Defiance S2

Cafe Society
1

I couldn’t find any threads for season 1, just some people complaining that the show wasn’t Firefly, so we’ll see if there’s enough discussion to be had to justify a dedicated season-long thread.

Season 1 Recap:

In the near-future, a group of aliens (of several different races) have been forced to flee across space, looking for an ideal planet to colonize. They happen across the Earth and enter into negotations to cohabit with us. Midway through the diplomacy, a terraforming machine gets activated, destroying and changing most of the Earth and its life. At the same time, the alien ships are bombed, killing many and forcing the rest to evacuate to the Earth’s surface.

Our main hero, Joshua Nolan (human) and his adopted daughter, Irisa (Irathient), happen into the town of Defiance and save it from an attack by the Volge (bad warrior aliens). Nolan is made sherrif, and gets into a love triangle between the mayor and her brothel-running sister.

As the season progresses, we learn that the mines under the town contain some mystical alien artifact that a shadow conspiracy within the town are trying to hide/control. We learn that Irisa is tied to this technology, containing a second artifact in her body, implanted by snake cultists when she was a child. She has visions and control over the dead.

We learn that the town is being overrun by the Earth Republic, a human empire that is anti-alien.

The season ends when Datak Tarr, head of the Castithan mafia in Defiance, wins the mayoral election and hands the town to the Earth Republic. But just as soon as he does this, he discovers that his wife had an affair with the brothel-running sister and that the Earth Republic thinks of him as a rube. In anger, he kills the commander of the ER army. Meanwhile a fight breaks out at the mines, Nolan is killed (to be brought back to life by Irisa), the brothel madame is murdered by Tarr’s wife, and general hell breaks lose.

Season 1 setup:

  1. Nolan is out searching for Irisa
  2. Datak Tarr is in jail. Officially his son is running the mafia, but his wife (Stahma) is the more ruthless one.
  3. Earth Republic has put in a puffed-up pretty-boy as the evil overseer of town. He’s stalking the former-mayor.
  4. Irisa’s gone insaaaaaane, but Nolan doesn’t know it yet.
2

Thanks for the summary. My wife and I watched the Season 2 premiere, but we found we had forgotten a ton from the first year.

My wife and I think the show is at its best when it focuses on Grant Bowler’s character and his daughter. Everything else seems like a distraction.

3

I definitely think that Irisa has the best storyline going. But Nolan’s scenes without her tend to be less amazing. The love triangle between him and the two sisters was probably the mildest love triangle ever put to fiction - though to some extent, I respect that. Not everything has to be hugely dramatic.

I like the Tarr family and think that Datak was amazingly cast. But I don’t think it will truly get going with them until Datak and Stahma start to really face off.

I’ll miss Kenya (the brothel madame), assuming she’s truly dead and gone.

The McCawley family is pretty forgettable.

Nicolette (the ex-ex-mayor) and her group never seemed like a particularly interesting set of super-villains, so while we never found out exactly what their story was, to some extent I’d be just as happy if the show continues to forget about them and goes off onto better things. Except the doctor. Her backstory, I do find curious. If they don’t add in some new cast beyond the E-Reppers, I think that examining her will be a key element of the new season.

Overall, the Earth Republic so far hasn’t been made very interesting. All of its representatives just seem really shallow and pompous, like the whole damn thing is populated with annoying yes-men. So not very likable, but also more “bleh” than intimidating. The writers’ idea of monstrous and evil seems to be impressively tepid.

4

Episode 2 recap:

[spoiler]Main:

  • Nolan and Irisa return to town. Irisa gets them arrested
  • Someone blows up a bomb full of parasitic worms
  • Amanda Rosewater convinces Nile Pottinger (the E-Rep mayor) to let Nolan find the bomber, annoying Tommy (former deputy, current Lawkeeper)
  • Pottinger is curious why Irisa’s file is secret. Everyone feeds him some BS about the Colonel being deranged
  • Nolan works with Berlin (an E-Rep Captain, AKA Adorable as an SS-Shaped Button) does so, and he and Irisa go free
  • Irisa discovers that Tommy (her former BF) is now dating Berlin

Tertiary:

  • Datak Tarr and Doc Yewll plot an escape. They’ll make it look like Mayor Pottinger is being attacked, and they’ve saved him.
  • Doc Yewll gets a finger cut off, mid-mission, and Pottinger sees through the plot after being saved.

Tertiary:

  • The bomber was trying to get back at Stahma for being mean to him
  • Alak’s hiding his part in the mafia from Christie (his wife, McCawley’s daughter)
  • Alak and mom debate whether cruelty or kindness was at the heart of the bombing. Mom wins
  • Alak has to assassinate the bomber

Tertiary:

  • Pottinger orders Stahma to stop selling drugs to his men
  • Pottinger buys some for himself, though
  • Amanda discovers that the Mayor is a junky
  • Via his stalker-camera, Pottinger discovers that Amanda and Nolan are a thing (boom chicka wow)[/spoiler]

So quite a lot was mixed in to the episode. Too much perhaps. I know its tradition in TV to play it up big that you’ve really screwed with all the characters and everything is changed, for the new season, but then restore the status quo by the end of the first episode. They’ve managed to delay it to the 2nd episode, but it’s still a bit of a let-down.

Nolan - Lawkeeper again
Amanda - In the mayor’s office again (though not mayor)
Love triangle - Irisa-Tommy-Berlin rather than Amanda-Nolan-Kenya, but close enough

I thought they did a pretty good job of establishing Berlin, on the other hand. A bit rushed, and its not clear why a woman who’s fairly kickass and high-ranking would be wandering around like a art-student, shooting propaganda films.

Stahma’s interaction with Pottinger seemed a bit too direct. She’s always been impressively coy before. I don’t see a person dropping the way they speak that drastically, that quickly, and particularly not if she needs to keep up the pretense that Alak is running the gang. Everything they have taught us about Castithans makes me think that they’d never let a woman run the organization, in the open.

5

[QUOTE=Sage Rat]
Stahma’s interaction with Pottinger seemed a bit too direct. She’s always been impressively coy before. I don’t see a person dropping the way they speak that drastically, that quickly, and particularly not if she needs to keep up the pretense that Alak is running the gang. Everything they have taught us about Castithans makes me think that they’d never let a woman run the organization, in the open.
[/QUOTE]

Well, her husband is in jail (where she wants him to be), and her son is openly defying her. She doesn’t really have a choice. Plus it seems like when Pottinger confronted her she was shocked and was mentally running through her options, then realized he had her cold. There was no point in denying it, so she tried damage control, and that didn’t work, so she was helpless.

I’m curious about the magic devices in Irisa. I thought they said something about it being a terraforming tool of some sort? That makes sense with regards to the story, whoever controlled it would have immense power and wealth from it. But, I dunno, that just seems kind of boring considering the buildup to it. So I hope that I’m wrong.

6

Did they say something about that, this episode? I must have missed it, if so.

7

I haven’t read any of the responses here, because I haven’t seen any of the S2 episodes yet. We’re doing a re-watch of the last 5 episodes to get caught up - it has been some time since they aired!

I’m looking forward to seeing the new season - how Irisa fared/survived, whether Amanda will take over the Need/Want, is Kenya really dead? (I hope not, but it’s a pretty slim hope).

Anyways, just wanted to check in to say, “Me too! Eventually …” :slight_smile:

8

Anybody playing the game? I was watching the series pretty regularly the first season, then got into the beta for the game and for some reason that completely killed my interest in the series.

9

I haven’t, and would be unlikely to start, but I would be curious how much the TV show events matter to game players.

10

I’m guessing she’s an E-Rep equivalent of a Marine public relations officer.

11

I was in the beta for a stress test. The game, at least in the opening stages during the stress test, is set in the ruins of the San Francsico Bay area whereas the series is set in the ruins of St. Louis.

12

I heard that it was the other way around–events in game showed up in the TV show a week or two later.

And, the game was not particularly exciting. I’ve been meaning to get back into the series, though.

13

I thought I remembered Yewl telling someone that but am a bit hazy on the details and don’t remember if it was in the S1 recap or one of the S2 episodes.

14

It looks like all the information that we have was in the last episode of season 1. Doesn’t seem to be a terraforming device:

http://en.defiance-wiki.com/wiki/Kaziri

15

OK, we’re caught up now. I liked the episodes, though there was indeed a lot packed in, as noted by Sage Rat.

So, why is the eRep dude hoarding all the drugs - simply to have control over Amanda’s supply? Or really for his personal use?

I don’t believe that Irisa is evil/bad now, I’m sure it’ll be revealed that the woman she killed was bad, or something.

Can’t wait for the confrontation between Datak and Stahma, now that Stahma’s come into power. She won’t let it go quite so easily. I gasped out loud when she said outright that it was her who put her former beau out the airlock. I forget how it was worded last season, but it was unclear whether she’d done it, or Datak did it. The more the first season went on, the more convinced I became that she was capable of it.

We laughed at Datak’s attempt to get a handjob from Yewl - funny reaction from her.

16

I think Stahma has developed into one of the most interesting characters on the show. Amanda and Nolan are pretty standard antihero fare and it seems they’re teasing out Irisa’s “parasite” without giving out much info right now.

Also, is anyone else getting Vetinari (discworld) vibes from Pottinger? He’d even (to me) look the part, or at least not be totally wrong for it.

17

I’m still mid-way through the new episode, but Nolan just had the best bit of dialogue in the show, to-date, I think.

Pottinger: I’m a direct man. I fancy Amanda.
Nolan: ?
Pottinger: I just wanted to make sure you didn’t have a problem with that.
Nolan: … You know, I was pretty young when I enlisted. I never got a chance to experience high school. But this conversation right here. This is how I imagined it.

18

Okay episode 3 recap:

[spoiler]Main:

  • Irisa murders the McCawley’s servant girl
  • While reviewing the street cam footage with Berlin, the Irisa’s invisible friend 'splodes the room’s equipment
  • Irisa can’t stand killing any more and runs away to Sukar*
  • While getting spiritual advice, she goes insane, pushes him over, and stabs him in the mouth with wire tentacles
  • Irisa tries to kill herself
  • She has a vision of her parents, on a ship, deciding whether to fire the terraforming device at the Earth. Mom says that would kill everyone, which is evil and a sin. But they do agree to take over the ship.
  • She awakes to her invisible friend singing, in a condescending way, and Irisa heals magically
  • We discover that the servant girl is alive again, Sukar is also still alive (yet again), and the red-haired chick back in Hollywood is also alive again.
  • Red-haired chick stabs a child in the mouth with wire tentacles.

Tertiary:

  • Amanda’s a junky.
  • Pottinger seems to be using his control over drugs and his personal stash to get in tight with Amanda.
  • Stahma notices that Amanda is the only person in town who isn’t detoxing.

Tertiary:

  • Doc Yewl is hit up by Pottinger to practice some Dr. Strangelove and invent horrible weapons of war. She agrees, on condition that she can have an assistant.
  • Yewl tells Datak that he gets to leave with her as her personal guard, because she suspects her life is quickly going to be in danger from all angles.

Tertiary:

  • Alak has hired a girl to man the radio station. Her other job is working at the Needs Want as an escort, and she always liked Datak because he did her “rough”. She’s hoping to get the son to show the same oomph and seems set on seducing him.
  • Christie is preggers
  • McCawley threats Alak to go clean if he’s going to be around Christie and her baby.
  • Alak goes to prison to ask Datak to let him go free of the family business
  • Datak is able to pull the info out of Alak to determine that Stahma has taken over the business
  • Datak comes home and proceeds to go apeshit.

Tertiary:

  • Berlin makes it clear to Irisa that her and Tommy are an item.
  • Who had previously last been seen falling off the top of the arch[/spoiler]

Well I wouldn’t say that it was a great episode, but it had a lot of great scenes and was still a pretty strong episode overall. They’re still moving a bit too fast, for my taste, but hopefully that’s because they genuinely have a lot of content to get through in the season.

I loved how Datak gets back and looks like he’s going to play it cool and crafty, playing Stahma at her own game…and then no. No he’s not going to do that at all.

It looks like Pottinger probably isn’t a junkie after all, he’s just playing at one to get into Amanda’s pants. His goal in shutting down the supply line didn’t have anything to do with his soldiers, he just wanted to be the only source in town.

Stahma obviously figures out that Amanda is getting some of the good stuff from Pottinger, but it’s not clear whether she’s aware that, that was Pottinger’s plan this whole time.

Pity that through both S1 and so far in S2, Christie has just been a McGuffin. I wouldn’t say that the writers can be blamed for creating a useless female character - since they have lots of interesting female characters - but they really seem to have created a character who has no value to the story beyond having a set of tits and a womb. Alak’s story really seems to be the main secondary tale of the series - the person whose journey we actually care about when it comes to the Tarr family - and yet his primary motivation for everything is based on such a nothing of a character. The writers really need to bone her up, or Alak’s story is going to become a bit stupid.

19

Just saw E3, quite enjoyed it. I’m intrigued by the reveal of the truth of what Irisa did to those people, and what they’re now doing to other people. Building an army to fight evil, maybe?! I’m guessing the flashbacks to her parents will make more sense as the season goes on.

The imagery at the end, with Datak dirtying the family pool - lovely, and terrifying. I was so afraid that he would kill Stahma, who has become my favourite character too, Apocalypso. Great music during that ending sequence too, one of my favourite Portishead songs.

20

I thought that sounded like Beth Gibbons. I haven’t really heard Portishead but have her solo album.