Serena Ryder - Commodore Ballroom - April 24, 2013

This review was written for and published by Concert Addicts. Photographs, including the one below, are copyright of Jamie Taylor and a full album of them can be viewed here.

The big difference between Serena Ryder live and Serena Ryder on CD is containment. On the recorded format, she is contained by a studio; on a stage she is unfettered. While she said that on Harmony, her current CD, she took the opportunity to play with her voice and what it can do, it’s in a live scenario that her labour bears noticeable fruit. Fresh off the previous weekend’s Juno win for Adult Alternative Album of the Year (Harmony) with Stompa nominated for Single of the Year, she showed the Commodore Ballroom what she was made of on Wednesday, April 24.

Although the Commodore was loosely filled by the time the opener, Danielle Duval, came on at 8:30 pm, every good perch along the periphery of the venue, including the mezzanine and the staircase railings, had been snagged by the cheerfully chatting members of the audience, as were the front rows on the dance floor at least 6 deep. She performed as a solo artist on electric guitar and vocals. Her style seems to be a generic pop/rock to her bright voice with a good mid to low range. She received some supportive whistles from the audience during the second song. It’s after this point that she says hello to the crowd and asks for some assistance from the crowd – the song is from the musical Grease, You’re the One that I Want, and she performs it at half speed, strumming her guitar, turning it into a vocal showcase. The audience were confused by the unaccustomed tempo, but they kind of get the hang of it on subsequent attempts. It’s a little draggy. The attention span of the crowd is waning and I can see and hear the chatter amongst them increase for the verses of the song. For her fourth song, Danielle moves to the piano and the introduction reminds me of any number of Sara Bareilles songs, but particularly Love Song. Moving to acoustic guitar, she introduces this song as having been inspired by a trip she made to South Africa. The name of it may have been You Can’t Come Any Closer. For her last song, she wants to test the bouncy floor, with a break-up song on electric guitar - I can’t say that the audience had much occasion to bounce. Taking her bow with her guitar above her head, she had played a good half hour. On her own, I found her a bit underwhelming and undersupported. A band of some kind would add depth and all kinds of dimension, I’m sure. Perhaps it would also increase the interaction with the audience. She certainly didn’t sound uncomfortable talking with them, she just didn’t engage them much.

While not the most multicultural of audiences, tonight’s attendees looked at least to be multi-generational. When the lights dim properly to allow Serena Ryder and her band to walk onto the stage, cheers from the full house erupt. The lights go up and Serena recognises a face in the crowd (possibly her mom) and smiles and waves at them. The smile does not leave her face or her voice for the duration of her show. The audience is encouraged to sing along, but the audience was already there – clapping enthusiastically with the first discernible notes of the song. It’s her current single on my radio station What I Wouldn’t Do. I’m impressed by how rock-steady her voice is while she plays guitar and the rest of her body is bouncing up and down. Nice vocal control. Respect.

Serena greets the audience at this point telling everyone that she is thrilled to be playing this place, her dream venue, amidst male and female voices calling out “I love you”. Apparently, she’d dreamt of headlining here since she opened for the Be Good Tanyas at the age of 18 or 19. It’s at this point that she tells folks her mother is in the audience and asks for lights in her general direction. A hand goes up from the house left side of the dance floor and Serena asks for the audience to give her some space. For the next song, Serena asks for the audience to just sing the words if she forgets them, she’s way too excited. There was no need, she seems to remember every line to All for Love, but is generous in sharing it with the audience and they sing the chorus solo. There’s a good drive to this song, it’s got some definite shades of rock in it. After 2 songs of bouncing, can I just say this woman has amazing hair? It’s got such great shape and body to it and even in mid-bounce, it looks perfectly styled.

Call Me has a slower tempo to it, but the energy level is not compromised (the term power ballad comes to mind). Serena Ryder performs as a four-piece for this tour. Her bestie plays piano keyboard and sings back up (she already did in the previous song) and for this song, her bass player also provides back-up vocal support and plays what looks like a small Casio-style keyboard, and there is a drummer on board as well. Vocally, I think Serena has a voice that has gotten progressively stronger with experience and confidence, and possibly fulfilment in what she does.

For Fall, Serena is not on any instrument other than her voice and not at a loss of how to move. I really am loving the fullness of her voice as she belts out the chorus. She introduces her band and the song Fated to Love. It has an almost atmospheric sound to it and there’s more use of lighting effects here. The level of light on stage increases as the instruments come in. It’s after this song Serena says that when writing and recording Harmony, she was having fun with her voice and how she grew up listening to AM radio with music from the ‘30s, ‘40s, and ‘50s – happy to hear voices sounding like her own.    

For You would not sound out of place as a James Bond theme song, if they had organ sound (heck, there’s always a first time). Shirley Bassey would be proud, right up to the song’s big finish. The bass player plucks a stand-up bass for the song and Serena is wearing the same hat she has on the cover photo of the CD. I wouldn’t be surprised if the time signature was 6 / 8 for this one – it has that rhythmic lilt to it. This song received the loudest applause and whistles of the night so far.

Mary Go Round goes into that nebulous realm of ‘new country’. Serena is back on electric guitar and the audience sings along with the chorus. At its conclusion, Serena has more words for the audience. This is the last show of the western tour and that she’s “thrilled to be with you at my dream venue”. Further, the favourite part of the set was next. Throughout this tour, she’d been running a bit of a contest under the hashtag #singwithserena. Fans sent in videos and one person at each show is chosen to sing the next song with her. The audience is very supportive when a young man called Jeremiah was called onto the stage. For Please, Baby Please (more in the country vein or ballad duet à la Dirty Dancing) Jeremiah and Serena sing in harmony for the chorus and continuing verses and he sounds every bit like he belongs there. They have a lovely sound together, instrumentation was understated with the bass player back on stand-up bass and piano keyboard taking care of the rest, it was so very good. I got a bit teary for him and I don’t even know the guy.

For Brand New Love Serena is on acoustic guitar and everyone else has a bit of a break. Stylistically – a little country, but more folksy. There’s applause for the lovely long notes, clapping as the tempo picks up and the audience gets solos for the chorus and they actually sound like one. They are in tune and do sound like a choir.

The band is back for Little Bit of Red and the song has good energy and tempo. The audience solos again for the chorus. The song has a Taking Care of Business vibe in the instrumental underpinning. It’s firmly grounded rhythmically with Serena’s voice handling all of the melodic responsibility. More “i love you” calls from the audience and cheers. I find her ability to showcase herself without seeming showoff-y incredibly sympathetic. She exudes this “join me” presence, not a “look at me, adore me”. Heavy Love has a similar flavour to the preceding song. Rhythm very grounded and Serena’s voice manoeuvres and operates above.

For Hey There Serena gets to dance and play tambourine. Her words. She tells the audience that her mom was once a gogo dancer and that Serena was surprised to discover at age 13 that she had the same moves. It’s a better story when Serena tells it. Her keyboard player is on acoustic guitar for this song, the band is introduced again, the audience is encouraged to clap along again and at the song’s conclusion she thanks everyone for making her dreams come true. Also thanks to Danielle Duval, there’s applause for her and Serena asks her to come back and `help’ with the bridge. There’s time for talking as the introduction to Stompa is at a slower pace and Serena encourages the audience’s participation often. I would argue this is how you keep an audience involved: by changing things up a bit and building more flair into a song that people already know. Stompa is the big, fill-the-room song with all available voices on stage utilised and instruments at full. The way this song ends, it’s as though there’s nothing that can follow this but an encore. The lights have gone dark, the band stays on stage, and the crowd reacts as if it’s time to start begging for an encore. No need. With a guitar line strongly reminiscent of the signature sounds of the instrumental song Peter Gunn the band go into Baby Come Back. Bass player bows and plucks his stand-up, Serena and the keyboard player have a double-drumming bit (and that’s in addition to what the drummer’s doing) and after that big percussion finish (not as elaborate as with Stompa), the first part of the show truly does end at 10:37 pm. The applause for Serena and her band and the clamours for an encore begin even before everyone has left the stage.

In under a minute Serena is back on stage with her acoustic guitar and instructs the audience right away “Sing with me”.  Weak in the Knees is a lovely song and the audience does indeed sing with her, for the chorus, they get every other line to solo on as well as various lines as the verses progress. You’re so busy paying attention to Serena and the song that you don’t even notice the band come back on stage and take their places. She thanks the crew at the Commodore, the guy bringing her guitars, the audience, and reiterates again how this experience has been “absolutely amazing”.

Circle of the Sun celebrates all things good, Serena says, and everyone in the room and on-stage is happily bouncing for it. Serena is on vocals only, keyboard player is playing guitar and the bass player is on the mini-keyboard. There is great energy radiating from the stage and Serena leads by example. A band member takes a photo of the crowd during the applause. As a band they stand together, shoulder to shoulder. As a band they take their bows and leave the stage. The cheers continue as techs look like they’re dismantling things, but Serena and her friends aren’t done and return at 10 to 11 for one more. It’s a synthesizer heavy beginning that becomes that Alex Clare song Too Close that even I know and don’t hate. She belts it out one last time, she and her keyboard player do auxiliary drums for the instrumental bit and then at 5 to 11, it’s all done. The audience definitely sound like they’re going to try again for more but a tech signals into the room with a flashlight, the house music and lights quickly come up. Coincidentally, the first song they play is Shake it Out by Florence and the Machine, another female vocal artist known for the power of her voice. Wasn’t the first CD called Lungs, as if to pound the point into submission? Well, here’s my point: where I hands down prefer Serena Ryder to Florence Welch is in their approach to music. Welch, like Mariah Carey before her, seems overly focussed on her vocals and those vocal gymnastic achievements that make her worthy of being placed on a pedestal. In so doing, the vocals are hollow and lacking in warmth and conviviality. Serena Ryder is all about `let’s have a really good night, enjoy our time together, and here’s what I’m bringing to the proverbial table’. She seems so down to earth, like someone a regular person could `hang’ and sing songs around a beach campfire with. You can’t imagine Welch (or Carey) without a full length evening gown, a stylist, handlers, and an entourage, showboating all of the songs. Maybe I’m doing the divas a disservice, but Ryder won me over with just one song, the other two have yet to prevent me from changing the channel. All in all, it was a joy to bask in this performer’s sheer joy at performing.

Setlist:
What I Wouldn’t Do
All`for Love Call Me
Fall
Fated to Love
For You
Mary Go Round
Please, Baby Please
Brand New Love
Little Bit of Red
Heavy Love   
Hey There
Stompa
Baby Come Back

Encore: 
Weak in the Knees
Circle of the Sun
Too Close

Defiance - Devil in the Dark: Recap and Review

The 2-hour pilot laid some great groundwork, the first regular episode of that skimmed the surface of the delicacy and `damned if you do / damned if you don’t’ situations involving customs and respect of other cultures, not to mention the attempt at humanising the seemingly hard-hearted Rafe McCawley - this week we got Hellbugs and here’s your “In Case You Missed It” recap of the episode “Devil in the Dark”.

The `previously on’ scenes seemed to focus a lot on the Spirit Riders so we know they’re going to be important, but the episode doesn’t start out with them. Instead, we have a man by a vehicle in the middle of nowhere taking some brand-new looking running shoes out of a box (with something else underneath) in his boot. Some folks on dirt bikes come riding along, but the man is undeterred. Putting white earphones in, a flute and piano concerto becomes audible and to that lively music we watch the man run through the woods. There’s something in the brush though – the music doesn’t change, is it a danger or a cute little critter – and it follows him as the camera watches the man from behind jog further into the woods. When the man stops, we hear a growl and we watch the brush move/part as the critter appears to move in for a strike. He nips the man, who decides his run is done, - concerto time is definitely over - and he makes a break for safety. He is eventually nabbed by the as-yet-unseen critter that is no higher than 2 feet, yet is strong enough to grab and drag a fully grown (and not unfit) man actively resisting the previously mentioned dragging to points unknown.

Moving along, we’re in Defiance now, Irisa looks like she’s doing Tai Chi mixed with weapons work as the previously seen dirtbike-posse arrive in town. It is the Spirit Riders who appear to just be out for a visit. One Irathient wanders into a market and is informed by the human stallkeeper that since she touched a round fruity thing she had to buy it. He says he lost a brother to the `plague you people brought’ (a-ha, the disease Nikki and Amanda briefly talked about last episode can jump species). Wordlessly, she picks up the fruit and licks it from top to bottom. Stallkeeper pulls out a dagger, Irisa throws one of hers and it lands on a cutting board in front of the stallkeeper telling him `the next one finds an eye’, and the top-hat wearing leader of the Spirit Riders plunks down some bills. Right, so no love lost between these folks. Top Hat (whose forehead prosthetic make him look like a vamped-out leftover from Buffy The Vampire Slayer), the other Irathient, and Irisa leave the market. Top Hat calls Irisa “Little Wolf” and reiterates an offer of a place with the Spirit Riders, her own kind. The other female Irathient draws attention to Irisa’s Lawkeeper badge. Irisa says she wears it for Nolan (her loyalty still to him, not the town), cue Lawkeeper business: Nolan contacts her via walkie-talkie/phone and asks her to come to a location because they’ve found a dead body.
Location of dead body. Some blood-red entrails scenically placed on a tree, Nolan, Tommy and Irisa are looking in the brush, picking up body parts, with marrow sucked clean from the bone (eewwww). Irisa has a bit of a hallucination, but she shakes it off. When they find the shoes, Tommy can identify the man, not that he knew much about him. And we’re done.

Top Hat is in Amanda’s office looking over some artefacts and he lists every piece’s origin by race. His is missing, but he declines the offer to contribute. They speak in English and his is heavily accented (a resistance to assimilation? The other races we’ve met so far all speak with a generic American accent). Amanda clues him into why he’s there. People have been complaining about the Spirit Riders’ visits. She confirms her support for as long as she’s mayor, but Top Hat counters that he hears she’s up for re-election soon. What? Last week she was three weeks on the job. How much time has passed in Defiance between last week and this? She asks him to assimilate, be more like them, in order to keep people pacified, he agrees but lays no store by this strategy. And he’s right: if people are bound and determined to hate another person or race for whatever reason, then there’s not a lot they can do to change those minds. Race relations 101 – something important for our day and age as well, yet will viewers pick up on that and will it inform the way they might treat their own fellow man/woman in future? So Top Hat informs Amanda that when the townspeople do turn on them, they will at least know where the food and weapons stores are. And his contribution to the case of artefacts will be a handful of soil, to represent the Irathient blood already within it. Right, so, not bitter. The past seems to be very important to him.

In the NeedWant, Kenya and a punter are having a `food porn’ encounter, he’s into it, she not so much (clock watcher) when he suddenly spasms, blood spurts out his chest and there’s a low shot from the side of the bed at an angle where it looks like jaws from a mouth appear from the cavity (or maybe they’re supposed to be his ribs, except the exposed bone is way too short for that). Another ewwwww. Can this episode get any more viscerally unappealing?

Our crack team of Nolan, Irisa, and Tommy appear on scene, with the Indogene doctor and a rather uncomfortable looking Kenya in the room. The doctor comes to the conclusion that it’s `insert Latin-sounding name here’, which Nolan immediately translates to Hellbugs – the penny drops, “they eat marrow and line their nests with flesh” (yup, just got grosser). Irisa has another hallucination  / flashback while Nolan answers Kenya’s question as to how to get rid of them. Nolan again notices her zoning out and doesn’t believe her when she lies about what’s going on with her. Does Irisa even know? He follows her out of the room and asks if it was one of her `episodes’ because he thought she didn’t have them anymore. He’s definitely ahead of us, it’s the first time we’ve seen a proper chink in her armour (not liking seeing people getting tortured doesn’t count) because she confesses she only stopped talking about them and that they’ve been getting stronger since they got to Defiance. He tells her that what she’s seeing isn’t real, post-tramautic stress, Irisa says she knows. Tommy approaches with the doctor bearing a plastic bag of narsty-looking bits held high. Nolan, ever the explainer, “that’s an empty Hellbug egg purse. You don’t find them outside the nest.” Great, now we know. The doctor poses a question that it may have been planted. Even better: murder by devouring Hellbugs from the inside! Yum. Doctor pipes up with a further clue of substances found at both locations. More ding-ding-ding information from Nolan when Tommy, in his function as viewership-proxy, asks what the presence of attack pheromones means. Nolan in the know explains that “they’re chemical markers that the bugs spray to guide the hive”. They come to an agreement that it can only mean someone’s intentionally killing people with Hellbugs.

At the Tarrs’ house, Christie has made dinner as a thank you for the family letting her stay. Stahma compliments her on how lovely she’s made the table look, Datak isn’t all that hopeful that it’s going to be any good saying that Votan River Otter was a difficult dish to cook. Wide-eyed Christie had wanted her father to be there too, but assumes his excuse was that he was too busy at the mines. Grumpy Gus Datak says something in Castithan about how he’d be busy too if he knew he was going to have to choke down the meal...Christie, not missing a beat excuses herself. Alak tells him she’s been learning Castithan and understood what he said and goes after her. Time for Stahma to do her thing. Datak wonders if Alak will be able to control her (Christie? Docile, butter-wouldn’t-melt-in-her-mouth Christie? Control her? Has he met his own wife?). Anyway, Stahma reminds him that they need Rafe’s agreement to the marriage and that means making sure that Christie and Rafe reconcile. Good point. My question is timing ... so enough time has passed that Amanda is up for re-election but the wedding hasn’t happened yet? This is Frontier-land, it’s not like they have wedding planners, elaborate colour schemes, menus, invitations, flower arrangements, venue hunting, cake drama, horse-drawn carriage versus limousine discussions and the usual rigmarole we go through.

Alak has found Christie and apologises for him. They don’t have much opportunity to debate it because it’s time to meet the Hellbugs: CG crab-looking things but where you see a head, all you see is a Leviathan-looking mouth a la Supernatural (follow this link if the reference makes no sense to you: http://offcolortv.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Leviathan.png). Christie screams, mommy and daddy Tarr come a-running, Datak tells everyone to get to safety, pulls out a handy-dandy blue glowy knife that extends to a sword when you shake it and prepares to do battle with the toothy critters, muttering in Castithan. After the obligatory commercial break, we see one critter jump and skitter along the walls and up the ceiling where Datak stabs it straight up whilst another one is just behind him. Oooh, the tension as the scene now follows the fleeing Tarrs, Stahma and Alak, with Christie as they run out of the house. Alak stops and wants to go back in, Stahma starts to argue and as they all look back at the house, a dripping Datak appears in the doorframe blithely suggesting they should dine out. Oh, Datak, you’re such a joker. Emotional family moment, but Christie is standing off to the side. She’s not part of this family yet. As if to remind us who her family actually is, the very next scene has the Tarrs and Christie walking into Rafe’s house and Christie rushes into his arms. They must have explained it all, revising some of it, because the next scene has them all sitting at a table and Datak is finishing a story about Alak risking his life to save Christie’s and true love and all that. Stahma suggests Christie stay with her father for a bit (that’ll get them closer to reconciliation). Our detecting foursome of Nolan, Irisa, Tommy, and the doctor arrive and the latter runs a scanner up and down every person in the room. Christie is revealed to be the one with the attack pheromones on her and she and Stahma leave with Datak’s insistence so she can wash them off and burn her clothes. Rafe demands to know “why my daughter?” – Nolan, without a shred of sarcasm, counter-questions with “maybe because she is your daughter”. Turns out Rafe knows the dead men, but the last time he’d had any dealings with him was over a dozen years ago over a property deal. Nolan asks for documentation, Rafe orders coffee.

For the next scene we know why: it’s now daylight and the foursome are pouring over documents. Irisa is looking at photographs of the plot of land and has another set of hallucinations/flashbacks when the photos suddenly burst into flame. She asks where the photos were taken, and after Rafe tells her, she sets out for it with Nolan telling Tommy to keep an eye on her. We stay with Rafe and Nolan, paperwork found, except the person he bought it from was an Irathient homesteader who signed in English and Nolan has a bit of a problem with that. Remember the timeline? It’s 2045ish – the Votan races arrived in 2013, so this deal would’ve happened about 3 years after Arkfall (ca. 2033). I don’t see a problem. Do you see a problem? Rafe is sarcastically defensive about  how it was hard for him and his Wall Street lawyers to do proper title searches without the internet when Tommy walks in with a booboo on his forehead. Irisa threw him off the roller. Nolan makes to leave.
Irisa is at the place she saw in the photo, has a succession of flashbacks whilst Nolan cautiously approaches her. Her hallucinations appear to be taking over because she starts mewling and essentially living/re-living the scene (Irathients in a pastoral setting are being attacked and killed by unknown assailants) in her mind. She eventually is just sobbing in Nolan’s lap as the camera zooms out.

After the commercial, Irisa is back in control and back in Defiance. She seeks out Top Hat in the NeedWant (Nolan is in tow after she convinces him to trust her) and she’s looking for answers. Specifically, she’s looking for the fruit-licking Irathient who now has a name, Rynn, and who, according to Irisa, is behind the killings. Top Hat is unhelpful. Irisa tells him she knows how Top Hat took Rynn in, gave her a new name, and that she knows what happened. Top Hat (Rynn’s Nolan, I guess, so, maybe not such a bad guy) is stunned, says Irisa’s been `touched’, that he doesn’t know where Rynn is, but implies that Irisa might by using whatever she’s got. Top Hat also says that Rynn told him she didn’t know who killed her parents, but allows for the fact that “sometimes when you are younger, you make yourself forget things” – so basically, coming back to Defiance and being so close to her old home must’ve triggered those repressed memories that were so strong that Irisa was forced to share them. But that would only explain the `episodes’ we, the audience, have been witness to in this instalment of the show, not the previous instances Nolan was referring to on the landing of the NeedWant. It does open the door to those episodes having possibly been unintentional psychic links with other people, doesn’t it?

Next scene, “Little Wolf” has apparently agreed. We have a shirtless and super-buff Top Hat, chanting, face painting, hand slicing (why always across the palms? Oh yes, dramatic effect. oooh.), pipe smoking – so, she’s going on some kind of `vision quest’. Boom, she’s in the field where `it’ happened and is just about to relive Rynn's parents’ deaths. Top Hat acts as guide, asks Irisa to describe what she sees, and she does with a frowny-faced Nolan looking on. She sees the killed men Taggart (running shoe guy) and Bowen (stallkeeper, died during food porn) murdering Rynn’s parents and Rynn running away. When Irisa finds Rynn in the present, via astral planning or something, she comes back from the vision questy experience choking out a “I know where she is” as she collapses as if cuddling in Top Hat’s arms, his bulging biceps almost dwarfing Leonidas’s petite frame. In the half light Nolan looks as though he feels utterly out of place here. Well, all of Top Hat's muscliness is a bit distracting.

Irisa, bounced back from the most recent in-someone’s-lap breakdown storms out into the street with Nolan after her apologising all the way for not believing what she was seeing was real – he was coming up with human solutions to an offworlder’s problem. Irisa has to remind him that she isn’t like him and says something really interesting: “I’m an alien and you make me afraid of that”, Nolan continuing to apologise and wanting to talk so they can come up with answers. Irisa’s having none of it, by this time they’re in the Lawkeeper office and she’s putting bullets into a gun. She’s after Rynn before she kills someone else.  Heightened drama – yes, as a matter of fact, we ARE 45 minutes into this episode. You know what happens next: climax then a pseudo-resolution, and crumbs to take us into the next episode. Let’s see if I’m right.

Tommy, Irisa, Top Hat, and Nolan are in an elevator dressed like miners about to go into battle. They reach the bottom, there’s a pile of gooey translucent pellets on the ground. Proxy-Tommy has to ask what it is, Nolan tells him it’s Hellbug poop and picks a gooey handful up and pelts Tommy’s back with it. No, Nolan does not have a puerile sense of humour, he tells everyone to do the same because Hellbugs see by smell. If they’re mouth-breathers, I can believe that, because I really didn’t see any other organs when Datak was fighting with them. They really get into it, putting the stuff all over themselves, including hair – okay, I admit I didn’t see another bout of narstiness coming – they go back to the lift and try to operate it, something short-circuits and it plummets down the shaft to the bottom. The four only have their legs taken out from under them (ah, elevator drops on TV – reminder to really suspend one’s disbelief). They venture out of the lift and some flying Hellbugs whiz across their (and our) line of sight and then the camera zooms in on Momma-Hellbug, one that is HUGE and gooey gross sounds appear to emanate from her. Despite the lights on helmets and on the foursome’s rifles, she doesn’t seem to see them. Tommy is tasked to fix the controls on the lift, Nolan get set to lay the charges to blow the Hellbug hive to smithereens with Irisa and Top Hat wants to find Rynn when, speak of the devil, she shoots Top Hat somewhere on his massive body and demands the others drop their weapons if they don’t want to have a glowy blue container (man, they do love their glowy blue on this show) of attack pheromones thrown at them. The Irathients now speak in the Votan language – Rynn questions Top Hat’s loyalty because he brought them to her, no, he says, it was Irisa. Time for Irisa to intercede and talk her down. It only works to a point, enough so Irisa can get a shot off with her knife before Rynn can break the container. Nolan seizes the opportunity to get rid of that threat by throwing the container at the momma so the little ones attack her. They all retreat to the lift, Tommy gets the thing working in the nick of time – when momma’s toothy face looms really close to them and Nolan fires shots below as they rise eventually hitting one of the charges.

We’re cheated out of a big explosion because next we’re in Amanda’s office and she’s filling us - and the townsfolk assembled in her office - in on the happily ever afters: ownership of the West Valley property has been given back to the Irathient settlers, they’ve leased it to the McCawley mines, clapping, Rafe and Top Hat shake hands, Christie hugs her dad and says she’s proud of him (there had to be SOME reason for her being there, she’s really rather useless otherwise), Top Hat tips his hat at Irisa, she nods back at him.

Irisa brings Top Hat to where Tommy is guarding Rynn. Top Hat and Rynn are left alone to have a convo – bit of a touching one with subtitles, they may have been spiritually united before, but it doesn’t seem like they are now. A song that sounds like it might be the Queensryche song “Silent Lucidity” begins and as a female voice sings something completely different, we have reconciliatory montages and unhappy onlookers: Rynn is seated, in chains, and prison-bound with her head down towards Top Hat’s muscular chest who tenderly touches the top of her head; Irisa and Top Hat sharing a drink at the NeedWant, Nolan sees them together and leaves them there; Christie and Rafe walking arm in arm to the Tarrs’ house where Alak opens the door and the couple hug before going inside, while Rafe is an unhappy camper to see her there/go?; Rynn alone in her cell; Irisa is in bed thrashing as if having nightmares, Nolan sits on the edge of her bed, his arm outstretched as he holds her hand in comfort. His gaze is directed at the ground, a solitary light to the right of the frame - and it’s a rather cool shot to end the episode with. No crumbs leading us to the next episode, nor is there a “next time on Defiance” bit. It’s all a bit, well, flat.

In conclusion, not my favourite episode. It doesn’t do anything with the groundwork already laid out – not that it’s a linear path that answers questions as if we were merely ticking boxes, but this doesn’t seem to have anything to do with any other anythings we’ve come across and it’s a bit too early for a stand-alone episode. We’ve not even fully established a canon and it seems like this one went off-book. And just who or what was the titular `Devil in the Dark’? Rynn’s repressed memories? The Hellbugs in their nesty hive down in the bowels of a mine? And what's with the spontaneous combustion? Rafe and Nolan might not be the happiest of campers, but, neither am I. Frowny face.

Image from http://offcolortv.com/5265-supernatural-he-might-not-know-your-appendix-from-your-vagina/)

Defiance - Down in the Ground Where the Dead Men Go: Recap and Review

ICYMI - worry not, I've got you covered. Completely. 

Developments since pilot: we now have an opening sequence. We no longer have Irisa voiceovers, this one has music as `bookends'.

The episode starts with a series of flashbacks, no real dialogue. We see a Castithan frantically running through a forest – we flash back to 24 hours in the past when he deserted his post during the battle with the Volge, in full view of Datak Tarr. Just before the opening titles, he is caught by Castithans who drag him back to Defiance.

We next see the deserter strung up against an apparatus in the shape of an X – each of the deserter’s limbs is tied to the apparatus and it works with pulleys and levers. There’s a basket behind it that Castithans place rocks into, exerting pressure on the restraints keeping the deserter trussed up and it looks a little like he’s being drawn and quartered. It looks like torture to Nolan and Irisa who come upon the scene, but they are informed by Datak Tarr that it is a cleansing ritual, as prescribed by the Castithans’ faith. The man has shamed his caste by running from battle, taken their honour, and unless the ritual is performed, the man could never pass to the Afterlife. Even the man himself protests, he is going through the ritual because “they have no choice. I must do this for my family.” Nolan continues to try and free the man, a Castithan resists, Nolan draws his gun and threatens to arrest every one of them unless they stop. Mayor Amanda, her arm in a sling, enters the fray at this point. How did she know? Tommy, the former Lawkeeper’s Deputy, had snuck off and brought her. Datak Tarr immediately asks her to put a muzzle on her new Lawkeeper (ding ding: Nolan accepted the job) and rather patronisingly reminds Amanda that religious understanding was negotiated with her predecessor at the time of the founding of Defiance, and did she really want to cause a fuss in only her 3^rd week on the job. Her response is in the Castithan language to the effect that she respects their traditions just like Nikki did. In an undertone and in English, she tells him to keep this ceremonies in the Hollows. When Datak responds and uses her first name, she corrects Datak that she is to be called “Mayor” and takes Nolan with her as she leaves. The ceremony continues without a change in location. Irisa has a concerned expression on her face that the Deputy tries to put his hand on her shoulder to comfort her. She goes into a defensive move and stops him in his tracks by pinning his arm and his shoulder. He apologises, looks down and sees a wide scar around her wrists. She snatches her arm back and goes back to watching the ceremony.

Cut to Nolan and Amanda. He gets a “you’re not from around here, so I’m going to ‘splain to you why and how things are how they are” speech from her. Defiance was founded only 8 years previously. When the town instituted a mandatory vaccination policy for all children, the well over 1,000 Irathients living in Defiance at the time refused. The vaccination policy was written into the town charter as law and children were vaccinated by force when Deputies went house to house to enforce the law. There was an uprising. It didn’t go well for the Irathients as they were outgunned and outnumbered. The ones who weren’t killed left the town. Amanda says the town council then informally decided (my note: did not amend the charter) to allow the 8 races to practice their religious beliefs and traditions without human interference. Nolan questions the ‘rightness’ (he is moral compass guy, things are black and white to him – like Dean Winchester for the first 6 seasons of Supernatural) of it – Amanda responds “It’s necessary” (so she’s shades of grey girl, a Sam Winchester to Nolan’s Dean).  

The ceremony continues, Nolan returns to Irisa. She is almost near tears and expresses disappointment when Nolan won’t stop it. He doesn’t like it but tells Irisa that Amanda promised to do something about it. Iris doesn’t put a lot of faith into promises, but Nolan tells her he’s going to "take a beat" and give Amanda a chance to essentially prove how much her word is worth. It’s a trust exercise, but considering the man didn’t want to be saved, Nolan’s willing to let it play out.

The hospital: Mister Birch incapacitates a guard just outside the door. He enters, tells an apparently undead Ben it’s time to wake up and injects something into his brain causing him to wake up. We find out Ben’s cooperation was under duress to protect his family and that they would bear the consequences if Ben failed Birch again. He reminds Ben of ‘the old plan’ which apparently involved the mines possibly jeopardising what Birch is trying to find. Ben tries to back out, Birch doesn’t care and leaves, Ben makes his escape.

The mines were mentioned, cue a visit to the McCawleys where we learn about the family dynamic. Their mother is long dead, Christie, according to Quentin, is the one who kept the family together while Luke could do no wrong in his father’s eyes. Quentin accuses Rafe of turning on Christie the one time she does something he doesn’t like (falling in love and making preparations to marry Alak Tarr) after he issues the ‘if you walk out that door, don’t ever come back’ ultimatum. Quentin asks his father if Luke was such a good man, why was he meeting Ben – a traitor – alone in the woods? Cut to Rafe walking into Luke’s room where he gets a phone call that there’s been an explosion in the mine.

Blip of a scene in the hospital: Indogene doctor examines the guard while Nolan and Amanda look on. Deputy arrives to say Quentin has just called to let them know what’s happened at the mine. They need to get there somehow.

The mine: we are at an abandoned shaft that Ben collapsed behind him after stealing 20 kgs of guanite. Amanda estimates 2 kg were used to blow the shaft, still leaving him in possession of enough to make a big bomb, but not enough to hurt Defiance any was the first assessment. The shaft leads to “Old St Louis” – parts of the city had apparently stayed intact during the terraforming, which unlike most other cities hardened on top of it instead of obliterating it (still doesn’t explain why the Arch is still standing tall). Following Ben is impossible, they must go another way, through a maze of tunnels with steep drops and razor sharp rocks (ooooooh) called the Rat’s Nest, discovered by Rafe, so naturally he is part of the party. Nolan is too (handily producing the appropriate underground experience from his CV to justify he won’t hold Rafe back) and a couple of miners (expandables) form the crew. Irisa asks Nolan not to risk his life for these people, he tells her to help Deputy Tommy to figure out who’s behind Ben’s escape and to stay far away from the man who was tortured/ceremonially cleansed. The look she has on her face as soon as Nolan is far enough away doesn’t give the impression she’s going to do what he asks.

In a white chamber, the Tarrs are getting some grooming done while they discuss the ceremony. Stahma questions why Datak is so hung up on the old traditions since back on Casti, he was part of the lowest caste, poor and degraded. This new world gave him the opportunity to rise up so high, so why hang on to a way of life that was keeping him so low? Firstly, though, if the town were to be against them, they could not successfully take over the mines, jeopardising their son’s future. When Alak enters the bath chamber to have a tantrum about how the wedding might have to be cancelled because of Rafe and Christie, the virtually naked Stahma embraces her son and soothingly assures him that Mother will take care of everything. She always seems very calm and in control of not only her emotions but also the important things around her. I wonder what it takes for her to lose that carefully constructed facade we know it to be. Even Mister Spock eventually showed a chink in his armour.

Rat’s Nest: the party of 6 headlamps arrives in “Old St Louis”, an aerial pan to a cavernous chunk of the city. No purpose here, it's just a "you are here" signpost. The Arch officially makes zero sense; its only purpose seeming to be a symbolic one and therefore not subject to any laws of physics (unless we have to learn some weird terraforming physics - and until such time or until it actually becomes significant, that's the last I'll say about it.).

Mayor Nikki, haven’t seen her all episode. She’s in Mentor Nikki mode packing up her stuff out of the Mayor’s office. Amanda sits on a window seat and gazes out at the man being tortured. Turns out only 3 hours have passed since he was strung up. Nikki and Amanda talk how similar humans and Castithans are, despite the apparent differences. “They build their lives around ancient traditions that may once have had a purpose. None of them can agree on what it was.” Except they lost their past when their planet blew up, so the rituals are all they have left, so Nikki cautions Amanda that if she were to take that from them, it would be “like the Iraths all over again” – referring to the Irathient rebellion Amanda told Nolan about in the first half of the episode (isn’t it nice how information loops close?) Amanda disagrees: she believes a bigger identity than the superficial racial one is being forged in Defiance (if she’s right, that’s something Nikki can use against her in her scheming). They look at each other warmly. All warmth disappears on the street where Nikki hands a small trunk to Mister Birch. He’s there to give her a status update (Ben should be at the target in 2 hours) and drive her around so she can say goodbye to some people. Mister Birch questions the point of it, Nikki seems to have a genuine attachments to them. But, her next words are not unlike those uttered by political and religious fanatics  / fundamentalists in justification of their often horrific actions: “What I do is for the benefit of all, and because it must be done. I take no pleasure in this...”

In “Old St Louis” – the purpose of the scene: primarily back story and the 'finding of common ground' for Nolan and Rafe. We find out that Nolan and Rafe both grew up in St Louis – Nolan left when he was 9, Rafe stayed. Rafe’s family was in the dog food manufacturing business (Nolan even remembers their jingle) but Rafe wanted to become a photographer. He gave it up when photographing terraformed landscapes depressed him too much. The only thing that furthers the plot in this scene is that although Nolan promised to bring Ben back alive, Rafe did not. The inkling of a showdown looms.

Speaking of promises, Irisa is at the ritual site, where one Castithan after another puts a stone in the basket. When a child is next to put a rock in it, Irisa stops him and starts cutting the deserter down. The Castithans then turn on Irisa but before she can be in any real danger, Tommy fires a shot from his rifle into the air stopping everyone in their tracks. He decides to arrest him, loitering is the first thing that comes to mind when he's verbally challenged.

After that blip of a scene, some not-to-scale nuclear reactors come into the frame. From being ground level at Jefferson Park, the group have now climbed another great height for another painted / CG aerial shot, this time of a nuclear power plant that is showing signs of coming back to life (Ben’s target). A bomb detonated there would pose a definite threat to Defiance. So much for the first assessment of the bomb not posing a threat. Episode climax scenes coming up, right after Stahma visits her future daughter-in-law at work: a subway car repurposed to a cafe where Christie is a server. They don’t have a heart-to-heart as much as Stahma tells her the (a?) story  of how she and Datak got together. Shockingly, their situation was not dissimilar to Alak and Christie’s. Stahma’s parents had her betrothed to a man of honour and of the highest caste, Datak was a “scruffy nobody”. The men challenged each other to a ‘Castithan Blood Duel’, but en route, Stahma’s betrothed was accidentally flushed out of an airlock...Christie is given to understand that Datak is a survivor and there is nothing he won’t do to keep them, his family, safe...even if/especially if up against Christie’s father...just not in those words.

Back underground, where Ben is holed up inside the reactor, the posse goes in search of him. Most of the expendables are quickly killed off by Ben, who is himself wounded. As he reaches to detonate the glowy blue sacks of explosive, Nolan puts a very large gun against his head. Well, if that was the climax, that was disappointing. Thankfully, it’s just a commercial and so the drama will continue unabated on the DVD version. Rafe now has a gun to Ben’s head and Nolan has to talk him down. Ben either has an urge to confess all or has a death wish, because by telling Rafe that Luke hated his guts and all he wanted was enough money to get out of Defiance and out of his father’s house (especially after what Rafe did to his mother....which was what exactly, another mystery), Rafe gets ready to pull the trigger. Nolan tells Rafe to make a choice: avenge his son’s death or find out what happened? Rafe makes ready to disarm, but Ben pretty much goes harikiri on him and dies saying “tell Amanda I’m sorry”. Awwww. Crap.

Turns out there’s more in store in this episode's drama department: we’re in the Lawkeeper's office / jail (just like in an old Western). The deserter, Tommy and Irisa are waiting for Amanda. Although Tommy says it’s quiet outside Irisa is sure they’ll come and Tommy was stupid to help her. 5-4-3-2-1, Tommy spots an approach, the doors open and the Castithans walk in demanding release of the `coward’. Blah-blah, Mexican stand-off. Amanda arrives to say she is pardoning the prisoner. Nolan and Rafe arrive to bring up the rear and we’re in a proper Mexican stand-off. Blah-blah. Datak seems to acquiesce and offers an opening towards dialogue and resolution before he leaves with his men, head held high.

It’s been a long day – Amanda goes to bury the 41 people who died in the battle with the Volge, Irisa explains in her minimalist way that she freed the man because she couldn’t stand him being in chains and that Amanda helped. Nolan says in an ironic-know-it-all voice “so we were right to trust her”, but Irisa is unmoved. He’s starting to put the town before their dream of going to Antarctica, and this might cause a rift between him and Irisa down the road if she does not eventually change her stance on the temporariness (or lack thereof) of their sojourn in Defiance. It looks like Defiance may have found itself a champion, but I believe Irisa thinks Nolan might be setting himself up to fight windmills, and it’s her task as a Sancho Panza to show Don Quixote what he believes to be real isn’t so they can leave.  

The episode ends with a slowed-down cover of Nirvana’s “Come As You Are”. It is the score for a series of actions: Defiance commemorating the dead in the forest as a community, the lovebirds looking lovey (the wedding's back on), the Tarrs looking pleased -- followed by Rafe searching Luke’s room for clues – we know it’s Luke’s room because it’s where Rafe got his phone call, its only purpose then was to introduce this bit now. And Rafe is successful, he finds Luke’s money stash and a big decoratively worked, gold coloured, emblem-looking thing with holes spaced out along its sides and one through the centre: the key. To what? -- The song continues, and the tortured man is back with his family until Datak takes him to where he can execute him (the man is grateful for Datak’s mercy, he does not resist) -- a rest in the song allows a scream to pierce the melody and Irisa, Tommy, and Nolan open the Lawkeeper’s office door to find the dead man on the stoop. The shock registering on Irisa’s face might further her distance from getting involved with people of Defiance again, as if she’s thinking “that’s the last time I meddle to help one of them”.

This episode served to provide a lot more backstory in addition to what the pilot provided (and it laid some good groundwork), but failed to move the plot forward in any meaningful way. More questions arose than were answered. The ones that have come up along the way, you might have more, are:

• Where do Irisa’s scars come from? Her parents?
• Does Irisa’s “welcome to Antarctica” postcard have any wider significance?
• How did Casti blow up and why?
• Are the people Nikki says goodbye to important in any way, as we don't actually see this tidbit progress any?
• What happened to Rafe's wife? What did he "do" to her?
• Now that Rafe has the key, what will he do next?

Looks like we got ourselves a multi-layered show. I really am starting to hope we get to see it through.