This show is definitely getting better.
“If I Ever Leave This World Alive” doesn’t start out seeming terribly interesting. The story focuses on a plague hitting Defiance. The plague is spread by Irathients, but it only sickens humans, and this puts the two groups even more at odds than usual. The entire situation eerily echoes an incident from Defiance’s past that ended in tragedy.
It’s not a bad plot, certainly, but it doesn’t seem like anything special out of the gate. However, it ended up being far more intense, and more brutal, than I thought Defiance capable of. And I mean that as a compliment.
I hate using cliches like this, but this is an episode that had me on the edge of my seat the whole time. I’m not even sure what to say about it, because I don’t want to risk spoiling too much.
I will say that my main takeaways from this episode were:
1: Datak Tarr is much scarier than I gave him credit for, and I always thought he was pretty scary.
2: I really don’t see how relations with the Spirit Riders can be repaired after this. I’m sure it will happen eventually, but it’s not going to be easy. I also wouldn’t be surprised if Irisa wound up going rogue and turning on Defiance for a while, and honestly, I wouldn’t blame her if she did.
3: The main thing keeping the Earth Republic from getting truly vicious in their efforts to take over Defiance is no longer a factor. I expect this is going to get ugly soon.
4: Nicky is cooking up some bad, bad shtako.
And Quentin’s arc is progressing in interesting ways, and there was some great development of Connor and his history with Amanda, and Amanda and Datak are about to be at each other’s throats more than usual…
For the first time since Defiance began, I’m actually excited to see what the next episode will bring.
As an aside, this was also another episode featuring a tenuous connection to Defiance to the game. The plague medicine Nolan was after was, as I understand it, the focus of a new storyline that played out in the game recently.
Overall rating: 8.6/10 Easily the best episode to date. It’s gratifying to see a show find its footing after a shaky beginning. Now let’s just hope this is a taste of things to come, not an anomaly.
Superior Realities