Defiance: Goodbye Blue Sky, There is Something Worse Than Hail!?

Welcome back Defiance fans,

it is my pleasure to bring you another review in a series of this great science fiction drama series!

This week’s episode, called “Goodbye Blue Sky” was seemingly hard to pin down. There was no clear continuity of theme that I could see, nothing that jumped out at me, other than perhaps a hint of secret keeping and wanting to keep something to one’s self – making for a bumpy ride, not clear sailing.

To start at the end, another great choice by the producers of this great show when it came to the closing music.  This week, we heard “Into the Mystic” by Jen Chapin and the Rosetta Trio!

As we get deeper into this season, individual stories begin to play out, some spiraling out of control, some weaving sordid tales and adventures.  Before getting too deep into this review, please take a look at a preview of next week’s episode, “I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times”:

Goodbye Blue Sky:

Now, as we start this week, we again see The Spirit Riders, but they are attempting to outrun the trouble this week, instead of causing it.

Defiance is under siege from “razor rain” – pieces of destroyed space ships now entering Earth’s atmosphere and raining havoc. 

One of The Spirit Riders is hit by a piece of razor rain, and as Sukar (Noah Danby)heads to his aid, Sukar himself is struck down. 

Having been collected and dragged to relative safety, it is realized that Sukar is gravely wounded.  He is sat up in the shelter, and as he passes, he sees his “Little Wolf” Irisa (Stephanie Leonidas)standing before him.

This week’s episode seemed to interject a little humor here and there, and if that were not enough, in spots of this review, it is making me interject my own little bits and pieces of humor here and there as well…just you wait!

Take for example the next scene that shows “DJ Alak” (Jesse Rath) of “Raider Radio” spinning the vinyl for Defiance.  Joining him in his “studio” is his fiancée, Christie (Nicole Munoz). 

As their scenes progress, it seems that their discussions and squabbles this week center around a certain Castithan bathing ritual. 

As Alak put it, “it’s 20 minutes of uncomfortable, it’s really nothing” – unless, like Christie you too do not enjoy parading yourself around the families in just beads, in a bath…

As their tiff starts to take off, Alak is thankfully interrupted by Mayor Amanda (Julie Benz)on the hailer.  Amanda has a certain request, and after Alak seems to have put her off by a response of his, we get our next taste of humor. 

We see and hear Amanda calling Alak a little punk and demanding that he play “Shiny, Happy People” or he’s fired…which is the morale booster?

Jumping around this episode, next we see Irisa packing (at the station) for a trip to go check on Sukar. Nolan (Grant Bowler)comes in, telling Irisa of how he rain-proofed the school roof and he was kissed on the lips by what he hoped was a woman. 

Not even batting an eyelash at that comment, Nolan closes on Irisa and confronts her about what she aims to do.  Irisa matter-of-factly informs Nolan that she had a vision of Sukar and that she is going to check on him.  She departs, returning seconds later to see if Nolan is going to go with her; and he does.

Two to three conflicts established, let’s get another one going! Quentin(Justin Rain) and Rafe (Graham Greene)are in the kitchen of the McCawley house, Quentin blankly staring at a finished plate, Rafe rooting around in the refrigerator. 

As he closes the door to the fridge, Rafe asks Quentin if everything is ok.  Quentin is kind of spared answering by the doorbell, but one headache is replaced with another!

Ex-mayor Nicky (Fionnula Flannigan )has now stopped in, apparently having roller trouble. Nicky boldly states that her rollers are always giving her problems, problems that she never used to have when her man Birch (Steven McCarthy) was around to drive her to and fro.

And if that was not enough, now we go to the “Need/Want” where we find Stahma (Jaime Murray) entering a seedy establishment needing Kenya (Mia Kirshner). 

Boldly going where I’m sure most have not gone before, Stahma states that she wants “Alak to be educated to the eccentricities of the human female libido” as she had heard that making love to human females is enormously complicated. 

As their conversations develops, Kenya begins to chuckle.  Taking immediate offense, Stahma offers a tidbit to Kenya, “seeming is being; treating me like a fool makes me one, and I am no one’s fool.”  It seems that there is not a week that goes by that we are not blessed with great writing, writing that “makes you want to go hmmmm…”

As Irisa and Nolan make it to the Badlands, they are confronted by the Spirit Riders, led by Nizar (Dion Johnstone). 

They are told that Sukar is dead, and that they are preparing for his sinking ritual.  Irisa chooses to stay for the ceremony, but not only can Nolan not be there, he must go.

Both have been banned as a human from the ceremony, but also to get back to town to warn Defiance that this is not your normal storm.  

Not only does Irisa stay, but out of respect for Sukar, she partakes in the customs as well, allowing herself to “be with her kind”.  Professing that “through his body flows the path to Irzu”, Sukar’s body is lowered into its “broth”. 

By this time, Nolan is on his way back to Defiance to warn the people about the razor rain storm on the horizon.  To do this he hails Alak, who puts Nolan on the airwaves. 

Christie then decides that, being stuck in the arch with Alak through the storm, she declares to Alak that they are not leaving the arch until they talk about the ritual.

Speaking of rituals, the sinking ritual didn’t go so well, Sukar came back to life.  He is hell bent on going back to Defiance, though for what it is not entirely clear.

We now go back to Nicky tormenting Quentin and Rafe, but now Rafe realizes that Nicky is up to something.  She admits that she is looking for Birch, and that the last time she saw him, he was on his way to the McCawley house to break in. 

Nicky flat out accuses Luke (Wesley French) of being in cahoots with Ben (Douglas Nyback) and somehow being involved in the Volge attack.  She told Rafe that Birch was on his way over to the house to gather evidence. 

Thinking that she had made light of the situation, Nicky soon realizes that she is in the wrong and somehow weasels into staying a while, to lay down a moment as the storm passes.

Back in Defiance, Sukar and Irisa break into some sort of machine shop – he directs Irisa to grab as much cabling as she can.  At this moment, they are confronted by the store owner, who has a shotgun.  

Poor store owner, it’s not wise to shoot a man who has just cheated death! Sukar’s wounds heal and he gets up, throws his knife at the store owner, and then continues his ransack.  Irisa is now getting worried, and wants to get Nolan. 

Sukar convinces her otherwise, and as they get back into their roller, she is telling him that he cannot go around hurting people!  Now, I do believe that I mentioned humor a bit back. 

As she said that, all I could think of was that she must be channeling her inner John Connor and Sukar is her Terminator…but wait, there’s more!

Sukar now asks Irisa why she still doubts Irzu – she witnessed his resurrection saw his wounds heal, “we have a mission, can you accept that our mission is a holy one?” Um, Blues Brothers anyone???

Meanwhile, “back at the ranch”, Rafe confronts Quentin about Birch.  Having visions of Luke, Quentin explains to Rafe that he did do what Nicky is now accusing him of, he DID kill Birch. 

What is more, as Rafe tells Quentin that he is proud of him, that “a man protects his house”, Quentin gets a thumbs up from Luke as he assures Rafe that he got rid of the artifact too. 

Nicky has just about worn out her welcome by now.  She comes downstairs from her “nap” clutching a pillow, a pillow with blood on it.  She says that she knows where the blood has come from!

Rafe issues a demand to Quentin stating that “that Nicky is a miserable old bitch that likes to cause trouble”, that Quentin needs to stay away from her.

In the background of all indoor “places” this episode, we hear Raider Radio and DJ Alak piped in, as a means of soothing frayed nerves and communications during this storm.  Speaking of soothing nerves, we now catch up with Stahma and Kenya, still at the “Need/Want”, having that drink that Kenya offered earlier. 

Bantering with each other, contradicting each other at every opportunity, Kenya finally challenges Stahma, basically asks her, “what do YOU want?”  Stahma reveals that she has often felt that she has lived in servitude to her “boys”, that in her younger years she fashioned herself a (vocal) poet – until her father found out, then he forbade it.  Kenya then urges Stahma to do something “JUST for you.”

Alak and Christie are still at odds about the bathing ritual, and when Christie attempts to leave to go home, Alak grows a pair! He tells Christie that he will tell his folks that he said no to the ritual, that it was his call and that he would leave her out of it completely.  Their consolation hug is interrupted by Sukar and Irisa, and they tell the lovebirds to get out before they get hurt. 

Turns out Sukar still likes to hurt people.  Take for instance Doc Yewll (Trenna Keating).  She was the victim of his rage as she tried to prevent Sukar from stealing the “ArkBrain” interface from her office. 

From Doc Yewll’s postulating, the interface did not have enough power from her office, take to the arch – a giant antenna itself, the interface has more than enough power to reach and contact a large fragment that is apparently at the top of the razor rain funnel. 

Nolan busts in on Irisa and Sukar gun drawn.  Sukar declares to Irisa that “it’s time”, but before he can flip the switch, Nolan has shot him and an epic fight ensues.  Sukar manages to get the upper hand, and while sitting on Nolan, instructs Irisa to ties his wrists and ankles with cable. 

Nolan frees his hands enough to grab his handgun.  In the resulting battle, Nolan discharges all rounds of his weapon into Sukar, compelling Sukar to his dramatic death scene – out the arch onto a swinging workers’ gondola below.  Nolan’s attention turns to Irisa who has now chosen to flip the switch. 

It is now Irisa’s turn to dictate as she tells Nolan that she is doing this because Sukar believed, and so does she.  As the switch is now on, the fragment’s propulsion system further engages, altering the course and missing Defiance altogether.  Sukar saved Defiance and now Nolan has his death on his hands.

Sukar is again on his death bed, this time in Doc Yewll’s office.  The good doctor has interesting information to share.  It turns out that the fragment responsible for the original death of Sukar contained nanites, nanites from an ArkBrain from the fragment that narrowly missed Defiance. 

The Nanites were responsible for “repairing” Sukar, and used him as their mode of conduction, with their primary mandate to preserve Votan life – they just used Sukar as their vehicle to achievement. 

As science is behind Sukar’s resurrection, Nolan again gets himself into trouble with Irisa by making the mistake of patronizing her in the name of Irzu.

We would be remiss if we didn’t take away from this episode a need to keep to ourselves.  Defiance is a town of many identities; of many clusters, cliques, and colonies; of many individuals.  There in an inherent want to share, but a need to keep to ones’ self as expressed in the closing scenes, both with Kenya and Stahma, and with Irisa and herself. 

Thanks to Kenn for final audio, video and image staging, and many thanks to you for reading and for visiting WormholeRiders News Agency to read about our review of “Defiance – Goodbye Blue Sky”.

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Love and regards,

FidgetTBC