Tonight on Deadly Class, a couple of pieces of dialogue alluded to one of the biggest stories from the comics…and one that could change the face of the series going forward.
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Turn back now if you don’t want to know.
In the comics, about halfway through the current run of 36 issues came the freshman class’s finals — a story that reshaped the cast and tone of the comic entirely. In the comics, it came more or less out of nowhere, but here, we do get a couple of references to the story.
Professor Jurgen Denke, played by Henry Rollins, tells Marcus to “play ball at Kings until you learn what you need, then get the f–k out…before finals.”
Later, he tenders his resignation, saying that Kings Dominion has changed too much for his taste and no longer serves to empower to weak but to serve entrenched power. Lin argues, beginning to say something about the Rats that pass the final exam — and Denke shoots back, asking how many of them there were the year before.
So what are the finals? Well, in the comics, it’s a Rat Hunt: basically, everyone is locked inside of Kings Dominion, and the legacy students are graded based on how many Rats they can hunt and kill overnight. The storyline saw several beloved characters end their story, and elevated a number of heretofore minor threats to Major Villain status.
So far, Deadly Class has moved more slowly on TV than in the comics, allowing the writers and cast to explore unforeseen depths for the characters.
It is difficult to believe that the Rat Hunt could come so soon as this season, so it could just be that the writers felt they wanted to clue non-comics-reading fans in that there is something really crazy coming up at finals time…although given that nobody goes into season one of a TV series with any guarantee of a second season to play out their biggest and most ambitious tales.
Another variable? Denke himself. A character not seen in the comics, Lin did not kill him when he had the chance, and Jurgen, who has an affection for Marcus and tried to warn him off, is now out there somewhere, waiting for what comes next.
Deadly Class airs on Wednesday nights at 10 p.m. ET/PT on SYFY.
