We return to Defiance – in the midst of a plague. While
life tries to continue as normal, Alak on his radio from the arch gives out
information. It’s the Irath flu, humans and Irathients can carry the plague but
only humans die from it – and it’s spread by skin contact. He warns everyone to
buy gloves – but the masks do nothing (much to the annoyance of a Castithan
selling masks who turns off the radio and continues to peddle them). If people
feel ill he tells them to go to a triage tent
Which is where Amanda, Nolan and Dr. Yewll are; there’s a
large number in the tent that shocks Amanda. Yewll has the numbers – 6 dead, 21
sick. Dr. Yewll knows of a curse – after an outbreak in San Francisco they
developed an anti-viral – they have to wait for it to arrive, however.
As if that weren’t enough to worry about, Christie in the
arch notices Earth Republic trucks approaching. Alak passes the message to
Amanda – and she and Nolan go to see Connor (Earth Republic representative) in Need
Want to give him menacing glares. Connor says that ERep is quarantining
Defiance, preventing the disease from spreading East to the Republic. Connor says
ERep is quite happy to see every human in Defiance die – including him – so they
can then roll in and take the mines.
And, yes, Connor is rather drunk. Nolan discusses how they can break the quarantine, but Amanda can’t say they’re wrong – ERep has good reason not to want to spread the plague across North America. Amanda holds on to hope. Connor wants to get drunk and suggests Nolan does the same
Out on the street a group of Castithan are throwing rocks
at a group of Irathient Spirit Riders – calling them dirty and filthy (why
would the Castithans be so upset? They’re immune and can’t carry it. This would
make more sense with humans). Irisa breaks it up before the Irathients respond
with lethal weapons – and chases the Castithans into their homes by threatening
to bite them. She then greets the Spirit Riders (friends
of hers) who have come for food and medicine – but now they can’t leave
because of the quarantine. An Irathient woman who acts as some kind of priest
fears the humans will blame them and asks Irisa to pray with them
I like how much Irisa has grown, the slow distance between
her and Nolan while her finding a new family with the Irathient – it shows her
in both worlds and making a place for herself in both; and it doesn’t take much
to show it, just little scenes like this.
At the town council, the numbers have been updated to 16
dead and 30 ill. One Councillor fears they won’t survive the quarantine and
Rafe shifts the blame to the Irathients despite, as Amanda points out, humans
also being carriers. Datak also blames the Irathients – and shows the prejudice
the Castithans have against the Irathients that explains the earlier attacks –
he believes that Irathients often carry disease but rarely get sick from
illness themselves (something his fellow Castithan agrees on but Amanda
disputes). He says other Votans see Irathients as plague carriers – which he
agrees is partly bigotry but has a root of truth to it; and it’s why Irathients
keep to themselves and why Castithan shun them. For once, Rafe agrees with
Datak; and proposes forcibly quarantining Irathients in the mines. Amanda
points out Irathients and humans have been asked to stay inside – but Rafe is
contemptuous of the Irathients following orders: with the Castithans supporting
him. Amanda reminds them how tense things have been with the Irathients and how
they could be facing another armed uprising – but the spineless human
Councillors make excuses how it’s “keeping them safe” from bigots to lock the
Irathients up. When it goes to the vote, only Amanda votes against interring
the Irathients.
Irisa and the Spirit Riders are praying on a rooftop when
Rafe and an armed group of humans arrive. Rafe climbs up and tries to get Irisa
and the others to surrender – but she’s not buying his crap and won’t be locked
up like an animal – she pushes him down and tells the Spirit Riders to run and
gather the Irathients while she slows the humans down. She fights them until
she’s finally overwhelmed.
As they drag Irisa into a truck, Nolan arrives, with
Amanda, and draws a gun at the man holding her who draws a gun of his own.
Apparently Rafe was supposed to let Amanda tell Nolan before acting – of course
Rafe had to push it. Amanda tries to talk Nolan down – again playing the “Irathients
are safer locked up” card. Amanda tells Irisa to say she’s ok – Irisa doesn’t,
but she says she doesn’t like the odds and to put the gun away.
Going to the Lawkeeper’s office, Nolan grabs several guns
saying Irisa will know he’s coming for her – Amanda tries to talk him down
again, saying he’s sweating (implying he has the disease) and that it’s just
guilt over Sukar (and, hey, she voted against – so she’s done her bit when it
comes to mass interment). Their argument is cut short by Yewll arriving with a
message – San Francisco has sent the cure. But the drop is outside the
quarantine.
To Need Want to wake up the drunk Connor so he can get
them through the quarantine – well him and Nolan. Amanda nearly falls, dizzy,
probably early stages of the disease.
Qunetin walks to the diner, past Irathients being rounded
up and impounded, to meet with Nicky and her evil plotting. Yes, he’s taking
Nicky’s bait and asking about his mother. She tells him that his mother, Pilar,
is alive not dead as Rafe said, and she’ll tell him where to find her if he
brings the gold artefact.
Being the trusting fool he is, he goes home and gets the
artefact. Even his hallucination of his dead brother Luke thinks this is a bad
idea.
The Irathient are locked up in cages in the mines – and one
of them believes they’re going to die, killed with chlorine gas as the Castithans
did to Irathients in the past. Defiance – you’re crossing the line from
parallels to outright appropriation again.
Rafe, Quentin Atak, Datak and Stahma go to the hospital
tent – Christie has the disease. Stahma urges Rafe and Quentin to leave since
they’re healthy and it’s dangerous. There’s no pain medicine left, but Datak
has a stash of old opiates and gives one to Christie. Christie talks about
meeting her mother – and Amanda is brought in on a stretcher, unconscious and
bleeding from the nose.
In the badlands, Nolan and Connor drive to find the cure –
Nolan sweating and looking awful and asking Connor about his military service
and how long he was with Amanda (3 years). Unknown side effect of the illness –
gossip. Turns out Amanda got pregnant, Connor was ready to raise a family (though
scared about the new world), Amanda wasn’t and had an abortion; and they broke
up.
At the quarantine they meet Colonel Marsh, the commanding
officer – and with him is evil ERep representative
Olfin Tennety. They won’t let them past to get medicine and Olfin offers to
get it – Nolan nixes that plan, not trusting her. Nolan invokes the 6,000
deaths (human population of Defiance) that will be on the Colonel’s head – and adds
that they’ll have no chance of any kind of alliance with Defiance if they
prevent medicine reaching the sick (they could move in anyway, as Connor said).
Olfin tries to get Nolan shot, but the colonel overrules her and lets him
collect the meds.
Defiance is eerily empty, as more and more humans fall
ill and others die. And Stahma, not missing a trick, pushes the ill Amanda to
put Datak in charge while she’s ill, since Castithan are immune and offer
stability. Amanda’s not hearing it – Rafe is senior he will be interim mayor.
Because Rafe is better?
At the Irathient cage, the Irathients are praying, much
to the annoyance of one of the guards who finds it too loud. She shouts at them
and, when they won’t stop, she goes in and kicks over their altar of stones. An
Irathient jumps on her, human guards rush in – and the Irathient on her is shot
and killed. Irisa climbs the half way up the fence and screams with rage.
In the utterly irrelevant column – Quentin delivers the
artefact to Nicky. Turns out Pilar was bi-polar and, of course, during the war
and after it the medicine was hard to come by. She, as a quartermaster, and
Datak managed to provide her with Lithium but it eventually stopped working
(being over a decade old). One day Rafe found Pilar poisoning the kids
breakfast – he would have killed her but Nicky (with whom Rafe was having an
affair), stopped him. She’s in Mendesino (at least, so long as Nicky isn’t
lying) – and Nicky takes Quentin’s keycard as well.
Driving back with the cure, Nolan is looking worse and
worse – and the car crashes. Not because of Nolan, but because of a spike trap.
The Irathient Spirit Riders who Irisa helped escape have trapped the road. They
take Nolan and Connor captive and the medicine – they demand the Irathients be
released before giving up the cure.
In the camp, Christie is getting worse. Alak, while
crying over her, puts his wedding ring on her finger while Datak and Stahma
look on and Rafe holds his shoulders. A nurse (a Castithan like most of the
nurses) arrives with a message on the mayor’s caller from Nolan to give to Rafe
– but Stahma takes it, pointing out how distraught Rafe is. Which means Datak
is the one who receives the Irathient demands.
He passes them on to the internment camp – but Rathus, the Spirit Rider and brother to the one holding the medicine – is the Irathient who was shot. Datak doesn’t know what to do – Stahma tells him to release the Irathients, all of them. Trust her
Stahma is always the one to watch.
Datak goes to where Nolan and Connor are being held,
unarmed. And he tells them about Rathus being dead. Followed by blaming
everything on the humans and claiming the disease is a divine gift to cleanse
humans from the planet. He tells them that they need to destroy the cure. He
coats one of the boxes in flammable liquid and throws it outside, inviting the
Irathient to burn it.
As he steps to the door, he is shot by a sniper. Datak then grabs his pistol and shoots 2 more Irathient. The last one grabs him – but Connor runs into her, knocking her down, giving Datak chance to shoot her as well, repeatedly – then kick her corpse in a rage that she dared to touch him. Then he tells Connor “I’m sorry you had to see that” and shoots him. “Doesn’t fit my narrative.”
If there was ever any doubt about Datak being a Bad Man,
it is now very very clear.
Nolan is genuinely unconscious so Datak doesn’t have to
kill him, saving him the trouble of explaining 2 dead humans. He puts the gun
in the dead Irathient’s hand – and gives Nolan the cure. Soon everyone is cured
and everything is fumigated. The dead are gathered and burned. Quentin leaves
to find his mother. And Amanda grieves for Connor.
Defiance returns to normal and Irisa meets up again with
Nolan, they hug.
At the arch, Amanda broadcasts a message to Defiance,
calling the Irathient Internment a “terrible tragedy” and singling out Nolan and
Connor for their bravery. She also thanks Datak and lets him make a speech –
which he instantly takes the chance to launch his own election campaign to
compete against Amanda for mayor. And uses the incarceration of the Irathients
as a mark against Amanda and a plank in his campaign
Outside in a car Dr. Yewll meets with… Nicky. She criticises
the mayor for smoking (her usual bedside manner) and for the Volge
attack and the radiation
leak underground… calling Nicky and Birch reckless and stupid. Which is why
she stopped working with them. Nicky tells Yewll Birch is dead and Yewll
remarks that makes them two the only ones left of the “old gang.” Yewll says
she’s not interested in working with her but Nicky convinces her by telling
Yell she has one of the “Kelivar”. I have a name for the artefact! Yewll tells
her to destroy it and Nicky refuses, she says they can remake the planet –
Yewll says “destroy” and Nicky adds “you can’t create without destroying”.
Noooooooo! They can’t make Yewll a bad guy! Damn it, now
I have to support Nicky and her evil machinations. I have to be team Yewll!
Ok there were some heavy issues here – and a lot of them
made very direct parallels to real world treatment of marginalised people.
Internment camps, death camps et al are major world events that, again, should
be used very carefully in fiction if at all. It seems clear that Defiance is
dedicated to using aliens as stand ins for the Other which also means
translating the issues marginalised people face to them. While no direct
comparisons were made, it wasn’t necessary when they were so blatant and some
of them were handled poorly – reducing the idea of genocide to a side reference
and I dislikes how the ending was used as an almost “look they’re just as bad”
moment that I suspect will be used to justify lack of consequences
A lot also counts on what the fallout from this will be – and not just Datak’s political machinations. Will the Irathient leave? Will Irisa leave? For that matter, doesn’t this give Irisa and Nolan strong incentive to get out? If this is just brushed under the rug as a non-issue then it’s appropriation without even a slight attempt at purpose or examination. If they turn it to be all about Datak and ignore the Irathient then it’s another reason why Defiance needs to stop appropriating these issues as they are constantly doing – and screwing them up
On Datak though - while he’s evil and inexcusable, a bad
guy who is so gloriously evil is something of a guilty pleasure of mine.
Irisa was doing a great job of growing and showing the
links between both worlds and how she was pulled to Nolan and the Irathient –
but now, with the dead Spirit Riders, it feels like she’s been sent back to
Nolan by killing off the “distraction.”
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
