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| Brian J. Smith |
Nolan and Tommy are getting some pal time together investigating the Ark that Sukar crashed into the Badlands. On the way he has a nice fatherly talk with Tommy about his relationship with Irisa. There were threats. Inside the ship they find an awful lot of old human technology, including some humans that died during hypersleep.
Of course, one must wonder why the Ark had humans in hypersleep to begin with. They find one hypersleep baggie with a real live human, none other than Brian J. Smith from Stargate Universe. Nolan and Tommy pack him into the car and head back to Defiance. The poor befuddled human turns out to be Gordon McClintock, the Commander of the International Space Station in good old 2013.
While Nolan is rescuing presumed dead astronauts, Amanda gets a visit from her old flame. He is, of course, investigating the escape of Uncle Eddie. While he's hanging around he tries to get Mayor Amanda to come back to the ERep as a territorial governor. He follows up with a possibly insincere “I miss you.” This touching moment is abruptly interrupted by Irisa telling her that Nolan needs to talk to her.
The escapee appears welcome. She meets up with Nolan at Doc Yewll's, where they discuss the past. It seems that the ISS blew up in 2013 and its crew was presumed dead. It would appear that the Votans really kidnapped the crew and then blew up the station, all while claiming to have come in peace. Doc continues her examination of Gordon, appearing a bit perturbed. This becomes alarm when Gordon has a vision of having been probed by some Indogene and freaks out.
It is decided that Gordon needs a little peace and quiet. Apparently Rafe McCawley is the only one in town with a normal human house. Nolan takes him there to help him feel a little more at home. They entice him to tell old stories about the ISS, since they were all children when it blew up. They trash talk Twilight a little bit and then settle in for some drinking. Gordon reminisces about his wife and wonders if she could still be alive. To which Rafe promises that they will look for her. By this time the group have all been drinking pretty heavily and decide to call it a night. Rafe kindly allows Gordon to take Luke's old room.
Unfortunately, he doesn't stay asleep for long. Gordon wakes up hearing a bunch of alien talk in his head and wanders into the living room. In his trance-like state he thinks it's a good idea to choke the life out of Mayor Amanda. Nolan and Rafe finally wake up and come to her rescue. Poor Gordon apologizes profusely as Tommy and Irisa cart him off to jail. Nolan shows up shortly thereafter and tries to have a civil conversation with Irisa, who is still furious over Nolan's treatment of Sukar.
Unsurprisingly, this doesn't go well. Nolan is hurt that she feels like like she doesn't belong anywhere, least of all with him. She is still upset about Sukar. She claims he made her feel like she was home.
Poor Nolan, she just keeps twisting that knife in his back doesn't she? This touching father daughter talk is interrupted by Gordon having another breakdown. He starts ranting in an alien language and starts banging his head into the walls of his cell. As Nolan and Irisa get to him, silver blood is smeared across his face. This makes Nolan very unhappy. He stalks over to Doc Yewll's and confronts her. She finally tells them that Gordon is an Indogene prototype. She surmises that a rogue program took the astronauts from the ISS and extracted their memories to build an assassin that could get close to the humans in charge back then. Well, this is a little much for Gordon. He freaks out, grabs a gun and escapes.
Let's take a little break and check in on the Tar family, shall we. When last we saw Stahma, she was warning Kenya that Datak must never know about their new relationship. I wonder when that cat will escape that particular bag, hmm? So we find Datak making his regular pilgrimage to the NeedWant.
He becomes a bit upset when Kenya substitutes Tira for his appointment. She claims that she needs to cut back on her client list and Datak becomes even more irate and finally leaves after bruising up the young prostitute. He's such a douche. Anyway, Datak arrives home to find his wife bathing alone. This is borderline scandalous, he truly appears horrified that his wife is bathing alone. “What will the servants think?” She finally displays a bit of backbone and says she thought he was at the NeedWant.
This prompts another tirade about Kenya. Stahma finds this a good time to entice him into the bath to make him forget about that “stupid woman.” Some time later, Stahma has another nice meeting with Kenya. When the fun part is over, she admonishes Kenya for refusing Datak. The human displays her lack of understanding of Castithan ways by thinking that Stahma is in an unhappy marriage. Stahma wastes no time in assuring her that she is very happy. She goes on to admonish Kenya and tell her that she must learn to play the game better. Oh, what evil little web is she building now?
While the whole town is busy looking for him, Gordon manages to make his way down into the mines that Rafe had promised to show him. He stands there contemplating throwing himself into the water-filled rocky abyss until Rafe shows up. Old Rafe tries his best to comfort the distraught man. He claims that Gordon must be human, because Indogene don't feel anything at all. Ultimately, the astronaut appears to decide to man up and find his wife. Rafe covers for him by claiming that he jumped over the cliff and the water is too deep to recover the body. Therefore, no one is even looking for him now.
Amanda's old friend feels this is a good time to spill a choice bit of information. He tells her that the Earth Republic has set their sights on Defiance and they've decided that she's a problem. Looks like they will stop at nothing to remove her from power. He once more tries to get her to come home with him, but she refuses. They both look tearful, but Amanda sends him away.
As the sun sets on a pretty green field, Gordon McClintock walks up to a farm house where an old woman is hanging up some laundry to dry. She turns around and slowly walks up to him and then they embrace. It's a sweet scene, even if I find it highly improbable given the apocalyptic wasteland they now live in.
So, coming back to the hint of Doc Yewll's past, Nolan stalks back into her office to interrogate her some more. He loudly demands to know everything about the program that created Gordon. He actually gets pretty threatening with her, but a young woman walks in a collapses at their feet. Doc Yewll quickly examines her and proclaims that it's a plague. It's some sort of hemorrhagic fever, but I wish it was zombies.
The next episode of Defiance, “If I Ever Leave This World Alive”, airs June 17th at 9PM ET on Syfy.