In this episode of Syfy’s Defiance, the skeleton of Kenya’s late husband is found, and Tommy launches a murder investigation. Also, something comes up that may keep Christie and Alak’s wedding from taking place. Josh provides the recap, while Violet gives her commentary in pink font!
This episode begins with Alak at his bachelor party, which is in a bar. We see several Castithans pretty drunk. Alak is sparring with another, and the Castithans keep giving him a hard time over his human bride. In a cage, is a human “bridge”, who would equate to a stripper at a bachelor party. Alak “rescues” this queen, and the other Castithans egg him on to have “ritual coitus”, to which Alak tries to avoid. This eventually leads to a real brawl, and the breaking of a wall, revealing a dead body that has been hidden in the walls of the bar.
Alak proves himself to be a good guy, truly devoted to Christie, as he does not want to betray her by doing anything with the stripper.
Meanwhile, Christie is trying on her wedding dress, with the help of Kenya. Stahma comes to visit, and tells her tale of her migration to Earth, and asks Christie to wear her “Tilo”. The Tilo is a sort of veil, but rather than being semi-transparent, it actually is a decorative metal that covers the entire face. She explains it is a family heirloom, but Christie seems uncomfortable wearing it. Clearly another situation of culture issues between the different species now living on Earth. She seems to agree to wear it however.
Tom and Irisa are walking through town, and Tom talks about how he think the wedding will be good for the town, but Irisa disagrees. Tom then tries to work in a date to the wedding with Irisa, but she declines.
Guess Tommy didn’t get the hint a couple episodes ago that Irisa’s no longer interested. Oh, and what’s up with those sunglasses Irisa is wearing all of a sudden? They seem Mr. Birch/steampunk-esque.
Back at the hospital, the body Alak has found is being examined by Nolan and Dr. Yewll. Tommy comes in and indentifies the man as Hunter Bell through his ring. We learn through a flashback that he owned the NeedWant, and we find out Tommy’s origins–he came in as a card hustler, and was busted by Hunter. Hunter takes him to the old lawkeeper not for punishment, but to give him a job as deputy. This happened 7 years ago.
The first motive seems to be Kenya, since she now owns the NeedWant, and Tommy begins investigating his disappearance. The old sheriff basically tosses the case aside, saying that Hunter probably fled town, despite Tommy’s thoughts. Nolan decides to talk to Kenya, since she hasn’t mentioned her husband. Again, through another flash back, we learn that Kenya was not treated well by Hunter, despite her veil of happiness she gives to Nolan. This makes her even more of a suspect, since she seems to be hiding something.
The next scene shows Amanda talking with Nicky, regarding the campaign that Datak is making against her. Nolan and Tommy pay a visit to them, and Nolan wants to discuss matters with Amanda. Through another flashback, we learn that Amanda knows about the abuse, but Kenya turns it into an argument. Amanda then makes a threatening remark in the flashback towards Hunter, implying her possible involvement.
Squeaky clean Amanda Rosewater? No way. But to protect someone in her family? Maybe…
Nolan asks Amanda about Hunter, regarding Kenya’s relationship. Amanda says that he did not bully Kenya though, seemingly protecting her. Tommy is not convinced, but Nolan seems rather unconcerned, since Hunter was a “bad man”. Tommy fights to bring the murderer to justice, but Nolan brushes him off.
Rafe and Datak discuss the Tilo, and whether Christie will wear it. Datak then says how much he despises humans and their scent. This causes Rafe to question the reason why Datak is ok with this wedding. Rafe then reveals that the mines will not be inherited by his children, but by a trust, thereby removing Alak as a possible heir. Datak says that he is fine with that…
Considering that the only reason this wedding was pushed and supported by Datak and Stahma was to seize control of the McCawley mines, I don’t believe for a second that Datak is fine with the mines being inherited by a trust for the benefit of Irathients. Especially after last episode when we found out just how racist against Irathients Datak is!
Until he gets home, and begins screaming about the situation to Stahma. He says the wedding is off, and Stahma tries to convince him otherwise. We get a revealing look the subservient role women are supposed to play in Castithan society, when Stahma becomes heated with Datak, but then realizing, reverts back to her muted personality. She then tries to reason with him in a more appealing way, but Datak does not seem to be wavering.
Stahma actually seems to be genuinely concerned for her son’s happiness, while all Datak cares about is the fact that he’s now getting nothing out of his son marrying a human.
Back with Tommy and Irisa, they are investigating the hole further that Hunter was found in, to which Irisa finds a hair. They discover its a whisker of an alien bartender that had worked at the bar at the time of the murder. Tommy and Irisa pay this bartender a visit, and break into his hovel. They find that he is dead, killed similarly to a Castithan assassination.
Meanwhile, Datak talks with Alak, trying to hint that the wedding is a bad idea. When Alak does not seem to be pliable this way, Datak becomes angry, and demanding the wedding is off. His main concern seems to be with the Castithan blood being diluted, which reveals that the possibility of “hybrids” is possible. Another interesting theme seems that of children dealing with their parents immigration and their desire to cling to the “old ways”, while the child wants to be more progressive, and is forced to balance the two extremes.
Datak leaves, giving Alak time to cool off, but Datak is detained by Nolan for the murder of Hunter Bell. There really wasn’t much evidence, but the reason for his arrest is made clear later.
Alak visits Christie, looking distressed, but Christie is elated, telling Alak that he will wear the Tilo if it will make the wedding go smoother. Rafe then comes in the door, and sees Christie crying. Rafe approaches Alak. Alak tells Rafe that his father has called off the wedding. Rafe seems to show his humane side here, and actually wants to wedding to go on, since it is what Christie wants.
Nolan drags Datak in to lock up, saying that they found the murder weapon in Datak’s closet. Nolan demands that Datak explain, and Datak has his own flashback, where we learn that he was an “employee” of Hunter, which seemed to be as some sort of bookie or something. Datak demands a raise, but Hunter decides to fight him instead. After they brawl, of all people to save Datak, Rafe comes up with an “old school” shotgun. Datak thanks Rafe for saving him, and they have a “nice” conversation. We learn that Rafe isn’t quite as racist as we thought. Another thing we learn is that Rafe is worried about Hunter taking his mines, which he reveals to Datak.
Rafe might be regretting saving Datak that night right about now… In fact, considering how far Datak has risen in the ranks since then and everything he has done, I wonder how many times Rafe has thought back to that night and wondered “what if” he never stepped in to help Datak out…
Upon hearing Datak’s story, Nolan releases him. Tommy demands to know why, and Nolan explains that the whole arrest was “theater”, hoping to have Datak lead them to the real killer. Datak visits Rafe. Their conversation implies that Datak thinks Rafe is the murderer, but he denies it. Datak and Rafe then argue about the wedding, and Datak refuses to believe that it is still on. Datak goes as far as pulling his knife on Rafe, to which Rafe reveals his sidearm he has in his belt. Perfect timing has Amanda walk in, saying the wedding is about to start. Meanwhile, Tommy has heard the entire conversation.
Out of nowhere, Nicky visits Yewll, and she hopes that Yewll will rejoin her in their plan. Nicky reveals that she killed both Hunter and the bartender. The bartender knew about the murder of Hunter Bell, and Nicky explains she had to kill him now since Nolan was digging into the case further. Nicky continues coldly, which then ends up in a flashback, showing Yewll examining Nicky. In the flashback, Hunter has walked in on the examination, who finds out that Nicky is not human. Yewll and Nicky then decide to pay a visit to Hunter. She explains she is attempting to protect Earth from something “bad”, but does not elaborate on what. Hunter then tries to blackmail Nicky, however she is not going for it. She winds up beating Hunter to death with her cane. We learn that the bartender witnessed the murder, and helped get rid of the body.
Back in the present, Nicky tries to comfort Yewll. Yewll isn’t very happy with Nicky however, and ends up drugging her with a paralytic. Yewll then talks to the paralyzed Nicky, about how evil Nicky has become. She then injects Nicky with another drug, which is kills her. She tells Nicky that what she has done to her is for “the greater good”, taking Nicky’s explanation for what she does for herself.
So this whole time Nicky was an Indogene, like that astronaut guy a couple weeks ago, and not a human?? Did not see that one coming! At what point was the real Nicky replaced? Was she ever mayor as a human? What about when Rafe was having an affair with her? I wonder what he would think about that…
The episode begins to wrap up, with the wedding. Kenya helps Christie dress, when Stahma visits her again. Stahma explains to Christie that she doesn’t have to wear the Tilo, and has made her a traditional veil instead. The wedding begins, with both human and what I would assume Castithan traditions being used. Datak decides to show up, and seems to finally cave on the wedding, but still is not happy. Nolan and Kenya share a moment about the wedding, seemingly bringing them back together possibly. Irisa decides t show up in some crazy outfit (this is “nice” clothing for an Irathient I suppose?), and sits next to Tommy, and even decides to hold his hand. Meanwhile, Datak whines about the Tilo again, to which Stahma says “I don’t know” for the reason why Christie is not wearing it.
When Stahma tells Datak she doesn’t know why Christie isn’t wearing the Tilo, I have to question her motives in giving Christie the veil to wear. Did she just want to make it look like Christie decided of her own accord not to wear the Tilo, and therefore stir up more trouble as to Datak’s prejudices against humans and the McCawley family? This is Stahma we’re talking about here, so I wouldn’t put it past her. Or did she genuinely take pity and become more accepting of Christie and the human ways, telling Datak she didn’t know, so as to avoid him making a scene and getting mad at her for allowing this to happen? And what was up with Nolan putting his arm around Kenya? They sure looked like they were getting pretty cozy, which seemed to come out of nowhere. Kenya was pretty cold to him when she broke up with him, has she now had a sudden change of heart? Also, looks like Irisa and Tommy might start dating now. Up until now, it seemed like she wasn’t interested in anything past a one night stand.
The episode finishes up with a narration voiced by Nicky, but presumably is from a note written by Yewll. “Nicky” admits her crimes and her body is found in a car as an apparent suicide. The show finishes with Yewll now having the artifact, to which she puts in a storage box of some sort.
As a whole I enjoyed this episode for the most part. I thought the flashbacks were great for providing the personal history of a lot of characters, revealing that both Datak and Tommy had to pull themselves up from the ground, both coming from less than modest means. The “whodunit” feel the episode had was pretty good as well. However the big problem I have with this episode is the death of Nicky. I feel like the show has dragged on and on revealing very tiny pieces of her story, without really fleshing it out. And instead of really getting into this story, she is killed off instead. I was not happy about this at all. I almost think it could be due to the actress not wanting to play the role for one reason or another. I hope that this huge event doesn’t spoil the remaining parts of the show, as I actually really liked this episode aside from Nicky’s death. Until next week!
This was a great episode for getting lots of background information on several characters. The most surprising was the quasi-friendship that seemed to be forming between Rafe and Datak! Never would have guessed that! I also liked watching Christie and Alak’s wedding and seeing the Castithan wedding traditions combined with human wedding traditions. Not sure where the story is headed now that Nicky has been taken out of it. I wonder if the artifact will start to affect Dr. Yewll, and she’ll start seeing dead Nicky, like Quentin started seeing dead Luke. Although, it looked like Dr. Yewll may have disposed of it somewhere because she didn’t want anything to do with it, so I’m not sure if that will happen. But seems like it has to come back up in some way or another, as it would be very odd to bring up this whole storyline and suddenly drop it, never to mention it again. Looking forward to seeing where the next episode takes us, because I have no idea at this point!
You can check out the first few minutes of the next episode, entitled “Past is Prologue” below!
