We begin with an Arcfall – debris from the arcs the Votans
arrived on falls through the atmosphere and rains down on Earth. On the ground,
Sukar and his Spirit Riders drive to try and get out of the “razor rain” but
one of the bikers is hit by debris. Sukar stops and runs to help him, pulling
the shard of metal from the fallen Irath – and is hit in the neck by shrapnel
himself. His people drag him to shelter and he looks up and sees Irisa. He
tells her “what we must do is for the good of all.” Before he passes out – and a
large bat winged creature flies pass.
Irisa wakes up.
At the top of the arch Alak is broadcasting his radio
show with Christie but they’re interrupted by Amanda complaining about him not
playing her record – and threatening to fire him if he doesn’t play Shiny Happy
People. Oh dear Amanda, I didn’t think much of you before but I assumed you had
some limits. And Christie wants to talk about a Castithan ritual Alak’s mother
brought up – where after a wedding the whole family has a bath together. (Bathing
seems to be important in Castithan culture and collective nudity not taboo).
Christie is all kind of weirded out by it and not very reassured by Alak’s
assurance she’ll have beads to wear.
And at the police station Nolan arrives in time to see Irisa
packing and leaving to go save Sukar. She says she has a vision and leaves.
Nolan mopes around for a couple of seconds before Irisa asks if he’s coming (awww,
she forgives him)
At the McCawley household, Quentin is all mopey because
he murdered someone. And Nicky arrives – that’s former-mayor-secretly-evil
Nicky, claiming her car broke down and she needs shelter from the storm (but really
because she’s after the shiny thing Quentin has that Luke once had). She
babbles on about her man “Birch” and the biiiig family he has – that would be
the man Quentin murdered, eventually making him run off, possibly to be sick.
At Need Want, Stahma Tarr arrives to see Kenya – not to
collect her husband’s protection money, but to hire Kenya to teach Alak how to
have sex with a human woman. Kenya looks bemused as Stahma describes how hard
it can be (“it took centuries for your own scientists centuries to discover the
G-spot”) and adds that she wants Christie to tell her father how wonderful it
was. At which point Kenya cracks up at the idea of any human girl – especially Christie
– talking about wedding night sex with their father. But Stahma takes offence
at Kenya’s laughing at her – she recites a Castithan saying “seeming is being”
by treating Stahma like a fool, it makes Stahma a fool. Kenya hurries after her
and apologises and offers (well sorta demands) to buy Stahma a drink. Kenya’s
extremely good at charming people.
In the Badlands, Nolan and Irisa find the Spirit Riders
but after some posturing with guns, one of them recognises Irisa – and tells
her that Sukar is dead. They offer to let Irisa attend the funeral – but not
Nolan. But Irisa notices a shard of metal on the floor and realises the storm
is Razor Rain – everyone in Defiance thinks it’s just a normal storm. Nolan
realises he has to warn the town but Irisa wants to stay for Sukar’s “Sinking
Ritual”.
At the Sinking Ritual there’s music, holy words and Sukar’s
belongings are dropped into acid, before his body is lowered in – expected to
be stripped down to its bones, the “three elements of the body”. Someone’s put
a lot of work into designing the Irathient culture.
Sukar ruins the whole thing by sitting up in his acid
bath – which has burned off his clothes but left his skin untouched. He roars
and tells the crowd that “through this body flows the path to Irzu” an
Irathient god. The gathered Irathient kneel, except for Irisa.
Back in the arch, Alak and Christie are still arguing
about the bathing ritual, human modesty and who has to tell Stahma no. Their
argument is interrupted – again – but a call, this time from Nolan who uses
Alak’s radio broadcast to spread a warning about the Razor Rain. Amanda gets to
work organising the town
At the Irathient camp not everyone’s accepting that Sukar
is divinely inspired, some calling it a curse others questioning what is
possible on the new planet. Sukar himself tells Irisa that they’re both on Irzu’s
path and she needs to follow him; but she delays so he says he’ll go alone She
follows asking where he’s going – and he says Defiance. Irisa follows
In defiance, the storm arrives, spreading a fair amount of
destruction – and Nicky continues to pursue the avoidant Quentin. Quentin
leaves again and Rafe is suspicious – not trusting Nicky. Nicky comes clean
(sort of) and tells Rafe she’s looking for Birch who she sent to break into
Rafe’s house to look for evidence that Luke was connected to the Volge attack.
She adds that she thinks Rafe walked in on Birch and killed him. Then she tries
to pass it off as a joke
Quentin examines the artefact while his hallucinations of
Luke encourage him to kill Nicky. And Rafe comes in demanding answers. Quentin
tells Rafe what happened, though eh claims he destroyed the artefact. Rafe is
convinced Nicky has no proof – and Rafe has no sympathy for someone who broke
into their home and tells him he’s proud of Quentin for defending their home
and their family.
Sukar arrives in Defiance and leads Irisa to a junk
store, breaking in and instructing her to gather as much cable as possible. The
store owner arrives and shoots Sukar – but the wound heals instantly and he
throws a knife into the man’s shoulder in response. Irisa stops him shooting
anyone. He grabs her communicator and breaks it, dragging her out of the store –
he tells her it’s a test of faith she tells him she’s only there to stop him
hurting anyone. While sheltering from the storm he asks how she can question
their holy mission given the whole resurrection thing and whether she’s brave
enough to accept she is chosen, she is special.
In Need Want, Kenya talks with Stahma making it clear
that there’s no way Christie wants her fiancé with a prostitute. Kenya draws
her out and points out everything Stahma says and does is for Datak and Alak –
she confesses she feels like she’s in service to them. The last time she did
something for herself was on the homeworld where she was a spoken word artist
before her father disapproved. Kenya encourages her to do something for
herself, offers to dance with her and pours another drink.
In the aftermath of the storm, Amanda and Nolan patrol
for anyone left outside and find an injured Tommy who collapses, they rush him
off to Dr. Yewll. In her clinic they find the place in disarray and Dr. Yewll
hurriedly self-medicating. Sukar attacked the clinic, tore up her equipment,
injured Yewll and left. She doesn’t pause on it and moves straight to treating
Tommy
At the McCawley house, Nicky confronts Rafe with a small
bloodstain on a pillow (“someone had a nose bleed. Picked a spot. Cut
themselves. Injured themselves in the mine” Come on it was hardly a large
stain!) and Rafe decides the jig is up so tells her he killed Birch because he
doesn’t appreciate trespassers. She doesn’t believe him and speaks up to
Quentin about his mother – and Rafe grabs her by the throat and threatens to
bury her if she ever return.
Up in the arch, Alak tells Christie he will talk to his parents
about the bathing ritual and leave her out of it. Which is when Sukar and Irisa
burst in an kick them out. These 2 just keep getting interrupted. In the
hospital, Yewll reveals that Sukar took an Arcbrain interface – something she
uses to talk to her medical equipment. It’s not powerful enough to reach the Arc
debris in space though. But then they notice the radio has gone silent – and with
the boost provided by the transmitter and the antenna, it could reach up to the
Arcfall debris. Yewll does some scanning and finds there’s a ship at the end of
the Razor Rain storm and Sukar is communicating with its propulsion system –
and it’s on a direct course to land on and destroy Defiance.
Nolan goes to the Arch. Nolan tells Irisa what Sukar’s
doing, she asks Sukar and he says he doesn’t know, he’s just following Irzu –
and if Irzu wants to destroy Defiance, so be it. Nolan shoots Sukar – who heals
and knocks Nolan’s gun out of his hand. They fight while Irisa looks on, unsure
what to do. At Sukar’s insistence, she ties up Nolan, telling him she doesn’t
believe Sukar is trying to kill them. Nolan grabs a gun and shoots Sukar
multiple times, he wavers – and falls out of the arch. Before he falls he tells
Irisa “it flows through both of us”.
Irisa sobbing, moves towards the console. Nolan asks what
she’s doing, pulling up his gun. She tells him to shoot her if he has to –
Sukar had faith and so does she. She flicks the switch. Falling towards the
town, the ship’s engines flare to life – and direct it away from the town,
saving Defiance. Sukar saved Defiance –as Irisa says to Nolan who killed him.
Nolan apologises which is so utterly inadequate I don’t even have words for it.
To the doctors where Sukar is being treated by Dr. Yewll
who tells Irisa, with classic bedside manner “he’s in a coma and he’s not
coming out of it.” And the reason why Sukar was super healing and hearing
things is that he was filled with Nanites – the fragment that impaled him was a
piece of Arcbrain – which knew that the town was in danger and its primary mandate
was to preserve Votan life. Once the town was saved, they became dormant. Yewll
adds (again with her awesome bedside
manner) that Sukar is effective dead and Irisa has to accept that. Irisa
demands an explanation for her visions and Yewll dismisses them and the
Irathient religion (Indogene are atheist and Yewll isn’t the most diplomatic of
people)
Nolan tries to diplomatically suggest turning off Sukar’s
life support and Irisa threatens to cut him if he tries.
And elsewhere, Kenya and Stahma are in bed together – Stahma saying how good it is to have something for her, a secret for herself. But Stahma warns her that if Datak ever finds out he would kill them both without hesitation.
The Irathient Spirit Riders collect Sukar’s body and
promise to take good care of him.
I like the world building of Defiance. There’s a lot of
work gone into building the culture, history and language of the different
Votan races which really shows when it comes to making them all seem so real
and the story holding together. There’s an effort made to try and make these
aliens more than just humans in make up.
And we have a much more solid hint of a same-sex couple
that I love – less so that it’s between a prostitute and a woman cheating on
her husband under threat of death. There’s no love seen – and I worry how this
is going to pan out with Stahma’s ominous threat. I worry I do.
With the season finale of Defiance approaching, I know there's many people trying to catch up. You can watch Defiance online here to catch any episodes you may have missed
