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Tuesday, July 9, 2013

The shocking twists and turns of Defiance channel George R.R. Martin in a spectacular season finale. The lesson? Never meet an evil person in the woods. Like ever.

This scene ended the episode. It's the invasion of the Earth Republic
army taking over Defiance. It's a bad time for this sci-fi outpost.
Everything is indeed broken. Click to EMBIGGEN
The culmination of an amazing season one ended last night with cliffhangers that made me realize, Defiance is not your run-of-the-mill "play it safe" and be predictable sci-fi series. I am thoroughly engrossed in this story, and I HATE the fact that I have to wait until June 2014 for more. SyFy channel built last week's episode as "the one everyone will be talking about." Although good, it had none of the shocking moments that Monday night's season finale called "Everything is Broken" had. And I just want to warn those who are following this series and haven't watched it yet, there are some major spoilers in this post.
Kenya had the upper hand on Stahma, but got outmaneuvered. R.I.P. Kenya.
OMG they killed Kenya. She was like one of my favorite characters. And Kenya didn't die a useless death either. She was outmaneuvered in a game of chess and paid for it with her life. I really shouldn't be shocked, but I am. Kenya's demise was foreshadowed by the venomous and treacherous threats coming from the evil Stahma. "This will not end well for you," Stahma said to Kenya. I just didn't think Defiance had the cojones to go there. After last night's episode, I'll never say that again.

To be fair, I admire Stahma. She's got more layers than an onion and makes for a powerful villain. She's as ruthless, conniving, and clever as Cersei in George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire. But I thought Kenya could outwit her. In truth, I believed she had up until the end. I kept asking myself, what would I do if I were in Kenya's position? I don't know if I would have met Stahma in the woods, but I sure as hell wouldn't trust her...not after she back-stabbed her sister, Mayor Rosewater, to give Datak an edge in the election.
Meeting an evil person in the woods is never a good idea. Here Kenya
in back (she's the brunette) is meeting Stahma. This scene reminded me
in every way of the 1976 film "Omen 2" where Damien kills a blond boy in
the woods who suspects who he truly is, i.e., the Antichrist. See picture below.
This scene gave me nightmares when I was a kid. The dark-haired boy is
pure evil. The blond kid in the background goes to the same military
academy and stumbled across Damien's secret, so he kills him with his
"powers." It's awful. Lesson: never meet an evil person in the woods. Ever.
But as it turns out, Kenya did meet Stahma in the woods (NEVER DO THIS! NEVER EVER MEET AN EVIL PERSON IN THE WOODS PEOPLE!), and Stahma acted just like a spider, luring Kenya in by saying she was on the run from her monster husband. The only thing that makes this act even believable is that Datak is a monster. I suppose that Stahma said at least one thing that was correct: "You don't know Castithans." Kenya paid the price with her life by accepting a flask coated with poison. She was smart enough not to drink it, but just touching the surface of the flask was enough to kill her. It was a total turn around since Kenya had a gun to Stahma's head and seemed to have the upper hand. I'm still reeling from this surprise, and I thoroughly expect this to go down as one of the top ten shocking deaths in science fiction. It's right up there with Samuel L. Jackson's death in Deep Blue Sea.
One of the most shocking deaths in cinematic history.
OMG they killed Nolan. What the hell is going on? I loved Nolan. We've been seeing Defiance through his eyes since day one. We started out with him in the pilot episode in a crawler with his daughter in tow making their way to Antarctica. Right from the start, he established himself as a rugged military man with a sense of honor and the ability to beat anyone up in a fight. Strong, cunning, with a "straight as an arrow" moral compass, and boom...taken out with a bullet fired from an Earth Republic surgeon that has a reputation for loving his work. This is a euphemism for "I like to cut people up on the operating table."
Noes! They killed Lawkeeper Nolan. 
To be fair, Nolan's fate is similar to Catelyn's Stark's: dead but then resurrected through magic (sorry if I'm spoiling A Game of Thrones here). But the resurrection comes at what price? Irisa  has essentially given herself over to being "The Devouring Mother" because she didn't want to lose her dad. She's now the weapon of Irzu, the goddess of the Irathients, and from the look of things, I think this means she's going to lose all of her identity and become a killing machine. Her body may survive the fall into the strange glowing pit deep within the mines, but all the things that make up Irisa can't possibly survive that. So in a sense, they've killed off Irisa too!

Major cast members have been dropping like flies in this season. Who OTHER than George R.R. Martin does that? Well okay...The Walking Dead does it too. I don't know if I really like that or not? I suppose I do because I'm completely hooked in this show.
The conniving and murderous Tarr family. As much as I'd like to see them
get justice for killing Kenya and hurting others, they are some great villains.
OMG they killed Datak. Okay...we didn't see him get killed so he'll probably be back next season. But the fact is that he did kill the leader of the Earth Republic with a knife in his office and soldiers were pounding on the door. I just don't see how that could go over well? Hands covered in blood, dead body of the leader on the ground. I know if I'd been a soldier and saw that, I'd fill the dude full of bullet holes. All they wanted was access to the mines and they got that when Datak won the election. What further use is this Castithan to them? He's dead weight; a liability. And by the way the writers offed Kenya, I fully expect Datak to get executed along with Stahma in the season premiere.

Man oh man, the shocking twists and turns of Defiance channel George R.R. Martin in a spectacular season finale dripping with blood. Why does June of 2014 seem so far away?

16 comments:

  1. I've only just started watching Defiance, and it's growing on me...I've got a lot to catch up on me thinks in this show.

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  2. Wow, loads of people died. Glad you enjoyed the series Mike.

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  3. Monday we were placing bets on who would die. Kenya didn't shock, but thought my wife was going to have a fit when Nolan went down. Liked the way it ended in the Mayor's office though. Datak screwed the people and it came back around to him.
    And now we have to wait a full year to see what happens!!!

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  4. Maybe by June 2014 it will be on Netflix and I might watch it.

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  5. Stahma is probably the only interesting character in the show. I'm a bit behind, so the last episode I watched was when doctor kills Nicolette.
    They kill Nolan too? Kenya was insignificant character, but Nolan? Who will lead the second season then? Hopefully not the irritating Irisa?

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  6. Okay I haven't watched this so I didn't read the post but the title alone has my interest. I hope this is available On Demand so I can catch up with it.

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  7. That death scene in Deep Blue Sea terrified me and gave me nightmares for days.

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  8. Since I might one day watch this, I skipped you and all of your spoilers. :P

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  9. I don't know, Maybe because I'm in a funky mood, the pic of the shark having a Samuel Jackson snack made me laugh.

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  10. About crapped my pants went Nolan ate it. The show has been good from the very start. I love it!

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  11. Summer seems a long way off for next year to wait for this show to come back. But we'll have it right after game of thrones.

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  12. OMG...Catelyn comes back?! I'll try to put that out of my mind for now (I've watched all 3 seasons, but am only on Book 2 so far). Haha. I hadn't heard of Defiance, but it sounds awesome. Thanks so much for the SUSY Asylum review! I was so excited to read it this evening. :)

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  13. OMG! I need to catch up on this series. I think its been about three weeks. They can't just kill off Nolan, they have to bring him back.

    The last place you'll ever find me is in the dark woods alone with my worst enemy (or even a frienemy).

    .......dhole

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  14. Unfortunately, I don't really have tv service. I have netflix though. This show sounds interesting. I'll have to look into it.

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  15. Yeah, as soon as I saw them in the woods, I was all like "stupid, stupid Kenya. You can't trust her."

    As for Irisa, she isn't exactly what her people (the cult people) wanted her to be. Nolan rescued her before they could finish. She's been raised by him since then. She's been given a certain sense of herself and her own autonomy, which I think is going to inform how she behaves as this weapon in the future.

    If Irisa retains any of herself (and I think she will) those who thought they could control her will learn very, very differently.

    And I knew the colonel (what was his rank?) was doomed as soon as he had the temerity to insult Datak to his face like that. Dude! He so underestimated Datak.

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  16. I'm never reading that piece of shit again for the spoil of GoT.

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