This episode entitled “The Serpent’s Egg” focuses on Amanda and Nolan and Irisa and Tommy. Amanda and Nolan take a transport across the badlands in order to transport a prisoner and join forces with a band of outlaws. A visitor to Defiance must make Irisa confront her traumatic past.
This episode starts off with Alak Tarr broadcasting his radio station in the St. Louis arch. As this is happening, a transport vehicle comes into town carrying old antiques and passengers. Nolan and Amanda board the vehicle with the imprisoned Irathient, Rynn. We see an Earth Representative who is also traveling to San Francisco with Nolan and Amanda. She has brought along her two husbands. Nolan leaves Irisa and Tommy in charge of the town. After Irisa says her goodbyes with Nolan, she sees a Castithan that she believes she had seen before. She follows him into the Need/Want and keeps track of him.
Amanda and Nolan are riding through the badlands. Rynn tries to escape while everyone is napping. She stole a pen from the driver when she was boarded onto the vehicle. She took it apart and opened up her hand cuffs. As she tries to get a gun off of a rack, Nolan sneaks up behind her and re-cuffs her. Suddenly, the vehicle’s driver is shot. The rover stops. There is a priest on board as well and holds up the transport like an old fashion western stage coach sting. Outside are two rovers that surround the transport. The drivers get out and take the vehicle and they kill one of the Earth-Rep’s husbands. Then the priest takes the Earth-Rep hostage after he gets shot in the leg.
This plot thread ends with Nolan giving the priest the money and Amanda killing the other bandit. Nolan fires and kills the priest. Even though they save the Representative, we find out that she staged the whole thing. Rynn comes back and saves day by knocking the Reps gun out of her hand. Amanda decides to let Rynn go with a rover and the Earth Rep’s other husband. The Rep does not like Defiance because it won’t join the Earth Republic but in the end she is not punished. However, Amanda and Nolan do not know that.
The final plot focuses on Irisa. The Castithan that comes to town happens to be a person from her past. She decides to take him captive and torture him until he confesses to torturing her as a child. We find out that Irisa is special to Castithans and Irathients. She is a chosen one, a destroyer and a life giver. Through flashbacks we see Nolan rescue young Irisa from the ritual she was in. That is all we learn. After lying about who he is, he confesses after she poisons him with a snake bit. He wants her to kill him. However, she decides that he is not worth the trouble anymore. But tommy thinks otherwise. All throughout these scenes Tommy begged her not to kill him but when the truth was discovered; Tommy beats him up a little bit. In the end they set him free. The big surprise happens at the police precinct. Tommy tells Irisa that he cares for her. She says nothing and then she embraces him with a violent kiss and then they have violent sex on the floor.
This episode was the best since the pilot. There was good action and very good character development. I can’t wait to see what happens with Irisa and Tommy. I also want to see more development in regards to Irisa’s gifts and the Earth Rep’s motives. Defiance airs on SyFy.
image: NBC Universal