Defiance, S3 Ep07 – The Beauty of Our Weapons

As each episode of Defiance airs we are drawn closer and closer to the inevitable battle between the citizens of Defiance and the Votanis Collective. In last week’s episode we caught a glimpse into the madness behind General Rahm Tak, which built up how much of a crazed and ruthless threat he truly is. Additionally, in last week’s episode Datak and Stahma were outed as the ones who blew up the arch and have been secretly working with the Votanis Collective. With Datak now captured and Stahma injured, relying on her Omec friend, T’evgin, for assistance, the fate of Datak lies in the hands of Amanda and the people of Defiance.

Rounding up the troops for war

Two major developments occur in this week’s episode,”The Beauty of Our Weapons”, as Datak is sentenced and Defiance gets a leg up in their upcoming battle. Ian Ziering, of 90210 fame and Syfy’s own Sharknado movies, guest stars as Conrad Von Bach, an arms dealer and former boyfriend of Berlin. Having already sold weapons to the Votanis Collective, he decides to lend a helping hand to Defiance and offer them free weapons in exchange for one drink with Berlin. This was a bit surprising, as we don’t know much about Von Bach other than the fact that he and Berlin used to date and had broken up. Right now it seems he isn’t playing any side except his own, but his willingness to offer weapons to two opposing sides makes me wonder if those voice-automated guns will work well on the day of the battle.

Having discovered that Von Bach’s mother manipulated them and orchestrated their initial break-up, Berlin and Von Bach decide to get back together and leave Defiance behind. Of course Berlin’s dismissal and departure of the town she’s grown to be a part of is met with hostility and disappointment from Amanda and Nolan. They do have a right to be angry, considering they began to consider Berlin part of the Defiance family, but she was only ever really there as a soldier for the E-Rep. I have a feeling Berlin will not be able to leave Defiance so easily, and will either be forced to fight alongside her friends or will bump into Rahm Tak’s death squad in her travels away from the city.

The fate of Datak is left hanging in the air, as we never see him actually die after being sentenced. Rather than being hanged Datak requests that he be executed via the shaming rack, which would see his limbs be torn away from his torso, as his Castithan brothers and sisters contribute to his torment by each dropping a rock in a crate. Datak feels this is the only way for him to get some dignity back, and even delivers what appears to be a heartfelt apology before his execution begins. Datak’s willingness to apologize and take the hard way out may not save his life, but it at least assists in him gaining back some lost respect from his son, Alak, which was nice to see. That being said the episode concludes with us never seeing the end result of the shaming rack, so I’m left wondering if Datak’s execution will actually be completed by next week’s episode.

Irisa’s haunted by the death of Tommy

Much of this week’s episode sees Nolan and the citizens of Defiance prepare for war and practice shooting with the new weapons supplied by Von Bach. Several Irathients attempt to turn their back on Defiance and the upcoming battle as they realize Irisa is not joining the fight. Nolan is able to convince Irisa into giving the battle a chance despite her recent gun-shyness. As she joins the rest of Defiance in some shooting practice she begins to see glimpses of Tommy and is reminded of the time she shot him down. It’s made clear that Irisa is still haunted by Tommy’s death, and that it’s one of the contributing factors to why she now refuses to pick up a weapon. The Irathients’ unwillingness to fight doesn’t last much longer, as they see Irisa at least tried to pick up a weapon again. Then Nolan delivers an inspiring speech that helps rally the citizens to still fight for their town.

“The Beauty of Our Weapons” also focuses some time on Stahma’s story, as she was last seen taking shelter with the Omecs after her brutal fight with Amanda in last week’s episode. While T’evgin is willing to help get Stahma back on her feet and hide her from the rest of Defiance, his daughter, Kindzi, constantly shows her disgust and disapproval for what her father is doing. In a lot of ways her anger is derived from her prejudices of other Votan races, but she also states that if the rest of Defiance finds out they’re hiding her it could hurt their temporary alliance. Still, she is required to follow her father’s commands and keep a watchful, protective eye on Stahma. The episode concludes with Kindzi force feeding Stahma something that gives her a vision of what appears to be their alien ship. It isn’t made clear why Kindzi is offering Stahma this vision, but I can only assume Kindzi is trying to turn Stahma against T’evgin (since she couldn’t change T’evgin’s mind) by showing Stahma her and her father’s true, possibly sinister plans.

Overall, “The Beauty of Our Weapons” was another great addition to Defiance‘s superior third season. The series continues to surprise me, with only one episode this season I didn’t care for. I’m really looking forward to seeing what becomes of these characters and what secrets Stahma discovers in her vision. Given that the Tarr’s have always been the series’ most compelling characters, I hope Datak’s execution fails and he is able to continue his wicked journey somehow. If he does die at least we’ll still have Stahma. Guest star Ian Ziering was fun to see on this week’s episode as the cool and charismatic Von Bach, but that rock guitar intro he had was a little much. I’m glad to see he’s supplied weapons to Defiance and hope the eventual battle works in their favor, but I’m sure issues will arise, especially with the Omecs still unwilling to play their full hand.

Next week’s episode see Defiance under siege as the Votanis Collective makes their way in. Take a look at the promo for next week’s episode below, and feel free to let us know what you thought about “The Beauty of Our Weapons” in the comments.