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1[[quoteright:325:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/b83639747a98b428a19322349687dbf4.jpg]]
2
3''Killjoys'' is a Canadian-American science fiction series; a co-production between Creator/SpaceChannel in Canada and Creator/{{Syfy}} in the U.S. It ran for five seasons from 2015 to 2019 and starred Creator/HannahJohnKamen, Creator/AaronAshmore, and Creator/LukeMacfarlane.
4
5The series takes place in a distant planetary system known as the Quad, ruled over by the morally ambiguous [[MegaCorp Company]] and kept peaceful (mostly) by Reclamation Agents or "Killjoys" - bounty hunters that track down and transport wanted items and individuals at the behest of various warrants. One such team of Killjoys consists of John Jaqobis (Ashmore) and Dutch (John-Kamen). The two are thrown for a loop when John's long-lost brother D'avin (Macfarlane) shows up with a bounty on his head, and through several incidents manages to be inducted into their team. Though they try to play by the rules and keep their heads down as they go after their warrants, the dark pasts of all three begin to catch up with them.
6
7'''All spoilers prior to Season Four are unmarked.'''
8----
9!! This series provides examples of the following:
10
11[[foldercontrol]]
12
13[[folder:A-C]]
14* AbortedArc: “Johnny Be Good” has Jelco reveal that he knows where to find other green plasma sources in the Quad, and he makes a deal to give Dutch this information in exchange for her sparing his life. He disappears after Fancy attacks him on Lucy offscreen[[note]]a version of this scene had Fancy kill him instead[[/note]] and is not mentioned at all in the following episode, which involves finding and poisoning Arkyn’s parent source of plasma. Neither Jelco nor Dutch mention this when they (albeit briefly) cross paths in “Heist, Heist Baby” a season later, and Jelco vanishes from the plot once again.
15* ActionGirl:
16** The pilot episode solidly establishes Dutch as the deadliest and most badass member of the crew, as well as the boss of the team. Conversely, she often pretends to be a FauxActionGirl to get the drop on her targets.
17** Country girls from Leith learn how to fire a rifle before they learn how to thresh.
18* AerithAndBob: D'avin and John, the Jaqobis brothers. Also, Khlyen and Dutch.
19* AirVentPassageway:
20** Dutch suggests doing this to infiltrate The RAC in "Enemy Khlyen", but John points out that it would just expose her to enough radiation to melt her face off.
21** Zeph is using them to get food at the start of "Johnny Dangerously."
22* TheAlcatraz: In Season 5 Dutch, Johnny and D'avin are put into a supermax prison by [[spoiler:the Lady]]. Escape is made even more difficult as it's a space station, rather than on a planet or moon.
23* 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. It is revealed in the first season finale that the terraforming of Arkyn was actually successful. The moon does have a breathable atmosphere.
24* AllThereInTheManual: The show's official website has [[http://www.syfy.com/blog/welcome-to-the-world-of-killjoys a page]] that spells out many of the specifics about the setting of the show.
25* AlternateUniverse: Season 5 opens in one [[spoiler:later revealed to be the Lady dousing everyone with FakeMemories]].
26* AlternativeCalendar: Season 3 takes place in the year 1062. It's unclear when the first two seasons are set, or what the starting point for the J's calendar was.
27* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: John has a bit of an inferiority complex towards his brother D'avin. It's exacerbated when D'avin gets fast-tracked to Level 4 when joining the RAC, one rank above John.
28* AmbiguousSituation:
29** How Turin managed to recover from the stab wound inflicted by Khlyen is unclear, only that he recovered normally and isn't in on the conspiracy.
30** It's not explained what happened to Jelco when he was in Fancy's custody at the end of the second season, only that Fancy let him go after "having some fun" with him. It's also unclear how involved he was with the conspiracy; was his claim that he and the other Company personnel [[JustFollowingOrders were just middlemen]] true, or did he know more than he was letting on?
31* AmputationStopsSpread: When her sister's hand is infected by a virus which causes anything it touches to freeze, Pawter solves the problem by grabbing a nearby decorative sword and chopping off her hand.
32* ArtisticLicenseBiology: Pretty much everything in the show that's connected to biochemistry / genetics / microbiology is utter nonsense.
33** The nanobots and the green plasma can instantly heal injuries, without any indication of the required additional energy / nutrient intake. Plus, it's biochemically impossible for human cells to reproduce and grow that fast, even if they could be artificially stimulated to do so.
34** "Meet the Parents" has a virus that almost instantly freezes people solid, starting at the point of exposure. Aside from the fact that the freezing thing makes no sense at all in terms of thermodynamics, even the most alien or specially designed viruses are defined by their need to use human cells' metabolism to reproduce in large numbers before they have any noticeable effect on the human body. The symptom-less incubation for even the most deadly viral diseases is at least half a day, not seconds or minutes. The plot point would have made more sense if it was some sort of toxin or nanobot cloud.
35** Dutch is Aneela's "chiral" mirror image even on a molecular level, with her DNA helix apparently turning the other way around and the two strands being switched. Not only is this chemically impossible no matter the order of ATCG nucleotides, but only one of the strands is "read out" by the human cells. The genetic code that translates the "ATCG" chain of DNA into the chain of amino acids in a protein is fixed for all life and doesn't mirror, and even one amino acid switch can alter the resulting protein's shape and chemical properties. This means Dutch's genome would not only be completely different from Aneela's, but it wouldn't be viable for a living organism at all, since all the genes necessary for basic biochemistry would be wrong.
36** 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 fails to separate the cells from the suspension medium in some AppliedPhlebotinum. 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 thousands of g, her blood cells should have clotted at the bottom of her heart and all her blood vessels, killing her through heart attack / brain embolism. 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 achievable 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]]
37** According to Aneela, the green plasma operates on a subatomic frequency akin to radio waves. Zeph responds that radio waves don't exist on a subatomic frequency. Radio waves, like all forms of electromagnetic radiation, are transmitted as photons (which are a subatomic particle).
38* ArtisticLicenseMedicine:
39** Played with for Pawter. She makes questionable medical decisions, but she's also a drug addict who was banished to Westerley by her family in order to cover up the fact that she killed a patient during an operation while she was high. As such, it's unclear whether her actions are supposed to be considered reasonable in-universe, or if she's just a BackAlleyDoctor.
40** 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.
41** Pawter also decides to have sex with D'avin, which is prohibited under medical ethics and has been going back thousands of years, to Hippocrates. Even D'avin points out that her actions are pretty dang unethical.
42* ArtisticLicensePhysics:
43** 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. This might be justified, as it's not physically impossible to shield against an EMP attack via Farraday 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.
44** The planet and moons in the Quad all have very different sizes, and yet all of them have the same gravity. Realistically, even with terraforming, either the planet would have far too high gravity for humans to survive, or the moons shouldn't even be able to hold any atmosphere or water they imported there during the terraforming process. While the setting clearly has artificial gravity on the ships, it's never established how they managed to increase the gravity on the moons' surfaces (if they buried a massive infrastructure system of "gravity generators" of some sort, they should already be finished with mining the ground as well).
45** The planet and moons are also almost [[SingleBiomePlanet Single Biome Planets]]. For example, Leith is covered in lush vegetation and apparently (sub)tropical temperatures all over except for a small area at the poles that's covered in snow and pine forests, despite the fact that there are no major bodies of water able to be seen from space. 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 this ''might'' be plausible if there's almost no carbon dioxide in the atmosphere due to a lack of volcanism or much inhabitation by people. It is established that plant life is not viable there for some reason, so the atmosphere and oxygen must be completely imported.
46* AsteroidThicket: The moon Arkyn is surrounded by a ring of asteroids so dense it can mask the presence of a derelict ship for ''years''.
47* AstralProjection:
48** In "Heart-Shaped Box," Sabine and D'avin connect through the green plasma to find other Level Six agents operating in Old Town. While connected, their consciousnesses are projected to a wintry forest on Leith, which Khlyen placed one of his safe houses in.
49** In "The Lion, the Witch and the Warlord," with help from Zeph, a high electrical charge and some hallucinogenics, D'avin is able to project his consciousness aboard Aneela's ship to prove that Delle Seyah is still alive. Aneela is able to see his astral form, while no one else on the ship can.
50* AteHisGun: One of the prison escapees in "Wild, Wild Westerley" chooses to go out this way rather than return and be tortured into giving the others up.
51* BabyFactory: There is an entire cult of Leithian girls who devote their entire lives to serve as surrogate mothers for the richest members of the Nine Families of Qresh. For the Qreshi they are simply a means to avoid the inconvenience of pregnancy.
52* BadBadActing: In "Reckoning Ball", D'avin and Dutch's attempt to implant a false memory in an imprisoned Hullen 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.
53* BadBoss: Khlyen. He shoots people, stabs them, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and screams at them.]]
54* BarBrawl: A regular occurrence at the end of every harvest season, when the seasonal workers return from Leith to Westerley flush with cash, pent up anger and a desire to party. Pree's not-entirely-free drinks to Dutch and company are compensated for by them being unofficial bouncers at his bar when in port during that time.
55* TheBartender: Pree runs the bar in Westerley where the crew spends most of their down time. Curiously enough, he also fills the role of MissKitty, since he owns the establishment and runs the prostitutes.
56* BatmanGambit: The end of the first season reveals that Khlyen set one up. He trained Dutch as an assassin, then allowed her to escape and followed her to the Quad, where he got into the RAC's command. He's been keeping Dutch's RAC records clean, waiting until she took a Level 5 warrant to prove she's ready to kill again. Only then would 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.
57* BavarianFireDrill: John's favorite method of infiltration is to show up at a place he's not supposed to be and fast talk his way in, often to "fix" a mechanical issue that he actually caused. If that fails, he'll gas or tase the guard instead.
58* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: Dutch always comes out of fights with her hair, makeup, and clothes intact. There are a few exceptions -- her fight with D'avin in 'Kiss, Kiss, Bye Bye' left her with some heavy bruising on her face -- but they are rare. The Jaqobis brothers are also offenders, as they frequently take blows to the face that leave little more than a minor cut that disappears shortly after. John's beating near the end of Season 2 is an exception.
59* BigCreepyCrawlies: "Shaft" has cat-sized centipedes, called mossipedes, which hunt humans and can release a toxin that causes hallucinations. They also contain the same green plasma used in the Red 17 SuperSoldier program, which causes them to be repulsed by D'avin.
60* BigDamnHeroes: A common occurance, with the members of Team Awesome Force taking turns playing this role in various episodes.
61** John ends up playing this role more often than most would expect, since bad guys tend to underestimate him as the team tech guy until he suddenly appears out of nowhere to wreck their shit. It is always immensely satisfying.
62* BigDamnKiss: "I Love Lucy" has ''three'' examples. John kisses Lucy (in a {{fembot}}), Dutch kisses Alvis and D'avin kisses Sabine. The latter two also have sex.
63* BioAugmentation: Many people are seen possessing various enhancements. There are laws in place that are intended to prevent people from augmenting themselves too much.
64** Clara, a young woman Dutch comes across, was forcibly augmented until 26% of her body was cybernetic, rendering her inhuman in the eyes of the law. Among her augmentations are a heavy-duty ArmCannon and a brain block preventing her from attacking the people who enslaved her.
65** The Red 17 project is focused on creating Level 6 RAC agents. Their blood is replaced with a green plasma that gives them an enhanced {{healing factor}}, augments their strength, and prevents them from feeling pain or physically aging.
66* BlackAndWhiteMorality: Jelco seems to have this view, despite the fact that he works for the morally ambiguous Company. He casually dismisses the Killjoys' claims of neutrality, murders Hills for going against Company orders, and uses the Westerlyn rebellion as justification for making all of Old Town suffer so they'll sing the Company's praises.
67* BodyHorror: The DeadlyGas in "Wild, Wild Westerly" completely desiccates the body if inhaled, killing the victim in under a minute. The only way to neutralize the gas is to drown the victim and hope you can revive them after the fact.
68* BorrowedBiometricBypass:
69** In "One Blood," Pawter uses the breath of a high-ranking Company official to unlock his datapad.
70** In order to access a voice-locked computer controlled by Khlyen, John copies his voice by having Dutch get him to speak over an open comm.
71** Jelco's computer is controlled by a DNA lock. When Pawter needs access to it, he provides an opportunity by asking her to help with his heart condition. A little blood plus some sedative to knock him out provides her with everything she needs.
72** In a rare consensual version of this, Delle Seyah Kendry kisses Dutch so she can blow some air into her mouth, in order to access a DNA scanner that analyzes breath. Dutch needed access to restore life support and Kendry could barely move, hence why she didn't just do it herself, though the chance to kiss Dutch likely factored into that decision.
73* 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.
74* BreadEggsBreadedEggs: In "How to Kill Friends and Influence People":
75-->'''Johnny:''' This is crazy. This is bullshit. This is crazy bullshit!
76* BuffySpeak: D'avin has a tendency to pepper his speech with extremely technical terms like explode-y, hinky, and war-crime-y.
77** In "Attack the Rack", John is tortured with a device that will cause him to slowly lose memories and words, leading to this exchange with Dutch after she rescues him.
78--> '''John''': "Hells, we share fifty percent of the same genetic materials as that... soft, yellow thing with the peel."
79--> '''Dutch''': "What?"
80--> '''John''': "Did I mention that my brain has been set to scramble for the past hour?"
81* BulletproofVest: One of these saves John's life when Dutch shoots him -- ''again'' -- in "The Wolf You Feed". Since she was stuck reliving a flashback to the day they met, he knew she was likely going to shoot him and planned accordingly.
82** Body armor also saves D'avin's life when [[spoiler: John]] shoots him in the back at point blank range, although it clearly hurt a lot and appeared to briefly knock him out.
83* ByNoIMeanYes: In "Full Metal Monk", Dutch insists she would never make D'avin choose between her and John... except she has to in this instance.
84* CallARabbitASmeerp: Money is called "joy" and prostitutes are called "sexers."
85* CampGay: Pree, the proprietor/bartender at our heroes favorite bar on Westerley.
86* CasualInterplanetaryTravel: All the action on the show takes place in the neighborhood of a single inhabitable planet and its three inhabitable moons. The crew has no problem moving between them extremely fast.
87* CasualInterstellarTravel:
88** 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. However, given that he's working off his passage in the ring, it's clearly expensive and takes a long time.
89** In the second season Khlyen and Fancy Lee travel to Telen (the Jaqobis' home-world, which 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.
90** The third season shows an example of instantaneous interplanetary travel through what's called alternatively called a "bounce" and a "boost". The characters react as if it's not unusual.
91* CategoryTraitor: Westerlyns who work for the Company's security forces are particularly hated by the rest of the Westerlyns.
92* TheChurch: The Scarbacks are a monastic order whose monks seek enlightenment through pain. They get their name from verses of scripture that they carve into their backs.
93* CombatPragmatist: The main trio.
94** Dutch was trained to be able to kill anyone with anything, and will not hesitate to fight dirty if necessary to win. Since she's usually going up against men who are larger and stronger than her, it's necessary and justified.
95** D'avin is not afraid to fight dirty when necessary. John calls him out for using a GroinAttack on his own brother in the first episode.
96** John has the least combat training on the team and his hand to hand fights tend to be more brawls than elegantly choreographed beat downs. He's aware of his lack of skill, and so he usually tries to end things quickly with an ImprovisedWeapon and a BoomHeadshot.
97* CompanyTown: On a truly gigantic scale, since they are in effect Company ''moons''.
98* ContinuityNod:
99** In "Johnny Be Good," D'avin references the fact that he tried to kill Dutch.
100** This exchange between John, D'avin and Jelco in "Heist, Heist Baby" references the previous season.
101--> '''Jelco''': If anything, I owe you two a thank you.
102--> '''D'avin''': For what, taking you hostage?
103--> '''John''': Getting you fired?
104--> '''D'avin''': Exploding your house?
105--> '''John''': I forgot about that one, that's a good one.
106* ConversationCasualty: In "Wild, Wild Westerley," Jelco and Hills discuss the situation in Old Town and the latter's insubordination. When Hills asserts that [[ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight he did the right thing]] by warning the people about the bombing, Jelco casually shoots him in the head without a change in tone.
107-->'''Hills:''' I saved people. Doing that saved me.
108-->'''Jelco:''' And where are your saviors now? ''(shoots him)''
109* CoolShip:
110** The crew's ship, the ''Lucy''. On top of being an awesome little cruiser, it has its own sentient A.I.
111** Romwell has a ship made from a hollowed-out asteroid. John can barely contain his glee upon seeing it.
112* TheCoup: Seyah Kendry pulls off one of these in the episode "Escape Velocity", killing all but three of the Nine Families and assuming control of Qresh.
113* CruelAndUnusualDeath: The Company occasionally executes prisoners by staking them out in acid rain storms and letting nature do the work for them.
114* CuttingTheKnot: When John locks down Lucy with a device meant to help Dutch and D'avin work through their trust issues, 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 finally just smash the device, restoring Lucy.
115[[/folder]]
116
117[[folder:D-H]]
118* DeadlyGas: One is released to kill the prisoners during a breakout from a corporate prison, but falls into the hands of one escapee instead. Finally it winds up with Scarback priest Alvis, who nearly releases it into the air duct to Spring Hill before he has a change of heart and reverses the flow, which almost kills him.
119* DeadpanSnarker: Dutch, John, and D'avin all snark, but Lucy, the ship's AI, takes the cake.
120* DecadentCourt: It can be inferred that Dutch's homeworld had one of these, since the girls of the RoyalHarem are [[TykeBomb trained since infancy on how to kill people]].
121* DeepCoverAgent: Sabine is really a Level Six agent, and one of several planted in Old Town. Her orders are to infiltrate the crew, earn their trust and then kill them once she’s used them to track down Khlyen, but she has a HeelFaceTurn and helps them track down more deep cover agents. Season 3 also mentions that the Hullen maintain training camps throughout the galaxy, where they are taught how to blend in among humans.
122* DeliberateInjuryGambit: In "A Glitch in the System", Dutch and D'avin are infected by nanites designed to torture them for information by destroying parts of their body as coercion, then repair them once they've obtained the truth. However, they're also programmed to repair damage to prisoners and will default to this state if an injury not caused by coercion mode is detected, as you can't torture the dead. Dutch exploits this by jumping out the airlock to Lucy, knowing the nanites will repair the damage from her unprotected jump. John, meanwhile, shoots D'avin in the leg so the nanites will focus on repairing him.
123* DoNotCallMePaul: Dutch doesn't usually answer to her birth name, Yalena, or the nickname 'Yala'. It's suggested she may only object to Khlyen using it, as she seems to be fine with Johnny calling her Yalena or D'avin and Aneela calling her Yala.
124* DopeSlap: Dutch has a tendency to smack John between the eyes whenever he's being ridiculous. Bellus does the same thing to Dutch in the first episode after learning that she has D'avin hiding out on her ship instead of killing him like she was supposed to.
125* DoubleStandardRapeMaleOnMale: In "The Lion, the Witch and the Warlord", Pree is captured by his old mercenary gang and their leader (his ex-lover). They plan to execute him for running away from the gang / the ex, and the last we see of him in one late scene is him surrounded by drawn guns and asking to be forgiven for leaving. Then he shows up to rescue Dutch and Johnny, explaining that the mercenaries decided not to kill him after all, and in return, he "had to put out. A lot." This implies the previous scene ended in a gang bang - but, even though Pree and the leader clearly still have feelings for each other and even if Pree maybe wouldn't mind having sex with the rest of the mercenaries under normal circumstances, it counts as a double standard because it wouldn't have gotten past the radar with a woman.
126* DugTooDeep: Two separate examples:
127** A group of miners eventually dig straight into the habitat of man-eating cat-sized centipedes.
128** Khlyen refers to his discovery of the Green Plasma on Arkyn as a case of digging too far and awakening an ancient evil.
129* EarlyBirdCameo: Khlyen appears and breaks a man's neck early in the pilot. It's made clear later in the episode that Dutch knows him, but he isn't named or identified for quite a while.
130* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: John and Pree go undercover as a couple and, as part of their con, have an argument about Pree's mother always coming to visit them. When John calls the woman a "big fat raging bitch", an entire room full of violent criminals stop what they're doing to glare at John.
131-->'''Entire room''': Whoa! Whoa! Hey! Whoa!\
132'''Crook''': You don't disrespect your man's mother! What's wrong with you?!?!
133* EvilMentor: Khlyen, if only because he was making Dutch into an assassin through TrainingFromHell.
134* ExplosiveLeash:
135** Jelco fits Pawter with an explosive ankle bracelet while she's at the Spring Hill complex, preventing her from leaving. When he needs her assistance dealing with a heart condition, she sedates him, uses his DNA to unlock it, then fits it to him so she can leave while he can't stop her. He is able to get it removed offscreen, and in "Full Metal Monk" he asks her if she would like it back.
136** Dutch puts one on Sabine as part of keeping her prisoner.
137* 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.
138* FactionMotto: The entirety of The RAC's existence is predicated on one single guiding principle: ''"The warrant is all"''.
139* FalseFlagOperation: In the season finale, Alvis is framed for an attack on Leith committed by his sect. In fact, it was arranged by the Company to give them an excuse not to honor their immigration contract.
140* {{Fanservice}}: Dutch's clothes during undercover missions qualify, particularly in "Bangarang" and "The Harvest". In an example of [[MrFanservice male fanservice]], D'avin is pretty much a WalkingShirtlessScene.
141* FantasticDrug:
142** The booze of choice in the Quad is something called "hokk," distilled from some sort of berry grown in plantations on Leith.
143** There's also something called "jakk", which seems to grow in giant pods (almost like massive pea pods) that hang from trees. It's extremely illegal, and any known "grows" are stamped out immediately with extremely toxic deforestation agent. We later learn that jakk is a powerful stimulant with extreme withdrawal symptoms and is 100% addictive from the first try.
144* FantasticRacism:
145** The people from Qresh look down on the Leithians, who in turn despise the Westerlyns.
146** Illegally modified cyborgs hate normal humans, calling them "basics". A bar full of them is ready to lynch John for being normal until he agrees to get an implant.
147* FantasticRankSystem: Female members of the Nine use the title "Seyah" between their first and last names while males use "Seyoh", and are addressed as "Seyah[=/=]Seyoh [FAMILY NAME]".
148* FantasticSlurs:
149** Being called a "Wester-slag" by the guy whose ass she just kicked (as well as ''not'' at least hearing out her offer) is enough for Dutch to identify him as working for one of the Nine Families of Qresh and not a mercenary.
150** Normal humans are called "basics" by cyborgs.
151* FateWorseThanDeath: Dr. Jaeger would rather be shot dead than undergo her own procedure.
152* FauxAffablyEvil: Jelco has perfect Qreshi manners and perfect aim as he casually shoots Hills in the head.
153* {{Fembot}}: Romwell owns three he uses as his bodyguards in "I Love Lucy", one of which John has Lucy hack and take over. John calls them "gynoids".
154* FeudalFuture: Whichever system Dutch is from, it's ruled by a monarchy. Qresh's nine families may technically be corporate, but with their status being related to inherited land ownership they're essentially aristocrats.
155* FirstEpisodeTwist: If you've seen any of the promotional materials, it won't be a surprise that in the first episode the warrant that Johnny gets is for his brother...who will go on to be part of their team.
156* FoodAsBribe: Our heroes have free drinks at Pree's bar... free as in "don't need to spend money". Instead, they break up any brawls that happen.
157* {{Foreshadowing}}:
158** In the episode "Vessel", Dutch asks one of the assassins attacking the convent if he is a Leithian nationalist. Said Leithian nationalists show up two episodes later.
159** 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 Turin asks D'avin the same question.
160*** In the same episode with the military spaceship, on the RoomFullOfCrazy assembled by the guard in the infirmary, there is the term "AKKIN" scrawled between a bunch of proper words like "LIES" and "FAIL". Apparently, at least one person (possibly the captain) on that torture blacksite ship did know a bit more about what they were supposed to interrogate their prisoners about, but that the guard who heard that confession wasn't from the Quad and thus didn't know how to spell "Arkyn".
161** 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 the RAC's highest echelons, so high up in fact that even Turin doesn't know anything about him.
162** In "Kiss Kiss, Bye Bye" Pawter threatens to use her family connections to have a man "staked in the rain" if he ignores her request for a med-evac. The meaning of this threat doesn't become clear until the episode "Come the Rain", where it is shown that one execution method the Company uses is to leave the convicted secured to a stake during an acid rain, slowly melting the person alive.
163** In "Escape Velocity", Seyah Kendry jokes about shiving a member of Land Hyponia because she does not like them. Fast forward to the next season and in "Full Metal Monk" Arune Hyponia has become the leader of the family and is Pawter's main ally among the Nine to go after Land Kendry. He gets killed in the same episode by Jelco, presumably acting on orders from Kendry.
164* FreakyFridayFlip:
165** In "Meet the Parents", D'avin and Khlyen accidentally swap minds thanks to Khlyen using the green plasma to access D'avin's brain. Dutch uses a massive electrical charge to jumpstart the switch, returning them to their proper bodies.
166** In "The Kids Are Alright," [[spoiler:Dutch]] intentionally swaps minds with [[spoiler:Aneela]] using the plasma.
167* FunWithAcronyms: The '''R'''eclamation '''A'''pprehension '''C'''oalition.
168* GenreShift: ''Killjoys'' began as a show about sci-fi bounty hunters chasing down targets before morphing into a saga about what it means to be human and a desperate war for humanity's survival.
169* GettingSmiliesPaintedOnYourSoul: The wall around Old Town has the ability to alter the brain chemistry of anyone inside, rendering them docile.
170* 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. So they decide to renege on the deal through a FalseFlagOperation that frames the rebels for an attack on Leith, then bomb Old Town.
171* TheGreatWall: In season 2, the Company has installed a high-tech force-field wall surrounding Old Town, which is meant to break their spirits so they won't think of acting against the Company ever again. Pawter discovers that the Company actually plans to wall off every city in Westerly, suggesting this is actually a much more permanent arrangement.
172* HatePlague: 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.
173* HealingFactor: The green plasma gives people one. Romwell also has one with nanites, which also keep him from aging.
174* HeroicSacrifice:
175** Weymer Simms triggers the explosive to destroy the virus which is killing his family, dying in the process. He was already infected himself.
176** Khlyen infects himself with a toxin that poisons the source of the green plasma to stop the Sixes in the Quad, dying in the process.
177** [[spoiler:Pip]] sacrifices himself to trigger the RAC's self-destruct sequence.
178* HomingProjectile: Fancy Lee's fancy dart launcher projects darts that don't even bother with line-of-sight.
179* HookerWithAHeartOfGold: N'oa, one of the working girls that John patronizes in Westerley, is so nice that John can't help but want to help her when her husband goes missing.
180* HostileTerraforming: In season 5, [[spoiler:the Lady is terraforming Westerley to make a new home for her species. The team has a little under a month to stop it before the entire planet can no longer support human life]].
181* HostileWeather:
182** Westerley is occasionally beset by magneto-active acid rainstorms, a result of all the pollution from strip-mining the planet.
183** The Jacobis' home planet is subject to lethal silica dust storms.
184[[/folder]]
185
186[[folder:I-L]]
187* IdenticalTwinIDTag: Dutch and Aneela dress differently[[note]](Dutch usually wears dark colors, while Aneela wears white or gray)[[/note]], wear different hairstyles[[note]](Aneela wears hers in a long braid, while Dutch starts wearing hers down more frequently in Season 3 and often sports bangs)[[/note]], and drastically different makeup[[note]](Aneela is fond of dark green lipstick)[[/note]]. When Aneela is pretending to be Dutch in the final two episodes of Season 3, she's still sporting black fingernails so that the viewers can tell them apart.
188* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: The majority of episodes have titles taken from movies or other media: for example, [[Film/KissKissBangBang "Kiss Kiss Bye Bye"]], [[Film/EnemyMine "Enemy Khlyen"]], [[Film/LarsAndTheRealGirl "Dutch and the Real Girl"]], [[Film/WildWildWest "Wild, Wild Westerley"]], [[Film/{{Shaft}} "Shaft"]], [[Film/MeetTheParents "Meet the Parents"]], [[Series/ILoveLucy "I Love Lucy"]], [[Music/{{Nirvana}} "Heart-Shaped Box"]], [[Film/FullMetalJacket "Full Metal Monk"]], [[Music/ChuckBerry "Johnny Be Good"]], [[Literature/HowToWinFriendsAndInfluencePeople "How to Kill Friends and Influence People"]], [[Literature/AScannerDarkly "A Skinner, Darkly"]], [[Film/TheHillsHaveEyes "The Hullen Have Eyes"]], [[Literature/TheLionTheWitchAndTheWardrobe "The Lion, the Witch & the Warlord"]], [[Film/AttackTheBlock "Attack the Rack"]], [[Film/ApocalypseNow "Necropolis Now"]], [[Music/VanillaIce "Heist, Heist Baby"]], [[Film/ThePrincessBride "The Warrior Princess Bride"]], [[Film/JohnnyDangerously "Johnny Dangerously"]], [[Film/OBrotherWhereArtThou "O Mother, Where Art Thou?"]]
189* IGaveMyWord: Once a warrant is accepted, a Killjoy is honor-bound to see it through to the end. Failure to do so can result in expulsion or death depending on the type of warrant.
190* IHaveBoobsYouMustObey: Dutch uses a low-cut dress to get what she wants from a male Six by showing her cleavage.
191* InferioritySuperiorityComplex: Jelco turns out to be related to the "lower families" of Qresh, who have lesser status vis-a-vis the Nine. He has Pawter Simms imprisoned in Spring Hill partly because that way she -- a person with high status (even with her jakk addiction forcing her to live on Westerley) -- has to listen to him and do anything he wants to make her do.
192* IWillPunishYourFriendForYourFailure: Khlyen gets Dutch to cooperate by threatening vague reprisal against John.
193* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: Happens to Turin courtesy of Khlyen, who did it to protect Dutch. It surprisingly doesn't kill him.
194* ImpoverishedPatrician: This is one of the two Leithian [[PlanetOfHats hats]]. They are all descendants of some Qreshi fourth or fifth son, sent to Leith when land got scarce on Qresh.
195-->'''Old Joke:''' "What do you get when you scratch a Leithian? - A Qreshi ancestor who's embarrassed to be there."
196* ImprobableAge:
197** "Wild, Wild Westerley" establishes that Pree is 38, which starts to look like a case of this when you consider that he's mentioned having been a warlord (who the Company still considers a terrorist) and a career criminal under separate identities. And that was ''before'' he caught a freighter to Westerley and came to own the Royale.
198** D'avin could also fall under this due to SeriesContinuityError. Early episodes state on multiple occasions that he served for 9 years, implying he enlisted in his twenties; however, in Season 3 he suddenly says he served for 15 years and Season 4 mentions he enlisted at 16.[[note]]In RealLife, the youngest someone can enlist in any active branch of the military — in the US, at least — is 18 (or 17, with parental consent).[[/note]]
199* IncrediblyLamePun: Seyah Kendry gets one when Johnny calls her out for using the genetic bomb.
200-->'''Seyah Kendry:''' Oh, don't be such a ''killjoy''. [beat] Hah! I just got that.
201* IndenturedServitude:
202** 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.
203** Farms on Leith operate this way: workers are prohibited from escaping their farms before their contract's up (unless they give notice and agree to forfeit all pay) and while paid for their work if they stick it out, are booted off the planet as soon as their contract expires.
204* IndustrialGhetto: The Company has turned the entire moon Westerley into one of these, being the system's industrial center, but also impoverished and polluted.
205* INeedAFreakingDrink:
206** In the season finale, Pree grabs a bottle of 60 year old hokk when Old Town and his bar are about to be destroyed.
207** Likewise, Hills raids Pree's mostly-empty bar for a drink as the bombers lay waste to the town.
208* InsistentTerminology: The people who work for the RAC are "Reclamation Agents", not "bounty hunters" or "killjoys", thank you very much. They do call themselves "Killjoys" in private conversations or when they need to identify themselves quickly in the field, though. It takes on additional meaning when you realize that [[CallARabbitASmeerp "joy" is a euphemism for money or getting paid]], thus a "killjoy" is [[PunnyName one who kills for their pay: an assassin or hired killer]]. [[TakeAThirdOption Or killed someone's pay day.]]
209* InstantSedation: Downplayed. In "Shaft", Pawter gives Jelco a sedative while treating his heart condition, and also uses it to subdue his guard. It takes at least a few seconds for the sedative to affect either of them (combined with Pawter nicking a vein in Jelco's heart) and the guard is able to briefly fight Pawter before collapsing.
210* IntimateHealing: 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.
211* IntimatePsychotherapy: Pawter sleeps with D'avin while treating him for PTSD. Pree and eventually D'avin himself both call her on this. Pawter herself freely admits that it's unethical and she's scratching an itch.
212* IronicEcho:
213** In "The Harvest", 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".
214** In "Shaft", Jelco fits Pawter with an explosive ankle bracelet so that she can't leave Spring Hill, and tells her if she goes too far outside the compound's perimeters, "pretty princess goes boom." Later, when Jelco discovers Pawter put the bracelet around his heart, she tells him "I wouldn’t push that too far if I were you...or the little prick goes boom."
215* ItCanThink: In the second season finale, Khlyen reveals that the green plasma has a degree of sentience and is controlling the Sixes.
216* JackBauerInterrogationTechnique: Dutch uses physical 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 being depleted.
217** Turin has a dedicated blacksite specifically to "interrogate" Sixes. At least he also plans to extract information by technological means (basically a sci-fi lie detector combined with face recognition software), not simply brute force. He says he developed this interrogation technique because Sixes don't break because of pain, implying that he tried that first on other Sixes captured offscreen.
218** 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 Khlyen put her through as a child. For example, in the first season, she ties the random guy Khlyen 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'' Khlyen wants him dead. He insists that he really doesn't know, so she beats him up some more and then tells him to run and hide.
219** An unspecified governmental army that isn't from the Quad maintains an entire spaceship as a dedicated blacksite to torture people with nanobots which quickly heal the victims, so there has to be no limit to the brutality and length of the torture. This is presented as not particularly unusual for professional military institutions in this setting.
220** The Company cops in Old Town (led by Officer Hills, who is not meant to be a bad guy) beat Alvis bloody after arresting him for a false flag terror attack on Leith that members of his Scarback order have supposedly committed, with the goal of the torture being to force a false confession.
221** According to Hills, Jelco is an expert in information extraction and torture. In "Heart-Shaped Box," it's implied he tortured the Company engineer John had questioned earlier [[SheKnowsTooMuch after she said too much about the Company's plans]].
222** A mining union boss (who is also not supposed to be a bad guy, only looking out for the oppressed people of Old Town) tortures Dutch with "micro-leeches" he stole from Jelco's compound, in order to get information on his whereabouts. The micro-leeches make Dutch bleed internally and vomit up the blood whenever she lies.
223** 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 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 damage 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 showing how ruthless D'avin is being. 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.
224** 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]]. In the same episode, some Hullen specialists torture the Jaqobis brothers by putting Johnny in a chair that [[MindRape slowly strips his memories from him and also physically hurts him]] while simultaneously making D'avin [[ForcedToWatch watch]] his brother suffer. The torturer gives up after just a few rounds because D'avin shows off his special powers and kills one of the specialists, thus making abducting him a higher priority.
225** Aneela thinks she keeps the other Hullen in line by manipulating the plasma in their bodies to perform [[PsychicStrangle something similar to Darth Vader's force choke]], and uses this ability to force her right hand man Gander to thank Kendry, whom he despises for usurping his position. A few episodes later, when Aneela's Hullen "servants" (really her handlers / prison guards) kidnap Kendry for medical experimentation, Aneela desperately tries to find her, putting Gander through a truly impressive amount of gory (though mostly off-screen) torture. Constant drowning and regenerating for days, several rounds of blinding him with spikes, literally wearing his guts for garters, etc. As Turin had predicted, all this pain fails to break him, so she just links him up with the Green to read his mind - which is what he wanted, because he can also share what he knows with the Lady.
226** In season 4, even though it had previously been established that it's pointless to try to torture a Hullen through conventional means of pain infliction, an elite Black Root SuperSoldier immediately spills all the info he knows after D'avin tasers him just ''once''. The Hullen's superiors were even expecting this and put a kill switch on him to stop him from talking. It's not at all presented as if this case was unusual or surprising, and D'avin (who had criticized Dutch for her torture-happy attitude ''again'' a couple episodes before, and specifically took his son away from her because she was trying to teach him how to torture people) wasn't even trying a different approach to extracting information from their prisoner first.
227** 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 (even on inhuman, instantly regenerating 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.
228* {{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. 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.
229* JustFollowingOrders: Jelco claims this about the Company in "Johnny Be Good".
230* KeystoneArmy: The green plasma is linked to a single source tree that, if poisoned, will neutralize all the connected plasma. Downplayed in that there are dozens of such sources, so taking out one only knocks out a small portion of the whole operation.
231* KickingAssInAllHerFinery: Dutch tends to get into scraps while wearing fancy dresses a whole lot. And it's ''glorious'' when it happens.
232* KillItWithIce: "Meet the Parents" features a virus which causes anything it comes into contact with to freeze. It was meant as a weapon of last resort, but is released on the Simms household in an attempt to eliminate the family.
233* LaResistance: The Company's behavior towards the people of the moons has led to the creation of dissident groups on both worlds:
234** On Westerley, there is a group led by Alvis plotting revolution against the abuses of the Company.
235** On Leith, there are scattered groups of nationalists/survivalists who want either Leithian independence or who simply hate Westerlyns enough to try to keep them from moving to Leith upon the seventh generation, when they become eligible for land grants and legal immigration.
236* LensFlare: Used quite frequently.
237* 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]].
238* LecherousLicking: Jelco does this to Pawter while she and John are under the influence of Old Town's wall in "Full Metal Monk."
239* 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. 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.
240* ALongTimeAgoInAGalaxyFarFarAway: Even though all the characters are humans, no mention is ever made of 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.
241** The only vague references to Earth are in certain phrases used by the characters which directly relate to Earth culture, plus frequent mention of distinctly Terran animals (none of which seem to actually exist in The J). Dutch also mentions 'the First Colonies', indicating that The J was settled by travelers from another part of the universe.
242* LoopholeAbuse: In the season 2 premiere, Dutch and John take a contract to locate a device which will let them pass through Arkyn's atmosphere. The device is implanted in a cybernetically-enhanced woman, and has safeguards that will cause it to explode if tampered with. Once she's aided them, John is able to get out of the contract by pointing out that it specifies arresting any person who possesses the technology, and since cyborgs aren't people by law, she's not part of the contract.
243[[/folder]]
244
245[[folder:M-Q]]
246* MadnessMantra: D'avin repeatedly says "I'm a good soldier" when Dr. Jager reactivates his kill mode.
247* MakeAnExampleOfThem:
248** The Company executes prisoners by leaving them bound outside during acid rain storms, melting their flesh off, so their screams will remind everyone else to follow the rules.
249** After Old Town is bombed and sealed off, Jelco explains that he intends to wait until Old Town is so desperate that they'll sing the Company's praises just to be released.
250* 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 (which is later revealed to be 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.
251* MegaCorp: Known only as the Company, it runs everything in the Quad System with the exception of The Rack.
252* MercyKill: Dutch kills an old Scarback monk who'd been tortured and imprisoned for centuries to end his pain at his request, despite Alvis's objections.
253* MileLongShip: The final shot of season 2 reveals that Aneela is in command of a truly massive organic looking starship, surrounded by an entire fleet of Black Root ships. It’s really [[GildedCage an elaborate prison]] the other Hullen keep her in so they can study her experiments with the plasma.
254* MindRape: The biggest hurdle to turn a person into a Level Six is not finding a candidate that can survive the physical aspects of the procedure, it's the fact that 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.
255* ModestyBedsheet: D'avin and Sabine's sex scene is a particularly JustForFun/{{egregious}} example. She pulls a sheet up over her breasts as she falls back ''while hemorrhaging green plasma'', whereas previously the camera was simply panned below to conceal them.
256* MortonsFork: In an example of this used positively, Dutch delivers a baby to Delle Seyah Kendry. Said baby is the only living heir to Land Lahani, another of the Nine families. Despite the fact that the other families either intentionally tried to murder the child's family or were forced to play politics, Dutch is sure the baby will be safe. Either Delle Seyah is a good person and will keep the child safe, or she's opportunistic and will have to keep the child safe so she can keep control of his land holdings.
257* MovingTheGoalposts: How the ''Arcturus'' keeps ahold of the good slave fighters that bring in the big audiences. D'avin is stuck in such a situation because he's too good a brawler.
258* MundaneUtility: Alvis surmises that the Scarbacks' bloodletting rituals may have originated as a means of identifying those infected with the green plasma.
259* MurderInc: The RAC issues death warrants that can be accepted by senior members. If the agent fails to execute the target (thus breaking the contract), then the agent becomes the target until either the agent or the original target is dead.
260* 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 it's the main reason he doesn't trust her initially.
261* MysticalPregnancy: Delle Seyah with Jaq during seasons 3 and 4.
262* {{Nanomachines}}:
263** In "A Glitch in the System", the crew tries to salvage a ship which is actually a black-ops military torture vessel. It uses nanites to torture prisoners for information by deconstructing various body parts, then reassembling them once the truth is told.
264** [[CollectorOfTheStrange Romwell]] is immortal thanks to some healing nanites which worked a little too well.
265* 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).
266* NeedleInAStackOfNeedles: In "I Love Lucy", Dutch needs to find a key which is kept in a room of visually identical keys. Though she knows roughly where Romwell took it from, she still has trouble finding the right one. She eventually realizes that John handled the right one for a moment, and so starts scanning the keys for his DNA.
267* NWordPrivileges: Reclamation agents get pissed when somebody else (usually Company personnel) calls them Killjoys, but they have no problem using the word among themselves.
268* NoKillLikeOverkill: After John headshots the Level 6 agent 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.
269* NonIndicativeName: As of season 2, the Nine have been reduced to Three as a result of Seyah Kendry's coup and Jelco killing the head of Land Hyponia on orders from Kendry. Louella Simms attempting to kill the remaining families out of grief over her sister's death reduces them even further, but they're still collectively referred to as "the Nine".
270* NoodleIncident: Apparently, something caused a great deal of landmass on Qresh to be lost underwater, which dispossessed a lot of rich people of their shares in the Company (shares are based on land ownership). Reclamation efforts are a high priority since it affects the balance of wealth and power in the Quad.
271* NotEnoughToBury: The fugitive the team pursues in the ColdOpen of the fourth episode of the first season grabs the wrong power line when trying to escape, and... well, they end up bringing him back for the bounty in a sack. A fairly small sack.
272* NoTranshumanismAllowed: Cybernetic enhancement is tolerated, but only to a limited extent. Too much enhancement and the person isn't even considered human by law. 26% is considered well over the legal limit. RAC agents are not allowed any mods at all.
273* OffWithHisHead: Sabine decapitates Turin's interrogator using the metal rope of her shackles as an improvised garrote.
274* OhCrap: At the end of the pilot episode, when Dutch picks up the red box.
275* 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. Tree symbolism is also prevalent among the Sixes, as their internal police is called Black Root.
276* OneNationUnderCopyright: The Quad is entirely owned by the Company, the MegaCorp that runs the system and is its government. Ownership of stock in the company is proportional to the amount of ancestral land one owns in Qresh, the central planet.
277* OneProductPlanet: The moon Leith is a farm world, producing most of the food on the Quad.
278* OverTheTopSecret: Most RAC agents operate under the belief that there are five levels of seniority and a central command authority through which warrants are funneled. But then it turns out that there is a Level 6 program and an ultra-top-secret organization above ''that'' level that is actually secretly calling the shots.
279* PintSizedPowerhouse:
280** Dutch is short and slim, yet highly trained in combat, beating up people far larger than herself.
281** Calvert in Season 5 has much the same build, yet she takes on Dutch, Johnny and D'Avin ''at the same time'', holding them off quite well for a time until she's overwhelmed. Justified in this case, as she's using stimulants of some sort.
282* PlanetOfHats: Each of the inhabited worlds on the Quad has some distinct characteristics:
283** Qreshi are all [[RichBitch stuck-up nobles]].
284** Leithians are all [[ImpoverishedPatrician Impoverished Patricians]] reduced to being farmers.
285** Westerlyns are all exploited miners or factory workers with a chip on their shoulder.
286* PlatonicDeclarationOfLove: Dutch tells John she loves him in "Johnny Be Good".
287* PlatonicLifePartners: As pointed out by their bartender, Dutch and John do everything together ''except'' have sex.
288* PoorCommunicationKills: A literal example in "Attack the Rack." In a pitched fight, Dutch fights Banyon, 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 Banyon 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. Dutch realizes that Banyon is human and doesn't know a thing about the Hullen. She only took the job because she wanted to know why agents were going AWOL and assumed Dutch was somehow involved. Both women realize they were too busy being suspicious of each other to realize they were on the same side, something Banyon [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] before she dies.
289* PowerTrio: The main team. Fancy claims it's a bad setup, citing statistics of past trios that also failed, usually because two of the three end up having sex and wrecking the dynamic. John tries to nip that in the bud by asking D'avin not to sleep with Dutch. He does anyway.
290* PregnantBadass:
291** In "Vessel", 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 bed rest. However, even in that state she was still badass enough to stab someone trying to hold her hostage.
292** Delle Seyah Kendry shows no sign of her pregnancy slowing her down throughout season 4.
293* PreviouslyOn: Most episodes have a main cast member introducing the “previously on” segments, which recap the events of a previous episode (or in some cases, the events of multiple episodes). For episodes where [[TheBusCameBack a recurring character returns after not being seen for a while]], clips from their earlier appearances are used to get the audience up to speed.
294* PsychicAssistedSuicide: Pawter forces people to run into the wall surrounding Old Town by reconfiguring its force field to drive them into a rage against it, until it shorts out due to the impacts.
295* PsychicStrangle: Aneela exhibits the power to do this, while levitating her victim no less, to other Hullen by controlling the plasma inside their bodies in the end of "Necropolis Now" when she emerges from bathing in green plasma and learns Kendry was taken. It's preceded by causing two to drop dead upon her simply uttering "die". This was to a pair of lower-ranking soldiers, so she might lack the strength to do an insta-kill on a high-ranker. She has plenty juice left over to cause subsequent mooks to bleed from the ears.
296* PublicExecution:
297** One of the Company's methods of keeping its people in check is by publicly exposing criminals to Black Rain, acid rain so corrosive that it dissolves organic matter in minutes.
298** In "Johnny Be Good," the leader of the miners' union plans to publicly execute Jelco. When Dutch refuses to tell him Jelco's whereabouts, he settles for executing her instead.
299[[/folder]]
300
301[[folder:R-T]]
302* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld:
303** Romwell looks like a young man, but is actually 432 due to nanites that keep him from aging.
304** Potentially any of the Hullen, as the green plasma halts their aging at the point of the procedure. Khlyen is several hundred years old, and Aneela is 275 years old.
305* RemovingTheHeadOrDestroyingTheBrain: Level Six agents and others infected with the SuperSerum can heal from pretty much any injury, but massive brain trauma is instantly fatal. This can be accomplished either by decapitation or a special knife used by the Black Root called a dreadnought, which is designed to cause as much brain damage as possible when stabbed into the head.
306* TheReveal:
307** Red 17 is 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.
308** When John first met Dutch, he broke into Lucy and was shot by Dutch while she was wearing a blood-soaked wedding dress. It seems like a weird NoodleIncident at first until we learn that Khlyen "lost" Dutch six years ago when he killed her husband.
309* RiddleForTheAges: In episode 5, we don't find out what the "Red 17" that the interrogation program was looking for was. The guard didn't know, and the program was so glitched out that it might not have even known. It's eventually revealed in the season finale, and one can see why the military took an interest.
310* RightWingMilitiaFanatic: The "True Leithians" may be the first example of this trope JustForFun/RecycledINSPACE. They are a group of extreme nationalists who resent the fact that seventh generation Westerlyns are going to be allowed to settle on Leith and be given land. On top of being deeply racist, paranoid and mistrustful of the government, they are stockpiling weapons and live in survivalist style farm compounds.
311* RoboShip: InUniverse. John flirts with Lucy's AI and treats the ship like a living being whereas Dutch sees Lucy as a tool to be used. Lucy, in return, prioritizes John's well-being over Dutch's.
312* RoyalHarem: Dutch was raised in one of these, were she was taught 3 things: [[ActionGirl killing people]], [[ArrangedMarriage marrying royalty]] and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking dancing]].
313* RoyalInbreeding: Jelco has a heart condition that requires daily surgery on account of several generations of inbreeding. Pawter also lampshades this, saying, "All the Nine grow up together. We're an incestuous little dynasty."
314* RulesLawyer: Dutch shows an ability to use RAC regulations to avoid having to do things she finds distasteful while fulfilling the spirit of her contracts.
315* RunningGag: Everyone, D'avin especially, loves to make comments about Turin's hair.
316* SapientShip: The ''Lucy'' has an advanced A.I. and for all intends and purposes is treated as another member of the crew.
317* ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections: Dutch gets out of violating the RAC oath with no consequences, a fact that surprises even her. It's implied Khlyen influenced the council.
318* SecretPolice: The Black Root, an organization within the RAC's Level Six, serves as one for them.
319* SecretTestOfCharacter: When Sabine decapitates Turin's interrogator, secretly a Six mole, he congratulates her for passing his test. Sabine [[SubvertedTrope calls him on lying]], so he just blithely says it would have been cool if it were one.
320* SensitiveGuyAndManlyMan: The Jaqobis brothers. Younger brother 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 brother D'avin is a macho soldier boy who usually considers violence as the first solution and has some [[ShellShockedVeteran PTSD problems]] from his service.
321* SeriesContinuityError: The first season states on multiple occasions that D'avin was in the military for 9 years. In season 3, he suddenly says that he was in the military for 15 years.
322* ShaggyDogStory: Dutch and D'avin spend all of "Reckoning Ball" trying to 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 plotline pointless.
323* 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. He makes some real progress as the first season goes on, and these symptoms fade and become less noticeable as he does so.
324* SherlockScan: [[spoiler:A Hullenized]] Johnny pulls off a textbook example in ''Johnny Dangerously''. He looks around the room at tiny details of the people with guns in the room, combines them with a few earlier insignificant comments, and then with a comical *DING!* noise figures out that they're being conned. And then he [[ImprobableAimingSkills dispatches them all within seconds]].
325* ShipSinking: After Dr. Jaegar's mind-whammy resulted in Dutch being brutalized and Johnny almost dying, Dutch put a stop to her relationship with D'avin. They get back together in season 3.
326* ShoutOut:
327** According to [[https://www.syfy.com/killjoys/photos/fun-facts-gallery-season-2-episode-9 this]], the scene in "Johnny Be Good" where Jelco requests that the Company guards send in "F-Squad" is a nod to ''Film/AustinPowers''.
328** In "The Wolf You Feed", Zeph stymies John's backdoor hack into Lucy with a hologram that wags its finger and begins its message with "Ah ah ah!", an obvious reference to ''Film/JurassicPark''.
329** The opening scene of the season 3 finale includes [[https://i.imgur.com/TVCXRuV.gif a shot]] that's a clear imitation of ''[[LastSupperSteal The Last Supper]]'', right down to the hand gestures.
330* TheSociopath: The Sixes are devoid of empathy or compassion thanks to the serum, though the process works better on those who qualify in the first place. Sabine claims Khlyen groomed Dutch as one so she'd have a better chance of surviving the serum. It's apparently why she's so close with the Jaqobis brothers, since their personalities are such a contrast from this.
331* SomethingOnlyTheyWouldSay: In season 4, 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.
332* SoundtrackDissonance: The theme for season two suggests a much more lighthearted romp than the show actually is. It sounds like it should be playing over a cheesy 80's throwback action show where every line is delivered with a wry grin and a wink.
333* SpaceStation: The RAC's headquarters in the Quad is a huge, intimidating station in orbit above Arkyn. Because of its layout it looks like a MileLongShip at first glance and may double as such.
334* StopOrIShootMyself: Dutch pulls this on Khlyen, betting he cares enough about her safety that he'll answer her questions if it means saving her life. She turns out to be right.
335* 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, 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.
336* ThatManIsDead: How Dutch reacts to being called Yala by her old mentor.
337* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill:
338** The Company's way of dealing with a labor strike involves ''carpet-bombing''. This is also its response to a disease outbreak in Oldtown in season 4.
339* ThouShaltNotKill: Dutch has an absolute policy against taking kill warrants and shows great restraint in the application of lethal force, despite being fully authorized to take such warrants. {{Averted}} for the RAC and some of its other agents; they'll issue and execute kill orders without hesitation. In fact, a RAC agent who accepts a kill warrant and doesn't complete it becomes the subject of a kill warrant. This nearly bites Dutch in the ass with the RAC when she manages to get D'avin's warrant cancelled instead of fulfilling it.
340* 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. Subverted as the Company had no idea any would actually stick it out, and have no intention of following through on their promise.
341* TooKinkyToTorture: The Scarbacks, a monastic order, seek enlightenment through pain. Alvis says that his getting scarred by the Black Rain will make him the envy of the other members of his order.
342** Ultimately averted when Alvis is arrested by Company cops and roughed up some (blood on his face and rope burns on his wrists, but no major injuries) to get more information on his revolutionary compatriots out of him and to make him 'confess' his involvement in the false flag terror attack of Leith. He caved, but he claims the confession was because they also threatened the rest of the Scarback order.
343---> Alvis: "Turns out, I don't like non-consensual pain so much."
344* TrueNeutral: {{Invoked}}. One of the central tenets of the RAC is that they are absolutely neutral in all disputes and politics, which guarantees their professionalism when handling any warrant that comes their way.
345* TruthSerum: In "Johnny Be Good," Dutch is interrogated with something called micro-leeches, which can sense when you're telling a lie and cause you to vomit blood.
346** 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 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.
347* 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.
348** Likewise, the first few episodes of season 3 split time between Dutch and D'avin's fight against the Hullen, and John's encounter with the Hack-mods while searching for Clara.
349* {{Tykebomb}}: Dutch was one, and signed up with the RAC and refuses to take kill warrants despite being fully authorized to at her level. Her former controller is not so willing to let her go, unfortunately...
350[[/folder]]
351
352[[folder:U-Z]]
353* UnproblematicProstitution: Despite being a WretchedHive, prostitution in Westerley is not shown to be any worse than any profession there. John, one of the heroes, is even shown to be a regular patron and their pimp (who mentions having worked as a prostitute in the bar he now owns) is also the crew's bartender and friend. Sex work is also stated to be how many new immigrants to Westerley first make a living, and Pree offers this option to John and D'avin on separate occasions. Together with the above and the earlier given information that Pree did something worse than non-fatal stabbing to the previous owner of the bar to gain the establishment for himself, this implies that the previous bar owner / pimp was abusing the sex workers, and the then-recently arrived ex-mercenary Pree put an end to it and took over as their much more ethical manager. It's never actually stated that they work for him or that their customers pay him, only that the sex workers rent rooms in the upper level and that he can make announcements like "sexers are 20% off for the rest of the night", which he might just say to keep customers around to sell more drinks and then reimburse the sex workers later. If the latter is true, Pree is more like a manager / landlord than a conventional pimp; the bar's "sexors" might be so content because they have health care via Pawter and protection via Pree and the Killjoys, and aren't beaten to enforce obedience or forced to give up most of the money they make.
354* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: D'avin basically kick-started the entire plot in his search for an explanation about his lost memories. 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 as he doesn't have the clearance.
355* VagueAge: Many characters, including the protagonists, do not have their exact ages given. D'avin is thirty-something according to the script, and Dutch and John appear to be in their late twenties. Dutch's age becomes slightly confusing once her origins are revealed: she was created from a memory of Aneela's younger self, so she is chronologically a few years younger than her physical age.
356* VaguenessIsComing: From the fifth episode onwards, hints that something's coming are dropped at least once an episode.
357* WantedPoster: RAC warrants are a variation on this. Killjoys claim the jobs they want, which are rated on a scale from 1 to 5. The rating serves several purposes: it restricts warrants to agents cleared for them and indicates the type of job. "Black" warrants are done derby-style, with multiple teams competing to collect the bounty by being the first to complete the warrant. From the website: Level 1 is item retrieval, 2 is escort/prisoner transfer, 3 is a live capture warrant, 4 is dead or alive (alive seems to be preferred), and 5 is an explicit kill order. Dutch is the only member of the main trio qualified to take Level 5 warrants, but refuses to because of her past.
358* 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. It's implied to have a much more sinister purpose under Khlyen, and the bounty hunter operation is a front/recruiting arm.
359* WeldTheLock: D'avin has access to AbnormalAmmo with this feature.
360* WhamEpisode:
361** The first season finale, "Escape Velocity". 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.
362** The second season premiere. The crew are trying to regain their bearings after the previous season's finale. 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.
363* WhamShot: "I Love Lucy" ends with 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.
364* WhatHappenedToTheMouse:
365** 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. He eventually turns back up again in season 2, almost fully recovered from the injuries.
366** Bellus is not seen or mentioned again after "Heart-Shaped Box."
367** By the end of the second season, 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. She returns, very much alive, in season three.
368** At the end of "Johnny Be Good," the Killjoys leave Jelco on Lucy and return to find him missing, with Fancy claiming he let him go after "having some fun" with him. He returns briefly in the third season, sporting a scar from the aforementioned encounter with Fancy, but neither he nor Borna (now his wife) are seen or mentioned afterwards.
369* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: Bioaugmentation is commonplace but there are laws in place preventing people from being modified too much. Clara, a young woman Dutch and John come across, was forcibly augmented until 26% of her body was cybernetic. Not only is this well beyond the legal limit, this makes her non-human in the eyes of the law and the RAC.
370* WhoWantsToLiveForever: Romwell is not happy with his immortality, saying it only leads you to realize how much you've lost as time passes.
371* WhyDontYouJustShootHim: {{Played with}} in 'Come the Rain'. John 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.
372* WilhelmScream: One of the scavengers lets one out after being shocked by Lucy's defense system in "The Sugar Point Run".
373* WorldOfBadass: Nearly everyone in the Quad System is either a skilled fighter, a strong-willed {{Determinator}}, or a [[TheChessmaster chessmaster]] to make Machiavelli proud, if not any combination of the three. And that's not even counting the BadassNormal RAC agents, or [[SuperSoldier Khlyen's faction]].
374* WoundedGazelleGambit:
375** One of Dutch and Johnny's standard ploys is to pretend that she's his pretty but incompetent assistant. People usually believe it long enough for them to get the upper hand.
376** In "Enemy Khlyen", Turin shoots Dutch in the leg, reasoning that her friends/allies will show up to help. It works... except the "ally" who shows up is Khlyen, who introduces himself with a sword through Turin's gut.
377* WrongSideOfTheTracks:
378** The moon Westerley is a ''hellhole'' and the rest of the Quad treats its people like crap. Every company town is half IndustrialGhetto, half WretchedHive, the only exception being Sugar Point, a walled up bombed out ruin being fought over by DisasterScavengers and a psychotic crime lord. And then there's the Badlands, the most toxic place in the Quad. The toxins in the air and sand can disrupt navigation systems and even cause a ship to explode.
379** To a lesser degree the moon Leith is this when compared to Qresh, since the Qreshi look down on the Leithians as [[CountryMouse unsophisticated]]. It doesn't help that most Leithians are descended from impoverished Qreshis.
380* YourHeadAsplode: Dutch threatens Sabine with this if she disobeys, using an {{explosive leash}}.
381** 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 eyeballs then [[{{Squick}} explode all over his face]].
382[[/folder]]

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