Violet recaps Season 1 Episode 4 of The Tomorrow People, titled Kill or Be Killed, where we get John’s origin story, Stephen’s mom invites Jedikiah to dinner, and both Ultra and the Tomorrow People try to catch a former Ultra agent who is on a rampage blowing up buildings! Following the recap, both Violet and Josh share their thoughts on the episode.
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The Tomorrow People, Season 1 Episode 5: Kill or Be Killed Recap Overview
Need a quick The Tomorrow People episode recap of Season 1 Episode 5, titled Kill or Be Killed? Here is a summary of events for the episode. Each event is linked to the more detailed The Tomorrow People episode recap for Kill or Be Killed if you need more information!
- In a flashback to 15 years ago, Jedikiah saves John from a bad foster home. Stephen’s mom busts him for working for Jedikiah, and tells Stephen to invite him to dinner. It looks like Killian McCrane, a former Ultra agent and Tomorrow Person who can kill, is heading to town to blow up another building. Jedikiah’s car explodes, but Stephen teleports and saves him.
- Ultra tracks McCrane to a warehouse. Stephen goes on the mission, learns McCrane has unfinished business with John, and nearly gets killed, but Darcy saves him.
- John explains that he and McCrane came up together at Ultra. Jedikiah finds out that John is McCrane’s target.
- Stephen and John return to the warehouse, where McCrane tries to get John to join him in revenge against Ultra. Stephen and John have to disable six bombs at once.
- In a flashback, Jedikiah kills John’s foster father when John exposes his power to him. Jedikiah goes to Stephen’s house for dinner, where Stephen’s mom is confrontational. Jedikiah asks Stephen to arrange a meeting with John.
- John meets with Jedikiah. Ultra will use its resources to find McCrane, then John will handle him.
- Ultra finds McCrane, and John confronts him. Stephen discovers Jedikiah is planning to kill both John and McCrane, and telepathically warns John. John teleports McCrane into the woods and kills him.
- John lets the others think he convinced McCrane to leave. John confronts Jedikiah in his car. We learn that John left Ultra because Jedikiah made him kill, and he tells Jedikiah they aren’t running anymore
The Tomorrow People Episode Recap: Kill or Be Killed, the Details
We Learn John’s Origin Story, Killian McCrane Heads to Town, Stephen Saves Jedikiah
This episode of The Tomorrow People, titled Kill or Be Killed, starts off 15 years ago, with a car chase. We see that a young teenage boy is driving the stolen car, while blasting the Offspring. There’s a roadblock, so the boy hits the brakes, but when the police approach the car and open the door, no one is inside. That’s because the boy has teleported to his foster home to deliver stolen food to his foster siblings. The boy, who we soon learn is John, approaches his foster father, angry that he is blowing their foster money on booze. While the man’s back is turned, John grabs the knife that fell on the floor and apparently is about to use it to kill the man, but hears a horrible screeching noise that prevents him from doing so. The man notices what John was attempting to do, and slaps him. Just then, Jedikiah knocks on the door, looking for John.
In present day, John is trying to train Stephen how to teleport. Stephen returns home, and his mom busts him for not going to film club, and not hanging out with Astrid. She asks him what he’s been doing after school, and why he has an employee badge from his uncle’s company. Stephen says he’s been interning there, and his mom says she doesn’t trust Jedikiah. She tells Stephen to invite him to dinner.
Meanwhile, John is watching news broadcasts about explosions in four cities, and their city is the next in line. John thinks it’s McCrane, and Cara wonders why now, and why he would come back. Over at Ultra, Jedikiah is watching the same thing, as Darcy gathers the latest intel on Killian McCrane. Stephen comes in and asks Jedikiah to come to dinner, but he says he doesn’t have time. Jedikiah reveals to Stephen that McCrane is a corrupted form of Tomorrow People who is able to kill, and was also an Ultra agent. As Jedikiah gets in his car and starts it up, it begins to explode, but Stephen quickly teleports and saves Jedikiah.
John and Cara watch the video of the car explosion and conclude it was McCrane. John is disappointed that Stephen saved Jedikiah. John explains to Stephen that Jedikiah used brutal drug therapy on a group of Tomorrow People to fry out the part of their brains that prevents them from killing, and McCrane was the only one who survived. Stephen wants to try to bring McCrane in, but John warns Stephen that he’s dangerous. Stephen is undeterred.
Back to 15 years ago, Jedikiah pays off John’s foster father and takes John. In the present, John tells Cara that McCrane is Ultra’s problem now.
Ultra Tracks Down McCrane
Ultra tracks down McCrane, and Stephen begs to go on the mission. Jedikiah lets him. Darcy, Stephen, and a group of humans raid the warehouse. Stephen and Darcy catch up to McCrane, who uses his power to fling Darcy against the wall. McCrane is disappointed that John is not there, as they have unfinished business. Stephen tries to shoot McCrane with Darcy’s stun gun, but McCrane teleports too fast, and uses his powers to throw Stephen around. Darcy teleports Stephen back to Ultra.
An Ultra doctor checks on Stephen, and he’s fine. Jedikiah agrees to have dinner at Stephen’s house. He then tells Darcy to dig up surveillance on McCrane, because he thinks someone else is the target, not himself.
Background on John and McCrane
Down in the Tomorrow People lair, Stephen learns that John and McCrane came up together at Ultra. When McCrane went rogue, John was assigned to bring him in, so McCrane thinks John betrayed him. John points out that Cara can’t help, because Jedikiah thinks her powers were erased, and if he finds out otherwise, he’ll take Stephen’s powers away. John thinks it was not a coincidence that McCrane led Stephen to that warehouse.
In the surveillance footage, Jedikiah and Darcy discover that McCrane searched for only one file: John’s. Flashback to 15 years ago, John and McCrane are sparring. Jedikiah coaches John to tap into his anger and aggression, saying that it’s kill or be killed.
John and Stephen Disable the Bombs
John and Stephen check out the warehouse, as John tells Stephen about his time at Ultra. John tells him he’s only trying to fulfill Stephen’s dad’s vision. They hear an orchestra and notice they’re over the youth auditorium. They realize that McCrane was casing his next target. Just then, McCrane shows up and punches Stephen, knocking him out. McCrane asks John why he left Ultra, and tries to get John to join him for revenge against Jedikiah. John refuses. McCrane teleports away as Stephen wakes up. They soon realize that several bombs are going to go off in less than a minute.
John tells Stephen that the black wires on each of the six bombs must be cut at the exact same time. So while Stephen cuts the wire on one, John cuts the wires on the other five, as he makes himself be in five places at once. When John and Stephen return to the Tomorrow People lair, John explains that Killian did that to test him, to see if he was still a worthy adversary. Just then, Tim informs Stephen that he’s late for dinner. John admits to Cara that no one is safe until they take McCrane down.
Another Flashback; Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner
Flashback to 15 years ago, John has returned to his foster home because he didn’t want to be at Ultra anymore. His foster father tries to attack him, and John teleports around and uses his power to fling him across the room. However, the man is able to throw John to the ground and starts kicking him. But then Jedikiah comes in and shoots the man dead. Jedikiah warns John never to expose his powers to anyone.
At dinner, Stephen’s mom asks Jedikiah what Stephen is doing for him, concerned about Stephen’s bruises. She blames Ultra for changing Roger, her husband, and making him distant, and demands to know what happened to him. Jedikiah says that’s a question for her husband. She wants to cut Jedikiah off, but she agrees to allow the internship because he’s Stephen’s family, and a connection to his father. After Stephen’s mom leaves the room, Jedikiah asks Stephen to arrange a meeting with John.
John and Jedikiah Meet
Russell is sure it’s a trap, but John agrees to meet at the Noodle Shop. Cara wonders what Jedikiah’s hold over John is. He says he can’t explain, but Jedikiah is the closest thing he’s ever had to a father.
Stephen blindfolds Jed and brings him to the Noodle Shop, then leaves. Jedikiah proposes a temporary truce to catch McCrane. John tells Jed to use Ultra’s resources to find McCrane, then he’ll handle it. Jed says he’ll give John a 10 minute lead. Either John catches McCrane, or Jed sends in Plan B. As John leaves, he defiantly tells Jed, “I am not your son.”
Jedikiah Doublecrosses John, Then John Kills McCrane
Ultra uses Stephen to telepathically notify John that they found McCrane at a parking structure. John teleports there, and McCrane teleports to him. They fight each other, as John tries to convince McCrane to leave, and that he won’t hunt him. Back at Ultra, Stephen learns that Jed is sending in the kill squad to kill both McCrane and John. Stephen telepathically warns John, as the kill squad arrives. John teleports McCrane into the woods. They continue to fight. McCrane picks up a large rock to bash Stephen’s head, but John shoots him dead first, saying, “You wanna know why I left Ultra? Because they turned me into you.”
John buries McCrane’s body, and telepathically tells Stephen to tell Jedikiah that it’s over. Stephen gets upset at Jed for using him to set John up. Jed defends his actions with the Annex project, saying that Stephen’s kind is only one gene away from perfection, and that getting a fix was worth a few McCranes, if those people are on his side.
The Tomorrow People Think John Convinced McCrane to Leave, John Confronts Jedikiah
Back at the Tomorrow People lair, John makes the others think that he convinced McCrane to leave. Stephen confesses to Cara that today he saw in John what she sees in him, and that John is a leader.
Stephen comes home and compliments his mom for being “bad-ass” towards Jedikiah. She tells him that there are a lot of things he doesn’t know about her.
At Ultra, John is waiting in the back of Jedikiah’s car. We learn that John left Ultra because Jedikiah made him kill, which he swore to himself he’d never do again — which he hasn’t, until tonight. Although Jed thinks their inability to kill is an imperfection, John thinks there’s a reason they’re unable to kill – it destroys a part of your soul you don’t get back, and he felt that today, like he did years ago, and that he hates Jedikiah. He tells Jed the Tomorrow People are not running anymore, and from now on, they’ll do everything to stop him.
Violet’s Thoughts on Season 1 Episode 4 of The Tomorrow People: Kill or Be Killed
I’m really enjoying the fact that we are getting to see the origin stories of the Tomorrow People. Whereas before, you might have thought John was kind of a douche, now you get a complete understanding of his background and can empathize with him. It was also really cool when we found out that he was able to be in five different places at once! Why didn’t he disable the sixth bomb too? Did McCrane know that five places at once was the extent of John’s abilities? It seems like disabling all six at once would be more reliable than Stephen trying to hear John’s signal. Interesting development that John is able to kill after all, and also interesting that he is keeping this fact from everyone, even Cara.
It was kind of dumb and annoying how eager Stephen was to go after McCrane on his own, and to join the mission with Ultra to go catch McCrane at the warehouse. I don’t know why he thought he could single-handedly take on McCrane. He’s still very new to his powers, even if he does tend to accidentally do cool things with his powers from time to time. But that’s not reliable right now. He still can’t teleport correctly, as was evident at the beginning of this episode during his training with John. Sometimes he just gets lucky, like when he saved Jedikiah this episode.
Speaking of Jedikiah, he almost seemed like a decent guy at times in the episode. But then he would keep doing something to remind you that he’s the bad guy. So, what’s Stephen’s mom hiding? What are these “things” he doesn’t know about her? I doubt she has any idea of the truth about Stephen’s father, or else she wouldn’t still feel so hurt about him leaving her.
Well, looks like the war is on between Ultra and the Tomorrow People! How’s Stephen going to handle being caught in the middle of it all? What plan of attack does each side have? Will we get another origin story next episode? Perhaps Russell? Looking forward to seeing what comes next!
Josh’s Thoughts: The Tomorrow People, Season 1 Episode 4: Kill or Be Killed
So this episode we learn a little bit more about John, and his rough life he has had growing up in foster homes, with a drunken foster father. I am curious to know why these people were born with a gene that prevents them from murdering. I guess I cannot quite understand the way it would work. What about accidental killings? Or killings as a result of another action, such as pushing someone onto some railroad tracks? I guess that just doesn’t really jive with me. Now we have a new issue this episode though—people that can break this genetic “defect”.
I am curious to know how much Stephen’s mother knows about Jedikiah’s job. She seems to have her suspicions that it is not a good place to work when she tries to talk to Stephen about it, but she isn’t concerned enough to stop him from working there.
We learn this episode why John left—because of Jedikiah forcing of him to kill. What confused me about this episode is how John didn’t know that Jedikiah was setting up a trap for him. I would have thought he would have figured that out a long time ago. That is unless he did know, and figured he would be able to evade the trap.
I am curious to know why John is hiding is power to kill from even Cara. Is he afraid that she will look at him differently? I guess that is a possibility, as when one has such strong abilities, one bad anger moment could lead to an accidental killing.
I would like to see an episode on the back-story of Jedikiah. Learning why he is the way he is might be interesting to see. Did Jedikiah only become this way because is brother was the other way? Did he lose someone to a “Homo-Superior” and now he feels the need to exact revenge? We need to know more about the leader of Ultra!
Scenes from The Tomorrow People, Episode 5, All Tomorrow’s Parties
Here are scenes from the next The Tomorrow People episode, titled All Tomorrow’s Parties:
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