Defiance Episode 1.10 If I Ever Leave This World Alive

Ohmigod there's a plague. A super scary plague. A xenophobia-inspiring plague, which are the scariest kind. The virus is carried by both humans and Irathients, but only the humans get sick and die. Speaking of "getting sick" and "dying," the numbers are 51 and 6, respectively, and they're only getting higher - and Nolan and Amanda aren't looking so great, themselves. Doc Yewll knows someone who knows someone who might be able to drop off a cure, which would be GREAT, but in the meantime, let's lock up all the Irathients. Wait, WHAT? Like, internment camps? Did that really go so well the first few times around? No, says Amanda, but she's overruled by Rafe, Datak, and the other council members who argue that it's for the Irathients' own protection as much as to contain the plague. Democracy speaks, and there's nothing Amanda can do.

There is, however, something Irisa can do when the group she's praying with gets rounded up: beat the shtako out of Rafe and his deputies, allowing some of her friends to slip away. She doesn't get away, herself, and Nolan arrives on the scene too late to do anything - not that he could overpower the town, anyway. Irisa catches up with her buddy Rathus at their quarantine in the cave where he tells her that his brother got away, but they fear they will all be gassed, just as they were years ago by the Castis. Irisa has faith that Nolan will come through, and just as he's gearing up to go save her, desperado-style, Doc Yewll busts in on him and a fire-spitting mad Amanda to tell them that a friend of hers dead-dropped the cure in the badlands. All they need now is for someone to break through the E-Rep blockade and bring it on home.

Fortunately for us (but unfortunately for him), Connor is stuck in town, too. He's their ticket to the cure (the medicine, not the rock band; they're long dead by now) and indeed, he and Nolan work their collective magic to get through to the E-Rep military commander and his diplomatic firearm, aka Olfin Tennety, aka Ambassador I'll-kill-you-in-the-desert-and-steal-your-town-from-Episode-5. The medicine is secured and Nolan is getting sweatier, but refuses to stop and take the cure, insisting that, since his eyes aren't bleeding yet, it's not that bad. The only thing that could stop him now is a plank full of nails to pop his tires. And look at that, some helpful Irathients have put one in their path. Wasn't that sweet?

The Irathients drag Nolan and Connor inside where they use Nolan's hailer to send their demands to Defiance: release the Irathients, starting with their brother, Rathus. The message doesn't make it to the mayor, since she's got the eye-bleeding thing, and it doesn't make it to Senior Council Member Rafe McCawley, since Christie's on death's door. It DOES make it to the last person Amanda wants on the call: Datak Tarr. You can thank Stahma for being the brains behind that machination, as usual.

Datak agrees to the mass release, and goes to break the news about Rathus's death in person, but when he arrives, he pulls a double cross - or maybe even a triple-cross - by claiming to be on the Irathients' side, but then shooting and/or crushing them all with his fists and boots. A female Irathient gets the better of Datak, but Connor (tied to a chair) provides enough distraction for Datak to get the upper hand and kill her. Insted of being grateful to Connor, Datak shoots him in the head! He moves to shoot Nolan, as well, but the lawkeeper has been knocked out by the virus and isn't witness to the crime, therefore doesn't need to be eliminated to keep Datak's hero-story airtight.

The cure, and the news, are brought back to Defiance, and Amanda makes a special radio address to assure the town of their safety, thank Nolan and Connor, and pay homage to the fallen ambassador. But remember how Alak is the resident DJ of Defiance? When Datak is accepting Amanda's thanks, his faithful son unplugs Amanda's microphone, allowing his father to announce his candidacy for mayor without interruption. Oh, those sneaky Tarrs! Wonder if "Tarr" is Casti for "sneaky"...

But if we're handing out sneaky prizes in town, first place goes to resident sociopath Mayor Nicky. After her manipulating stunt in the McCawley household last episode, she got her hooks in Quentin's curiosity regarding his mother. He brings her the golden object she's been coveting, and in return, she ruins his life. What a trade! She tells him that when he was a wee little nipper, she and his father were having an affair. This gave her access to see Quentin's mother, Pilar, deteriorate in a state of unmedicated manic-depression. To spare his children, Rafe told them their mother had died, while Nicky had her taken to a (then) idyllic California town called Mendocino. Quentin barely deigns to confront his father on his terrible lie before running off to find his mom.

Nicky has a shadowy meeting with Doc Yewll, where we get a further peek into the checkered past of the Indogene - she, Nicky and the late Birch used to be part of a gang of some sort - probably a book club where they only read books on how to commit genocide. Now that Nicky has that golden knot thingy, she begs Yewll to rejoin her. But there are certain lines even the brain-stealing, war criminal-abetting Yewll won't cross...