The Votan Collective strike at the heart of Defiance in a way that will leave a mark forever.  A new opening credit is required to mark the occasion.

****SPOILERS BELOW*****

Remember last week when we were all so sure there was no way the Arch would be blown up.  Well the writers surprised by rocking the town with the collapse of half the Arch in the opening teaser.  A sad day indeed.  Stahma and Datak completed their mission seamlessly, but Tak orders them on another mission immediately.  Kill the Omec, T’evgin.  If you haven’t been paying attention those guys are almost impossible to kill, and are basically the boogie-men of legend.  Nothing scares Stahma, but this has her shaken. She is totally ready to write off Alak as a lost cause but couldn’t sell Datak on it. Datak should remember that when it comes down to it Stahma will always pick herself.

Epic fail of Stahma’s seduction slash assassination attempt on the Omec, which should really be called a “seduc-ssination”.   Also T’evgin’s kind of a cool boyfriend bringing Stahma pancakes as they discuss her trying to poison him. Very evolved conversation.  It’s pretty awesome that he’s just curious as to who ordered his death, and not really mad about her attempt.  Looks like they can still be friends with benefits. Hah!

Niles is still creepy and the storyline revealing him to be Amanda’s rapist didn’t have the weight it should have since it was obvious to the audience for so long. It makes Amanda look dumb instead of the smart leader she is supposed to be since it took her so long to realize he has been obsessed with her.  Not in a “I want to be your boyfriend” way, but “I want to possess you whether you like it or not” way.

Even her killing the guy came off as bit dull and emotional versus the mayor of a city.  He was wired to a bomb and the place had supplies the town sorely needed, but Amanda couldn’t think cause she’s a girl.  It’s also a bit unbelievable that they outran that huge bomb, but at least we put to rest that extremely annoying storyline. By the by, how did Niles manage to get those biomen to follow him so loyally?

Nolan and Irisa’s headaches are probably due to the distance between them since they were bonded in some way in the stasis pod. Hopefully, it will give them cool powers other than blinding headaches and seizures.

So completely over Berlin’s vendetta against Irisa. It doesn’t really serve the plot to have Berlin be so petty constantly. She either needs to deal with it (kill Irisa) or move on. Especially as a lawkeeper it prevents her from doing a good job. When Berlin was originally introduced she was strong and interesting, but now not so much. There are stronger storylines happening and this is just distracting.

Overall I enjoyed the episode and understand that storylines from season two need to be wrapped up, but the plots from that season are pulling the current one down.  Let’s stay focused on the good and if there are things from last season that don’t get answered, I’m OK with that.

Next week we’ll discover what is going on with Nolan and Irisa’s bond.  Can’t wait!

New episodes of Defiance air Friday at 8/7c on SyFy.