Defiance, S2 Ep10 – Bottom of the World

In a surprising turn of events Syfy has decided to air two new back-t0-back episodes of Defiance this week, the first one being “Bottom of the World”. This episode has a simple premise, in which Amanda, Pottinger, and the E-Rep ambassador become trapped in the mines after the mines caved in. The reasons as to why the cave-in occurred aren’t revealed until much later, but are somewhat surprising and lead to serious repercussions for one of the show’s main characters.

Amanda & Pottinger are trapped!

Before we get into that, some developments did occur while our characters were trapped under ground. For one, the E-Rep ambassador that gave Amanda such a hard time last season died. I don’t think any Defiance viewers will shed a tear over her death, though. Additionally, Amanda and Pottinger become much closer than they were before. While gasping for what little air they had left they shared a kiss. This isn’t surprising, considering the weird attraction Pottinger has displayed towards Amanda in recent episodes and Amanda’s recent sympathetic attitude towards Pottinger. Also, the chances of them surviving were slim, so it seems only right to share one last kiss. Pottinger even offers to die so Amanda would have more air to breathe and have a better chance of living. He also vaguely confesses the horrible acts he’s committed without getting into specifics. Fortunately for them Nolan and Berlin, with the help of Rafe McCauley and other miners, are able to save the two before anyone else dies. While the two are now safe, I feel Amanda left the cave with more questions about Pottinger than she did before. Will she ever find out the things he did to her in the past?

The other subplot introduced in “Bottom of the World”, which actually concluded in the following episode, “Doll Parts”, dealt with Alak breaking it off with Dierde. In previous episodes, Dierdre has sabotaged Alak’s relationship with Christie, hoping she would become Alak’s true love and be married into the powerful Tarr family. So, Alak breaking up with Dierdre was something she couldn’t just let happen. I do believe that Alak did have a real change of heart and wanted to make it up to Christie and become a good husband and eventually a good father, but he never does tell Christie about Dierdre when Christie gives him a “clean slate” option. With Dierdre still hanging over the family’s head, Stahma attempts to recruit Datak to take her out, though he never agrees to it, and we’re left wondering if Stahma will have to get her own hands dirty.

The dilemma in the mines ends up affecting Rafe’s life in a drastic way. It is revealed that Rafe’s son actually caused the explosion in the mines, with the intention of killing the E-Rep politicians inside. It turns out he’s been working with the Votanis Collective because they were holding his mother, Pilar (Linda Hamilton), for ransom. Rafe ends up taking the rap for his son’s crimes and Pilar gets set free near the conclusion of the episode. I completely understand Rafe’s reasons for doing what he did, but at the same time I felt frustrated seeing him go about the situation in that way. Rafe’s love for his family members has been his downfall this season ever since he risked his reputation to protect Josef in “Beasts of Burden”.

Clean Slate

Irisa’s arc involved her trying to get her hands on what is called a Terrasphere. After a distrustful Nolan fails to keep her in his sights, she coerces Tommy into retrieving the sphere for her. The episode concluded with Irisa infecting Tommy with Irzu, and the Terrasphere being used to revive a spaceship below Defiance, which in turn places several of Irisa’s Irzu-infected friends into weird storage pods. This is all leading up to what we can assume is “Arkrise”, which fortunately for us has more light shed on it in the following episode.

Overall, “Bottom of the World” wasn’t a great episode. While it seems the scenes in the mines aimed to make the audiences sympathize a little more with Pottinger, they felt more like filler than anything else. By throwing in this twist with Rafe’s son I feel like the show is trying to make us care a little more about the plight the McCauley family is going through. While I think Rafe is an interesting character, I don’t care much about his son and have no idea what Pilar can bring to the table with the season being nearly over. I thoroughly enjoyed the subplot involving Alak and the Tarr family, but this story was merely introduced. The real meat of that drama continues in “Doll Parts”. Also, one aspect I enjoyed about this episode was seeing that Nolan may still have feelings for Amanda, which ultimately leads to him and Berlin breaking it off. The episode’s conclusion involving the Terrasphere was just weird, but did leave me wanting to know more.

What did you think of “Bottom of the World”? Feel free to let us know in the comments below.