The shocking twists and turns of Defiance channel George R.R. Martin in a spectacular season finale. The lesson? Never meet an evil person in the woods. Like ever.

This scene ended the episode. It's the invasion of the Earth Republic
army taking over Defiance. It's a bad time for this sci-fi outpost.
Everything is indeed broken. Click to EMBIGGEN

The culmination of an amazing season one ended last night with cliffhangers that made me realize, Defiance is not your run-of-the-mill "play it safe" and be predictable sci-fi series. I am thoroughly engrossed in this story, and I HATE the fact that I have to wait until June 2014 for more. SyFy channel built last week's episode as "the one everyone will be talking about." Although good, it had none of the shocking moments that Monday night's season finale called "Everything is Broken" had. And I just want to warn those who are following this series and haven't watched it yet, there are some major spoilers in this post.

Kenya had the upper hand on Stahma, but got outmaneuvered. R.I.P. Kenya.

OMG they killed Kenya. She was like one of my favorite characters. And Kenya didn't die a useless death either. She was outmaneuvered in a game of chess and paid for it with her life. I really shouldn't be shocked, but I am. Kenya's demise was foreshadowed by the venomous and treacherous threats coming from the evil Stahma. "This will not end well for you," Stahma said to Kenya. I just didn't think Defiance had the cojones to go there. After last night's episode, I'll never say that again.

To be fair, I admire Stahma. She's got more layers than an onion and makes for a powerful villain. She's as ruthless, conniving, and clever as Cersei in George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire. But I thought Kenya could outwit her. In truth, I believed she had up until the end. I kept asking myself, what would I do if I were in Kenya's position? I don't know if I would have met Stahma in the woods, but I sure as hell wouldn't trust her...not after she back-stabbed her sister, Mayor Rosewater, to give Datak an edge in the election.

Meeting an evil person in the woods is never a good idea. Here Kenya
in back (she's the brunette) is meeting Stahma. This scene reminded me
in every way of the 1976 film "Omen 2" where Damien kills a blond boy in
the woods who suspects who he truly is, i.e., the Antichrist. See picture below.

This scene gave me nightmares when I was a kid. The dark-haired boy is
pure evil. The blond kid in the background goes to the same military
academy and stumbled across Damien's secret, so he kills him with his
"powers." It's awful. Lesson: never meet an evil person in the woods. Ever.

But as it turns out, Kenya did meet Stahma in the woods (NEVER DO THIS! NEVER EVER MEET AN EVIL PERSON IN THE WOODS PEOPLE!), and Stahma acted just like a spider, luring Kenya in by saying she was on the run from her monster husband. The only thing that makes this act even believable is that Datak is a monster. I suppose that Stahma said at least one thing that was correct: "You don't know Castithans." Kenya paid the price with her life by accepting a flask coated with poison. She was smart enough not to drink it, but just touching the surface of the flask was enough to kill her. It was a total turn around since Kenya had a gun to Stahma's head and seemed to have the upper hand. I'm still reeling from this surprise, and I thoroughly expect this to go down as one of the top ten shocking deaths in science fiction. It's right up there with Samuel L. Jackson's death in Deep Blue Sea.

One of the most shocking deaths in cinematic history.

OMG they killed Nolan. What the hell is going on? I loved Nolan. We've been seeing Defiance through his eyes since day one. We started out with him in the pilot episode in a crawler with his daughter in tow making their way to Antarctica. Right from the start, he established himself as a rugged military man with a sense of honor and the ability to beat anyone up in a fight. Strong, cunning, with a "straight as an arrow" moral compass, and boom...taken out with a bullet fired from an Earth Republic surgeon that has a reputation for loving his work. This is a euphemism for "I like to cut people up on the operating table."

Noes! They killed Lawkeeper Nolan. 

To be fair, Nolan's fate is similar to Catelyn's Stark's: dead but then resurrected through magic (sorry if I'm spoiling A Game of Thrones here). But the resurrection comes at what price? Irisa  has essentially given herself over to being "The Devouring Mother" because she didn't want to lose her dad. She's now the weapon of Irzu, the goddess of the Irathients, and from the look of things, I think this means she's going to lose all of her identity and become a killing machine. Her body may survive the fall into the strange glowing pit deep within the mines, but all the things that make up Irisa can't possibly survive that. So in a sense, they've killed off Irisa too!

Major cast members have been dropping like flies in this season. Who OTHER than George R.R. Martin does that? Well okay...The Walking Dead does it too. I don't know if I really like that or not? I suppose I do because I'm completely hooked in this show.

The conniving and murderous Tarr family. As much as I'd like to see them
get justice for killing Kenya and hurting others, they are some great villains.

OMG they killed Datak. Okay...we didn't see him get killed so he'll probably be back next season. But the fact is that he did kill the leader of the Earth Republic with a knife in his office and soldiers were pounding on the door. I just don't see how that could go over well? Hands covered in blood, dead body of the leader on the ground. I know if I'd been a soldier and saw that, I'd fill the dude full of bullet holes. All they wanted was access to the mines and they got that when Datak won the election. What further use is this Castithan to them? He's dead weight; a liability. And by the way the writers offed Kenya, I fully expect Datak to get executed along with Stahma in the season premiere.

Man oh man, the shocking twists and turns of Defiance channel George R.R. Martin in a spectacular season finale dripping with blood. Why does June of 2014 seem so far away?

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On Defiance, inclusion rather than avoiding exclusion is the key to equality. Are you listening America?

I happen to think that the mechanism that fosters inequality in America right now is a lack of inclusion, rather than a conscious avoidance of exclusion. And I choose my words carefully here.

As you well know, exclusion (or discrimination) is illegal in the United States when it comes to employment. However, inclusion (or favoritism) is not. It's also a lot harder to spot, but is almost universal in today's job market. Think about what I'm saying for just a moment.

You choose to help people who RESEMBLE YOU. The people who live in your neighborhood or attend your church or school. Whites help other whites. Blacks help other blacks. Mormons help other Mormons. Baptists help other Baptists. Jews help other Jews. Gay people help other gay people. That's just the way things are generally done. I'm not saying that this is either bad or good. I'm not making a judgment here. I'm just pointing out the obvious so that my next point is crystal clear.

Monday night's episode of Defiance on SyFy called "A Well-Respected Man" is absolutely f'ing brilliant. To be clear, the plot was "meh." Here's the one sentence pitch for you writers out there: the mayor's sister gets kidnapped and she needed to find her. Exciting, right? But it's not the plot (or the one sentence pitch) that matters in this case. It's the character and "world" development, and how Defiance very skillfully plays its hand showing us that inclusion is the best way to surmount the ugly specter of inequality in all its forms.

Datak is a Casthithan. They all have a kind of albino appearance and milky hair.
They're familial structure is extremely important to them and a source of their
power. They also seem to suffer an external locus of identity, meaning that
their self-worth is completely dependent on how others perceive them.

In "A Well Respected Man," Amanda (the Mayor) gives her sister Kenya grief for being a prostitute. Of course to Kenya, she's like a duck with the "words words words" rolling off her back like so many droplets of water. Shortly after their verbal sparring, Kenya gets kidnapped by the Bioman; Nolan (in the role of Lawkeeper) along with Amanda must track her down. Since the Bioman is owned by Datak (a Casthithan), that's where they end up going to squeeze Datak for information.

Datak on the left. Lawkeeper Nolan on the right. They don't like each other much.

A little background on Datak: he's been trying to achieve a level of respect equal to his power and wealth. He knew nothing of the Bioman's nocturnal activities, i.e. kidnapping people to harvest their adrenal glands for a synthetic drug that's apparently worth a lot of money (it also kills them, but that's just "collateral damage" in the pursuit of profit, right?) Anyway, he would have helped the Mayor (Amanda) just to be a hero, however, Datak and Nolan don't get along at all, and Nolan burst down Datak's door and drags him out into the street, treating him like a common cur. It really pisses Datak off. So Datak hands Nolan and Amanda some great lines about how the town uses him all the time but never recognizes him. It's all true. And that, Datak says, is the reason he won't help Amanda find her sister. Pretty awful eh? Hold on...it gets better.

This is Stahma. She's Datak's wife and is extremely intelligent. Nolan kind
of gets this in the episode "A Well Respected Man" and certainly is
aware that she is a master manipulator. I like Stahma though. All of her
manipulations seem to be aimed at getting her husband respect or wealth,
which I think is an admirable quality as long as no one gets hurt.

Stahma (Datak's wife) slips out and tracks down Amanda in the dark. Stahma tells Amanda that she loves Kenya because 1) she calls her employees "Night Porters" showing Stahma that Kenya has pride in her prostitutes, and 2) Kenya ran up to Stahma the first time they saw each other in the street and hugged her. How is this at all good? Well, Kenya said something important to Stahma...something that she desperately needed. Kenya told her, "Datak is an amazing man. Thank you for sharing him with us." In Casthithan society, sex is pretty loose. But no spouse would be cool about their partner seeking physical pleasure elsewhere. Period. Kenya recognized this and turns the act of Datak visiting her brothel from "exclusion" to "inclusion" by acknowledging it. Brilliant? I say so.

This is Mayor Amanda (on the left) and her sister Kenya (on the right). We come to find
out that Amanda actually raised Kenya when their mother got killed. She takes it very
personally when a woman on the street confronts her, saying "Kenya must have had a terrible
mother!" It's meant as an insult because Kenya was sleeping with the lady's husband
(who visited the brothel) and thus was ruining her marriage.

Stahma (using this theme of inclusion vs. exclusion) carefully points out to the Mayor that Datak's immense pride has been hurt and in order to save Kenya's life (and secure Datak's help), Amanda needs to show Datak respect. What form will this respect take? Stahma tells Amanda she wants her husband appointed to the Town Council, which not only ups the political intrigue of the show as a whole, but hammers home the idea that inclusion is probably the best way to address discrimination.

Inclusion rather than avoiding exclusion is the road to equality in Defiance. I just wish more people realized this outside of science fiction, and strove harder to include others who are very different from themselves. Yes, Defiance is brilliant. And if you're not watching it, shame on you. I put it right up there with Battlestar Galactica. If you haven't heard of Defiance until now, watch this trailer. SyFy spent $100 million on season one alone.

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