conspiracy; the cyborg doing the work happened upon a sample and got creative.

** In the pilot, Dutch gets out of a major breach of RAC protocol without so much as a slap on the wrist, implicitly thanks to Khlyen pulling some strings. It's later shown that he's a member of its highest echelons, so high up in fact that even Turin doesn't know anything about him.

* IronicEcho: In episode 3, N'oa's husband just laughs and says "she should have made better choices" when Johnny tells him how much trouble N'oa will be in if he doesn't get home immediately. When Johnny takes the guy in for illegal immigration at the end of the episode, he tells him "you should have made better choices".

* MileLongShip: The final shot of season 2 reveals that [[spoiler:Aleena is in command of a truly massive organic looking starship, surrounded by an entire fleet of Black Root ships.]]

* MysteriousPast: Dutch has one that involves being trained in torture and assassination when she was just a child. D'avin deduces she has one because of her level of training and is the main reason he doesn't trust her.

* NoKillLikeOverkill: After John headshots the Level 6 attacking Dutch in 'Escape Velocity', she borrows his gun and fires several more rounds into his body. Justified, as at that point they still aren't sure how to kill Level 6 agents or even if they can be killed.

* PregnantBadass: In episode 4, the heavily pregnant surrogate Constance leads the charge against the assassins with a rifle and kicks copious amounts of ass. Justified in that she's just had an adrenaline injection, before which she was fragile enough to be seen as needing bedrest - though even in that state, she was badass enough to stab someone trying to hold her hostage.

* SensitiveGuyAndManlyMan: The Jaquobis brothers. Younger bro John has a MachineEmpathy with their SapientShip, Lucy, and is willing to do favors for his favorite HookerWithAHeartOfGold at Pree's tavern (within legitimate RAC channels). Older bro D'avin is a macho soldier boy who usually considers violence as the first solution and has some [[ShellShockedVeteran PTSD problems]] from his service.

* ShellShockedVeteran: D’avin has constant and terrible nightmares about his time in the military. He also has flashbacks to combat, hair-trigger violent tendencies and other obvious symptoms of PTSD. He has to buy off his doctor to get a passing psych evaluation to join the RAC, although she insists on treating him too.

* AllPlanetsAreEarthLike: Not only is the planet Qresh habitable, but two of its three moons are also inhabitable to one degree or another. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] because the moons were terraformed by the Company, even though the terraforming of Arkyn was a failure. [[spoiler:It is revealed in the first season finale that the terraforming of Arkyn was actually successful. The moon does have a breathable atmosphere.]]

* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: John has a bit of an inferiority complex towards his brother D'avin. It's exacerbated when [[spoiler: D'avin gets fast-tracked to Level 4 when joining the RAC, a rank above John.]]

* ArtisticLicenseMedicine: In "The Harvest", Pawter diagnoses D'Avin's PTSD by deliberately putting him in a triggering situation--she asks him to stay and watch the Leithians pop off fireworks to celebrate, which causes him to have a flashback because [[TruthInTelevision they sound like guns]]. Suffice it to say that it is ''not'' accepted medical practice to force a patient into a bad episode to make sure you're right about what they have--especially if they're not even actually your patient yet. This would not be the last ethics violation on Pawter's part, and Westerley isn't exactly well-regulated. Not to mention she has sex with him, which is prohibited under medical ethics (and has been going back thousands of years, to Hippocrates).
* ArtisticLicensePhysics: When D'Avin detonates an EMP inside the RAC headquarters, it disables internal comms, security, and primary lighting, but not life support, ArtificialGravity or emergency lighting.

* BadBadActing: In 'Reckoning Ball', D'Avin and Dutch are trying to implant a memory in an imprisoned Hullen and the plan to do so requires them to convincingly act out a scenario where Dutch has decided to leave the team. Their performances are not convincing in the slightest (at least initially).

* BatmanGambit: In the penultimate episode, it turns out that Khlyen set one up. [[spoiler: He trained Dutch as an assassin, then allowed her to escape and become a Killjoy, while getting into RAC's command himself. He's been keeping Dutch's RAC records clean, waiting until she took a Level 5 warrant, proving she's ready to kill again. Only then did he reveal himself. Unfortunately for him, John and D'avin threw a bit of a wrench into that plan when John picked up D'avin's kill warrant in her name, causing Khlyen to play his hand too soon.]]
* BigCreepyCrawlies: "Shaft" has cat-sized centipedes which hunt humans and can release a toxin that causes hallucinations. [[spoiler:They're suggested to be the source of the SuperSerum used in the Red 17 SuperSoldier program, as their blood is green and they are repulsed by D'Avin.]]

* BigDamnKiss: "I Love Lucy" has ''three'' examples. John kisses Lucy (in a {{fembot}}), Dutch kisses Alvis and D'Avin kisses Sabine (the latter two having sex as well).

* BuffySpeak: D'Avin has a tendency to pepper his speech with extremely technical terms like explode-y, hinky, and war-crime-y.

** Not shown in the first season, but heavily implied. While all the action takes place in a single star system, in the pilot episode D'Avin arrives there from somewhere else on a ship making the rounds in the local star cluster, and implies he is a veteran of wars across the galaxy. Though given that he's working off his passage in the ring it's clearly expensive and takes a long time.
** In the second season [[spoiler:Khlyen and Fancy Lee]] travel to Telen (the Jaqobis' homeworld that is described as being in the "ass-end of the galaxy") in a matter of days, although they have access to technology far more advanced than the rest of the J.

* ContinuityNod: In "Johnny Be Good," D'Avin references the fact that he tried to kill Dutch.

* TheCoup: [[spoiler:Seyah Kendry]] pulls off one of these in the episode "Escape Velocity", [[spoiler:killing all but three of the Nine Families and assuming control of Qresh]].

* DoNotCallMePaul: Dutch does not answer to her birth name, Yelena, or the nickname 'Yala'. Although she doesn't object when [[spoiler: Johnny]] calls her Yelena, which suggests she may only object to Khlyen using it.

** [[spoiler:Khlyen refers to his discovery of the Green Plasma on Arkyn as a case of digging too far and awakening an ancient evil.]]

* FalseFlagOperation: In the season finale, Alvis is framed for an attack on Leith committed by his sect. [[spoiler:In fact, it was arranged by the Company to give them an excuse not to honor their immigration contract.]]

* FantasticRankSystem: Female members of the Nine use the title "Seyah" between their first and last names while males use "Seyoh", such as Delle Seyah Kendry and [[spoiler:Illenore Seyah Simms]], and are addressed as "Seyah[=/=]Seyoh [FAMILY NAME]".

* FauxAffablyEvil: Jelco. He has perfect Qreshi manners, and perfect aim as he casually shoots [[spoiler: Hills]] in the head.

* FirstEpisodeSpoiler: If you've seen any of the promotional materials, it won't be a surprise that in the first episode [[spoiler: the warrant that Johnny gets is for his brother...who will go on to be part of their team]].

** When the crew tries to salvage a derelict military ship, the ship's AI tries to interrogate them about something called "Red 17". They assume the glitchy AI is just assigning meaning to nothing, but then [[spoiler:Turin asks D'avin the same question]].
** In the pilot, Dutch gets out of a major breach of RAC protocol without so much as a slap on the wrist, implicitly thanks to [[spoiler:Khlyen pulling some strings]]. It's later shown that [[spoiler:he either secretly runs the RAC or is at the very least part of its highest echelons, so high up in fact that even Turin doesn't know anything about him]].

** In "Escape Velocity" Seyah Kendry jokes about shiving a member of Land Hyponia, as she does not like them. Fast forward to the next season and in "Full Metal Monk" [[spoiler:Arune Hyponia has become the leader of the family and is Pawter's main ally among the Nine to go after Land Kendry.]]

* GettingSmiliesPaintedOnYourSoul: [[spoiler:The wall around Old Town has the ability to alter the brain chemistry of anyone inside, rendering them docile.]]
* GoneHorriblyRight: Delle Seyah Kendry says this of the Westerly immigration contract. At the time, promising to allow seventh generation residents to immigrate as long as they took Company jobs seemed like a good way to pacify them. The Nine never expected such a large number to actually stick it out long enough to qualify. [[spoiler:So they decide to renege on the deal through a FalseFlagOperation that frames the rebels for an attack on Leith, then bomb Old Town.]]
* TheGreatWall: In season 2, the Company has installed a high-tech forcefield wall surrounding Old Town, which is meant to break their spirits so they won't think of acting against the Company every again. [[spoiler:Pawter discovers that the Company actually plans to wall off every city in Westerly, suggesting this is actually a much more permanent arrangement.]]
* HatePlague: [[spoiler:The wall around Old Town is supposed to calm people, but it can be reconfigured to drive them to rage instead. Pawter uses this to incite the town to throw themselves at the wall despite the fact that it will kill them, overloading the wall and collapsing it.]]

* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: Happens to [[spoiler:Turin]] courtesy of Khlyen, who did it to protect Dutch. It surprisingly doesn't kill him.

* IncrediblyLamePun: Seyah Kendry gets one when [[spoiler: Johnny calls her out for using the genetic bomb.]]

** The situation D'Avin finds himself in at the beginning of the show. Poor passengers pay their fare on starship ''Arcturus'' by indentured service until they pay off their debt and are left on the port of their choice. Said service takes the form of [[BloodSport fighting for the viewing pleasure of an audience]] and, as a bonus, the fights are often rigged so that entertaining fighters are kept on for much longer to entertain those wealthy enough to buy a ticket.

** In the season finale, Pree grabs a bottle of 60 year old hokk when [[spoiler:Old Town and his bar are about to be destroyed]].
** Likewise, Hills raids Pree's mostly-empty bar for a drink as [[spoiler:the bombers lay waste to the town]].

* IntimateHealing: [[spoiler: Sabine was a Level 6 and sex with D'avin purged enough of the green plasma from her system to temporarily undo the conditioning that blocks her emotions.]]

* IronicEcho: In episode 3, [[spoiler: N'oa's husband]] just laughs and says "she should have made better choices" when Johnny tells him how much trouble [[spoiler: N'oa]] will be in if he doesn't get home immediately. When Johnny takes the guy in for illegal immigration at the end of the episode, he tells him "you should have made better choices".
* ItCanThink: In the second season finale Khlyen reveals that [[spoiler:the Plasma has a degree of sapience and it's controlling the Sixes.]]

* {{Jerkass}}: Fancy sees his contribution to the RAC as being the "designated asshole." That is, he's the guy who says and does the things that nobody likes but everybody knows are necessary. [[spoiler:Like when he does a MercyKill on legendary RAC agent Big Joe, whom all the other killjoys look up to and revere, so that his death-by-level-5-warrant will be quick and tidy.]]

* LikeBrotherAndSister: John says Dutch is like this to him, so that after she and D'Avin have sex, it's as if his brother is doing it [[BrotherSisterIncest with his sister]].
* LockedRoomMystery: In 'Necropolis Now', Dutch and D'Avin are stuck in an elevator with members of the Nine families, who are being killed off one at a time. The trope is [[spoiler: subverted, when it turns out the killer wasn't in the elevator with them at all, but was killing them from afar with robotech they had all swallowed earlier in the episode]].

* MadnessMantra: D'avin repeatedly says "I'm a good soldier" when [[spoiler:Dr. Jager reactivates his kill mode]].

* MeaningfulName: "Quad" means "four," and the Quad System consists of the planet Qresh and its three moons Arkyn, Leith, and Westerley. Originally all four were habitable, but overmining rendered Arkyn incapable of supporting life ([[spoiler:which is actually a coverup]]) and Westerley just barely so. Qresh itself is also slowly recovering from some as-yet unspecified ecological disaster that left half its landmass submerged.

* MindRape: The biggest hurdle to [[spoiler:turn a person into a Level 6]] is not finding a candidate that can survive the physical aspects of the procedure, it's the fact that [[spoiler:the severing of the individual's emotions and everything else that makes them human]] in the process is so traumatic that it utterly destroys most people's minds. Those who are already antisocial or no longer have any family or friends are more likely to survive.

* MysteriousPast: Dutch has one that involves being trained in torture and assassination when she was just a child. D'Avin deduces she has one because of her level of training and is the main reason he doesn't trust her.

* NameMcAdjective: Going hand in hand with his tendency to use BuffySpeak, D'Avin also gets creative with names from time to time. Highlights include Baroness von Batshit (Delle Seyah) and Chest Wound McGee (John).

* NonIndicativeName: As of season 2, [[spoiler:the Nine have been reduced to Three as a result of Seyah Kedry's coup, but they're still collectively referred to as "the Nine".]]

* OhCrap: At the end of the pilot episode, when Dutch [[spoiler: picks up the red box.]]
* OhMyGods: "Thank the Trees" is a popular oath among Qreshi nobility. Trees seem to have some kind of sacred significance to people in the Quad: the blessings Alvis bestows references trees and mother roots.[[spoiler: Tree symbolism is also prevalent among the Sixes, as their internal police is called Black Root.]]

* PregnantBadass: In episode 4, the heavily pregnant surrogate Constance leads the charge against the assassins with a rifle and kicks copious amounts of ass. Justified in that she's just had an adrenaline injection, before which she was fragile enough to be seen as needing bedrest - though even in that state, she was badass enough to [[spoiler: stab someone trying to hold her hostage.]]

** Potentially any Level 6, as the Plasma halts their aging at the point of the procedure. Specific examples are [[spoiler:Sabine, who is actually 89 and Khlyen, who is several hundred years old.]]

** Red 17 is [[spoiler:Level 6 of the RAC, situated on the moon Arkyn. RAC agents of sufficient skill are forcibly taken, genetically modified, and turned into {{Super Soldier}}s for an unknown purpose. D'avin and Fancy are taken there, with Fancy already undergoing treatment and D'avin soon to join him.]]
** When John first met Dutch, he broke into Lucy and was shot by Dutch while wearing a blood-soaked wedding dress. It seems like a weird NoodleIncident at first, until [[spoiler:we learn that Khlyen "lost" Dutch six years ago when he killed her husband.]]

* RunningGag: Everyone, D'Avin especially, loves to make comments about Turin's hair.

* ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections: Dutch gets out of violating the RAC oath with no consequences, a fact that surprises even her. [[spoiler:It's implied Khlyen influenced the council.]]

* ShaggyDogStory: Dutch and D'Avin spend all of 'Reckoning Ball' trying to [[spoiler: implant a false memory into Kitaan, an imprisoned Hullen, and then using her connection to the green plasma in order to lure Aneela into a trap. Kitaan figures out what is going on, escapes, and then is able to gain access to some plasma and reveal the truth before Dutch can stop her]], rendering the entire plot-line pointless.
* ShellShockedVeteran: D’Avin has constant and terrible nightmares about his time in the military. He also has flashbacks to combat, hair-trigger violent tendencies and other obvious symptoms of PTSD. He has to buy off his doctor to get a passing psych evaluation to join the RAC, although she insists on treating him too.

* StopOrIShootMyself: Dutch pulls this on [[spoiler:Khlyen]], betting he [[spoiler:cares enough about her safety that he'll answer her questions if it means saving her life. She turns out to be right]].
* SubspaceAnsible: It is implied that there is one of these installed in the upper levels of the RAC Headquarters, since the organization's interstellar affairs and communications are run from there. However, season 2 explains that as far as most people in the J are concerned, this technology does not exist, [[spoiler:so only Khlyen and his group have access to it through the Plasma, being able to send information from one end of the galaxy to the other and have real time mind melds across interstellar distances.]]

* ThrowTheDogABone: As much as the Company exploits and abuses the Westerlyns, if a family works for them hard and stays out of trouble, the 7th generation will be allowed to emigrate to Leith permanently and be given land there. [[spoiler: Subverted as the Company had no idea any would actually stick it out and break their contract.]]

** In another episode, she and John are dosed with Truth Jakk, which causes them to spout all of the things that they resent about one another. Given that [[spoiler: he'd just discovered that she'd been blocking him from gaining his Level 5 clearance and she was still getting over him running out on the team for three months]], the conversation got very personal very quickly.
* TwoLinesNoWaiting: Season 2 divides screentime between Dutch and D'Avin's hunt for Kyhlen and the other Sixes, and John and Pawter's mission to shut down the wall surrounding Old Town.
** Likewise, the first few episodes of season 3 splits time between Dutch and D'Avin's fight against the Hullen, and John's encounter with the Hack-mods while searching for Clara.

* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: D'avin basically kickstarted the entire plot in his search for an explanation about his lost memories. [[spoiler:Searching for the doctor responsible got a kill warrant issued on him, John took it to protect D'avin, and Khlyen assumed Dutch was ready to be recruited because John took the warrant under her name (he doesn't have the clearance).]]

* WeirdTradeUnion: The RAC is a guild of bounty hunters, which doubles as MurderInc when a kill warrant is issued. Space salvage-and-demolition jobs apparently also falls under their mandate, though there are "ship-pickers" who will clean out derelict vessels if they find them first. [[spoiler:It's implied to have a much more sinister purpose under Khlyen, and the bounty hunter operation is a front/recruiting arm.]]

** The first season finale, "Escape Velocity". [[spoiler:Old Town is bombed by the Company under the pretense of quelling revolutionaries, with the added bonus that they don't have to honor their immigration contract. D'avin is kidnapped by Khlyen and taken to Arkyn to be forcibly inducted into Level 6, a SuperSoldier program under the codename Red 17, the headquarters of which also houses a scaled up version of the super advanced computer Khlyen has in his office at the RAC, at least a kilometer in diameter. Finally, Delle Seyah Kendry engineers a coup on Qresh, killing off all but a few families allied with her.]]
** The second season premiere. The crew are trying to regain their bearings after the previous season's finale. [[spoiler:The nature of Level 6 RAC agents is revealed: they are bioaugmented to be able to heal from wounds that would be fatal to anybody else. There is also a significant memory imprinting process. The reason for D'Avin's abduction is revealed: Khlyen is running his own gambit within the RAC and was trying to create a Level 6 agent loyal only to him who can keep tabs on Dutch. But, for whatever reason, D'Avin is immune to the bioaugmentation process. Then, it turns out that there is an even higher command structure within the RAC that most agents aren't even aware of.]] Also, following the events of the previous season, Old Town has been locked away from the rest of the Quad with the expectation that the people trapped within will destroy themselves.
* WhamShot: "I Love Lucy" ends with [[spoiler: Sabine lying seemingly dead on the floor oozing the green plasma after having sex with D'avin. The following episode confirms that she is a Level 6 and sex with D'avin's caused a bad reaction with the Plasma so strong it put her in a coma.]]

** By the end of the first season, the fate of every character is known, except for [[spoiler:Turin, who was last seen being dragged away by Khlyen, severely injured but still alive]], who eventually turns up again in season 2, [[spoiler: almost fully recovered from the injuries]].
** By the end of the second season, [[spoiler:Seyah Kendry has been shot in the stomach and left to bleed to death in an Old Town alley, but her ultimate fate is left unclear.]]

* WhyDontYouJustShootHim: {{Played with}}. Johnny jumps through amazing hoops to try to resolve a hostage situation in Pree's bar peacefully. In the end, [[spoiler: he fails to placate the hostage-takers and winds up just shooting them with a bolt gun]], the implication being he could have just done that all along but didn't want anybody to die. He's unhappy with the resolution, to say the least.

* YourCheatingHeart: As it turns out, [[spoiler: N'oa's husband Vince]] has a secret girlfriend on Leith who has no idea he's actually married.

** D'Avin can control the green plasma inside of Sixes and cause their eyeballs (and presumably brains) to explode. Unfortunately, he discovers this while being strangled by a Six whose [[{{Squick}} eyeballs then explode all over his face]].

* PoorCommunicationKills: A literal example in "Attack the Rack." In a pitched fight, [[spoiler: Dutch fights Baynon, who she's convinced is a Hullen thanks to her high ranking and the fact she's been against the Killjoys all this time. Dutch stabs Baynon and when the woman staggers from it, scoffs "drop the act, we know it heals." At which point, she sees the wound ''isn't'' healing. Too late, Dutch realizes Baynon is human and doesn't know a thing about the Hullens. She only took the job because she wanted to know why agents were going AWOL and assumed Dutch was somehow involved and that's why she was hostile. Both women realize they were too busy being suspicious of each other to realize they were on the same side, something Hullen lampshades before she dies.]]

* PoorCommunicationKills: A literal example in "Attack the Rack." In a pitched fight, [[spoiler: Dutch fights Baynon, who she's convinced is a Hullen thanks to her high ranking and the fact she's been against the Killjoys all this time. Dutch stabs Baynon and when the woman staggers from it, scoffs "drop the act, we know it heals." At which point, she sees the wound ''isn't'' healing. Too late, Dutch realizes Baynon doesn't know a thing about the Hullens. She only took the job because she wanted to know why agents were going AWOL and assumed Dutch was somehow involved and that's why she was hostile. Both women realize they were too busy being suspicious of each other to realize the truth, something Hullen admits before she dies.]]

* ModestyBedsheet: D'avin and Sabine's sex scene is a particularly {{egregious}} example, with her pulling up a sheet over her breasts as she falls back ''while hemorrhaging green plasma'', whereas previously the camera was simply panned below to conceal them.

* PregnantBadass: In episode 4, the heavily pregnant surrogate Constance leads the charge against the assassins with a rifle and kicks copious amounts of ass.

* ALongTimeAgoInAGalaxyFarFarAway: Even though all the characters are humans, no mention is ever made about Earth or if it even exists in the setting. [[http://www.syfy.com/blog/welcome-to-the-world-of-killjoys Supplemental materials]] explain that the local star cluster is known as "The J" and contains tons of inhabited planets and moons, but not in which galaxy it is located or when the story takes place. Furthermore, no reference is ever made to Terran culture, religion or history.

It was renewed for a second 10-episode season, which aired from July 1, 2016 to September 2, 2016. It has since been renewed for a third season.