Defiance Recap – Episode 308

Datak, you glorious bastard.

Honestly, if you didn’t see last night’s Defiance, it’s the best episode in the show’s history. I know I’ve said that before, but I honestly can’t see a single way to top Tony Curran’s performance last night. To preview, if you don’t want spoilers, you need to leave.

The episode opens where it left off. Bebe and his VC infiltrators have tunneled into Defiance and started slaughtering humans in their homes. Starting with the Need/Want, Bebe installs himself as a trusted member of Nolan’s militia by helping kill his brothers in the VC. Naturally, Nolan trusts him though at this point I don’t know who I’d trust.
So they go hunting! While trying to track down how the VC infiltrators got in, Nolan and Bebe stumble across one of the infiltrators trying to kill a family of three. Unfortunately for this particular Irathient, T’evgin is there and eats him. Yeah, eats him. I mean, he’s an Omec after all. We knew this was a thing. Bebe seemed taken. Following a brief conversation between the Omec and lawkeeper where T’evgin continues to defend his belief of not joining in the fight, Nolan and Bebe track the tunnel down (with Bebe’s help of course).
This is when things take a turn for the worst for our intrepid heroes. After a brief discussion with Amanda as to whether or not they should cut through the tunnel and ambush Rahm or not, Nolan leads part of his militia through. Separated near the end, Bebe betrays the group, tosses a grenade into the cave, and incinerates the militia. The only survivors are Alak, Irisa, and Nolan. To stop Bebe, Irisa channels her rage and let’s out the Badlands Goddess, stabbing Bebe to death.

Returning to Defiance broken and beaten, Doc Yewell suggests a suicide mission as their past hope. With Rahm setting up base outside the stasis jets, it’s possible to reverse-engineer the nets to be one giant bomb that would likewise incinerate the VC forces. While Nolan and Amanda volunteer, Alak offers up the best choice – his father (yes, the one I swore was dead last week).
Datak, nearing the end of his time, is revived by Amanda and Nolan and briefed on the mission, which he agrees to wholeheartedly ready to sacrifice himself for his family. Injecting a device into his arm to channel the net explosion, they send him out to greet Rahm. From there on out, Datak solidifies his spot as my favorite character on the show. Cutting off his own arm as a show of loyalty to the Beast, he stumbles out of Rahm’s tent and books it, barely making it to safety as the VC camp blows up along with its general.