Defiance: The World We Seize

"The World We Seize" is the first episode season three of the science fiction television series Defiance and the twenty-seventh episode of the series overall. It was directed by Michael Nankin with a script written by Kevin Murphy. The episode first aired on Syfy on Friday, June 12th, 2015 at 8:00 pm.

Synopsis
Seven months have passed since the Ark Brain went active, destroying New York City. In deep space, a vessel approaches Earth and two transport pods descend to the planet's surface. Its occupants are two purple-skinned aliens known as Omec. The father is named T'evgin and his daughter is Kindzi. They land outside of Defiance and begin tracking readings of Gulanite. They require the mineral to power their ship.

In Defiance, the stasis nets suddenly go down and power begins turning off all across the city. Amanda Rosewater, once again mayor of the town, tells Bailey Riggs that they need to conserve as much energy as possible as their Gulanite reserves are nearly depleted. They go to the NeedWant where they find Doc Yewll cleaning house at the gambling tables. A masked gunman and his partner enter the brothel and hold it up. Pointing a gun at Amanda, he commands her to open up the vault. Amanda tells him that she doesn't know the combination and then recognizes the man as Hap - one of the miners who lost his job after the McCawley Mines collapsed. While Amanda keeps him distracted, Jessica "Berlin" Rainer comes downstairs and incapacitates his partner. Amanda then shoots Hap in both knees. Rainer suffers a minor injury and they leave with Doc Yewll. The Omec descend into the mines and find the stasis pod containing the unconscious forms of Joshua Nolan and Irisa Nyira. They detach the umbilical connected between them, and Kindzi is primed to eat Nolan. T'evgin wards her off however, citing that they have a lot of work to do. Nolan revives and begins to struggle, but T'evgin knocks him.

Nolan and Irisa wake up shortly thereafter in the snow. They don't know how they got there, or why the Omec decided to spare their lives. Nolan spots the St. Louis Arch in the distance and knows they are close to home. Irisa, burdened with guilt over the part she played in the destruction of New York and the death of Tommy LaSalle tells Nolan that they will lynch her if she returns to Defiance. Nolan tells her that her actions saved everybody and that he has never been more proud of her.

In Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Datak, Stahma and Rafe McCawley find the old cabin that used to belong to Rafe's ex-wife Pilar. As suspected, this is where she brought Alak and Christie after she abducted them. As the incline leading to the front of the house is to steep to climb, they have to circle around the back. As they do so, they find that a Castithan cadre of the Votanis Collective arrive on the scene. They stage an injury for Race to make it appear as if he is Datak and Stahma's prisoner and then approach the VC. The leader of this group is a man named General Rahm Tak. He is a psychopathic nihilist who decorates his caravan with the severed heads of humans and eats their ears for the simple joy of it. He tells them that he is on his way to Defiance and plans on burning it to the ground. Datak and Stahma claim to be loyal supporters of the Votanis Collective, and tell him that they are "collecting a bounty" on the injured Rafe McCawley and are on their way to Defiance themselves. Rahm Tak insists that they must accompany him and his troupe.

Amanda brings Berlin to Doc Yewll's office to patch her up. As always, Yewll's bedside manner leaves something to be desired. Amanda learns that Doc plans on taking all of her winnings and leaving Defiance. Amanda pleads with her to stay, telling her that she is the town's only doctor and that they desperately need her. Meh confesses that she has appealed to her "better angels", and it appears that she will stay in Defiance for at least a little longer.

Rahm Tak receives word from his spies in Defiance that the stasis nets are down. After the spies conclude their transmission via wormhole technology, Nolan and Irisa come up behind them and ambushes them. Nolan breaks one's neck, but the other gets the drop on Irisa. While Nolan is distracted, the Castithan spy pins her to the ground tries to rape her until Nolan shoots him in the back. Nolan and Irisa return to Defiance. Given her history, he decides to leave Irisa down in the car while he finds Amanda in the Darby Building. After learning that she is mayor once again after Pottinger left, Joshua explains how Irisa and he had been trapped in the mines for the past seven months. He asks her about the stasis nets and she tells him that they are down to conserve on energy. He says that this is a bad idea as he has learned from the Castithan spies that the Votanis Collective are aware of their situation and are ready to take advantage of their vulnerability.

Berlin finds Irisa outside the Darby Building. Enraged over the role she played in the destruction of New York, in particular, the death of Tommy LaSalle, she releases all of her pent up frustration on Irisa, beating her bloody. Irisa offers no resistance. Nolan and Amanda run outside and Nolan trains his gun on Berlin, commanding her to stop. Amanda, Nolan and Irisa then go down to the ruins of the McCawley Mines. She then tells Nolan that their drills are not strong enough to cut through the shafts to get to the Gulanite. While searching around they find Terraforming equipment and Nolan finds his gun. He knows that the purple aliens have been here. A robot drone buzzes about the place and discharges a blast that stuns Amanda. Kindzi jumps out and attacks Irisa. Nolan intervenes, but Kindzi fights him off. Amanda awakens and stuns Kindzi with her weapon. Nolan then decides that they need to get the alien back into town to a doctor.

Back in Oklahoma, a VC patrol comes up to Pilar's cottage. Quentin takes note of them and says that he will go out to talk to them. Rahm Tak approaches and Quentin tries to appease him by offering a Castithan greeting. Unimpressed, he asks him his name, but cannot seem to recall the name McCawley. After which, he shoots him in the head, killing him. From a distance, Rafe McCawley watches the tableau and screams in anguish.

Rahm Tak and his crew, along with Datak and Stahma, raid the cottage. At first it appears to be empty until Bebe finds Christie McCawley hiding in a closet. Rafe comes bursting in with a machine gun and begins shooting as many Votans as he can. He even manages to clip Rahm Tak before falling in a hail of bullets. Christie shouts a slew of Castithan curses at Rahm Tak. Rahm Tak then hands Stahma her husband's charge blade. He tells her that she must either kill Christie or else he will kill her husband. Left with no alternative, Stahma slices Christie's throat with the blade. From outside, Pilar and Alak watch in horror as Christie McCawley's body slumps to the floor, landing next to her father.

Production crew

 * Rockne S. O'Bannon - Creator
 * Michael Taylor - Creator
 * Kevin Murphy - Creator; Executive producer; Writer
 * Michael D. Gibson - Producer
 * Bryan Q. Miller - Producer
 * Paula Yoo - Supervising producer
 * Paul Leonard - Co-executive producer


 * Anupam Nigam - Co-executive producer
 * Michael Nankin - Co-executive producer; Director
 * Mark Winemaker - Executive producer
 * Todd Slavkin - Executive producer
 * Darren Swimmer - Executive producer
 * Amanda Alpert Muscat - Associate producer
 * Michael Freeman - Associate producer

Notes & Trivia

 * Defiance was created by Rockne S. O'Bannon, Kevin Murphy and Michael Taylor.


 * This episode aired as a two-hour special.


 * The beginning of the episode includes a recap of events from season two, culminating with the season finale, "I Almost Prayed".


 * Producer Paul M. Leonard is credited as Paul Leonard in this episode.


 * Paula Yoo joins the production crew of Defiance as a supervising producer beginning with this episode.


 * This is the tenth episode of Defiance directed by Michael Nankin. It is his first episode from season three.


 * This is the seventh episode of Defiance written by Kevin Murphy. It is his first episode from season three. His next episode is "My Name is Datak Tarr and I Have Come to Kill You".


 * Actor James Murray, who played the role of Niles Pottinger in season two, is no longer part of the show.


 * Anna Hopkins is added to the main cast line-up beginning with this episode. In season two, she was credited as a guest star.


 * The character of Hap is identified as "Masked man" in the closing credits of the episode. He is addressed by name by Amanda Rosewater in the episode.

Appearances

 * First appearance of the Omec. As such, it is also the first appearance of T'evgin and Kindzi.


 * First appearance of General Rahm Tak.


 * Final appearance of Christie McCawley; dies in this episode.


 * Final appearance of Quentin McCawley; dies in this episode.


 * First appearance of Luke Tarr, who is the half-human/half-Castithan son of Alak Tarr and Christie McCawley.

Allusions

 * Rafe McCawley refers to Rahm Tak as looking like Edgar Winter. Edgar Winter is a rock and roll musician who has albinism. Along with his pale skin and long hair, he bears some similarity to the traditional appearance of a Castithan.

Quotes

 * Joshua Nolan: Did you have to shoot her in the gut?
 * Amanda Rosewater: I was aiming for the legs.
 * Joshua Nolan: Nice aim.

....
 * Amanda Rosewater: Doc Yewll. You don't normally gamble at my establishment.
 * Meh Yewll: Just cutting loose. Getting my ya-yas out.

....
 * Irisa Nyira: Last time we saw Amanda, she tried to shoot me.
 * Joshua Nolan: She considered shooting you. I remind you she didn't actually pull the trigger. But, yeah. Yeah, you stay in the car.

....
 * Meh Yewll: The fact that you try to appeal to my better angels is adorably human.
 * Amanda Rosewater: So you're staying.
 * Meh Yewll: Get your skinny ass out of here. I've got work to do.

....
 * Irisa Nyira: I can't go back. They're going to lynch me.
 * Joshua Nolan: It's the only town.
 * Irisa Nyira: They know I'm a mass murderer. I destroyed New York. I killed Tommy!
 * Joshua Nolan: All right, now you listen up, because I'm only going to say this once. It was that Ark Brain that did the killing, not you. You are as much a victim as anyone. You fought it. You beat it. And you saved... everyone. I could not be prouder of you.
 * Irisa Nyira: They're still going to lynch me.
 * Joshua Nolan: Details, details.

....
 * Stahma Tarr: If your wife has harmed them, she will die an excruciating death.
 * Datak Tarr: And if she hasn't harmed them?
 * Stahma Tarr: Same outcome. I see your point.

....
 * Amanda Rosewater: This town needs you.
 * Meh Yewll: What this town needs is a sensitively worded obituary.

....
 * Joshua Nolan: Hey, you okay? You okay?
 * Irisa Nyira: Your breath stinks.
 * Joshua Nolan: Oh, you're all right.

....
 * Quentin McCawley: When Heaven falls to Earth, peace shall reign.
 * Rahm Tak: Ahh, boring. Boring.

....
 * Rahm Tak: [Gesturing towards Quentin McCawley's body with a fresh bullet wound in this forehead] Oops. Was that your son?

....
 * Christie McCawley: You are all devils. May Rayetso consign your soul to solitude and fire!
 * Stahma Tarr: She's... she's in shock.
 * Christie McCawley: I am not in shock! I know exactly what I'm saying! May your liro stink of unclean death in the forever after in the Three Hells!