Defiance - S2E1 - The Opposite of Hallelujah
The second season of Defiance begins 9 months after the events of the season 1 finale. Let’s catch up character by character.
Amanda and the Town Itself
Amanda has now taken over the NeedWant, believing that her sister is simply off on a trip and will be returning some day. She’s splitting the profits of the whorehouse with Stahma. Stahma tries to get Amanda to prepare herself that Kenya might not be coming back, but Amanda refuses to believe it. Stahma knows of what she speaks because she killed Kenya in the finale.
It’s Founder’s Day and the provisional mayor, Nile Pottinger, gives a showy speech, which Viceroy Mercado doesn’t care for. Later, Pottinger arrives at the NeedWant asking Amanda to work for him, not for the first time. She says no, not for the first time.
Rafe is now working in the mines he used to own. Because E-Rep is demanding long hours in shitty working conditions, things are bad. So bad that a man loses an arm to a piece of mining equipment and later dies in front of his sons. Some of the miners are fine with this because they’re being paid very well, more than what Rafe paid when he was in charge.
When the dead man’s sons deface public property in retaliation, they name drop Rafe as calling out the E-Reps for being Nazis. Pottinger doesn’t like this because Rafe has basically made him look like a punk in front of Mercado. Later, he has his henchman allow an escape by the two men when he’s taking them to Camp Reverie (see below). One is killed in the woods by a hell bug. Amanda confronts Pottinger, but he denies any involvement. It’s enough to make her finally accept the position as Chief of Staff.
Later, Amanda gets high in her room at the NeedWant and creepy-ass Pottinger watches via hidden cameras he has in her room.
The Tarrs
Stahma visits Datak in Camp Reverie, a prison six miles east of Defiance. Datak is anxious because the Collective isn’t petitioning for his release. He was sentenced to ten years and he doesn’t intend on serving it all. While Stahma tries to assure him that Alak is doing a fine job of running the family business, she also does a fine job of giving him a hand job through the gate that separates them.
Later, Stahma confronts Alak on the soft touch he’s using to run the business. He insists that he has things under control and that he won’t do things the way his father did.
Doc Yewll warns Datak as he’s about to be attacked in the prison yard. When he asks why she helped him, she says she has a way out of that dump.
Alak confronts his mother for interfering in the business and making him look weak. She basically tells him:
Nolan and Irisa
Nolan begins the episode in New Chicago where he’s taken Thresho’s wife hostage. At first Thresho pretends he doesn’t know what Nolan is talking about - you know, how he tortured Irisa all those years ago - but when Nolan tells him that Irisa disappeared Thresho starts talking about visions of Irisa near a stone wall covered in handprints. Nolan pays him back for this info by killing him in front of his wife.
Based on the info, Nolan tracks Irisa to AngelArc (formerly Los Angeles) - the stone wall with the handprints are the remnants of Chinese Mann’s Theater. Nolan has a run-in with Varus, who he’d stolen from before the series began. Before shit can get too real, Nolan is saved by Irisa!
She lies about what happened to her and where she’s been. When he tells her of his vision seeing her jump into the light, she walks away. She wants to go back to Defiance, and that can’t be good considering she’s still the only one able to see Irzu - in the form of her younger self. Is it because of Irzu that Irisa secretly murders a woman before they head to Defiance? We don’t know. But I’m betting Irzu is why Irisa has a daydream of slitting Nolan’s throat in the car.
