Defiance Reporter Episode 44 – Resurrected Village People

Defiance Reporter – MMO Reporter

Ben and Michelle run through Bottom of the World and Doll Parts in this show-focused episode.

Audio Version

DRAMA IN DEFIANCE
EPISODE 10 “Bottom of the World”

It’s a good thing we had a double-header, because this episode lacked a lot of the substance that other episodes have – but, this makes it easy to summarize! Ambassador Tennety is visiting Defiance again, this time to have a look at the mines. No one seems to mind that the highest-ranking E-Reps are descending into a potentially dangerous situation. Nolan, Amanda, Berlin, and Irisa all accompany them on the visit because, hey, who doesn’t want to spend some time getting dusty down in the mines? The mines collapse, killing Tennety and trapping Pottinger and Amanda. Berlin, Nolan, and Irisa manage to escape, which is good since someone needs to lead the rescue party.

Irisa isn’t very helpful because she’s focused on other things: namely, stealing a terrasphere from the Earth Republic. Her first attempt was foiled by Nolan, who ended up returning the stolen terrasphere to the E-Reps while also protecting Irisa. In order to keep her under control, he confiscates her Lawkeeper badge and her knives, and for good measure, handcuffs her. While Nolan and Berlin are busy leading the rescue team, Irisa escapes from the cuffs (by breaking her own thumbs!) and steals Nolan’s roller to head back into town and find Tommy, who can easily get the terrasphere back for her if she asks nicely.

Throughout the episode, the Treasure Doll/Alak/Christie triangle progresses. Alak ends his affair, but Treasure Doll now wants to extort him for money. Stahma, who overhears Treasure Doll threatening Alak, initially asks Datak to handle her, but in the end decides to take care of the night porter herself.

Nolan finds a Votan trembler at the mining site, which is an explosive device that was used to blow up the shaft. He suspects someone planted it in order to kill high-ranking E-Rep officers (once again, the crime narrative is solved very easily in Defiance). Of course, viewers know that Rafe has been stockpiling Votan weapons in order to eventually fight the E-Reps. But, we don’t believe for one minute that Rafe was responsible for the explosion. Rafe ends up taking Quentin to his weapons stockpile. In the end, this is a bad idea, because we find out that it was Quentin who stole the Votan trembler from Rafe’s stash and planted it the mines. He then smashes Rafe’s head in a couple of times with a metal pipe.

Amanda and Pottinger can’t do much while trapped in the mines, but they do manage to conserve oxygen by kissing one another. Neither Pottinger nor Amanda come off as very interesting in these scenes, which is a stark contrast to the great character exposition they had in earlier episodes. Even Pottinger’s attempt at martyrdom (by having Amanda kill him with a large rock) comes off as uninteresting.

While shimmying down a tunnel together, Nolan and Berlin both realize that Nolan’s feelings for Amanda are stronger than he initially let on, and the two of them agree to stop sleeping with one another. They blow their way into the collapsed shaft using dynamite and manage to rescue both Pottinger and Amanda.

Nolan heads back to Rafe’s shed, where the E-Reps are now confiscating all of his weapons, thanks to Quentin, who tells him that his dad confessed to the explosion. Nolan doesn’t believe this at all, but he knows how far a parent will go to protect his child and arrests Rafe. After the dust settles, Pilar is dropped off by a couple of Votans, but she is not happy with Quentin’s plot to set up Rafe.

Meanwhile, Tommy steals the terrasphere for Irisa, but is jumped by Sukar and tendriled by Irisa. We get some very interesting imagery and some more questions regarding Irzu and her plan. Irisa raises the terrasphere, which begins to glow and float, radiating down to the ark. Her resurrected followers are cloned and placed into pods (maybe in order to operate and power the ship?)

EPISODE 11 “Doll Parts”

Nolan is utilizing his skills as a former Geek Squad member to amp up his firepower in order to find Irisa. Meanwhile, someone visits Treaure Doll in the Arch, but something goes incredibly wrong, because before we know it, she’s falling out of the Arch to her death. Amanda is intent on finding Treasure Doll’s killer, but Nolan is more focused on finding Irisa. Amanda, who is never short on ego or balls, demands that Nolan give her a badge so that she can find the killer. Nolan readily hands it over.

Amanda and Berlin investigate, starting with Alak, who they suspicion was sleeping with Treasure Doll. Berlin discovers one of her old surveillance cameras in the Arch, but she didn’t plant it there, and one of the memory cards is missing. Berlin and Amanda find said memory card in Treasure Doll’s room, as well as a list of her most recent clients: Datak Tarr.

Nolan finds Irisa’s tent of Resurrected Disciples, but Tommy jumps him, unsuccessfully. Nolan punches Tommy, but he heals quickly, letting Nolan know that he’s infected, too. But, the tendrils don’t really take to Tommy, because he ends up puking them out. Nolan schools Tommy on the idea that Irzu is not really a god, but just bits of AI running the Kaziri. But, how does this explain the Votan Rapture and Irzu’s need to destroy the world and start over? Nolan has figured out a way to scramble the ark brain signals.

Christie is struggling with the idea that her father may be a murderer, so of course Stahma is the perfect one to seek counsel for that. Alak breaks the news that Treasure Doll is dead, which freaks Christie out even more, but Alak is just trying to figure out if Stahma was the one who committed the murder. Of course, Stahma is trying to figure out whether Datak murdered her. A handmaiden finds a bloodied microphone underneath Alak’s bed, which leaves Stahma confused and a little worried.

Tommy and Nolan put on a rouse for the resurrected Votans (and we also get a glimpse of Alethea!). Irisa and Nolan have a heart to heart, which could be read as a conversation between Irisa and Nolan OR Nolan and Irzu. Irisa’s teenage angst works perfectly with Irzu’s hatred of all things human. Sukar and Nolan have a spectacular fight after Nolan eggs him on. While this staged fight is going on, Tommy hits the scramble switch, which knocks out all the Votans.

Amanda and Berlin arrest Alak after uncovering footage of the affair. Christie is upset about this, but not as upset as Stahma, who leaves Alak in jail (leaving Alak to believe that Stahma set him up). This overall whodunit being worked by Amanda and Berlin turns into a mini whodunit between the Tarrs. Stahma decides to unframe Alak by asking a poor Castithan man to take the blame. In return, the Tarrs will take in his daughter as a handmaiden. Amanda knows she’s being set up, and most likely by Stahma, but she can’t argue with the bloody microphone.

Both Datak and Stahma are confused as to who actually committed the murder, but after Datak denies knowledge about the microphone, Stahma realizes that Christie is the one that killed her (and she is incredibly proud). Alak comes home from jail and discovers a bottle of poison miscarriage juice on Christie’s beside table. It turns out Treasure Doll invited Christie to the Arch under the pretense of breakfast, and tried to spike Christie’s juice with the poison. Christie was immediately suspicious and figures out Treasure Doll’s true motives. An amazing, prolonged fight breaks out, and Christie kills Treasure Doll by punching her out of an Arch airlock. In a wonderful Stahma parallel from season one, Christie explains to Alak what happened (while in bath beads) and makes him promise never to harm their child. And Alak realizes he married his mother.

Nolan patches things up with Tommy as they take Irisa back to Defiance, but she wakes up and short-circuits their roller. And she is not a happy camper. Even after Tommy confesses his love for her and asks her to defy the computer-god controlling her, she stabs him. But, when Irzu commands her to kill Nolan, Irisa defies her, telling her that the two of them “have a deal” (they die together).

Over the course of a powerful montage, we see Nolan dragging Tommy’s body back to Defiance, we see the Tarr family welcoming their new handmaiden, and we see Amanda confirm her suspicions that the handmaiden arrangement was simply a cover-up for the real murder.

Favorite Scenes and Dislikes

• I (Michelle) generally disliked Episode 10, “Bottom of the World” – but it was a good segue to the next episode and did a good job at setting up all of the plots points to fuel the “Doll Parts”.
• Why would Rafe tell Quentin about his weapons? Is he hoping that by showing his plan to overtake the E-Reps, he’ll get back in Quentin’s good graces? And why would Nolan and Amanda both let Rafe take the fall? Are they both really that preoccupied?
• Every scene with Pottinger and Amanda was emotionally flat. Neither came off as interesting, even when near death.
• The scene between Nolan and Irisa is absolutely heartbreaking. Is this really Irisa talking or is this Irzu?
• Amanda and Berlin make awesome detectives together – this was one of the best episodes this season. Also, the scene where Berlin tells Amanda she is no longer sleeping with Nolan was direct, sweet, and to the point.
• The Treasure Doll flashbacks with Amanda were also great – they went a long way into showing why Amanda would want to take on finding her killer and gave Treasure doll a little humanity – as well as progressing the plot
• Love that the Irzu tendrils don’t take Tommy – does this means that in some way, Irisa is still in control? Because why would Irzu direct her to take Tommy if she knew she didn’t want Humans?

Speculations and unanswered questions

• How do the resurrected pod people compare to the Gulanee and what is the connection here?
• Was it Christie’s plan all along for Stahma to get Alak out of jail? To figure out how to free him? Otherwise, why put the microphone under his bed unless she wanted him to end up in jail?

Predictions

• Amanda’s pragmatism is going to get in the way of Nolan’s emotionalism. She will be focused on saving Defiance, and he will be focused on saving Irisa.
• Amanda has suspicions that Stahma is behind Kenya’s murder and confronts her about it.
• We end the season with Earth being destroyed and season three will take place on a Kaziri in space (not really, but wouldn’t that be fun?)
• Pilar tries to take her family back, maybe at the expense of the Tarrs?

Episode MVPs

• Amanda in “Doll Parts” – her scenes with Nolan, Berlin, Datak and Treasure Doll were all fantastic – this is the Amanda that we know and love.
• Christi McCawley

OFF THE SET

Favorite Tweets

Tommy you are a precious little trusting lamb. #Defiance

— Bo-Tan-O-File (@thebotanophile) August 22, 2014

I can’t believe Berlin found the shaft…. Shocking. #Defiance @AnnaBananaHops

— Trenna keating (@TrennaKeating) August 22, 2014

Ugh annoying when you’re giving an employee advice & you accidentally send her on a Glenn Close Fatal Attraction bender #Defiance @juliebenz

— Tom Lieber (@tommyleeba) August 22, 2014

Karly @karlyko Those Tarr mothers — they’ll do anything for their children#Defiance

#Defiance

@womenofdefiance You know you’ve been to a good party when you throw up living metal. #Defiance

— Andrew J. Garza (@DakoGuyver) August 22, 2014

Also, shout-out to @deathtodickens and her Defiance greeting cards!

Coming up next week on Defiance… “All Things Must Pass” and “I Almost Prayed”

Sneak peek for Episode #12:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlXFrniCARo&feature=youtube_gdata

Sneak peek for Episode #13:

Episode #12 and #13 trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouNCZcltqOY&feature=youtube_gdata

Quick observations:

• Looks like the E-Reps catch up to Doc, but she’s going to put her knowledge of the Kaziri to good use and save the world one more time?
• Nolan is throwing someone (Pottinger?) to the ground, which looks like it totally wrecks Amanda’s plans to remake Dr. Zhivago with him.
• In the sneak peak, we are back in 831BC when Irisa and Kai sever the AI responsible for commanding the ship. “The Kaziri will be harmless so long as we remain apart.” Pods drop from the ship onto the Earth, as do Irisa and Kai (it looks like the futuristic version of the Charlie and The Chocolate Factory glass elevator ride) and the ship crashes into what will eventually be Defiance. So, the resurrected Votans are the engine of the ship – and what is encouraging is that it looks like we won’t be stuck with a classic duex ex machina dilemma.

LAST MINUTE ANNOUNCEMENTS

• THIS WEEKS ARKHUNTER CODES ARE: BOOST and HUNTER
  Make sure to enter it at Defiance.com/Ego to get this weeks reward of. Remember to redeem these codes by Saturday, August 30rd!
• Join Defiance Reporter’s PC clan IGNI FERROQUE! No registration is required, just look for me Corso Vanlocke in-game.

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