An interspecies wedding is put at risk when a corpse shows up in the walls of the town brothel.
Who would have thought that a corpse in a wall could lead to a story as stormingly dull as the one played out in this episode. Who killed him? Well it might have been Miss Scarlet in the dining room with the rope, but eveyrone else seems to have had the motive and the opportunity. This is plotting by the numbers and is barely enough to stay awake for.
The politics and emotional wrangling around the wedding are even more tedious than the main storyline.
With the mayoral election looming, Datak Tarr sets into motion a plan to destroy the mayor through her connection with Nolan and the killing of an innocent boy.
It has taken until the penultimate episode, but DEFIANCE finally comes alive in this episode where plotlines start to come together and characters start to take on a little depth. The main storyline is the plot against the mayor and Nolan by Datak Tarr and it will be interesting to see how that pans out.
Irisa's storyline also takes a turn for the very wierd as the shady doctor alien awakens a parasite within her and she starts to see things and wanders off into the woods with her back sliced open. This is the first alien plotline that has actually been intriguing.
Stahma's relationship with Datak is given some true alien depth in a telling scene that allows Jaime Murray to shine, but the plot all hangs on a thread that seems easy enough to pull, for either side.
Next week is the season finale and, probably for the first time since the pilot, this is something to really look forward to.
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Everything Is Broken
It's Election Day and things are about to get ugly as the Earth Alliance go after Irisa and Nolan determines to do whatever it takes to get her back alive.
It's the season finale of DEFIANCE and there was never any chance that things were going to get wrapped up nicely, especially since the show had already been renewed for Season 2. The things in Irisa are finally explained - sort of, and there's some shooting going on, leading to a surprisingly ballsy move, but one that everyone wimps out on pretty quickly. It's a huge special effects mumbo jumbo 'we don't have to explain it because it's religious' ending that is certainly not satisfying.
Interestingly, the mayor is completely sidelined in this big finale. Stahma gets to be even more devious than ever, mainly through necessity, though the likely outcome of that storyline isn't so very hard to see.
Considering how great Past Is Prologue was, this is something of a disappointment, but it manages to just about stay on the rails long enough to make another season a not displeasing prospect.
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