Episode Recap: Reckoning Ball

The sickly stench of war is in the air, and the time of attack is near. Alvis has sent one of his acolytes out to fetch a clutch of knives from the Scarbacks — knives which can identify Hullen. They will come in handy during Reckoning Night, when Dutch and the Killjoys make mincemeat of the Hullen. That’s why Alvis spends the hours leading up to the attack handing out knives to those who’ll need them — Dutch, Fancy Lee, etc.

Meanwhile, on the RAC, Dutch and D’av are brainstorming ways to end Aneela’s reign without killing her…and thereby Dutch, too. But their session is interrupted by an uninvited visitor: Delle Seyah, emissary to Annela. She’s got some news she’s holding as leverage: she’s carrying D’avin’s baby. Clickbait! That truth bomb is enough to make Johnny “parlay” with her according to ancient rules of conduct. Meaning, neither party can kill each other until they’ve both had their say. Fair is fair.

So, what does Delle Seyah want? She wants Johnny to hand over Dutch, and for Johnny and the human army to surrender unconditionally. Is that so much to ask? In return, she won’t harm either him or his brother. He’s not about it. Speaking of brother, D’avin, with the help of Zeph, has conceived a plot to trap Aneela without killing her. If they can plant a memory of Dutch inside Khlyen’s cube into Aneela’s head, she will be lured to it, and they can trap her in it for good. It’s risky, but it might work; though they’ll need some help to pull it off.

Cue Pippin. He’s well-connected and might know someone who can perform a memory transplant, so D’avin abducts him and brings him to the RAC. He brings them to an underground virtual reality depot where a greaseball named Mano sells them a device that implants memories into brains so real, it’s like they really happened. Skeevy. Meanwhile, Dutch gets Turin’s Hullen guinea pig Kitaan out of the brig temporarily to use her as the inadvertent messenger of the false memory. This is some risky business.

And back on Johnny and Delle Seyah: Delle Seyah offers up her body to invasive scanning for Johnny to verify. When he declines, she implores. The only reason she came aboard was so that maybe the Killjoys would examine her, and be able to tell her what’s growing inside her. Look at that.

While the Killjoys and Pippin are attempting to incept the memory into Kitaan’s mind, she catches wise, and is able to mentally block it. This is going to be tough, but after some threatening talk, their decoy submits. And Johnny agrees to perform some tests on Delle Seyah. Turns out, it really is D’avin’s baby growing inside her. D’avin…and Aneela’s baby. If the baby happens to be Hullen, that means they’ve figured out a way to reproduce on their own…and that spells bad news.

Fancy Lee, meanwhile, goes to visit Turin in his RAC cell. First he springs Turin free — the guy’s having a change of heart — then he hands over the knife for Turin to use if he so chooses. Turin has the opportunity to regain his honor, and his friend, by joining the fight against the Hullen.  

After the successful memory transfer, Dutch and D’avin go to the kitchen to celebrate, leaving Kitaan alone with Pippin. She tricks him into letting her free, after which she coerces him into flying their ship to a plasma pool. Pippin can’t fly, however, and he bulldozes the ship right into an asteroid. Lucy goes offline, and Kitaan locks herself in the cockpit. That is until Dutch comes along with a cylinder of plasma to bait her out. The two do battle, and Dutch is nearly victorious before Kitaan overcomes her and has her hand in the plasma. The memory is out, the plan is foiled. D’avin detains Kitaan and, as punishment for her failure to comply, sends her careening aimlessly through space. Bye, bye Kitaan. 

The pregnancy tests complete, Delle Seyah asks to be returned back to her ship. But Johnny won't let that happen. He's going to stick her in the brig, and use her as leverage. He’s now got the Hullen heir in his hands. Ah, how the tables have turned. But will his violation of parlay rules come back to bite him in the butt?

D’avin is trying his hardest to come up with alternative plans that won’t get Dutch killed, but nothing gives. So, with little left to lose at this point, he and Dutch…make out. Like, why not? Later, D’avin comes clean to his bro about Dutch’s plans, and Dutch is surprised at how well Johnny’s taking the news. Before she can join the boys in a last night of reckless carousing, she must do one thing first, and she takes off.

She goes to visit Alvis in his monastery. She’s not there long before she chokes him, and kills him with a Scarback knife. Oh, wait…it’s not Dutch. That’s Aneela.