2.9 Painted From Memory It started well enough, with Kenya trying to fill the narrative holes in what happened to her, and failing miserably. Instinctively Nolan doesn’t like incomplete stories, and it soon becomes apparent that he’s not overreacting. Meanwhile, Kenya’s inability to stay dead sends poor Stahma into a complete tailspin, where she and Datak dig up half of the woods trying to find her grave. As the story unwinds we begin to realise that Niles isn’t the captor, but he is involved along with the good Doc. Nolan’s investigation takes him and Kenya to see Berlin for Tattoo 101, in what turns out to be the scene I most disliked this week. And then, when events start to spiral out of control, Quentin McCawley walks back into town wearing the same scowl that he left with nine months earlier. But his appearance in Defiance hasn’t anything to do with reliving old times with Rafe, it’s to do with Kenya indirectly. I wonder if Quentin’s mad mum will make an appearance at some point, just to prove he made the right choice to move himself and children far away from her? The finding of Kenya’s skull really starts the unravelling of this plot, as an increasing number of people become aware that the one walking around Defiance isn’t the one who disappeared. This is the bit where they entirely lost me narratively, because it was a ridiculously complicated scheme to get sex with a women working in a brothel, who is a drug addict. Really? It’s a very imaginative notion, but patently bonkers. It also painted over whatever redemption efforts they’d been making with the Doc, as she would quite ruthlessly lobotomise fake Kenya to avoid the truth being revealed. There’s an inference here that she’s much more ruthless than Niles, and he’s probably out of his depth in utilising her services. As a very distant side-plot it looks like Arkrise is coming sooner than I’d anticipated, and it could have serious consequences for all those living in Defiance.As I hinted at the start, what I liked most here was that this didn’t develop in the way or direction that could easily be anticipated. But, saying that, the direction it went was highly implausible. The trailer for episode ten hints that the DJ takes that dive from the Arch that Alak promised her, but it might not be his doing. And, I wouldn’t miss that for all the script in Defiance. Read Billy’s review of the previous episode, Slouching Towards Bethlehem, here. Follow our Twitter feed for faster news and bad jokes right here. And be our Facebook chum here.
