Defiance, “Where the Apples Fall”:

Ah, the subtle intricacies of Castithan family politics.

Datak and Stahma sold out to the VC to save Alak, but Christie’s death has left him uninclined toward gratitude. As soon as he returns to Defiance, he informs the authorities of their betrayal, spurring a town-wide manhunt.

I very much enjoyed watching the Tarr family self-destruct — Datak and Stahma both have such excellent acting that any episode with this much of the both of them is bound to be great — and I once again find myself impressed with how much Alak has evolved as a character. He’s actually kind of badass all of a sudden, and some of his deadpan comments really had me cracking up.

I do wonder where they go from here, though. Datak and Stahma seem to be up a creek without a paddle, and I struggle to see what the writers’ options are at this point.

I can’t see them being killed off — maybe one, but even that’s a stretch, and definitely not both. I also can’t see the people of Defiance being willing to forgive them after their betrayal, on top of all their previous shenanigans — they were powerful, but never popular. Maybe they might be transplanted to the game, but I don’t think the game has the resources to do that justice.

We’ll see.

While all of Defiance searches for the Tarrs, Rahm Tak’s wife arrives at his camp with surprising news from Brazil, and we learn far more about the Omec than anyone wanted to know.

Defiance is not pulling any punches when it comes to making their villains unlikable this season, that’s for sure. On one side we’ve got Rahm Tak with his virulent racism, his endless sadism, and his corpse desecration fetish, and on the other, we’ve got the incestuous, carnivorous Omec.

Fun times.

It is interesting  to learn Rahm Tak has gone rogue from the Votanis Collective. Helps to preserve the murky morality of the series by showing that the Collective has not sanctioned his atrocities, and it does explain why his army — while a danger to Defiance — isn’t that big. This isn’t some grand campaign by the Votanis Collective; it’s a madman’s deranged quest for bloodshed.

It does make this season eerily reminiscent of the plot of the game, though. If Rahm Tak starts trying to get a hold on some terraforming tech, it’ll really start to feel weird.

Overall rating: 7.7/10

Dark Matter, episode five:

Hard up for cash, the crew of the Raza is contacted by a man (played by Stargate: Atlantis veteran David Hewlett) who is apparently their agent, and he has a new job for them: Recover a damaged freighter. Sounds simple.

Do I even need to say it’s not simple?

No, it doesn’t take long for the crew to encounter a serious problem. A problem that rhymes with “lace rombies.” Apparently the freighter had recently visited the Umbrella Corporation homeworld.

As One and Three get lost in the labyrinthine halls of the ship, Two is attacked and infected, and Five discovers an exotic piece of technology aboard the Raza with the android’s* help.

*(Seriously, can she get a name already? People name their cars, and those don’t even talk back. Someone ought to have given her a nickname by now. Call her Sally — she looks like a Sally.)

For the most part, this episode wasn’t terribly impressive. As with last episode, the premise was fairly cliche, and it was easy to predict most of what happened. Also, a love triangle between One, Two, Three is not something I ever wanted to see.

That said, it struck me during this episode that Dark Matter is very good at two things.

One is giving everyone on the cast something to do every episode. Seven characters isn’t exactly an enormous cast, but it’s not nothing, either, and yet every episode manages to include a good sub-plot and/or at least one or two strong scenes for every single character. Nobody ever feels superfluous or unused.

The other is that every episode manages to advance the plot in some way. Episode five was mostly what I would classify as filler, yet we still have some major revelations. We’ve gotten yet more evidence that the Raza crew aren’t your garden variety homo sapiens, and there’s the mystery of whatever Five dug up.

I think these two strengths are a large part of why I’m enjoying Dark Matter so much, even though it’s often quite generic in a lot of ways.

You can really tell this show is the work of writers with a great deal of experience and mastery over the craft.

Overall rating: 7.1/10

Defiance, “History Rhymes”:

I was right — Nolan and Irisa cannot be separated. The Kaziri‘s stasis pod implanted ark tech in their brains that’s keeping them connected, and their separation wreaked havoc on their nervous systems.

As Doc Yewll struggles to save them, Nolan and Irisa are treated to a joint tour of Nolan’s memories, focusing on the horrors of the Pale Wars and his failures as a father.

It’s a good example of what makes Nolan — and his relationship with Irisa — interesting. It’s clear that Nolan genuinely loves Irisa and would do anything to keep her safe, and one cannot doubt that if he hadn’t chosen to rescue and protect her, she would have had a very short and very unpleasant life.

But the fact remains Nolan is a pretty bad parent, to put it mildly. He’s never let go of his resentment towards the Votans for what happened in the Pale Wars — and “History Rhymes” effectively illustrates why — and this colours his relationship with Irisa. Plus he’s just kind of an irresponsible screw-up in general.

On the downside, this story doesn’t have a lot in the way of strong resolution, and while it adds some extra details, it doesn’t really tell us anything the viewer didn’t already know or was likely to have surmised.

But there is plenty of Doc Yewll to be had, and thus plenty of laughs and general awesomeness.

The side plots offer the continuation of Stahma’s affair with the Omec commander — which doesn’t really go anywhere — and Alec proving himself surprisingly badass as he bucks against the brutality of Rahm Tak.

There were also a few subtle nods to the game, such as the mention of Cooper and the Votan mechs that greatly resemble the mechs used by Dark Matter* in the game. To some extent I kind of enjoy these more subtle connections than the larger tie-ins. The big ones often feel a bit forced, while the small details reinforce the idea that this is a single world.

*(No relation to the show I’m also reviewing in this post.)

Speaking of the game, this season has been making me glad I’ve played it, because if not for Ara Shondu, I’d probably think all Castithans were just violent psychopaths at this point.

But I digress.

Mostly I’d classify “History Rhymes” as a filler episode — though an enjoyable and largely well-executed one — but the final scene was quite a shocker and promises good things to come.

Overall rating: 7.5/10

Dark Matter, episode four:

It’s shore-leave time, and as anyone who has ever watched a sci-fi show knows, that’s when things really go to Hell.

The Raza has arrives at the space station to repair and refuel, and the crew splits up. Two and Five try to make some money, Six puts in a visit to the doctor, Three and One try to offload the Raza‘s weapon stash, and Four looks for clues as to his past.

Naturally, almost all of them end meeting with misadventure. One and Three, in addition to sparring with each other, run afoul of a familiar face. Very familiar, in One’s case. Two and Five attract entirely the wrong kind of attention for their gambling skills, and Six learns the dangers of getting your DNA tested when you’re a wanted murderer.

Because it’s apparently Opposite Day, only Four manages to avoid meeting with violence.

I found this episode to be both quite cliche and quite predictable. There isn’t much here that you haven’t seen before on any other sci-fi show.

That said, it’s still fairly entertaining, and the fast pace and myriad of plots kept me engaged.

Episode four also continued to provide a satisfying trickle of new clues to Dark Matter’s various mysteries.

The writers clearly want us to suspect that One is responsible for wiping the crew’s memories, but I think this is a red herring. It’s too obvious and too sudden.

If any of the crew is responsible, I’m still betting it’s Two. She has the odd combination of being very confident and take-charge, as if she has a goal in mind, but also determined not to “waste” any time uncovering the truth.

That said, at this point I’m starting to wonder if any of the current crew is responsible. It’s possible something altogether more strange is going on — that ad Six saw in the waiting room was not just some random background flavour.

It does seem clear that at least some of the crew are clones, if not all of them. That then raises new questions: Who cloned them, why did they do it, and why haven’t they broken down as clones apparently do after a few days?

And in either case, Five remains a total mystery. Is she a clone as well? Is she the one who cloned them? Was she a hostage? A bystander or passenger who got caught up in all this by accident?

Overall rating: 7.1/10