Defiance Episode 2 Recap: Down In The Ground Where The Dead Men Go

The second episode was solid one. A Castithan named Elah Bandik is being pulled apart by having stones added to a device he's tied to. Everyone else says its torture but the Castis say its part of their religion. Per Datak it must be done since Elah showed cowardice in the battle with the Volge. Ben Daris was sent into Old St Louis by the mayor's sidekick Burgess. They're still trying to blow up Defiance. This seems like way too much work just to get whatever it is that they're looking for. Anyway Ben shoots himself with Rafe's gun. Before he dies, Ben tells Rafe that his dead son hated him "for what you did to his mother" and was planning to leave Defiance.

Other thoughts:

41 people were killed in the Volge attack in the last episode.

After Stahma told that story to Christie, Im thinking she killed her fiancé by "accidentally" flushing him out of an airlock. I don't trust her. We also learn that Datak was part of the lowest cast on Casti while Stahma was in the highest.

Those Castis are a little kinky. Alak's mother was hugging him while she's almost naked. And what's up with the servants bathing them? Can't they bathe themselves?

Showing that Nicky (the ex mayor) is up to no good so early seems like a miscalculation. It would have been much more suspenseful to leave clues as to who it was throughout the season. Nicky also says she does not enjoy what she's doing but it's for the "greater good". Not sure how killing all the town residents could be construed as good but hopefully we'll find out.

Elah ended up being killed anyway so Irisa cutting him down really didn't accomplish anything.

Is the device that Rafe found in his son's room what Nicky/Burgess looking for?

Wikipedia:

Episode 2 "Down In the Ground Where The Dead Men Go"
Burges and Nicky do not give up on Ben after his previous failure at helping them wipe Defiance off the map. They pay him a visit once more, and shock him into doing some more work for them, and this time they don't expect him to screw it up. Soon, Amanda, Nolan, and Rafe hear of an explosion down at McCawley Mines, and discover Ben must've headed down there on an agenda. Rafe unwillingly at first takes Nolan along, and tells him that down that way of the Rat's Nest lies old St. Louis, a town that in some ways wasn't affected by the Arkfall. As the pair reminisce over what life used to be like, with Rafe's talk of his father and his son, they discover Ben in the old nuclear plant, with a bomb ready to detonate beside him. Ben is cornered and the bomb is deactivated. On orders of Amanda, Nolan has been ordered to keep Rafe from shooting Ben. However, Rafe ends up pulling the trigger when Ben pounces on him. The two men and their team return to Defiance with this news, and walk in on Datak and Amanda who are in a spat over the ritual conducted under Datak's religion earlier in the day on a coward. A stop is put to the confrontation, as Datak walks away from the scene without his coward, who he previously failed to cleanse following Irisa cutting him down. Amanda appears to be struggling, after learning of Ben's death, but, nonetheless, pulls through for her town by conducting the funerals of the forty-one who lost their lives in the Volge attacks. With the services over, Rafe tries to mourn, but, he is struggling to comprehend Ben's words that Luke wanted to pull away from him and leave Defiance. Datak, meanwhile, appears to be behind the death of the prisoner, who turns up dead outside the Lawkeeper's residence. Rafe searches his son's room, discovering maps, a pile of scrip and a strange object.

Grade: 4 Monsters (out of 5). I'm definitely enjoying finding out about this new world and everyone in it.