Defiance Episode 3.04 History Rhymes

When Nolan and Irisa were cooped up in the stasis pod, the ark planted some tech in their brains. One pod + two brains = shared consciousness, apparently, because father and daughter are taking a virtual tour of each others' memories. Irisa learns that Nolan had a sister, Rebecca, who was killed in front of his eyes as a soldier in the Pale Wars. She's also reminded that Nolan used to throw darts at Irathients for fun. Nolan, in turn, learns that Irisa almost stabbed him in his sleep when she was, oh, seven years old, and that she hated all the killing he had her do.

All of this comes to light as Yewll strives mightily to save their lives. When Amanda and Samir wheel Nolan's convulsing body into her office, she soon deduces that he needs to be physically close to Irisa. Berlin just so happens to know that Irisa is unconscious under a nearby trailer.. but she's not telling Amanda how she knew that.

Yewll tries to remove the tech from their heads, but every time she cuts bits out of Nolan's head, it grows in Irisa's and vice-versa. They're going to have to remove both foreign bodies simultaneously, and since Samir isn't the man to be performing brain surgery, Yewll's gonna need to be hooked up to an Omec drone.. Now where did we see one of those lying around? Oh yes, in the lair of the pointy-toothed, predatory enchanter.

Kindzi is home alone, and though she initially refuses the request, Amanda begs her to relent, considering Nolan saved her life and was kind to her. Kindzi agrees, and then the Doc preps for surgery by cutting a hole in the back of her neck and laying in a piece of what looks like dead snake skin but is actually the equivalent of a computer chip connected to the purple visitors' entire network. With this cyborg implant, Yewll is able to extract the brain tech and save Nolan and Irisa.

But father and daughter have seen too much. Irisa now knows that she can't stay in Defiance -- the war with Tak will be too much for her, she wants no part of killing any longer, and if she stays, Nolan may be compromised when choosing between her safety and that of the town. The family of two come to peace with the reality of separation just before Yewll tells them that she wasn't able to remove all the tech -- they'll have to stay close to one another if they want to avoid a slow and agonizing death.

Meanwhile, T'evgin has been enjoying an afternoon romp with Stahma -- after her assassination attempt failed, she moved on to a ploy to manipulate T'evgin into flying his ship over Tak's camp in a bid to scare the General into freeing Alak. But T'evgin is protective of his family as well and isn't going for Stahma's plan. As they leave the NeedWant, Datak tries to land a bullet in the Omec, but Stahma, knowing a bullet will only annoy T'evgin, foils his plan.

On returning to his cozy home at the mines, T'evgin briefly considers skinning his daughter alive when he learns that an Indogene was connected to their network. He spares her but orders her to destroy the sample of Yewll's genetic patterning that the snakeskin-looking stuff duplicated.

Speaking of families and skinning, Alak is back! He managed to escape his captors -- and piss them off just enough to be fun -- but on returning home, he returns Stahma's grateful embrace with a knife pressed against her throat. He saw her kill Christie, remember? It's gonna be hard to get over that.