Defiance Episode 1.03 Down In the Ground Where the Dead Men Go *** SPOLIERS***

Television, Movies Games and Books Defiance
#1

This is a placeholder until the episode description/synopsis becomes available or until I have the time to write one up.

Brief episode summary: A killer is pursued; at the same time, Nolan and Datak come to blows over an ancient ritual.

From en.wikipedia.org: Birch and Nicky do not give up on Ben after his previous failure at helping them wipe Defiance off the map. They pay him a visit once more, and shock him into doing some more work for them, and this time they don’t expect him to screw it up. Soon, Amanda, Nolan, and Rafe hear of an explosion down at McCawley Mines, and discover Ben must’ve headed down there on an agenda. Rafe, unwillingly at first, takes Nolan along, and tells him that through a series of caverns known as the Rat’s Nest lies old St. Louis. Unlike many cities, it was covered by terraformed earth and sealed into caverns, instead of being destroyed by the Arkfall. As the pair reminisce over what life used to be like, with Rafe’s talk of his father and his son, they discover Ben in the old nuclear plant, with a bomb ready to detonate beside him. Ben is cornered and the bomb is deactivated. On orders of Amanda, Nolan has been ordered to keep Rafe from shooting Ben. However, Rafe ends up pulling the trigger when Ben pounces on him. The two men and their team return to Defiance with this news, and walk in on Datak and Amanda who are in a spat over the ritual conducted under Datak’s religion earlier in the day on a coward. A stop is put to the confrontation, as Datak walks away from the scene without his coward, who he previously failed to cleanse following Irisa’s cutting him down. Amanda appears to be struggling, after learning of Ben’s death, but, nonetheless, pulls through for her town by conducting the funerals of the forty-one who lost their lives in the Volge attacks. With the services over, Rafe tries to mourn, but he is struggling to comprehend Ben’s words that Luke wanted to pull away from him and leave Defiance. Datak, meanwhile, appears to be behind the death of the prisoner, who turns up dead outside the Lawkeeper’s residence. Rafe searches his son’s room, discovering maps, a pile of scrip and a strange object

Please use this thread to discuss the series’ 3rd episode.

#2

With this episode I wonder if the series closed the door on Antarctica. As Nolan states: Antarctica might not be real but Defiance is. I also wonder how much sentimental value Defiance is to Nolan since he grew up there. It sounds like Nolan left before the Alien wars started since the Nuclear Plant was constructed after he left.

And let’s talk about that nuclear plant for a second. I find it hard to believe that any such facility would remain intact and undamaged after at least a couple of decades of no one monitoring it. Nuclear plants may be safe but they need to be monitored. And if there was massive Earth crust movement through terraforming I can see that nuclear plant becoming compromised pretty quickly. Heck, look what a “small” 9.3 earthquake such as the 2011 Tōhoku did to the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. I can’t imagine how immense an Earth-crust folding quake would be to entomb an entire major city underground.

The radically differing views on religion will ultimately lead to conflict given the upheaval in Defiance leadership. It’s hard to say whether it will be a full scale war like to Crusades or a more guerrilla type terrorist warfare utilized by modern day Muslim Jihadists. But it is too good of a controversial issue to not take up again sometime in this series.

I thought it was funny that Nolan backed Amanda up to Isari about Amanda’s promises and it depends on the person making the promises yet Nolan himself hasn’t kept one single promise so far. I like him. He’s rough around the edges but gets the job done and just a couple of days into the foray seems to understand the consequences of what he and Defiance are dealing with. I even like the final choice he gave Rafe: To side with his dead child or side with his living children but that Rafe couldn’t do both. But Nolan isn’t a boy scout. I’m sure we’ll see more of that as the series unfolds to.

Is anyone else digging the menagerie of high tech bladed weapons in Defiance? One would think that a knife is a knife but after seeing several of these blades in Defiance I have to beg to differ.

Bear McCreary’s music gave off a distinctive Caprica feel to me in this episode. It was good, mind you, but I hope that he isn’t inadvertently setting the tone for the show for me. Or perhaps it is entirely on purpose. It would be fun to ask him!

Mr Birch is a delightful character. You have no idea what his motivation is but he is extremely clever about setting something in motion to get results. And the even more delightful part is that I get the feeling that he is not the one even partially giving the orders: it’s ex-Mayor Nikki. I think they threw in that bit about golf to give us the feeling that she is a white collar playa. And also that CHILLING statement to Amanda as Nikki was stroking Amanda’s ponytail that Nikki was going to miss her. Wow.

Deputy Tommy’s got some values to him. He’s been around town for a long time. He’s Clancy’s protege. But without a second of hesitation he backed up Isari even though he did NOT agree with her. As Sean used to say “Dance with who brung ya.” Tommy’s loyaty will be a player as the series unfolds, no doubt.

Don’t hate me for saying this but the series REALLY needs more Castithan bath scenes with Stahma Tarr. Just sayin’. If you like H.G. Wells in Warehouse 13 you have GOT to see her in Defiance. She is perfectly cast too.

//youtu.be/hscXERko4ko

Skyffy is doing it’s damnest with Defiance to bring together a lot of the awesomeness from previous series. I got a Praxis vibe (Sanctuary middle-Earth town) from Old St. Louis. At least in the visual effects. I hope we visit down there again sometime - nuclear plant not withstanding.

I didn’t catch that Christie McCawley worked in the train car diner in the Pilot. My bad. Oooops. Well, it was spelled out in the 3rd episode. And Stahma’s admission to Christie? CHILLING. CHILLING INDEED. My word! Jaime Murray can play an Evil scheming character. My hat is off to her talents! I think I’m going to have to put her up in a Geek Deathmatch poll up against Admiral Cain from BSG (I would have said Ellen Tigh but y’all voted for Cain instead).

I’m REALLY liking Defiance so far. Saying it’s a Eureka-Farscape-BSG-Caprica cross done right does NOT do it justice AT ALL. What did the rest of you think of the 3rd episode?

~Shooter Out

#3

Shooter, if you’re not into the show, you can just come out and SAY it.

#4

Did you SEE that YouTube clip? What is there not to like a out it?

#5

I was kidding! That was quite the intricate burst of enthusiasm. I’m midway through ep 2. The first 5 minutes of the pilot hooked me!

#6

It’s a wonderful show. So far it has BSG-like television show Game Changer written all over it.

#7

so has someone registered defiancewatercooler.com yet?
IF I had any money right now i’d do it…

OK i checked and it’s available…
anyone tempted?

#8

One of the most impressive takeawaIt’s an amalgam of so many things, but they all fit well: The aging tough guy, the love interest(s), the guy-girl banter, the post-apocalyptic thing, the young romance, the political scheming, the SyFy-show vibe, the old west-sci-fi vibe that I associate with Firefly… not to mention its own distinct elements.

#9

How could I forget Firefly! Of Course, Firefly!

So: Defiance = Eureka-Farscape-BSG-Caprica-Firefly

#10

While defiance contains elements of each of hese shows, I think it’s just wish fulfilment on our part by comparing it to other shows, inevitably, all this has happened before and it will all happen again. I too saw what I regarded as sci fi elements from farscape and firefly, however I like to think defiance has it’s own, unique voice, building on the much loved sci fi we’ve seen before, as always, however YKMV.
Phaze
on the “YKMV is like YMMV but, you know, metric” ID

#11

While it does have spot elements and things to compare with to other shows (including vintage music from Bear)…I’m just enjoying it for what it is and I’m glad for that :)…the same thing happens all the time in sports too, people tend to compare present players to their favorites in the past, and sometimes miss the uniqueness of the talent in front of them too…between this show and Bates Motel (which I should start another thread for)…Monday nights are awesome post-hockey DVR nights now :slight_smile: