Defiance returns to Syfy for its second season! Violet recaps the season premiere, which picks up 9 months after the end of last season, Nolan tries to track down Irisa, and we see how the E-Rep takeover of Defiance has affected everyone in town! Following the recap, both Violet and Josh share their thoughts on the episode.
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To see Josh’s thoughts on this week’s Defiance episode, The Opposite of Hallelujah, click here to get directly there!
Episode Recap of Defiance, Season 2 Episode 1: The Opposite of Hallelujah
This season picks up 9 months after last season left off. We see that there is a new provisional mayor, Amanda is running the NeedWant, Rafe McCawley is hard at work in the mines, and Christie seems to be doing well carrying out the Castithan way of life at Alak’s house.
Mayor Pottinger stops by the NeedWant to ask Amanda to work for him. Stahma stops by to pick up her cut for the week. They discuss Kenya, who Amanda believes is coming back, but Stahma tells her to prepare herself.
Meanwhile, Nolan is looking for Irisa in New Chicago. He finds Daigo, who tells Nolan he has seen Irisa in visions, and “she has become.” He says the work that he started all those years ago is now complete. Nolan shoots Daigo in the head and kills him.
Stahma stops by to visit Datak, who is being held in Camp Reverie, 6 miles east of Defiance. Datak is surprised to hear that Alak is running the family business.
Nolan takes a boat to the stone wall covered in hand prints that Daigo saw in his vision – they were part of the Chinese Theater in Hollywood. He asks a merchant at gunpoint where he can find Irisa. He sends Nolan down to the cliffs at Sunset and La Brea. The merchant then radios to someone that Joshua Nolan is in town.
Alak brings Skevur in because he hasn’t gotten his Blue Devil payment in yet. He finally decides to give Skevur 3 more days.
Over at the mines, a guy’s arm gets caught in the machinery. Rafe donates blood to the man, but the guy dies anyway. Rafe resents the E-Rep for working them too hard.
Stahma scolds Alak for giving Skevur 3 extra days to deliver the Blue Devil payment.
Nolan gets attacked by an old “friend” that he stole from. Irisa shows up and helps him out.
The sons of the man who died from the mining accident paint on a sign “Rise up, kill the E-Rep.” They get caught immediately, and arrested. The Viceroy taunts the Mayor about losing the town and his shot at Connor Lang’s Ambassador seat. When Rafe tries to step in on behalf of the sons, the Mayor threatens to take more from Rafe.
On the drive to Camp Reverie, the BioMan driver gets out of the armored truck to use the restroom. The back doors conveniently are unlocked, so the two sons escape and run into the woods. One is killed by a hellbug.
Nolan asks Irisa what happened to her the night she disappeared. She says that the E-Rep caught her and put her on a caravan headed west, but it was hit by hellbugs and everyone except her died. Nolan tells her that he remembers getting shot, then he had a vision about her falling into something. However, when he woke up, he didn’t have a scratch. She walks away, not wanting to talk about it. Nolan suggests they head to Antarctica, but Irisa tells Nolan she has to go to Defiance.
Back in Defiance, the surviving son makes it back in the middle of his father’s funeral and tells everyone what happened. Amanda confronts Mayor Pottinger, accusing him of setting the sons up, though he denies any involvement. She tells the Mayor to pardon the son that survived, and he agrees. Amanda accepts the position of Chief of Staff.
The prisoners are fed at Camp Reverie – by the guards flinging a bucket of food at them, leaving the prisoners to fight over the scraps. A woman sneaks up behind Datak, but Doc Yewll warns him. Doc Yewll later tells Datak she has a plan to get out of there, and Datak says he’s in.
A beat up Skevur brings payment to Alak. Alak confronts his mother about giving the order to beat up Skevur. Stahma takes charge and tells Alak that the family business is now hers, and he will deliver her orders.
While Nolan haggles with a merchant, Irisa sneaks off to follow a girl, then she attacks and kills her. But she returns quickly, without Nolan knowing what happened. As they drive back to Defiance, Irisa has a vision of herself slitting Nolan’s throat. She looks in the backseat and sees a vision of herself as a younger child, saying “shhh.”
We see that Mayor Pottinger is spying on Amanda with a hidden camera in her room.
Violet’s Thoughts on Season 2 Episode 1 of Defiance: The Opposite of Hallelujah
This was a pretty good season premiere and held my interest quite well. One of my biggest complaints from last season was that it started out with Nolan and Irisa being this great father-daughter team, but then every time an opportunity came up for them to work together, there was always an excuse for them to split up. So I was glad to see the two of them spending some quality time together for once. Even if Irisa is crazy.
What is going on with Irisa anyway? Daigo said that “she has become.” Become? Become what? A murderer? Why did she kill that girl? Why does her subconscious want her to kill Nolan? Why does she need to go back to Defiance? I would have liked to see what Antarctica looked like, personally! Is she dangerous? A ticking time bomb? I guess we’ll soon see.
Things in town are interesting with so many role changes. Amanda went from being Mayor to running a brothel. Datak went from being Mayor to being in prison. Now Alak is the figurehead of the family business, though Stahma is really the one pulling the strings, as always. She’s so sneaky. And probably my favorite villain of this show.
Now I’m just curious what this new Mayor is all about. So far I’m in for this season.
Josh’s Thoughts: Defiance, Season 2 Episode 1: The Opposite of Hallelujah
The town of Defiance has seen a lot of change during the interim we didn’t see it. Glad to see that Nolan is okay. We saw him healed by Irisa last episode, but it wasn’t really explained why. Not yet at least. It was interesting seeing a bit more than just Defiance. Hopefully this continues to be a trend. I always like seeing how different parts of the US have been envisioned when a show takes on a post-apocalyptic story-line. I am curious to see what we learn about Irisa this season. Is she planning on trying to avoid the E-Rep so that they do not turn her into a weapon? Obviously the show will have Irisa and Nolan coming back to Defiance, but I wonder what specifically drew Irisa back to it. Nolan seems to want to avoid Defiance, so I guess we will have to see when they come back to Defiance. I guess my main question is, when Irisa comes back to Defiance, what is to stop the new mayor from grabbing her? He probably knows that Irisa has something going on with her at the very least.
Looks like Datak didn’t make any attempts to flee after killing Colonel Marsh. He appears to be stuck in prison at the moment. Somehow I imagine he will escape however. He isn’t as interesting of a character being stuck in jail.
I am curious how this new mayor will turn out. Naturally, most of Defiance probably hates him considering he is a part of the E-Rep. There already seems to be some dissidence with the people, given the graffiti taking place. He seems to be a creep though, with his secret cameras watching over Amanda. I have a feeling he will not be a good guy.
Alak seems reluctant to lead the “family business” with Datak gone, so it appears Stahma will be stepping in for now. I am curious to see how this all works out if/when Datak makes it out of prison.
Overall, a good warm up episode for season 2. I really hope the dissidence in Defiance ramps up, and the E-Rep proves to be the “Big Brother” like government Nolan made it sound like last season. That will make for an interesting conflict for the season.
Scenes from Defiance, Season 2 Episode 2, In My Secret Life
Here are scenes from the next Defiance episode, titled In My Secret Life:
