Initially, the mayoral election subplot didn't do much for me. It was obvious from the way the Earth Republic characters were portrayed in such a blatantly evil light that the outcome of the election was practically moot. The villains were going to get what they wanted regardless of who won. Luckily, the episode didn't waste much time drawing out the results. Datak quickly emerged as the winner, and the conflict shifted more towards Datak's losing battle to maintain control and respect. As usual, he reacted poorly to being disrespected by a filthy human. As nasty as Datak has been lately, it was hard not to sympathize with him as he clashed with Colonel Marsh. The ER characters were almost too fiendishly evil here, especially Black Jonah with his very Nazi-esque uniform, Luger pistol, and genocidal temperament.
That intersected with Stahma's woes as she was forced to choose between her husband and her secret lover. As much as I was disappointed that we still didn't see the assertive, manipulative Stahma of early episodes, her arc did reach a satisfyingly tragic finale. Her poisoning of Kenya was one of the stronger scenes of the season, as was her subsequent reunion with Datak. Datak's wistful line, "I miss home," said it all. It was a little strange that we didn't actually see Datak kill Marsh, but the immediate fallout was arguably more interesting anyway. Unfortunately, we won't know what became of Datak and Stahma as the ER troops barged into the room. But I highly doubt we've seen the last of the scheming Tarr family just yet.
The Irisa/Nolan portion of the episode had its own fair share of emotional fallout. Early on, the scene of Irathients being lined up for execution stood out as especially gut-wrenching. It seemed Tommy might actually be on the way out until Irisa saved his life at the last minute. Though that was the last word on their relationship for the season, it was enough for now. Later, Grant Bowler and Stephanie Leonidas delivered a very strong set of performances during Nolan's death scene. Their relationship has been perhaps the best explored throughout the season, and this episode fully capitalized on all of that groundwork. A big part of me was disappointed that Nolan was granted a reprieve. His death could have had a profound impact on many characters in Season 2. But the fact that it came as a result of Irisa's great sacrifice should allow for other forms of dramatic fodder in Season 2.
Scope and spectacle has never been a strong suit of Defiance, and so I was pleased to see that "Everything is Broken" didn't try to top the large-scale shootout with the Volge from the pilot. Instead, the action was far more confined and intimate as Nolan led a small band of allies to rescue Irisa. While there were still a few wider landscape shots that stood out as overly CG-y fake (particularly during the final shot of the Earth Republic taking over the city), this episode generally succeeded in working within the show's visual limits.
Your Game Character Could Be in Defiance: Season 2
This episode was definitely frustrating at times in how little resolution it actually provided. Amanda barely appeared at all after losing the election. Alak was never given the chance to assert himself over his father and redeem his actions from "Past is prologue." Depending what happens to his parents, that chance may never come. And we never did get a firm handle on what Doc Yewll was trying to accomplish these past few weeks. There were many random threads simply left dangling. This was very much a cliffhanger episode. But the good news is that there will be as Season 2. And though it's quite a ways off at this point, the general improvement Defiance has shown over the course of this first season is enough to leave me looking forward to it quite a bit. Jesse is a writer for various IGN channels. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter, or Kicksplode on MyIGN.