S02.E10: Bottom of the World

[maraleia]

 

Nolan and Rafe race against the clock to rescue Amanda and Pottinger trapped in a deadly mine collapse.

 

[MDKNIGHT]

I wouldn't put it past that fool (Pottinger) to have collapsed the mine on purpose just to get into Amanda's pants. That child ain't right.  Although it probably isn't by design.  He will though take advantage of it to get close to Amanda.  Of that I am certain.  You know what I'd hate?  If Pottinger died without all he did coming out. Did people (not just the audience obviously) ever find out Mayor Nikki was an Indogene?  IIRC Yewell killed her to cover things up.  Didn't Yewell succesfully keep that fact under wraps?  Pottinger OTOH has done so much I'd feel really cheated if he is never exposed. 

[BungalowSummer]

Yewll killed Mayor Nikki because she was out of control. Specifically, Nikki had killed Jered, the Liberata bartender who had been a witness to Nikki's murder of Hunter Bell years before. She killed Bell because he found out that Nikki was a disguised Indogene who was getting help from Yewll and he was going to blackmail them.

And no, it never got out that Nikki was an Indogene. With Yewll as attending physician and probably coroner for the town, it wouldn't.

[marieYOTZ]

Shoot! Another hour is starting! I just finished my beer, i wasn't ready for more!

I'm really mad at Amanda right now. Nolan might be stepping out with Berlin but it's clear where his loyalties lie. Amanda is completely buying horrible Pottinger's shtick. Doesn't even seem like she's playing a long con, just seems like she really digs his spying, memory-stealing, sister-impersonator-try-to-kill'ing self! So disappointing.

Berlin- if i was her, i'd have moved away from the eyebrow melting goop pool WAY faster when it started to bubble up!

Irisa seems to have drunk her own kookaid in a big way!

[Chaos Theory]

No scotch in the world is going to get the taste of Pottinger out of Amanda's mouth.

[wanderingstar]

I kind of wish they'd brought back Mama McCawley earlier in the season. Nice to see Linda Hamilton, though. Can't wait for that family reunion.

[maczero]

I wouldn't put it past that fool (Pottinger) to have collapsed the mine on purpose just to get into Amanda's pants. That child ain't right.  Although it probably isn't by design.  He will though take advantage of it to get close to Amanda.  Of that I am certain.  You know what I'd hate?  If Pottinger died without all he did coming out. Did people (not just the audience obviously) ever find out Mayor Nikki was an Indogene?  IIRC Yewell killed her to cover things up.  Didn't Yewell succesfully keep that fact under wraps?  Pottinger OTOH has done so much I'd feel really cheated if he is never exposed. 

 

Why would you suspect Pottinger?  I thought Quentin confessed to blowing up the mine right before he framed his dad. 

 

I'm really mad at Amanda right now. Nolan might be stepping out with Berlin but it's clear where his loyalties lie. Amanda is completely buying horrible Pottinger's shtick. Doesn't even seem like she's playing a long con, just seems like she really digs his spying, memory-stealing, sister-impersonator-try-to-kill'ing self! So disappointing.

You know the funniest thing about all of Pottinger's scheming is that 99% of it wasn't necessary.  Amanda seems to be falling for him just from their conversations. 

 

BTW, can a mod put up a thread for the ep 11.  That's the one I really want to talk about!

[marieYOTZ]

Maczero, the post about suspecting pottinger was written on August 15th, so was speculation

[thuganomics85]

Kind of a by the numbers episode on some levels.  I knew they weren't going to kill off Amanda and Pottinger, so that no suspense (surprised they brought back the Ambassador, only to kill her off that quickly, though), figured it was going to be Quentin behind the bombing, knew Rafe was going to take the fall for it, Irisa would escape, and Amanda and Pottinger the Creep would finally kiss.  I guess some of it was necessary to push the stories forward, but not all that interesting.

 

But, Linda Hamilton is Rafe's ex!  Yay!  Too bad the season is already about to wrap up.  I hope she's featured more in the last two episodes.

 

Oh, and Nolan and Berlin break-up, but since it's Nolan and Berlin, it's angst free.  But, don't let the fact that both Nolan and Tommy basically wanted another woman over you, get you down, Berlin!  You're still awesome to me!

[BungalowSummer]

But, don't let the fact that both Nolan and Tommy basically wanted another woman over you, get you down, Berlin! You're still awesome to me!

Berlin is one awesome woman among many on this show. This show has more interesting, strong women than any other since Battlestar Galactica. Look at this list: Stahma, Amanda, Kenya, Irisa, Yewll, Nikki, and now Christie.

[GaT]

Ooo, Linda Hamilton is the McCawley mommy! I can't wait to see her & Stahma interact, 2 momma lions protecting their families should be great. I'm so glad she explained to Quentin why he's an idiot.

[Ottis]

This ep was boring. Hard to make the old "trapped in confined space with time running out" cliche interesting. Fast forwarded through a lot of it. Enjoyed seeing Linda Hamilton tho.

[BungalowSummer]

I've been wondering about that very convenient terrasphere in the E-Rep garrison.

Supposedly, these are almost priceless objects, rare and difficult to obtain. Who brought it to Defiance, and why? And how did Irisa know it was there? Does Irisa have an ally in the E-rep?

[Chaos Theory]

This was all about making Amanda like Pottinger so she can REALLY hate him later. Plus Linda Hamilton playing a possible villain is going to be all kinda of fun.

[shapeshifter]

Ooo, Linda Hamilton is the McCawley mommy! I can't wait to see her & Stahma interact, 2 momma lions protecting their families should be great. I'm so glad she explained to Quentin why he's an idiot.

Yeah, only Wonder Woman would be a match for Stahma.

Was I the only one thinking STDs when Alak schtupped Christie after having done it with Deirdra?

[GaT]

Yeah, only Wonder Woman would be a match for Stahma.

Was I the only one thinking STDs when Alak schtupped Christie after having done it with Deirdra?

Not only STDs, but interspecies STDs :-O. But then, we don't really know what Castithans have for equipment, we're assuming they got what we got.

[ottoDbusdriver]

But then, we don't really know what Castithans have for equipment, we're assuming they got what we got.

 

Male Castithan equipment has to be ..... similar ...... to human -- remember that scene with Datak and Doc Yewll in Camp Reverie and Datak was using Yewll's hand as a Dutch rudder (which was pretty funny).  And the sex scene between Treasure Doll and Alak last episode looked remarkably similar to human sex scenes. And Castis can impregnate human females -- Alak and Christie -- so it has to be similar to humans.

 

Reminds me of the Centauri males on Babylon 5 -- it was hinted at that they supposedly had prehensile penises (penii ?) that could grab things and even hold playing cards.

Edited August 23, 2014 by ottoDbusdriver

[Izeinwinter]

Yhea, well, the entire votan star system has to be someone's pet science project - The biochemistry is compatible enough with earth that we can eat each others food, there are diseases that hit multiple species,, the cross-fertility, the very minor variations between species... (except the gulanites! ). The ridiculus number of lifebearing worlds around one star.. Someone raided earth for seedstock a loong time ago, and did a whole bunch of terraforming in the votan star system. And someone in the loop of picking targets when they ran knew. (..how? Ancient stone tablets?)

[wanderingstar]

This was all about making Amanda like Pottinger so she can REALLY hate him later.

 

 

And I here I was deluding myself into thinking that Amanda was only pretending to warm up to him, so as to play the long game while she plots against him. Ah well.

[johntfs]

Pottinger certainly has... flaws, but I loved his smackdown of Tennety right before she got killed, "Toddle that well-marbled ass back over there and pick up your own damn bags." It's even cooler that he used "well-marbled" since marbling is the fat in meat. He called her a fat-ass and did it with British elegance.

Edited August 24, 2014 by johntfs

[Shanna Marie]

Pottinger certainly has... flaws, but I loved his smackdown of Tennety right before she got killed

I know! They're really keeping me off-balance with him because I was all "Hell, yeah!" in that moment, and then remembered that in the previous episode he proved to be the creepiest creep who ever creeped.

 

I'm inclined to believe that he was actually being genuine there toward the end down in the mine because I can't figure what his angle would have been in playing Amanda. He got the best-case scenario in that he made himself look good by having made the offer to sacrifice himself for her but they were rescued in time and both lived, but it seems like a really risky ploy if he planned it that way because he'd have to count on her not having a burst of survival instinct and taking him up on the offer and on them being rescued in time, and he didn't actually seem all that optimistic about that. If anything was a ploy, then his confession that he's a monster may have been a pre-emptive strike in case she lived and he didn't so she'd be more inclined to think well of him once he was gone, even if in cleaning out his office she found evidence of just what a monster he was. But it seems more like there is some genuine part of him deep down inside his twisted little soul that really does care about her, and that part came out when he really believed he was dying. Maybe his next plot will be to get them into another disaster so she'll kiss him back when he kisses her, since I'm not sure he'll have figured out that being genuinely nice and caring goes a lot further than stealing her memories and inserting them into a modified copy of her sister that he could rescue and then receive her gratitude or be there to comfort her when her "sister" died. The guy seriously needs a wingman to tell him, "Dude, have you tried just talking to her without being an ass?"

 

I don't know if this character will be around for the next season, but he has "redemptive death" written all over him. I actually expected him to be dead when they were found, with it left ambiguous whether Amanda went through with killing him to get more air. He's too far gone for living redemption because he's pretty much damaged beyond repair, so dying while saving someone else is about the best he could do. Or I guess there's getting killed while doing something incredibly creepy just after he's shown a tiny bit of humanity.

[CoderLady]

For the sake of story and because I really like James Murray, I hope they upend that trope and keep him around. No one on Defiance is all good or all bad or Doc Yewll would have long since been fried.

 

They do throw out a bad 'un from time to time like Mayor Nikki or Ambassador Tennety but it's more interesting not to be able to completely predict who gets handed the karmic retribution card.

[BungalowSummer]

 

For the sake of story and because I really like James Murray, I hope they upend that trope and keep him around. No one on Defiance is all good or all bad or Doc Yewll would have long since been fried.

 

If the actors are available, I would hope to see both James Murray and William Atherton next season. Yes, I'm counting on there being a Season 3. It would be crazy to kill off such wildly funny and despicable characters. James Murray has done the impossible and made me grudgingly like Pottie.

 

As for Doc Yewll, they must find a way to integrate her back into the action. She's done terrible things, but she is one of the few who has actively tried to redeem herself. I wonder if she is still hallucinating her lover Lev.

[maczero]

Pottinger certainly has... flaws, but I loved his smackdown of Tennety right before she got killed, "Toddle that well-marbled ass back over there and pick up your own damn bags." It's even cooler that he used "well-marbled" since marbling is the fat in meat. He called her a fat-ass and did it with British elegance.

You know I was surprised by that.  I was under the impression that Tennety was higher up in the Earth Republic than Pottinger.  I guess I can understand Pottinger putting his career aside and stick up for Amanda, but I'm surprised that Tennety let him get away with it. 

 

In any case, I will miss Tennety's gorgeous face and "well-marbled" ass.

 

So has Pottinger's obsession changed?  Originally he seemed to want be Connor Lang (Amanda's ex).  And I guess part of that obsession was getting with Amanda.  However, he's spent way too much time much time and resources trying to woo Amanda.  So does he really want Amanda or is he still trying to follow in Connor's foot steps?

[Shanna Marie]

If the actors are available, I would hope to see both James Murray and William Atherton next season. Yes, I'm counting on there being a Season 3. It would be crazy to kill off such wildly funny and despicable characters. James Murray has done the impossible and made me grudgingly like Pottie.

I definitely hope they keep Pottinger around, if only because I like having James Murray on my TV (and it's funny having both a Jaime Murray and a James Murray on the title credits). I'd be okay with his redemptive death in the series finale. But this is a tricky character because he's done so many despicable things and yet they're peeling back the layers and showing how fragile he really is, so it's hard to imagine him being too long-term. He's so awful that someone's bound to want to kill him, and he's so aware of how awful he is that I'm not sure how he can keep on going.