For other pages: Main page, Main Characters, Votans, Video Game characters.
The human characters of the TV series Defiance outside the main cast:
open/close all folders
McCawley Family
Quentin
Quentin McCawley
"I never cared about not being the favorite, or the second favorite, or the least favorite."
Played By: Justin Rain
Son of Rafe McCawley. He is notably more level-headed than Luke.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Chokes Mr. Birch to death then gets rid of his body after Birch attacked him.
- Boom, Headshot!: Executed this way by Rahm Tak.
- The Dutiful Son: He tells his father about Luke's fight with Alak, even though he clearly knows it's a bad idea. He then becomes this to his mother, even though she is obviously crazy.
- The Dragon: To his mother.
- Face–Heel Turn: In Season 2, it's revealed that Quentin has joined the Votanis Collective and is not above participating in executions and kidnapping, though he's only doing it to barter for his mother's safety.
- Only Sane Man: Serves as the voice of reason in the family, compared to the more emotional Christie (who he describes as The Heart in their family) and more impulsive Luke. He tries to keep his father from acting to rash in response to Christie's relationship with Alak, and gives him a dose of cold water when it comes to Luke associating with criminals that tried to destroy the town. However, it's eventually subverted in a big way when it's revealed he's having hallucinations of his dead brother, pushing him to murder.
- Put on a Bus: Leaves Defiance to find his mother.
- The Bus Came Back: He returns in "Painted From Memory", having found her. Apparently, she's not too well off. Then it's revealed he's in league with the Votanis Collective, and was the masked man who held Kenya hostage to force Amanda into freeing Mahsuvus Gorath.
- Sanity Slippage: Has begun seeing and talking to his dead brother who keeps urging him towards the Dark Side. However, it could be the result of having the Kaziri around.
- The Unfavorite: He has some minor issues regarding this, though he keeps it quiet until Rafe prevents him from working on Luke's section of the mines. Rafe makes up for it by telling Quentin that he doesn't want him to be anyone else, and they end up exploring that area of the mines together.
- What the Hell, Hero?: He frames Rafe for trying to assassinate Pottinger and Tennety, which Rafe goes along with to protect Quentin. When he tells this to his mother, thinking he has outwitted Rafe, she slaps him and throws some cold water on his perception of events.
Luke
Luke McCawley
Played By: Wesley French
Son of Rafe McCawley.
- Asshole Victim: Kinda hard to feel sorry for him when his death comes immediately after him trying to kill Alak.
- Character Death: He dies in the first episode, murdered by Ben Darris.
- Dead Person Conversation: With Quentin.
- Fantastic Racism: His issue over Christie dating Alak seems to be more about him being a Castithan than being Datak's son.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Doesn't take much for him to snap at Alak, though, to be fair, he was apparently drunk.
- Jerkass: He's violent and racist toward Castithans.
- My Sister Is Off-Limits: At least when it comes to dating the son of a criminal, not to mention him being a Castithan.
- Murder Is the Best Solution: Spirit!Luke casually suggests murdering Nicolette Riordan to get rid of her.
- Not What I Signed on For: He was murdered after trying to expose what Nicolette Riordan had planned for the town. Given his association with her is implied to go back longer, it can be assumed he had only recently discovered the lengths to which she was willing to go.
- Spirit Advisor: Assuming Quentin isn't just hallucinating him. It might be the influence of the Kaziri on Quentin's mind.
Pilar
Pilar McCawley
Played By: Linda Hamilton
Rafe's former wife. He sent her away after her mental illness proved dangerous to her children. She returns in season 2, found in the Votanis Collective by Quentin.
- Evil Matriarch: On account of being insane. She is intent on getting her family back, regardless of what they want.
- Fantastic Racism: Refers to Datak and Stahma as "white-faced clowns".
- Insane Equals Violent: And a stay in the Votanis Collective doesn't seem to have helped since the last incident.
- It's All About Me: She exploits and/or kills everyone around her to get what she wants.
- Jerkass: She mocks the Tarrs about their former poverty, in particular going after Stahma for having been a housemaid that once cleaned toilets for the McCawley family when their regular maid was unavailable. Stahma doesn't hesitate to call her on their reversed fortunes.
- Manipulative Bitch: When she comes back, she's reasonably good at disguising her insanity behind the mask of a loving mother, but that mask slips when things don't go her way. She almost managed to talk Alak and Christie into going with her, claiming it was temporary, but was forced to kidnap them when they caught on to her being too eager to get them out of Defiance.
- Mugging the Monster: When she tries to pull her nice old lady act on Nolan and Irisa, Nolan sees right through it. As a result, baby Luke gets taken from her and she gets shot in the chest.
- Never Found the Body: Gets shot in the chest by Nolan, but he didn't have time to confirm the kill and is smart enough not to write her off as dead. However, as she makes no further appearances for the rest of the series, it's safe to assume she perished.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Her entire family is dead thanks to her, not that she seems to care that much.
- Offing the Offspring: She tried to poison her children during one of her less lucid moments. It was this incident that convinced Rafe to send her away.
- Too Dumb to Live: Charging Nolan with a knife when he had a rifle. It's not as if she felt he wouldn't shoot her, either.
Earth Republic
Viceroy Mercado
Viceroy Berto Mercado
"It's in our nature to want to be other than we are."
Played By: William Atherton
"We are creatures of incredible curiosity. We envy the flight of birds, and we build wings. Born earthbound, we reach for the stars."
Pottinger's superior in the E-rep. He strongly dislikes Pottinger.
- Admiring the Abomination: His rationale for his Castithan cosplaying. He believes that the Castithans will inevitably take over the Earth, but he doesn't see anything wrong with admiring their strength and spirit. He likens himself to a dinosaur admiring the asteroid that's about to fall and wipe out his kind.
- Ambition Is Evil: His desire to be elected to a higher position leads to him sending 43 men to their deaths.
- Asshole Victim: Mercado treats Pottinger with nothing but disdain, but he's such an asshole that it's hard to disagree with Mercado.
- Cosplay: He's a rather committed Castithan cosplayer.
- Dirty Old Man: He flirts with Christie, who's young enough to be his daughter.
- Evil Redhead: Mercado is a redhead, and is very callous about the loss of human life.
- Hidden Depths: While he seems like an irritable old politician, Mercado leads something of a double life as a Castithan cosplay enthusiast. He's much more comfortable and far happier when he's all 'whited up'. He also has a great singing voice, is something of a romantic and waxes philosophical about human potential.
- Naughty by Night: While Mercado is a rather buttoned-down jerk during the day, he tends to indulge in a bizarre late-night 'hobby': Dressing up as a Castithan and prowling Casti clubs with a false name.
- Sleazy Politician: Again, he's in the E-Rep. Practically a job requirement. And yet, at the end of "If You Could See Her Through My Eyes," he flirts with Christie, who's, again, young enough to be his daughter. While cosplaying as a Castithan.
- Worth It: When some miners defaced an E-Rep sign, Mercado muses that while losing Defiance would be a big blow to the Earth Republic, he would love to see Pottinger's career crash and burn from the fallout.
- You Have Failed Me: He says this word-for-word to Pottinger for the Gulanee disaster, although it was hardly Pottinger's fault. He makes plans to have him Reassigned to Antarctica as punishment.
Col. Marsh
Col. Galen Marsh
"Be sure to make it look like an accident. We’re new in town. Don’t want to make a bad impression."
Played By: Barry Flatman
The former commander of the 3rd California Division and a member of the Earth Republic Army.
- Big Bad: Marsh steps in at the last minute to fulfil this role in Season 1.
- Bullying a Dragon: He mocks and belittles Datak Tarr. It doesn't end well for him.
- Character Death: Marsh taunts Datak about his imminent future as a puppet for the Earth Republic, hitting every single one of Datak's Berserk Buttons in the process. As a result, Datak proceeds to go batshit and stab the hell out of him with a letter opener.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Datak has a Laser Blade he usually uses to kill people. Galen pissed him off so badly that Datak gutted him with a letter opener, and it doesn't look like he went down on the first hit from all the splatter.
- Did You Actually Believe...?: He pulls this on Datak, cruelly pointing out that the Earth Republic would never treat a Castithan as an equal partner.
- Fantastic Racism: He calls Datak an uppity haint after Datak demands some respect from him.
- Faux Affably Evil: Marsh actually seems like a professional and reasonable man who just happens to be working for the Earth Republic, especially in comparison to Olfin Tennety. However, once he's in charge Marsh drops this act and reveals himself to be just as sadistic and racist as any other Earth Republic mook.
- Punch-Clock Villain: Subverted, he just pretends to be one and acts like a professional, respectful, understanding man in public.
- Villain Team-Up: With Datak Tarr, although it inevitably goes sideways.
Connor Lang
Connor Lang
"If you'd had a little faith, we'd be a family."
Played By: Gale Harold
An Earth Republic representative and former romantic entanglement of Amanda's.
- Character Death: Datak Tarr shoots him to prevent him from revealing how he shamed his liro.
- Dead Person Conversation: He has one with Niles Pottinger.
- He Knows Too Much: Connor is killed by Datak for witnessing him shame his liro by begging for his life and seeing him lose his cool and brutally beating an Irathient corpse in "If I Never Leave This World Alive".Datak: I'm sorry you had to see that. [shoots Connor] It doesn't fit with my narrative.
- I Take Offense to That Last One: When Amanda refers to the Earth Republic as the 'evil empire' he responds with, 'We're hardly an empire.'
- New Old Flame: He and Amanda still have feelings for each other, but while he wants to rekindle things, she doesn't trust him anymore.
- Sleazy Politician: He works for E-Rep; it's practically a job requirement.
- Token Good Teammate: One of the few high-ranking E-Rep officials that isn't a complete jackass. The above aside, he's generally a good person.
- Tall, Dark, and Handsome: He's got all three down, at least in Amanda's view.
Olfin Tennety
Olfin Tennety
"It's a really dangerous world out there, Amanda. The Earth Republic is a good friend to have."
Played By: Jane Mc Lean
An Ambassador for the Earth Republic.
- "Ass" in Ambassador: For a diplomat, she seems to get into a lot of petty catfights.
- Back for the Dead: Absent since mid-Season 1, then returns and dies in "Bottom of the World".
- Dropped a Bridge on Her: Meets a rather unceremonious end in a mine collapse in "Bottom of the World".
- Evil Is Petty: She's completely fine with letting her grudge against Nolan and Amanda dictate her actions.
- Jerkass: Openly smug and condescending to Amanda, and even her husbands.
- Karma Houdini: Orchestrates a scheme to steal Defiance's deposit for a railroad. When she's caught and arrested, her people immediately release her so she can continue her scheming. Subverted in Season 2, where Pottinger gets to knock her down a peg before she dies in a mine collapse.
- Polyamory: She has two husbands. When one dies and the other abandons her, she gets two more.
- Smug Snake: She's constantly looking down her nose at Amanda but she isn't the superior chessmaster she thinks she is.
Black Jonah
Jonah Keller AKA Black Jonah
"I'm a professional interrogator, and I enjoy my work to an arguably...indecent degree."
Played By: Matthew Lemche
A former member of the EMC's Black Watch, former operator of Vegas Island Penal Colony and a member of Echelon.
- Card-Carrying Villain: He admits that he loves his work to an "indecent degree".
- Character Death: In a Mutual Kill with Nolan.
- The Dragon: To Colonel Marsh.
- The Dreaded: Nolan recognizes him, and as his name implies, he's well-known for being a cruel son of a bitch.
- Faux Affably Evil: Tries to carry off a professional veneer, but the second he hears something he doesn't want to hear he threatens to scalp Doc Yewll.
- Mutual Kill: With Nolan in "Everything is Broken". Nolan's death, however, doesn't stick.
- Psycho for Hire: A torturer for hire. It's not even for the money, he's just a sadistic son-of-a-bitch.
- Putting on the Reich: In addition to the E-Rep black uniform, he carries around a Luger (the pistol that's probably most associated with Nazis) for execution-style killings.
- Torture Technician: A professional 'interrogator'.
Churchill
Churchill
Played By: Rob Archer
A bioman in the employ of Niles Pottinger.
- The Brute: For Pottinger.
- Character Death: Churchill is destroyed by a Gulanee.
- Dumb Muscle: So far averted, at least compared to Ulysses. It's shown he's very perceptive, understands subtlety, and has a mind for nuanced social situations and interactions.
- Heroic Sacrifice: He successfully stalls the Gulanee, dying in the process, but giving Nolan and Pottinger enough time to come up with a device to save their lives.
- I Owe You My Life: He was rescued by Pottinger after his commanding officer ordered the unit to abandon him, since he had served his purpose.
- Suicide Mission: He's sent to hold off a Gulanee even though he's vastly outclassed, since Nolan needs time to work up a device that can paralyze the Gulanee. The Gulanee kills him, and Pottinger deeply regrets having to send him with the false hope that he could actually win.
- Super-Soldier: As a Bioman, this was his intended purpose.
Other Humans
Deidre Lamb
Deidre Lamb AKA Treasure Doll
"If you want anything in this world, you have to fight for it!"
Played By: Kristina Pesic
A female human and a resident of Defiance. A part-time employee of the NeedWant, Alak hired her as his replacement for the DJ position in the arch.
- Abusive Parents: Her mother sold her into sexual slavery when she was thirteen. She got away as soon as she could.
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: Alak killing Skeevur is a turn-on for her.
- False Friend: To Christie. She convinces her to get into Votan cosplay as a way of becoming better acquainted with Castithan culture, only to turn around and rat her out to Alak, knowing he wouldn't approve. Her ultimate goal is to sabotage their relationship so she can have Alak to herself.
- Freudian Excuse: She was pimped out by her mother as a child, and eventually sold to a soldier who she then killed.
- Hooker with a Heart of Gold: Averted. She's not entirely evil, but she's morally dubious at best.
- In-Series Nickname: She goes by Treasure Doll when running the radio station.
- Manipulative Bitch: It turns out that encouraging Christie to enter the world of Votan cosplay was part of her plan to break up Christie and Alak and get Alak all to herself.
- Ms. Fanservice: Aside from her general vampish behavior, she gets a rather excellent black lingerie scene.
- Self-Made Woman: A dark example. She completely reinvented herself when she came to Defiance; very few people know her real past. At one point she tells Christie, "Everything you see is my own invention."
- Social Climber: She's very up-front about the fact that she intends to snag a rich and powerful man who will make her his "princess", and she will do anything she has to to get that man. And she's decided that man will be Alak Tarr.
- The Vamp: Every single word she utters is dripping in seductive suggestion, and she wastes no time trying to seduce Alak.
- Yandere: She gets a bit more unhinged when her plan to separate Alak and Christie doesn't go as plan, to the point of trying to induce a miscarriage in Christie because she thinks it will help her get Alak. Christie ended up throwing her from the arch for that.
Nicky Riordan
Nicolette "Nicky" Riordan
"You can't create without destroying."
Played By: Fionnula Flanagan
The former mayor of Defiance, who retired three weeks before the series started.
- Alien Blood: Averted. Unlike Gordon McClintock, her blood is human red instead of Indogene silver. Presumably, the deep cover process was more advanced by the time she was altered.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Acts like a nice old lady in public, but in private is more than willing to rack up a high bodycount to see her goals fulfilled. Rafe actually knows she's dangerous, which suggest this might be a more evident trait than would appear at first glance.
- Character Death: Yewll decided to nip this whole "potential genocide" thing in the bud and murdered her, then set it up to look like a suicide.
- Cool Old Lady: She's supportive of Amanda, has a sense of humour, and is vastly popular with the townspeople.
- Deep Cover Agent: An Indogene, biologically altered to look human.
- Disc-One Final Boss: She's all set up to be the manipulative Big Bad, but is rather abruptly killed by Yewll halfway through the first season.
- The Last Dance: Apparently has terminal lung cancer, so sees little point in giving up smoking. It's implied that if she was ruthless before, now she's even more driven to fulfill her goals, since she's got nothing to lose.
- Never Mess with Granny: She may look like a frail old lady, but she caved in Hunter Bell's skull with a single strike from her cane. Age and disease might have caught up to her in the eight years since that incident, though.
- We Used to Be Friends: With Doc Yewll.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Whatever is buried beneath Defiance will supposedly change the world with a high death toll, and she believes the survivors will thank her when that happens.
- You're Insane!: Accused of such by Yewll.
Josef Mirch
Josef Mirch
Played By: Ryan Kennedy
A miner and Rafe McCawley's godson.
- Lethally Stupid: He's... not a paragon of good planning. Quite a few of his decisions in Season 2 ended with people dying.
- In his first appearance, he and his brother tag E-Rep banners at city hall with "Kill the E-Rep" graffiti, then he further mouths off to Pottinger when he's caught. And he did it the day Pottinger had Viceroy Mercado in town, so Pottinger came down on him twice as hard for that. His brother ended up being eaten by Hellbugs when Pottinger arranged to have them to "accidentally" escape into Hellbug territory.
- In his next major appearance, he hijacked an E-Rep shipment of advanced mining equipment. He lost two men doing it, and in the process deeply humiliated Pottinger and stole a special shipment Pottinger tucked in with the mining equipment, thus making sure Pottinger would devote every resource to catch him. Then he brought said equipment to Rafe, which Rafe himself points out was stupid because the E-Rep watches him closely. Nolan finds him nearly instantly. Nolan let him go with a warning that Berlin would be able to ID him through her camera, so instead of running he tried to steal the camera and ended up kidnapping Berlin when that went south. Rafe just broke down and shot the poor kid in the back, and it still cost Rafe his home.
- Revenge Before Reason: His desire for revenge against the Earth Republic for his father's death leads to him making incredibly poor decisions.
- Too Dumb to Live: His actions frequently lead to more trouble, usually for him, though they harm virtually everyone by the end. Rafe even calls him a stupid kid.
Clancy
Garret Clancy
Played By: Peter Mac Neil
A former member of the EMC's Yellow Jackets and the former Chief Lawkeeper of Defiance.
- Character Death: He's shot by one of Rafe's miners during a bar scuffle.
- Cool Old Guy: Clancy is a good lawkeeper, good man and a Reasonable Authority Figure who, in his later years, still has his wits about him.
- Death by Origin Story: He dies in the very first episode in order to make a vacancy for Nolan.
- The Mentor: Tommy mentions he was this for him.
- Mentor Occupational Hazard: He's killed pretty early on.
- The Sheriff: He was the Lawkeeper of Defiance, prior to Nolan.
Mr. Birch
Solomon Birch
Played By: Steven Mc Carthy
Nicky Riordan's mysterious assistant.
- Beard of Evil: Willing to threaten to murder someone's family to force their cooperation.
- Beware the Quiet Ones: According to Nicky, it was his idea to use the Volge. It's up in the air whether or not she was lying, of course.
- Bottled Heroic Resolve: Uses a combat drug from the Pale Wars to revive Ben Darris.
- Character Death: Choked to death by Quentin and had his body dumped into a molten flow for good measure.
- The Dragon: To Nicolette.
- Massive Numbered Siblings: According to Nicky, although she may have been lying to screw with Quentin.
- Scary Shiny Glasses: Wears a pair with black lenses.
Ulysses
Ulysses
Played By: Rob Archer
Datak Tarr's personal Bioman.
- Ambiguously Gay: He 'fancies' Castithans, the Castithan in question being male, and his relationship with Nico is ambiguous. Still, he has no genitalia, so it's hard to say.
- The Brute: For Datak Tarr, who uses him in fights, and Nico, who uses him to nab unfortunates.
- Dumb Muscle: He's easily manipulated by the likes of Nico. Season 2 shows that this is not typical of 100% of Biomen, however.
- Super-Soldier: The Bioman's hat during the Pale Wars.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Killed in his second speaking appearance.
Eddie Braddock
Eddie Braddock
"I kind of like it, though. Fresh air… keep my own hours… shoot interesting people."
Played By: Rob Stewart
A former member of the Earth Military Coalition division "Iron Demons" and a bounty hunter.
- Bounty Hunter: After the war, he was forced to become one just to get by.
- Deadpan Snarker: One of many things he has in common with Nolan.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: He considers himself every bit Irisa's rescuer as Nolan, and isn't pleased when she treats him with suspicion.
- Hero of Another Story: Eddie is basically Nolan with a few less morals and bit more Bounty Hunter action.
- Heroic Sacrifice: His actions allowed Nolan and Irisa to escape, and he spent six years in prison as a result. He does it again by taking the fall for Nolan's murder of Pol Madis. This time, however, he escapes imprisonment.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Gives one to Nolan, chewing him out for abandoning Eddie to be imprisoned while Nolan escaped."You got to raise her! You got to be a father, a hero. What did I get? I got caught."
Hunter Bell
Hunter Bell
Played By: Brendan Mc Carthy
The original owner of the NeedWant and the former husband of Kenya Rosewater.
- Asshole Victim: A wife-beating, wife-raping, dirty-fighting, townspeople-scamming unrepentant sociopath. Everyone but Tommy, the only person we've seen him do a good turn, agrees he had it coming.
- Broken Pedestal: He helped Tommy turn his life around, so the kid looked up to him. We gradually learn he's pretty much the only person who wasn't aware of (or managed to overlook) Hunter's uglier side.
- Combat Pragmatist: He pulls a knife during a fistfight with Datak. He responds to Datak's mocking by claiming that winning is all that matters.
- Domestic Abuse: He beat and raped Kenya numerous times.
- Jerkass: He's utterly vile and treats everyone with contempt, save for his single known Pet the Dog moment.
- Pet the Dog: Sparing Tommy for trying to cheat Datak and giving him to Clancy to be a deputy.
- Posthumous Character: He's been dead for eight years, but has an impact on the modern-day storyline. He was connected to almost all the characters who were alive and in Defiance eight years ago.
- Never Bring a Knife to a Fist Fight: Averted. When he pulls a knife on Datak Tarr, the fight instantly shifts in his favor.
Conrad von Bach
Conrad von Bach
Played By: Ian Ziering
A member of the von Bach family. Conrad finds himself doing business near Defiance.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: A bit of a smug rich twit, but he's still willing to help Defiance.
- Old Flame: For Berlin. They rekindle things when both realize that his mother manipulated them into breaking up.
- The Quisling: Rahm Tak calls him this outright; as a human selling weapons to his army, Tak sees him as a traitor to his own people. It's a little more complicated than that, obviously.
- Realpolitik: He sells weapons willingly to both sides, but given the state of the world, you can't really blame him.
- White Sheep: Though he still sells to both sides like the rest of his family, he's a lot nicer than they are, to the point that he gave Defiance an entire shipment free of charge.
