This episode entitled “Goodbye Blue Sky” revolves around Irisa and the McCawleys. When a major razor rain-storm comes to town, all the citizens of the town have to take cover and stay indoors. This storm is caused by the falling debris from space arks circling in Earth’s orbit. This storm leads to the first major plot line of the episode.

The episode begins with Sukar and his spirit riders trying to outrun the incoming storm. When one of his riders gets hurt, he gets out of his rover and gets hit with some debris. This hit kills him and causes him to see a vision of Irisa talking to him. Irisa’s vision prompts her to go to the badlands. When Nolan and Irisa arrive, they meet a band of Irathients. They inform the two that Sukar is dead. They also invite Irisa to stay for his sinking ceremony but they tell Nolan that he must leave.

Before diving deep into the main plots of the episode, there were some minor plots to look out for. Alak and Christie discuss the bathing ceremony in the St. Louis Arch radio station. This plot ends with Alak telling his parents that Christie does not want to take the communal bath.

The second minor plot revolves around Stahma Tarr and Kenya. Stahma goes to Kenya to ask if Kenya would teach Alak how to find a human woman’s G-spot. Kenya refuses but the two decide to sit and talk for a while. We find out that Stahma was a poet and performer on her home planet. This plotline ends with the two in bed kissing one another. The whole plotline was about doing something that pleases Stahma not her boys. The two women decide to keep the secret between them.

The main plot continues with Nolan. He decides to call into the radio station and tell everyone that the storm coming is a razor rain-storm. Irisa is very depressed about Sukar dying. However, when Sukar is lowering into boiling acid, he arises alive and the ceremony ceases. Sukar recruits Irisa to go back into town to build a device to track and move a falling ship that is coming to Defiance.

When Nolan enters town he sees Tommy injured by the razor rain. Tommy saved an idiot playing in the storm earlier. Nolan takes tommy to Doc Yewell and Nolan finds out that Sukar is alive and Irisa is with him. So he heads off to the Arch. Tommy turns out to be just fine.

The second major plot in this episode revolves around the McCawleys. When news broke that the storm was a razor rain-storm, ex-mayor Nicolette comes to stay at the McCawley household. Nicki reveals that she thinks Quentin killed her henchman. When she is around Quentin he runs away claiming that he has allergies. This prompts Rafe to asks Quentin directly and Quentin tells him that the whole story and where he disposed of the body. In the end of this plot, Nicki reveals that she knows how Quentin’s mother really died and that he knows about the whereabouts of her henchmen and who did him in.

The main plot ends with a confrontation between Sukar and Nolan. The two come to blows inside of the St. Louis Arch. Nolan shoots Sukar multiple times but he heals almost immediately. Then Nolan empties his bullet jacket onto him, causing Sukar to fall out of a window onto a hanging lift. Irisa continues with the plan and we find out that Sukar was good all along. The device changed the course of the ship causing it to avoid Defiance. However, Sukar becomes comatose at the end though because nano-bots took over his body not the Irathient God Irzu.

This was a very good episode. It had tons of action and good set up for future episodes. I think this show has picked up substantially after the episode, “The Serpent’s Egg”. The show has essentially become Game of Thrones with aliens, science, and magic. And that is a good thing. Defiance airs on SyFy.

image: NBC Universal