Josh recaps this episode of Syfy’s Defiance, where a long lost astronaut awakens from hypersleep! Violet gives her commentary in pink font. More after the jump!
This episode of Defiance begins with Nolan and Tommy searching for the fallen “space debris”. They have driven out to a desert looking. As they walk, Tommy and Nolan discuss Moby Dick, and Nolan discusses Tommy’s relationship with Irisa. They eventually come across the debris, and begin investigating it.
The “debris” is the ship fragment from last episode which was about to hit the town, but was redirected through Sukar and Irisa’s efforts.
They find it is mostly in shambles, and see a US Flag, indicating it as being very old. They find a NASA uniform with the name McClintock on it, which seems to have meaning to Nolan. Tommy has found a hyper sleep chamber, but the room seems to have had a power failure, with most dead, except one, McClintock. McClintock asks if Nolan and Tommy are Americans, Nolan says he was and welcomes him “home”.
Emphasis on the word “was.”
McClintock is brought into town, and people seem to be staring at him as Nolan drives them in. McClintock asks to call his wife, and asks where he is. Nolan and McClintock talk further, and Nolan explains that things have changed, and they have him looked at by the doctor.
Meanwhile, Connor Lang has surprised Amanda in her office, and she is trying to determine his motives for hanging around. Connor then offers Amanda a job again in New York, saying they can really change things this time around, with the E Rep. Amanda seems to consider it, which is shocking, but she initially says that she has an election to worry about. Amanda thinks that Connor is hiding something, to which he replies, that he misses her. Irisa then shows up, and tells Amanda that Nolan needs to see her. Connor asks to tag along, but Amanda declines his offer.
Here Connor confirms my suspicions from a couple episode ago, that the flowers Amanda had received were in fact from him. When Irisa came to fetch Amanda, it looked like she was spying on them, and I thought she was going to hear some sort of interesting secretive bit of information. But no, just seems like she was creepily hiding for no reason.
The doctor, Yewll, examines McClintock, and he is fascinated by her alien skin. Meanwhile, Amanda and Nolan discuss McClintock, seemingly amazed by his survival. We see a photo of McClintock’s wife, who was 28 last he saw. The Doctor seems a bit concerned after scanning McClintock with some medical device, but doesn’t indicate why. McClintock has a mild freak out as well, seeing visions of several of Indogenes surrounding him, in a medical sense.
At NeedWant, Datak is expecting Kenya Rosewater to “Service” him, but is unpleasantly surprised that Tira has taken her place. This seems to be a result of her recent relationship with Stahma. Datak is very angry, and storms out, unsatisfied.
We’ve seen Kenya refuse to service someone before — Nolan’s friend Eddie, because she was in a relationship with Eddie. Does Kenya’s refusal to service Datak signal that she is in a relationship with Stahma?
Back with McClintock, word has gotten to the people that he is alive, and apparently he is a celebrity. Connor tries to convince Amanda to turn him over to the Earth Republic, but Nolan ushers him off. Nolan takes McClintock to Rafe’s house for a sense of familiarity, since he lives much as US used to. Rafe, Nolan and Amanda discuss books and movies made about McClintock’s space ventures. A funny note, we learn Robert Pattison played McClintock in his movies (he played the vampire in Twilight, which Amanda knew).
We learn a lot as to why no one flies or ventures to space anymore. Radiation and space debris prevent flight from being possible and the public sentiment about space has basically tired people from exploring it any further. They discuss the mine shafts that Rafe has been working in, and how that has been the new exploration. Everyone turns in tired from drinking.
During this scene, we see Amanda (drunkenly) lay her head on Nolan’s shoulder and drift off to sleep. Hmmm…
At Datak’s house, Stahma is taking a bath alone, which Datak finds abhorrent. Datak discusses his unhappiness with Kenya. Datak explains he felt her decline of him was intentional to hurt him. Stahma tries to distract him, probably to prevent him from hurting her.
For some reason, a Castithan woman is not supposed to bathe alone. Datak was concerned about what the servants would think. I wonder if a Castithan man is not supposed to bathe alone either, or is it just women?
Back with McClintock, he is hearing voices in his head. He gets up, somewhat robotically, and begins to strangle Amanda. Nolan is able to stop him, and he is locked up. He seems shaken up about what he has done though. Rafe tries to defend him. As McClintock is taken to lock up, Connor pushes his way in, but Nolan makes him give Amanda some room. Nolan and Connor talk, insulting each other, but Nolan finds some common ground with him, with both of them caring for Amanda.
We know that Connor cares for Amanda as more than a friend, due to their history together, but does Nolan care for Amanda as more than a friend as well?
Irisa and Nolan talk about McClintock, and how he doesn’t belong, to which Irisa relates to. Meanwhile, Connor freaks out again and begins pounding himself into the walls of his cell. Nolan restrains him, as we see him having visions of more Indogenes. We find that he is bleeding silver, and Nolan then confronts the doctor. Yewll finally comes clean that he is a Indogene made assassin, made to blend in with humans. She says the reason she didn’t come clean earlier was because she felt that it would not go over well if the Earth Republic learned that there were assassin clones walking around. I felt it was an odd decision for her to lie about this now, considering she probably knew that he would freak out. McClintock tries to deny it, but we learn that the Indogenes made false memories, but they couldn’t perfect sensory memories. McClintock freaks out, and takes Amanda hostage. He then takes off.
Nolan and Irisa are still not getting along so well, since Irisa is still angry at Nolan for killing Sukar. We knew there was something shady about Dr. Yewll a couple episodes ago when Pol Madis recognized her and praised her work during the Pale Wars, although Dr. Yewll acted like she didn’t know what he was talking about. Was this the work he was referring to, or does this only begin to scratch the surface or her involvement? When McClintock questions what happened to the real McClintock, Yewll reveals that the human brain would not be able to survive memory extraction. So, pretty much they killed McClintock and many others in order to make the clones.
Back at Needwant, Stahma and Kenya have spent some quality time together, and they discuss Datak. Stahma tells Kenya to service Datak, so that he is not suspicious. Kenya says that Stahma is in a bad marriage, and seems angry about it. Stahma tells Kenya to “play the game better” so that their visits can continue.
Looks like Kenya is still accepting money from Stahma, so I guess they’re not exactly in as much of a relationship as Kenya and Nolan were, since Kenya eventually began to refuse to take Nolan’s money. I wonder if/when Kenya will begin to refuse to take Stahma’s money.
Back at Rafe’s house, Rafe is radioed about a disturbance in the mines. It is McClintock, standing over the cliff that Rafe wanted to show him. Rafe comes up to him, and McClintock pulls his weapon on him. Rafe tries to talk with him, and they discuss the meaning of being human. McClintock also discusses his wife, and if she would still love him as he is now. We are then led to believe that he jumps off the cliff, but I had a feeling he didn’t…
Back with Amanda, she discusses with McClintock’s suicide with Connor. She seems to understand his reasoning. She then informs Connor that she will not be taking his offer for the job in New York. Connor then reveals his true motives–saving her life. He tells her that the Earth Republic is trying to take Defiance, and thinks it will be easier without her in power, and they may take harsh moves to make it happen. Amanda still refuses his offer, and basically tells him to get lost.
Yeah, pretty sure no one actually expected her to take the job, or even consider it. Was hoping for a bit more of a love triangle involving Connor though. But I feel like we may have seen the last of him and his (weak) attempts to win Amanda back.
The show finished with Nolan visiting Rafe, and they discuss the final moments of McClintock. Nolan says they may try to retrieve the body, but Rafe says that it would basically be impossible to find. Nolan takes the hint, and leaves it alone. The episode begins to wrap up, flashing to McClintock, visiting an older woman, who is his wife, doing laundry the “old fashioned way”, and they hug. Finally the last scene has Nolan questioning Yewll regarding her involvement with the “Pale Wars”, but they are interrupted by a girl, who is sick. Yewll then announces that they have a viral outbreak on their hands, seemingly leading into the next episode.
A plague! My favorite.
As for this episode, it was fairly interesting. I had a hard time believing Yewll’s storyline, as lying about McClintock’s condition seemed like an odd decision, since he was a time bomb waiting to explode. Also, I find it odd that Nolan would be okay with letting him go, considering McClintock is essentially made to be a killer, and may not be able to control what he does. I am not sure if this something that only triggers to a specific target or not, but I still found it strange. Things seem to be coming to a head between the Earth Republic and Defiance however, which should be interesting. We also have the lead in for the next episode, seemingly involving a viral outbreak. One thing I found a little disappointing about the show was Nolan’s rather lack of caring about Sukar’s death when talking to Tommy about it. I would have thought, with him being the “good guy” he would have been a little more emotional, and apologetic to Irisa. Anyway, let’s see how this disease outbreak goes next week!
Interesting episode, as the arrival of McClintock caused us to get more background information on how things work now, such as why they can’t fly anywhere, although I would have liked to hear their explanation to him about how things got to be where they are, including the arrival of the Votans and the wars that followed. I also liked the discussion that McClintock and Rafe had about the meaning of being human, considering the fact that this McClintock is merely a clone who has the memories of the “real” McClintock. I hope we get more information on Dr. Yewll’s involvement in the Pale Wars next episode, despite the distraction of the outbreak. I agree that Nolan didn’t seem to care about Sukar’s death, so I don’t blame Irisa for still being mad at him for it. I just hope they can find a way to move past this soon!
Check out the first few minutes of Episode 9, If I Ever Leave This World Alive!
