Defiance - S3E13 - Upon the March We Fittest Die
Previously on Defiance, ‘The Awakening’
Starring: Grant Bowler, Julie Benz, Stephanie Leonidas, Jaime Murray, Tony Curran, Jesse Rath, Trenna Keating, Nichole Galicia, Anna Hopkins, Raymond Ablack | Director: Michael Nankin
The season finale begins immediately where “The Awakening” left off with the always ravenous Kindzi filling her nostrils with fresh baby scent, while Luke’s father and grandmother lay broken on the ground. Stahma regains consciousness due to Luke crying his little lungs out. Noticing Alak is still knocked out, Stahma plays her last card and offers her life to Kindzi in exchange for Luke’s. Kindzi isn’t the least impressed by her plea as she looks over the child like a juicy steak. Stahma quickly regains the All-Mother’s interest by presenting herself as her slave, ready and able to do anything Kindzi wishes.
Kindzi approves, yet still has no desire to let Luke go. When all seems lost, enter Datak who makes Kindzi do her best impression of a grape skewered by one of those plastic swords. Tarr jams the hidden blade in his bionic arm through her neck and breaks it off, giving his family enough time to escape the crazed Omec. Kindzi screams out in frustration as the Tarrs quickly drive off in a roller. Alak is impressed and thankful for his mother’s efforts in saving Luke. She humbly replies, “I did no more than any woman would have done for her child. No more than Christie did.”
“DON’T PUSH YOUR LUCK.”, scowls Alak.
A pyre burns at the Omec camp as a healing Kindzi and her younger siblings scheme about their future. Kindzi asks why no more Omec have landed on Earth and her subordinate matter-of-factly states there was no prey to feed the new arrivals. He continues to overstep his bounds by saying plans should be made as a group (uh huh) and they should return to the ship to redouble their efforts (oh HELL no). This bold-ass Omec then asks a side-eyeing Kindzi “How many more of us will end up on this funeral pyre?” With a quickness, Kindzi cuts the fool’s throat and throws her dying brother-lover (ewww) to the others… as food.
The remaining Omec reluctantly feast on their recently deceased brother with all the timidity and hesitation of a boyfriend who’s eating the worst dinner ever made by his girl, who can’t cook worth a damn, but he fakes a smile anyhow. Clearly, relations between the All-Mother and her brood aren’t going well.
While the Omec are recreating the Donner Party, Nolan and crew are chowing down in the Lawkeeper office. Although no new Omec have been disembarking from the mothership, Amanda, Yewll and Nolan brainstorm about how to take advantage of this small window of opportunity. Yewll suggests they sneak onto the ship and “blow it all to hell”. How could any one of them disagree with that plan? Datak suddenly busts through with a 12 gauge shotgun aimed at Yewll, proclaiming she’s working with the Omec. Nolan gets between them and informs Datak that Yewll was under Omec control and is now back to her old self. In an unusually funny moment, both Amanda and Irisa nod in agreement and Datak drops the shotgun, thankful his friend is no longer under their influence.
Now with Stahma and Datak in attendance, Yewll draws a crude sketch of the Omec ship while relaying her plan to infiltrate the ship via pods and overloading its engine. As she’s going over her plan, Alak notices how much Luke has taken to Irisa. Despite Adina trying to wiggle her way into his life then dying seconds later last episode, he sure did forget about her real quick. While Alak gazes across the room at Irisa, Nolan actually drops some insightful questions that punch holes in Yewll’s typically meticulous strategy.
Although the plan isn’t 100%, it’s as good a chance the gang has in ridding Earth of the Omec permanently. Nolan quickly volunteers his services, with Datak following suit. Stahma objects but Datak is determined to seek revenge for all Kindzi has done to his family. That is, if Amanda will have him. “A ship full of Omec… a violent psychopath could come in handy.” The team scrambles to have everything ready for the mission, while Amanda returns to her office to address Defiance about the Omec and how once more, the town becomes the line that no enemy shall cross.
Irisa is still looking after Luke when Alak awkwardly approaches. After a few moments of silence, he suggests to Irisa that after the mission is over, she can spend more time with Luke (who hilariously approves with baby claps). Alak, bringing out his best puppydog eyes, coyly says “He really likes you.” Irisa responds in kind. “I like him too.” Yeah… Luke so wasn’t who they were talking about.
Amanda and Berlin are walking along the outskirts of Defiance when two Omecs with a string of captives is stopped by a foul-mouthed old man with a sawed off shotgun. The geezer is taken down with an alien cattle prod before Rosewater and Berlin arrive. Amanda manages to kill one while the other takes one of their captured hostage. Amanda drops her rifle to calm matters and gets a cut slash to her guts for her trouble. Berlin kills the Omec but Amanda is gravely wounded. Nolan races through town with the Mayor in his arms, hoping Yewll can save her in time.
Doc manages to use her Indochine expertise in keeping Amanda in one piece despite being “up to my elbows in blood”. Amanda is understandably upset that she’s out for the long haul, the squad now has to find a fresh body to accomplish their task. Even if what Yewll proposes is successful, Nolan will come back to Earth as a fugitive of the Votanis Collective. Nolan claims to be at peace with whatever outcome, as long as he can protect those he loves - and the rest of the population - from those ravenous killers.
“You’re so full of shit.”
“Undeniably.”
Before departing towards an unknown future, Joshua and Amanda share a kiss. Not before shooing away Samir, whose hero worship of Nolan has reached newer, creepier levels.
Joshua orders Berlin and Alak to continue patrolling Defiance and incapacitate any Omec hunting its citizens. Irisa intercedes and makes herself part of the plan which Nolan strongly objects. She drops the One Rule on him and once more, Joshua acquiesces to her wishes.
The Omecs begin to descend from the ship again as the group arrive at the McCawley mines and venture through Old St. Louis to Kindzi’s secret lair. Nolan is the first to lift off, who gets a real kick from the experience. The rest follow one by one; Kindzi notices their taking off and races back to her honeycomb hideout.
Yewll is the last to arrive and guide the team to their designated areas, but Nolan stops to take in the view of Earth. It’s a sight he’s longed to see and one no human has taken in for decades. The sentimentality is hastily dropped to return to the task at hand. Yewll, Datak and Irisa head to the control center while Nolan is responsible for dropping safeguards in the engine room.
Irisa stops during their trek to the control center to acknowledge there are children on board, giving her pause in completing the mission. Datak informs her that “Evil comes in all shapes and sizes.” Don’t like their adorableness fool you; they already born believing they are the most superior species in the universe.
Yewll, Datak and Irisa arrive at the control center, dumbfounded by the sheer size of the Omec ship. Yewll activates the control node and steps in to be installed inside the ship. The extremely painful procedure nearly fails from the start due to the Omec AI who initially rejects her presence.
Back on Earth, Stahma has volunteered to take care of the Omec survivors at medbay, paying particular attention to Amanda. Rosewater at first rebuffs Stahma’s desire to talk but eventually gives her a chance to explain herself. In what is a very difficult admission, Stahma reveals that she considers Amanda a great friend and regrets that she couldn’t live up to her expectations or be her friend, after all she’s done.
Nolan is still finding his way to the engine room, Yewll assists him via the ship communications network. While when they go over the plan in more detail, he is attacked by a swarm of Omec probes who are programmed to eliminate unknowns. Datak and Irisa help Yewll by stabbing more data lines in the doc to gain deeper access into the system. Although he lost his rifle, Nolan is safe and presses on to his objective.
Through Amanda’s blurry view, the viewers witness Omecs recapturing their injured prey in the medlab and taking the volunteers including Stahma and Luke. Always one to risk life and limb to protect her people, Amanda stumble out of the medbay. Her limited exertion is enough to reopen her wounds. The effort is worth it as Amanda amazingly she puts them all down in short order. Stahma races to Rosewater seconds after she collapses from exhaustion and tends to her wounds.
Yewll informs Irisa and Datak that one more connection is needed to gain full access of the ship. Irisa notices a pool of blood forming from the control node and realizes Doc never was going to return with them. Yewll admits this was her plan all along and her sacrifice isn’t a big deal because she’s an artificial lifeform. Datak responds by telling Yewll she is “a real person with enormous honor and infinite soul”. Taken back by his words, Yewll expresses a few seconds of before smirking her final order to Datak:
“Just stick it in me, sailor.”
Datak affectionately caresses Yewll’s face before the final data line is forced hard at the top of her skull. Doc’s eyes roll back into her head as she’s fully integrated into the Arkbrain. Yewll activates the engine to begin the necessary buildup of particles to destroy the ship.
All is not rainbows and butterflies, as Kindzi launches from her lair on Earth to put a wench in the group’s plans.
Nolan is in the engine room and receives word from Yewll that she’s in the Arkbrain and she is essentially his help program in case he can’t sort out the overload sequence. Unfortunately, Yewll is too late to warn Nolan that Kindzi is right behind him.
Joshua is no match for Kindzi, who throws him around the engine room like a sack of hairy potatoes. Kindzi attempts to override Yewll as Nolan gains his second wind to stop her before Doc is shut down. Kindzi is basically annoyed by his feeble attempt to best her and she hits Nolan with her stun rod to cut this combat short. Joshua mentions T’evgin and how he wanted something better for the Omec, but Kindzi only gives him quick kicks to the ribs in response. Now literally teetering on the edge, Kindzi gives Nolan one final sniff before she unhinges her jaws. It gives Joshua enough time to grab her knife, sink it in her brain and flip her into one of the turbines to a violent end.
Goodbye, Kindzi.
It’s been… weird.
With Doc unresponsive, Nolan uses the stun rod to reactivate the engine overload. Yewll tells everyone to leave because everything will go boom in five minutes. At the pod room, Irisa tells Nolan that she isn’t going and wants to save the Omec. Nolan can’t believe what he’s hearing but begrudgingly agrees with Irisa’s plan to give the purple people eaters a second chance. Nolan asks Yewll is there is a way to save the ship despite the inevitable overload. The only way is to vent the energy through the propulsion system, causing them to venture out to the darkness of space.
Irisa is down for one more adventure, but Nolan stuns her (out of love), knowing what they’re about to do is a dangerous venture that may not go well at all. He places Irisa in a pod and runs back to the control center.
Yewll instructs Nolan to pull the data line out of her skull and she manifest a command chair for Nolan. He asks Yewll if she knows any Johnny Cash songs and in classic Yewll fashion, threatens to shoot Joshua out the airlock if he sings one line. The blast doors open to a panoramic view of Earth and vast cosmos set before them.
“We’re going to Jackson.”
The engines activate, pushing them out of earth orbit. Through a series of pulses, Nolan and Yewll gain enough speed to exit the solar system within seconds and in a single flash, they’re off into the unknown.
“Upon the March” ends with all of Defiance attending the relighting of the Gateway Arch, six weeks after the Omec ship jumped out of the system. Irisa - now the Lawkeeper - is keeping a journal of all that’s happened since her father left Defiance. Although others think Nolan couldn’t have made it, Irisa believes in her heart he’s alive and probably getting in trouble with a whole other town of aliens. Irisa called to settle a dispute in the NeedWant, as the camera aims for the stars, following the path Yewll and Nolan took through the far reaches of the universe.
After looping and dodging around various astral phenomena (accompanied by a soulful rendition of David Bowie’s “Everyone Says Hi”), we reach the Omec ship drifting through a murky nebula, with Nolan ready to make yet another jump.
One more adventure.
