So the plague is called the Irath Flu, because Irathients carry it without actually being susceptible to it, so what this means to the show is that only the humans in Defiance -- of which there are around six thousand -- are actually in danger from it. But since there's not a race in the universe that doesn't enjoy kicking the shit out of Irathients whenever they get the chance, the first move of the Council (with only Amanda against) is to round up all the Irath and put 'em in a big cage at the McCawley Mines.

Of course Irisa's first response to this plan is to throw Rafe McCawley literally off the roof of the building -- he's fine -- but once things get ugly and dangerous inside, she sort of loses her mind a little bit. Nolan's convinced this episode is going to be about him going there to save her (so she'll like him again, as Amanda points out) but really it's about him getting into other trouble entirely.

The cure (thanks to video game people) ends up crashing in the Badlands, so Connor Lang takes Nolan (who is already showing symptoms of the plague) out past an Earth Republic stockade to grab it. Of course the E-Rep, and horrible Olfin Tennety, pretend it's about quarantine, but everybody is pretty clear that nobody cares if Defiance ever falls, and nobody's fooled. The boys use that time to talk about Connor's history with Amanda, which was already pretty clear: She made the decision not to have their baby without discussing it with him, and then ran off into the wild wild west.

Eventually they make it back with the cure, just in time to be kidnapped and held hostage by a splinter cell of Irisa's Spirit Riders who managed not to get caught. While Amanda (and Christie McCawley) are laid low, Datak and Stahma engineer a temporary takeover that evolves into a baroquely complex plan where Datak seems to decide the plague is divine retribution on humans, just long enough to murder all the Irath hostage-takers he can, and then abruptly murders Connor before curing Nolan then the rest of the town. In the end, all three Tarrs work up a plan to make it seem like Amanda already knew about Datak's run for Mayor in the upcoming elections, and she has to act chill even though every episode is harder on her ass than the one before.

What else. There was a weird thing with Nicky Riordan where she tells whichever McCawley brother is still alive (Quentin?) that his mother Pilar isn't dead, that Nicky and Rafe were having an affair, that Nicky and Datak were treating Pilar's bipolar disorder with Casti lithium, and that Nicky stopped Pilar from killing the McCawley kids during an episode -- which resulted in the end of the affair but also sent Pilar running for the hills. So of course he hands over the Kaziri and heads out into the wasteland to find her, and Nicky takes a rainy-night meeting with the only surviving member of her gang: Doc Yewll, who may or may not be deciding to get involved with Nicky's activities but definitely is aware of them, and aware of what the dangerous Kaziri -- which it turns out is only one of an unknown number of objects, because this is a sci-fi show -- can actually do.

Nice twisty turns with Datak Tarr, and his inevitable run for Mayor should be fun, but the beats of the Pilar bipolar story and the Amanda abortion story were a leeeeetle bit close for comfort. It's nice to see Doc Yewll's ongoing creepiness continues to pay off, and a fun note to have Alak Tarr complicit in his family's bullshit. We'll certainly miss Connor Lang -- most especially as the last/only good thing about the E-Rep, which is now just entirely bitches and monsters -- but more than anything it was nice to see Nolan back in his daughter's good graces, after the season's middle act.

Next Week: Somebody frames Datak Tarr for the murder of Kenya Rosewater's (abusive?) (ex-?) husband Hunter, which solves at least two problems that I can think of but may well create even more, as murders and frame-jobs tend to do.