Episode Title: “Down In the Ground Where the Dead Men Go”
Writers: Kevin Murphy & Anupam Nigam
Director: Michael Nankin
“Defiance” is a show that has amazing potential. Which makes it all the more frustrating that it appears to be very far away from realizing that potential.
Some of the big ideas are quite intriguing. I loved the revelation that “Old St. Louis” is still relatively intact beneath the alien terraformed landscape. But the main problems that “Defiance” suffers from are the same factors that can hold back any show: bad acting and bad writing.
Of the cast, Grant Bowler and Stephanie Leonidas are easily the best performers on the series in their respective roles as Defiance’s new Lawgiver, Joshua Nolan and his deputy/adopted daughter, Irisa Nyira. When the focus falls on Nolan and Irisa, they manage to make the world believable and even compelling.
Unfortunately, no one else on this show quite lives up to their standards. Jaime Murray is fun as the scheming Castithan, Stahma Tarr and Tony Curran has his moments as her husband, Datak Tarr. Everyone else gives stilted and wooden performances, but the writers have done them no favors by giving them incredibly clunky and on-the-nose dialogue.
So far, the worst performer is Dewshane Williams, whose Deputy Tommy LaSalle delivers his lines like he’s reading them off of cue cards. It’s actually cute that Tommy is clearly trying to win over Irisa because he’s attracted to her. But as a character, Tommy is not working.
“Down In the Ground Where the Dead Men Go” attempts to rehabilitate and flesh out Rafe McCawley (Graham Greene), who has been stuck in the role of the futuristic Capulet in the “star-crossed lovers” courtship of his daughter, Christie McCawley (Nicole Muñoz) and Alak Tarr (Jesse Rath). At the start of the episode, Rafe is still threatening to cut his daughter out of the family if she goes through with her marriage to Alak. But there is a good moment when his surviving son, Quentin (Justin Rain) calls Rafe out on his bulls*** and makes him question why his dead son, Luke was meeting with the traitorous Ben Daris (Douglas Nyback).
Speaking of which, guess who’s back from the dead! Because nobody asked for it, Ben is resurrected this week by Mr Birch (Steven McCarthy) and he’s once again ordered to destroy Defiance. Towards that goal, Ben makes off with some potent explosives and breaks into the McCawley mines to set a bomb off in the abandoned nuclear power plant in Old St. Louis.
Nolan invites himself along on Rafe’s posse to make sure that Ben is returned alive for questioning. And it’s the bonding moments between Nolan and Rafe that really stand out here. Rafe reveals his smaller scale dreams and ambitions that were ruined by the arrival of the aliens. But that simple touch did more to humanize Rafe than any of his previous scenes.
The actual chase for Ben ends on an incredibly anticlimactic note as he’s easily foiled when shot… and then Ben commits suicide by Rafe rather than give up his co-conspirators.
Back in Defiance itself, the Castithans make a big show out of torturing Elah Bandick (Robert Clarke), the lone deserter from their ranks during the battle against the Volge. At Datak’s behest, Elah is ritualistically tortured by device that stretches his limbs as Castithans add rocks to it. Nolan’s initial attempt to save Elah is broken up by the mayor, Amanda Rosewater (Julie Benz) and by Elah himself, who doesn’t want to be saved.
With Nolan in pursuit of Ben, Irisa takes it upon herself to save Elah, with Tommy backing her play as a way to get close to her. This leads to a standoff between them and Datak’s followers, who very easily invade the Lawgiver’s office. Only the timely arrival of Nolan, Rafe and Amanda gets Datak to back down. Once again, I have to point out how horrible Amanda’s dialogue was here. It’s almost a criminal offense against the art of writing itself.
Datak smiles and tells Amanda that he’s reconsidered his course of action… before later murdering Elah and dumping his body in front of the Lawgiver’s office as an FU to Nolan and Amanda. Now that was interesting, unlike the debate about respecting the alien cultures between Amanda and her predecessor, Nicolette “Nicky” Riordan (Fionnula Flanagan). The only intriguing thing about Nicky is that she’s one of the co-conspirators of Ben and Mr Birch in the plot to destroy Defiance. Apart from that, Nicky’s not very compelling at all.
I’m hesitant to revisit the “Romeo and Juliet” of this show, but there was one good scene to come out of that subplot this week. It came when Stahma sought out Christie and told her the heartwarming tale of how her family picked a husband for her… but she preferred Datak and possibly helped him murder her previous suitor. It’s darkly funny because Stahma considers it to be a romantic story and Christie isn’t quite as horrified as she should be.
Again, the pieces are there for “Defiance” to be a great show. But at this point, I’ll settle for it being a good show.
