Defiance - S3E10 - When Twilight Dims the Sky Above
Previously on Defiance, ‘Ostinato in White’
Starring: Grant Bowler, Julie Benz, Stephanie Leonidas, Tony Curran, Jaime Murray, Jesse Rath, Trenna Keating, Conrad Coates, Nichole Galicia | Director: Allan Arkush
“When Twilight Dims the Sky Above” begins with Irisa and Nolan evading capture from unknown assailants through the alleys of Defiance. Unfortunately they’ve run themselves into a corner and Joshua is ready to go out in a blaze of glory as their pursuers close in.
*12 HOURS EARLIER*
Troubled more than ever by the loss of the militia during Rahm Tak’s raid, and Hinder’s sudden suicide in “Ostinato in White”, Nolan has been attempting to suppress his guilt under gallons of alcohol. Aside from irreparable liver damage, one particularly harmful byproduct from his binges is developing a rapport with an extremely suggestive imaginary friend. Now everywhere Nolan looks, he sees potential enemies, no matter their species. Irisa and Amanda drag Nolan out of NeedWant to straighten out before the Votanis Collective delegation arrives. What, the what! The man barely knows what day it is and here he goes, forced to shake hands with “the enemy”. This smells like trouble.
In the marketplace, Stahma is being accompanied by T’evgin who has genuine concerns about waking his Omec family who will no doubt be famished from their long journey. The two mention Australia being a possible location for a settlement, then T’ev drops a pretty massive bomb on Stahma: He’d like her to accompany him to the Land Down Under (no pun intended) and become the Mother of the Omecs. Given her rather mercenary nature, one would assume Stahma would marry up but her response is hesitant and shaky. With a potential daughter-in-law like Kindzi slinking around, any woman in her right mind would think twice.
Enter Vice Chancellor Silora Voske (Wendy Crewson), the Votan delegate who hopes to iron out all the wrinkles between Defiance and the Collective. Once formal introductions concluded, Voske reveals her secret weapon in their negotiations: a newly rearmed (ha!) Datak Tarr! Everyone but Stahma is super unhappy to see the opportunistic scoundrel alive and smirking; she immediately runs into his arms as though Mrs. Tarr completely forgot about the multiple times Datak threatened her life.
“I missed you too… but you know I’ll probably try to kill you again, right?”
In the Mayor’s office, both Datak and Nolan show their respective asses and both Amanda and Silora aren’t having any of it. They dismiss their respective cliques to have the room to themselves and talk shop. Amanda is informed that Rahm Tak went rogue and Naturally, Amanda remains suspicious but Vice Chancellor Voske further apprises Mayor Rosewater that General Tak murdered Vizier Quando’s niece Volubela. Viewers may recall this Volubela being Rahm’s wife who attempted to convince him to cease operations. Once her head was delivered back to Votanis HQ, Tak’s own head was in their crosshairs but the militia - notably Datak - beat them to the punch. As an apology for Rahm’s assault and a thank you for vaporizing his evil ass, the Votanis Collective would like to establish an accord with Defiance.
Sensing Nolan is becoming more unstable, Irisa rushes to Doc Yewll’s for any assistance she can provide. Yewll definitely isn’t her usual smarmy yet charmingly caustic self as she’s agitated by Irisa’s presence. She gives the young Irathient a sedative and barks at Irisa to leave her be so Yewll could focus on hastily piecing together an odd device for an unknown purpose. Yewll has a moment to herself and tries to remove the control stem Kindzi implanted in “Ostinato in White” but her own brain betrays her and she resumes work on the cobbled together tech.
Well. It looks like Datak and Stahma made up.
Still in their post-coital haze, the two reminisce about what happened in the last couple of weeks and how lucky they are in getting away with assault, murder, kidnapping and treason. Leave it to the Mayor and Vice Chancellor to kill the mood in the room, both demanding Stahma to invite T’evgin to their peace-brokering party and insure his attendance… or else Datak will be shot in the head by the VC for his crimes against them. What a bummer, man.
One would think after upsetting an Omec, it probably wouldn’t be a good idea to upset yet another Omec - especially if it had the hots for you. Stahma begrudgingly returns to the mines to ask T’evgin to attend the party and he’s rightfully upset with the fickle Castithan. Just to twist the knife in a bit deeper, Stahma rejects Papa Omec’s offer to move to Australia. T’evgin begins to wild out and the old Enchanter shows his true colors. Somehow, Stahma calms the situation and T’ev agrees to be there, as long as she accompanies him. Magic Chivo, 1. Big Grape, 0.
Festivities are off and swinging! Defiance’s luminaries and VC dignitaries appear to be striking a favorable rapport and with the arrival of T’evgin nearly assures the peace accords may come to pass. That is until Kindzi arrives - with an equally fetching Yewll in a matching black ensemble - and gets all in her dad’s face about making a five course meal out of the entire room. Surprisingly, Kindzi is the least of Defiance’s problems as Nolan in his worsening condition believes someone within the Votanis Collective brought a bomb to the reception. Relinquishing more control over to his imaginary pal, Nolan believes the Vice Chancellor is the culprit and shoots her square in the chest.
Chaos ensues and Irisa leads Nolan out of the panic, knowing he’d be killed on sight by the Votans. While everyone scatters, Datak suggests to Amanda to disavow Nolan so the full force of the Votanis Collective doesn’t come down on her and Defiance. The unfortunate situation bides serious complications: Solira was one of the few moderates within the Votanis Parliment seeking peace with humanity. Now that her voice has been silenced, what’s left of the Earth Republic and the frontier could be easily occupied by a vindictive VC. Ultimately, Amanda agrees with Datak’s proposal but with another convincing threat on Tarr’s life.
Datak and T’evgin exchange words about Stahma and Kindzi, about how the former is in fear from the latter. Papa Omec finally admits to Wonder-Arm of his feelings for his wife and how Kindzi wants to kill her because T’evgin is in love with Stahma. With his signature sneer, Datak replies “Yeah. Well. Thanks for the warning.”
As shown in the beginning of “Twilight”, Irisa and Nolan are cornered by VC and the imaginary friend - now revealed to be Nolan’s “Butcher of Yosemite” personality - screams at Joshua to go out fighting. Before he can do anymore damage, Irisa knocks Nolan out with the sedative Yewll gave her and surrenders.
T’evgin returns to the mines, looking to find his daughter and likely kick the ever loving shit out of her. Kindzi finally has the upper hand on Papa Omec and holds him in place with a probe. Before she was flash frozen in the Omec ship, Kindzi had insurance in the form of Yewll, who was order to create a device to reawaken her from cryo-sleep. Additionally, Yewll reconfigured all Omec tech to exclusively obey Kindzi’s orders. Now everything - the ship, its weapons, her brothers and sisters - are all under her control. This is not good. Not good at all.
At the lawkeeper’s office, Amanda says her goodbyes to Nolan and Irisa, who has to be detained with Nolan due to their shared Ark tech. Joshua appears to have his wits about him again and understand why Amanda has agreed to release him into VC custody. Although she wants to travel with them to plead Nolan’s case, Joshua demands Amanda stay in Defiance or else she’ll be executed with him.
Rosewater gives Irisa a stack of script in hopes it’ll be enough to bribe a guard along the way to give the two of them safe passage to Antarctica. Irisa and Nolan board the van seated across from one another, weary yet determined to see their way out of this mess.
“Ready to see the world, kiddo?”
“One last adventure.”
The Votanis Collective convoy departs for the long journey to Brazil as Amanda stands alone, unsure about the safety and welfare of her beloved town.
