Defiance: I Almost Prayed

September 2, 2014 10:56 AM - Season 2, Episode 13

The second part of Defiance's season finale begins with New York in ruins and the ancient Votan terraforming ship prepared to destroy the world in order to create a new paradise for the Votan races. Stopping Irisa from following through with the plan is the only way to save billions of lives, but the Earth Repbulic's only plan involves her death. Nolan has another plan and is willing to do whatever it takes to save his daughter. Linda Hamilton's Pilar is determined to get Christy, Alak and their unborn child out of Defiance against the wishes of a newly reconciled Stahma and Datak. How will the end of the world be stopped, Irisa dead or alive?
posted by Atreides (11 comments total)

You forgot to mention the first loss of a major character in the series. (raises glass) To Tommy. I really hoped he was going to make it. He reminds a bit of Tara from True Blood, a character who keeps getting shafted usually by those whom they care for the most. Oh Tommy, I'm gonna miss you.
posted by miss-lapin at 11:33 AM on September 2, 2014

The absence was intentional as I wanted to avoid spoiling anyone who had not yet watched the first part of the finale. ...though I could have mentioned it under the fold. And...I see a typo, doh. -_-

I'll be back tomorrow, if not later tonight, with a better break down on the events!
posted by Atreides at 2:32 PM on September 2, 2014

Poor Tommy. You deserved better, as a character and an actor.

I don't think Stahma should have killed her crew. I guess it is in character, she's ruthless and loyal only to family, but now she has no minions. That seems woefully shortsighted.
posted by Ik ben afgesneden at 5:21 AM on September 3, 2014 [3 favorites]

BUT, great stuff:
-Berlin's rescue scene
-Stahma and Datak in the silo
-The kids being kidnapped
-Linda Hamilton
-Doc Yewll's everything (I will miss her hallucination)
posted by Ik ben afgesneden at 5:51 AM on September 3, 2014 [2 favorites]

Yes, I will miss her imaginary wife. She was a great rescue.
posted by miss-lapin at 8:30 AM on September 3, 2014 [1 favorite]

And this is why I should not post from my phone when I'm half paying attention. A great CHARACTER.
posted by miss-lapin at 7:32 PM on September 3, 2014 [1 favorite]

I was happy, generally, with the finale. It wrapped up significant season long storylines and kicked started new ones.

Irisa and Nolan. You have to give it to Nolan for refusing to give up on his daughter. The love between the two has been among one of my favorite aspects of the show and their characters and stands as billboard to the future Earth where all the races live together. Nolan had a lot of reasons to consider his daughter lost, especially after she spent that speech breaking down on how horrible he was two episodes back. Meanwhile, we learn that in addition to taking out NYC and the HQ of the Earth Republic, she also apparently wiped out the HQ or at least significant city of the Votan Collective down in South America. Ramifications for the future of the two entities? Quite!

Linda Hamilton stirring crap up. Awesome! I appreciate the mystery left to us of where Pilar is taking her daughter and future grandson. In fact, is there really anything we can trust about her? I assume there might be a flash back with her and Greene, all happy schmappy, and I can't wait to see it.

The Berlin rescue was a great scene and it's kind of interesting that the NCO was ready to have her shot. How strong is the military authority structure in the E-Republic? Hrm. Berlin's character has definitely grown on me over the season and I'm glad she'll be around for next season, too. (I keep saying Season 3, but I don't think it's been granted that yet...meh!)

While it would cost a bit much, it would be awesome if Season 3 was essentially one large road trip with the cast chasing each other across the ravaged landscaped of North America. I can already see Rafe driving the truck and growling at the Tars as they get inappropriately close in the cab next to him.

One thing that popped up, and I apologize if this was actually the preceding episode, but there was a reference that Stahma had once been basically a servant. It was always my understanding that she was kind of a high class lady, or at least, had married down to Datak, who wasn't necessarily some bum in the streets. Perhaps it was more of a situation like a chamber maid to a very important person, who needs people of relatively good class to be their servants?

The Doc continues to be a great character, in part because of the great job the actor does behind what is practically a solid face mask. Her use of her eyes and voice conveys so much, it's deliciously fun to watch her really work and her banter back and forth with her imaginary wife was fun.

Also, a . for Old St. Louis, which apparently was completely destroyed with the destruction of the colony/terraforming ship. I loved that aspect of the geography of Defiance, so it will be missed, even if it was only used a few times.

On the bright side, it appears we will continue to get more Atherton, if we get a Season 3. Let's pray!

Overall, I thought this season an improvement on the last. I wonder if this is the best thing next to Farscape that we will get (before they bring back the Farscape movie? That's still happening right?) We have the producer of the show, and while there aren't puppets, I feel like this spin on an alien ensemble is kind of the same. Instead of a living ship, we have a city. Instead of another galaxy, it's on earth.

Any hoots, I'm sure more thoughts will percolate, but for now, a good season.
posted by Atreides at 2:40 PM on September 6, 2014

The revelation that Stahma was once a serving woman is quite interesting. So it appears both were low class ( a maid and a card hustler). Atreides suggests their elevation may have to do with her previous employer. I tend to think it was more like what happened in Pompeii after the first earthquake. After the wars, there was a lot of social upheaval and those who could hustle and didn't have much in the way of scruples were able to radically change their social status. I believe Datak and Stahma are two such people....well castithans. They were able to use the chaos after the war to build themselves into what they are now.
posted by miss-lapin at 2:53 PM on September 7, 2014 [2 favorites]

I'm not sure that Datak and Stahma were "low-class." I think this was more like they had to recover their original status which was lost in the crash/war. Like US immigrants who were engineers or doctors in their homeland but drive taxis or work as maids in the US. Remember, they've had the maid that died since she was a child--that predates the crash, doesn't it?
posted by Ik ben afgesneden at 3:45 PM on September 7, 2014 [1 favorite]

My theory wasn't necessarily low class gets job BOOM high class, so much as typical retinue of a king or queen, and she may have been a servant, but she was a servant to a powerful person because she came from a pretty good background and only because of that background. As in the Queen will only have a handmaiden who is the daughter of a Squire or something to that end.

That said, a post-crash reorientation makes sense in the way that Ik ben afgesneden described. While I think Datak married "up",and may have been lower class to Stahma, and Stahma was at least middle class or something, both were probably humbled pretty low in the time following the end of the Pale Wars. For the Tars to simply survive in the aftermath, Stahma had to be a servant (who apparently gave Rafe a sex act at the time).

It would be great if the writers could provide some kind of appendix type document which offered an over view of the social dynamics of all the races.
posted by Atreides at 8:50 AM on September 8, 2014

Joyous news! SyFy has renewed Defiance for season 3!
posted by Atreides at 7:07 AM on September 26, 2014 [1 favorite]