Characters:

Joshua Nolan (Grant Bowler), he becomes the town sheriff aka the ‘law keeper’, many years ago he adopted a young Irathien girl, Irisa (Stephanie Leonidas), he saved her from a bad situation, this will be addressed during the first season. Nolan saves her from Daigo (Ben Cotton) and his snake cult. Amanda Rosewater (Julie Benz) is the interim mayor of the town after Nicolette "Nicky" Riordon (Fionnula Flanagan) stepped down. The Tarr family, Datak Tarr (Tony Curran), Stahma Tarr (Jaime Murray) and son Alak Tarr (Jesse Rath) are Castithans, They are an aristocratic and ethereal race from the planet Daribo. I guess you can compare Datak Tarr to crime lord of some sorts. Rafe McCawley (Graham Green) controls the mines, his daughter Christie (Nicole Muñoz) is in love Datak Tarr’s son Alak. Quentin (Justin Rain) is Christie’s brother. The other brother, Luke, was killed in the pilot. Kenya Rosewater (Mia Kirshner) is Amanda’s sister, she runs the brothel. Doc Jewll (Trenna Keating) is the town’s Doctor. Jewll is an Indogene and they are a manufactured species. Jewll definitely is one of the most interesting characters.

General overview of the first season:

When Nolan and Irissa arrive at Defiance, they don’t intend to stay long, because they both hope to get enough funds for a trip to Antarctica, rumored to be paradise after terraforming. But because of certain turn of events, Nolan becomes the law keeper and Irisa a deputy sheriff. Irisa doesn’t want to be there but stays out of loyalty to Nolan, all her life she has visions but in Defiance they grow worse. Amanda Rosewater is the interim mayor, before that she was the assistant of former mayor Nicky. Because of so-called health problems, Nicky steps down. In reality Nicky is not such a sweet women as she pretends to be, was involved with the Volge attack in the pilot episode which normally would have killed everyone in town so she could search for a specific object without any hindrance from anyone. Datak Tarr considers himself to be an important man, he wants to be revered by everyone in town, including the mayor and city’s council. His wife Stahma is perhaps even more wicked than her already wicked husband. She manipulates not only him but everyone around her, her son, Amanda, Amanda’s sister Kenya. She also manipulates Christie, Rafe’s daughter and Alak’s girlfriend, because of the mines that Rafe controls. She does this because she is as power hungry as her husband, but she doesn’t show that to him or anybody else. Rafe doesn’t want his daughter involved with the son of Datak Tarr, he loathes him, doesn’t trust him for one bit. But ultimately when Tarr cancels the wedding of his son with Christie, Rafe ignores Datak Tarr and plans the wedding himself.

Stahma manipulates Amanda to let her husband join the city’s council and when Datak Tarr announces that he will run for becoming the next mayor, she then manipulates Amanda’s sister that Tarr is planning to kill Amanda because he is supposed to be afraid of losing. This results in the death of a young Castithan, killed by Nolan. He was using a paint gun but it looked as real as a real gun, this was a set-up by the Tarr’s, and in part because of this, Datak Tarr becomes the next mayor of Defiance, backed by the Earth Republic. Kenya, who threatens to expose Stahma, is killed by her, but Amanda and the others assume, Kenya has skipped town.

The artifact, the Kaziri, Nicky was looking for, is the reasons Irisa’s visions grew stronger in Defiance, because Daigo's snake cult implanted the silver artifact within her body, it opened a weak channel of communication between Irisa and the Kaziri. This connection caused the visions that plagued Irisa. The closer Irisa got to the Kaziri, the more powerful these visions became, which is why she began to see more visions in Defiance. But Daigo was wrong about the true nature of the Kaziri. It was a damaged machine bent on completing its mission of terraforming the Earth, not a god. When Nolan dies, Irisa makes a deal with the devil to bring him back alive!

So, Datak Tarr wins the election, he is the mayor but at the same time the Earth Republic betrays him and when Earth Republic colonel Marsh basically says that Tarr is and was a puppet and that he is done, Datak Tarr cannot control himself and kills Marsh.

Final Word:

Overall season one is a very solid season, it is not episodic but serialized, no filler episodes or anything, just one continued storyline. Most of the episodes I rated a 7.5/10, so as I said, solid. The pilot I graded an 8/10, strong series opener, a 90 minute pilot and the last two episodes I also graded with an 8/10, because it stepped up the pace, the election, the involvement of the Earth republic, the schemes of Datak Tarr and his wife Stahma, what happens with Irisa after Doc Jewll has brought the items together within Irissa. It really is exciting season finale, which makes you want more!

Screencaps taken from cap-that.com

I've added the word document with the episode ratings with descriptions and comments for the ones who are interested in this. Just be aware, it is a draft document, sometimes also can be confusing because of grammar errors and some sloppiness.