Round Two: Defiance

Defiance: Season 1, Episode 2 “The Devil in the Dark” (B-)

This episode didn’t exactly thrill me any more than the first double-decker installment did, but it also wasn’t really less appealing. I’m still not taken with either of the lead characters, Nolan or Irisa, and the feud between Datak Tarr and Rafe McCawley is a bit too cut-and-dry, especially since their children are planning to marry. Nolan appears to be siding with Rafe, mostly because circumstances dictated them descending into Old St. Louis together in this hour, while Amanda has to play peacekeeper and therefore defend the ancient traditions of Datak’s people, which managed to upset Irisa considerably and nearly start a full-scale riot in town. We saw less of Amanda in this episode and nothing of her sister Kenya, so I do hope that the two of them will be back in the spotlight in episodes to come. Jaime Murray, who I hadn’t remembered noting in the pilot, was much more prominent in this hour as Stahma, Datak’s formidable wife, and I’m mainly baffled by the number of non-American actors putting on fake American accents for these roles, which, in the case of both Murray, who I first remember from season two of “Dexter,” and Grant Bowler, makes their performances less effective in my mind. While Ben took himself definitively out of the equation after being shocked back into in this episode, it remains to be seen just what the former mayor’s plans entail as she prepares to leave her city behind and ready for some unfortunate fate to befall it. • Grant Bowler