S02.E02: In My Secret Life

[Izeinwinter]

.. If she is using him, I can't see any way for it to be in any sense other than the carnal one. Which is a possibility! I mean, we haven't seen enough of them to guess what the relationship is based on. Could be true love, could be "only tasty man in a uniform not in my chain in command within 2 days travel". 

[johntfs]

I never really felt Tommy and Irisa.  It seemed like they were hooked up because everyone else was either inappropriate or taken.

 

I think an interesting hook-up would be Amanda and Stahma.  You just know that Nolan is going to do something to trigger at least a temporary break-up with Amanda (probably due to the mayor's plotting).  I can just see Pottinger being ready to make his big move and then Stahma slides in and collects the Rosewater sister set. 

[tricksterson]

I suspect that high tech in the E=Rep is probably restricted to the government, military and those wealthy/connected enough to afford/get it.  More a feeling than anything else.  Berlin probably knows about Star Wars because I'm betting that the modern entertainment industry, outside of government propaganda, is minimal so a lot of old stuff gets recycled.

 

Alak should just change his name to Michael Corleone and get it over with.

[Chaos Theory]

I fear Christie will feel the brunt of Alak's ire. He's not strong or smart enough to stand up to his mom. I believe calling her a human at the end of the group bath was just the beginning.

 

 

The Christie thing can go one of two ways.   Stahma could actually be building Alak and Christie into another Stahma and Datak with everything that implies.    She could be building Christie into a passive aggressive version of herself while turning Alak into a version of his father but one that she can control.   Well that is way one anyway.  Way two is the more obvious less interesting retelling of the Godfather.  As Alak gets more and more brutal he drives Christie more and more away.    Either way now that her family has lost the mines Christie has lost some of her worth.  Her biggest draw at least for Stahma is that she can be used to control Alak which is why I like version 1 better.  Slowly turning her into a human version of Stahma; someone well aware of what Alak is doing and quite willing to egg him on if only for love and family sake.  

Edited June 29, 2014 by Chaos Theory

[Izeinwinter]

Tricksterson: That is just not how electronics work. The marginal cost of producing more gadgets once you have a production line up is ridiculously low, thus rationing the output makes no economic sense. You want the largest possible market to drive down cost because the true cost per item is pretty much "cost of factory / number of sales". So if Berlin has a camcorder, eventually everyone that wants one does. Heck, this is pretty likely to be a good chunk of what makes the E-rep expand. Larger market (Because selling into the chaotic frontier is not efficient)

There is also the fact that making propaganda movies makes no sense if people can't watch them. 

Edited June 29, 2014 by Izeinwinter

[johntfs]

Alak should just change his name to Michael Corleone and get it over with.

 

Except that Alak isn't so much Michael as Fredo.

[Emily Thrace]

.. Is the Earth Republic the bad guy? They are clearly corrupt as fuck, but they dont seem to be engaging in any major crimes against sapience, and it isn't like the area is flooded with other forces for any kind of order.

I did notice how there is not a single Votan in E-rep military or in any kind of power position. That points to me to some kind of discrimination official or otherwise.

 

I wonder if Berlin could be using Tommy in some way, because he was a law keeper before the eReps took power.

Maybe Irisa will have to make a choice to save his life from Berlin at some point.

I think Tommy is an idealist and has bought in to the E-rep to a point. Or as I said in the premiere Jammer I just hope the Nolan's can snap him out of it before he goes out the airlock. I also think Tommy is in for a "bad girl who doesn't communicate" versus "good on paper girl" choice that usually reserved for female characters.  

[Chaos Theory]

Defiance is in the Middle of nowhere. It is outlaw country. Kinda like the Old West. If I remember correctly one of the first major info dumps of season 1 was that the races tended to segregate themselves. Most of the Earth-Republic settlements were for the large part human-centric and the Earth Republic was doing their manifest destiny thing which is why Amanda was able to convince Datak at least at first to not trust the Earth Republic even when they offered him all the shit he wanted.  (Power,  money, legitimacy).  "You're a Votan dude. Are you gonna trust the Votan haters?" Defiance being in the middle oh nowhere was able to keep to themselves for a long time and then the mines were discovered to be magic or something like that.....so yey!  Here comes the Earth Republic!

[wanderingstar]

Enjoyed this ep. I am glad Irisa and Nolan are back in Defiance and won't spend half the season getting back there.

Re Christie - I hope the writers have more planned for her than awkward bathing scenes.

[HeySandyStrange]

 

I did notice how there is not a single Votan in E-rep military or in any kind of power position. That points to me to some kind of discrimination official or otherwise.

 

I think the E-rep is basically doing what the Votan Collective is: promoting and protecting their respective species and cultures.   I would assume the Votan Collective has little to no humans living or working with them. I'm hoping we see more of the Votan collective and what makes them tick. 

[maczero]

Looks like I was wrong about Stahma.  I thought she wanted Datak back.  I do believe that she wasn't jumping for joy the moment he was sentenced.  I imagine it was a more gradual realization that she enjoyed being in charge.  I'm also wondering if she'll ever cheat on him (again).  We know she loves him but ten years is a long time.

 

And count me as a fan of Berlin.  At first I thought the character was ridiculous.  The name, the by the book attitude, and dressing like a member of the SS was way too on the nose for me to take the character seriously.  However, her dressing down Nolan was awesome.  In a way, I took it as a slam against a lot of wannabe tough guys who have Mad Max fantasies of how they would thrive in a post apocalyptic world.  Not to mention, I'm now obsessed with trying to work "hot Chewbaca" into a conversation.

 

You know the family bathing isn't all that weird when you think about it.  They're clothed and not touching each other.  Honestly, I find sharing a hot tub with strangers to be more awkward.

 

Am I the only one who thinks Amanda must be blind for not noticing peeper mayor's camera?  I mean it's about an inch long and it's sitting in plain view.  I wouldn't notice if I spent a few minutes in the room and left.  However, there's no way I would miss it night after night.

Edited June 30, 2014 by maczero

[ali59]

Last night I finished binge watching season 1 so I could refresh my memory.  Something that struck me was that Irisa falling into the whatever it is (weapon?) doesn't seem to have had any effect.  On anything, except Nolan coming alive again!  The ship or weapon or whatever is still way down below doing nothing.  I don't get it.

[Ottis]

I never really felt Tommy and Irisa.

 

 

Me, neither, and especially now. Irisa is all kinds of crazy. Tommy should stay away.  But then Tommy also seems to be painfully inept at his job. Even his gf disssed him. He strikes me as one of those Lester (Fargo) types, who can never feel adequate and eventually does something stupid and costly.

[johntfs]

Tommy's only inept by comparison.  Tommy's spent several years as the former sherriff's main deputy and reasonably expected to take over the job when the older man retired.  Unfortunately, "retirement" came early.  Of course, by then, Joshua, "No Man" Nolan had rollered into town with his Hot Chewbacca daughter and swiftly scooped up the Law-keeper job by saving the town from the Volge.

 

For the past nine months or so, Tommy has presumably been a decent job as Lawkeeper, otherwise the Mayor wouldn't have kept him in that job.  However, now there's shrill bombs going off and the difficulty level of the LK job shot up considerably in response to Defiance coming back on TV.

Edited July 9, 2014 by johntfs

[jhlipton]

I think it was in this episode that Amanda said that the "colonization of India was a blip in history" or the like.  No.  It wasn't at all.  Colonization has impacts that go well beyond whenever the colonizing power leaves. and one could easily argue that the effects of British rule in India is still felt today.  That quote took me out of the scene for a moment.