Here’s part two of my catch up on
Defiance season 3! This season’s shocking start has settled down into the
Defiance I’ve come to know and love. “History Rhymes” and “Where the Apples Fell” were both directed by Felix Alcala, whose credits are really way too long to list but include
Criminal Minds,
The Good Wife, and
Covert Affairs (seriously,
IMDb him). The first episode was written by Anupam Nigam and the second by newcomer Paula Yoo, whose writing credits include
Eureka and
The West Wing (impressive!).
“History Rhymes” is both well-written and well-acted. I loved how we learn about both Irisa’s (Stephanie Leonidas) and Nolan’s (Grant Bowler) childhoods as Irisa and Nolan also gain new perspectives on each other. The arc technology that kept them alive in the stasis pod is now close to killing them. We see that neither started out as cold-blooded killers. We see the origin of their motto – “We live together or we die together” comes from Nolan’s sister Rebecca (Kate Ross). Bowler is excellent as he yells at his younger self to pull the trigger and save his sister. Nolan blames his own weakness for her death. He also tells Irisa that Rebecca wouldn’t have even been there if he hadn’t enlisted and she hadn’t joined up to protect him.
The Nolan we see in the flashback of the bar is clearly a horrible father. A young Irisa (Katie Douglas) is sitting at the bar while Nolan and other patrons are using an Irathient as their dart board. Nolan appears to have no love for Irisa, claiming she’s really just useful for getting into tight spaces on the arcs they salvage.
Nolan is clearly a racist and Irisa calls him on it. Nolan maintains that she’s different because she was born on earth. Irisa throws back – “You adopted me because I’m not alien enough to hate?” Nolan maintains that she was too young to have experienced the worst of the Pale Wars that he went through with Rebecca. The scene in which Nolan forces young Irisa to “follow through” and kill their prisoner proves Irisa’s point that she grew up with plenty of horror in her life.
Nolan does apologize for making Irisa kill the bounty hunter, but insists that he’s not sorry about the lesson because he taught her how to survive. The final dream they share is of Irisa almost killing Nolan. While Irisa didn’t remember the night in the bar, Nolan vividly remembers this night. However, he remembers it very, very differently as the turning point in their relationship when they started feeling like a family. He’s devastated to see just how much Irisa actually hated him at that moment. And that’s when they are woken up.
Afterwards, Nolan and Irisa talk. Irisa points out that they were shown certain memories for a reason – to show them how different they are. She tells him that they both grew up with blood on their hands. It made Nolan okay with killing but Irisa hates it. She was afraid of Nolan, so when she couldn’t kill him, she tried to do as he wanted. She tells him that she has to leave so that she doesn’t get him killed and she doesn’t want to see him continuing to kill.
Nolan makes a half-hearted attempt to suggest that maybe after it’s over he can join her. Irisa is the practical one and points out that the killing will never be over. This was a really nice sequence that really meshed well with everything that we’ve come to know about Irisa. We also see other familial relations and what parents are willing to do to keep their children safe.
As always, Trenna Keating as Yewll is fantastic with her dry sarcasm. I loved pairing her with Samir (Raymond Ablack) and her calling him Dr Doolittle. As always, she gets the best lines – such as “The daily special is scrambled brains.” The special effects of the surgery were really well done. Yewll is forced to go to the Omecs to borrow their drone technology so that she can do simultaneous brain surgery.
I loved the banter between Yewll and Kindzi (Nichole Galicia) too as Kindzi warns that she’ll be watching Yewll as she uses their technology and will kill her quickly if she tries anything. Yewll tells Kindzi she was planning on killing her slowly as she likes a bit of foreplay! I have to admit that I expected Yewll to do something sneaky, but it turns out that it was Kindzi who copied Yewll’s cerebral source print so that they can use Yewll for the Dread Harvest – now that doesn’t sound good, does it?!? T’evgin (Conrad Coates) is not pleased, however, and tells her to destroy it. He doesn’t want anything to interfere with the gualanite harvest.
Meanwhile, Datak (Tony Curran) is livid that Stahma (Jaime Murray) failed to kill T’evgin. She maintains that she’s doing it all for Alak (Jesse Rath) and that they can exploit Rahm’s (Lee Tergesen) fear of the Omecs by getting T’evgin on their side. Datak simply wants to shoot him. Stahma and T’evgin hook up again, and during their pillow talk, Stahma tells him a story from Alak’s childhood. It’s a nice parallel to the stories of Irisa’s and Nolan’s childhoods. The theme of Stahma’s story about the picnic is that her only goal has always been to protect Alak and keep him safe – no matter the cost.
T’evgin refuses Stahma’s plea to risk his ship to frighten Rahm and get Alak back. She really does seem to care about T’evgin or at least doesn’t want to kill him as she prevents Datak from shooting him. In the end, Alak proves himself to be stronger than anyone thought him and gets away from Rahm on his own. After all, he too is now a father with a son to look after.
We learn that those familial ties are hard to break. Instead of removing the arc tech from their heads, Yewll has actually strengthened it, so that now Irisa and Nolan can never be more than a few miles apart. Andina (Amy Forsyth) is curious about T’evgin, asserting that she prefers dangerous men. Stahma regrets that they seem to prefer her. And then Alak bursts in and what looks like it will be a joyous reunion is turned on its head as Alak holds a knife to his mother’s throat, blaming her for Christie’s death.
“Where the Apples Fell” picks the action up right where we left off – with both Datak and Stahma administering a bit of tough love to their son. Stahma tells Alak that Christie died to save the baby – something he wasn’t able to see from where he was outside. Alak is reunited with Luke, but doesn’t hesitate to turn in his parents for colluding with Rahm. Datak and Stahma escape and Nolan organizes a search party. I have to say that I love when the Tarr family are together! Curran, Murray, and Rath play off of one another beautifully. It’s also nice to see Alak really coming into his own and growing up.
I loved the scene with Datak and Stahma considering their options and sharing a rare tender moment. Datak tells her he loves her and Stahma insists that she married well. Datak enlists Yewll for help and every scene that Keating and Curran share is a treat. Datak tells Yewll she should come with them, but she says she can’t leave. She’s forgiven Amanda (Julie Benz), stating that Amanda doesn’t view life the same way that the Voltans do. For Amanda, every life is equally precious. Datak scoffs that Yewll should erect a statue to Amanda and she replies, that she can’t help it – it’s that damn braid… has she got a crush on Amanda?!?!
Nolan keeps Alak with him because he’s worried that Stahma and Datak may try and kill him. Irisa is not happy when Nolan assigns her to babysit Luke. Nolan and Alak go to Kindzi to try to get satellite imaging. Nolan figures out that T’evgin and Kindzi are actually stranded in Defiance and don’t have enough power yet to even get back to their ship. Alak recognizes his mother’s scent, and Kindzi is not happy that Stahma was there.
T’evgin maintains that Stahma was merely a very willing, available and talented sex partner – he didn’t care about her politics. Once the others leave, Kindzi continues to be furious about Stahma and we learn that T’evgin and Kindzi are also lovers… in addition to father and daughter – EW! There's an interesting parallel shot to Kindzi and T'evgin with the shot earlier between Stahma and Datak which may be a subtle indication of where the true alliances and love lie.
Stahma is almost caught retrieving stashed money and has to kill the deputy who finds her. Berlin (Anna Hopkins) has seen Datak at Yewll and follows him to his rendezvous with Stahma. In order to save Stahma, Datak draws the others away and lets himself be captured. Desperate, Stahma ambushes Amanda in her office in order to use her as a hostage to get away. Given that Benz and Murray are good friends in real life, I’m always disappointed that they don’t get to do more together on the show. However, they must have had a blast filming the fight that ensues!
Stahma points out that she waited until Amanda left before she blew up the arch. She tells an unconscious Amanda that she chose not to kill her then and chooses not to kill her now – and then she adds that she hopes Amanda goes to her grave wondering why. Stahma doesn’t come out of the fight unscathed, however, and ends up going to T’evgin for help because she’s been stabbed.
Alak returns home and there’s a brief moment of panic when he can’t find Andina and the baby. Irisa is with “Bear,” and Alak finally gets the story of how Irisa and Nolan saved Luke. It’s interesting to watch Irisa with the baby as she clearly enjoys looking after him despite complaining to Nolan. It would seem that Alak is going to gravitate to the “good guys,” and he really seems to bond with Nolan. I really enjoyed the final scene between the two with Alak buying Nolan a drink for saving Luke.
Meanwhile, we get a real look at just how depraved Rahm is when his wife Volubela (Mayko Nguyen) arrives at his camp. It seems there may be another side to him. It was interesting that he is married to an Irathient, given his disdain for Datak’s lower status. We learn that Rahm is completely rogue, which is likely good news. If the Voltan Collective really isn’t behind him, it’s unlikely that he’ll have unlimited resources at his disposal. In fact, the VC have demanded that he stop his crusade or they will stop him.
Volubela urges moderation and wants him to come home to Brazilia with her to their children! Apparently the VC didn’t know what he was planning on doing. He insists that it’s better to ask forgiveness than permission. Volubela tries to convince him to leave the humans alone, that the VC hadn’t realized the earth would be populated when they promised it to the Voltans. In the end, Rahm kills Volubela – I’m not sure we needed more proof that he’s mad – and he tells his followers that she was a spy, sent by the humans under the guise of peace.
These were two more solid episodes that also played on the theme of family. Nolan tells Alak that he’s not a role model for parenthood, but he would die for Irisa because he loves her. “History Rhymes” is definitely going to be one of my favorite episodes – both for this season and the series. What did you think of these episodes?
About the Author - Lisa Macklem
I do interviews and write articles for the site in addition to reviewing a number of shows, including Supernatural, Arrow, Agents of Shield, The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, Forever, Defiance, Bitten, Glee, and a few others! Highlights of this past year include covering San Diego Comic Con as press and a set visit to Bitten. When I'm not writing about television shows, I'm often writing about entertainment and media law in my capacity as a legal scholar. I also work in theatre when the opportunity arises. I'm an avid runner and rider, currently training in dressage.
