Defiance Will Have a Major Death Early in Season 3

Guilt trips don’t come worse than this one. Last season on Defiance, irascible space alien Irisa (Stephanie Leonidas) annihilated the warmongering Earth Republic; unfortunately, all of New York City—the Republic’s capital—was destroyed right along with it.

“When we return for Season 3, Irisa is questioning everything about violence and survival that she’s been taught by her father [Joshua Nolan, played by Grant Bowler],” says executive producer Kevin Murphy. “She’s looking for a new way of life, one that doesn’t involve having any more blood on her hands.” These moral qualms come at a time when Defiance is facing enormous threats: The treasury is depleted, there’s no power, the armory is empty, and the town has a new big bad, Votan leader Rahm Tak (Lee Tergesen), who is orchestrating a military siege. On top of that, one of the show’s most popular core characters—around since the beginning—will die early this season in a heroic way.

“Basically, Defiance is screwed, and Irisa becoming an unreliable partner in the midst of all this causes a huge rift between father and daughter,” says Murphy. “It’s as if Chewbacca suddenly got gun-shy. That’s not good for Han Solo staying alive.” Complicating matters: Irisa’s badassery has become the stuff of legend—her die-hard groupies have tagged her “the Goddess of the Badlands”—and she’s even being glorified in comic books. “Irisa hates it,” Murphy says. “She is horribly humiliated by this unwanted fame.”

But she has more immediate worries with the arrival of T’evgin (Conrad Coates) and his daughter, Kindzi (Nichole Galicia), members of the cannibalistic alien race the Omec. “We reveal that the Omec—victims of widespread genocide perpetrated by the Votanis Collective—are nearly extinct and seeking refuge on our planet,” says Murphy. “They have no problems with humans, but nor are they telling the truth about their mission.”

Defiance, Season premiere Friday, June 12, 8/7c, Syfy