While investigating vicious Hellbug attacks, Nolan and Irisa realize they are tied to Irathient spirit raiders that have come into town. Meanwhile, Irisa starts experiencing strange visions.

The episode starts off with a man jogging in the woods. He is attacked by giant Hellbugs that are being used to target certain individuals in the show. Then a group of Irathient spirit riders come into town to buy and trade things. We see how the people interact with the Irathients. They stare at them and don’t want to trade with them.

Irisa, Nolan, and Tommy are investigating to find where the bugs are coming from. While looking for clues in the woods, we notice that Irisa is having visions and fainting spells. At the Need/Want, Kenya is pleasuring a man that has a food fetish. Suddenly, a Hellbug eats through his chest. Nolan and the crew arrive to get more clues. The fainting spells and visions are still going on with Irisa. We learned that she has always has these visions. Also the crew learns that there are attack pheromones on the victims.

At the Tarrs house, we see Christie trying to assimilate into the Castithan culture. It was going badly before the Hellbugs attacked. Datak fends off two bugs with a laser sword. So they bring Christie back home and tell Rafe that Alak saved her. The Tarrs have a plan to approve of the marriage between the two kids. This event just feeds into this.

Then Nolan and his crew come into the McCawley residence. They tell them that the Christie was targeted. Nolan wants to know how Rafe is connected to the men who died. We find out that Rafe brought land from them.

Irisa’s visions get stronger and later we learn that she can see the past. She has a gift. The leader of the spirit riders performs a ritual with her to heighten her gift. Then we learn that a young an Irathient girl, named Rynne, has planned these murders. The human men killed her parents and took their land. We learn this from Irisa’s vision quest.

They find out that Rynne plans to unleash a horde of these bugs on the town but Nolan and the crew go down into the mines and face her. They are victorious but things are changing in the show. Rafe is warming up to the Tarrs even though they are fooling him. Irisa is warming up to the leader of the spirit riders even though Nolan loves her. The episode ends with Irathients joining the town and Nolan siting next Irisa as she is still has bad visions in her sleep.

This show is interesting but after the pilot the show has become very slow moving. I like the show but it has to pick up. It has become more of a drama than a Sci-Fi western. I am interested in what will happen with Irisa and the spirit riders and the Tarrs further plans. Defiance airs on SyFy. Here is a clip from the next episode:

image: NBC Universal