Meh Yewll is an Indogene and the town doctor of Defiance.
Background[]
History with the Omec[]
When the Votans and the Omec left their dying home planets and fled to Earth, none of the Omec ships survived the journey, while all of the Votan ships did. Votan leadership claimed the Omec ships contained a design flaw, but the surviving Omec claim that several Indogenes disguised themselves as Omec and destroyed the ships; this ensued the survival of the Votan species.
Doc Yewll is incredibly knowledgeable about Omec ships, and, in season 3, she informs the leaders of Defiance of how they can destroy the only surviving Omec ship. She tells Nolan, "It's entirely possible. I've done this before.," implying she participated in sabotaging the Omec ships many years earlier.
Pale Wars[]
Before and during the Pale Wars, she held an important position as a scientist working for the Votan Military. Her notoriety was recognized throughout the series by characters like Pol Madis.
The Votans were placed in hypersleep for their 5,000 year journey to Earth while sentient computers called "Arkbrains" watched over them. As a safeguard, a select few Indogene were woken up periodically to carry out maintenance and verify everything was running smoothly. Yewll met her wife, Lev, while serving on one of these shifts.
Yewll and Lev worked together on the Biodyne Project, a Votan initiative designed to wipe out humanity through biological means. They helped create the painful and debilitating disease, Wulokot Fibrosis which was used to attack humans during the Pale Wars. The Biodyne Project was one of the most infamous - and successful - biological weapons born of the Pale Wars. Thousands of human men, women and children became sick with Wulokot Fibrosis. Lev couldn't bear to live with herself for her role in creating the disease and killed herself, but Yewll persevered.
Early Years in Defiance[]
Yewll arrived in Defiance following the Pale Wars. She intended to stay a week and move on to dispense medical care in other war torn areas, but Mayor Nicky charmed her into staying by telling her everything she wanted to hear. Like Yewll, Nicky was an Indogene. Unlike Yewll, Nicky was secretly pretending to be a human. Yewll quickly became friends with Nicky and Mr. Birch, learning their secrets and conspiring together.
In 2039, Nicky and Doc Yewll killed Hunter Bell after he walked in on Yewll examining Nicky and discovered Nicky's secret Indogene Identity. Hunter tried to blackmail them for 100G to keep the secret, but Nicky killed him rather than take the deal. Yewll shouted, "you psycho piece of shtako! You chuping killed him!" but Nicky simply replied, "I was afraid I hadn't hit him hard enough." Jered Kikema then walked in and caught them, but he never told anyone what he saw.
After this incident, Yewll grew frustrated with Nicky and Birch's reckless behavior, and distanced herself from them.
Season 1[]
Eight years after arriving in Defiance, Yewll still serves as the town doctor.
When Yewll realizes that Nicky has gotten out of control and isn't the good person she used to be, she murders her former friend and makes it look like a suicide. In the suicide note she writes (as Nicky), "I told myself I was acting for the greater good. But that kind of thinking leads you down a dark road. I can only hope I've left the town I love in better hands than my own. I'm sorry."
Season 2[]
While trapped in prison with Datak Tarr, the two soon become unlikely friends. In order to escape prison, Yewll makes a deal with the new mayor, Niles Pottinger, helping him in his illicit efforts to win over Amanda Rosewater, the woman he is stalking. Yewll agrees to make a clone of Amanda's sister, Kenya, and employs Datak as her "assistant" to protect her in case anything goes wrong in her deal with Pottinger.
When the truth of Yewll's role in creating "Kenya" is revealed, Pottinger blames it all on her, and she flees to Old St. Louis. She returns to Defiance when she comes up with a plan to stop the Kaziri from destroying the planet. The flaw in her plan: to stop the Kaziri, she wants to kill Irisa. Nolan opposes the plan to kill his daughter and fights Yewll on it. He offers an alternate plan which succeeds, saving both Irisa's life and the planet.
Yewll has the opportunity to tell Amanda the truth about the terrible things Pottinger has been doing to Amanda to win her affection, but she decides its more advantageous to have Pottinger owe her than to turn him in. She tells Amanda that she was working for the Votanis Collective when she cloned Kenya, not Pottinger. Once Amanda is out of the room, she tells Pottinger, "I expect you'll find a way to pay me back, Mr. Mayor."
Season 3[]
With the town population rapidly decreasing after the closure of the mines, Yewll wants to leave like so many others. She's been using her enhanced vision to cheat at cards and secure the funds for travel[1], but she is convinced to stay to help the people who remain. After a veterinarian named Samir Pandey is rescued from Niles Pottinger, he comes to work with Yewll as an apprentice. Although he is not a doctor, his skills are useful to Yewll because most skilled professionals have fled the town. The two also work together well because Samir lets Yewll's sarcasm bounce right off of him.
Yewll soon becomes enslaved by Kindzi after she puts a control stem in her neck. Yewll begins working against the people of Defiance, but after Nolan and Amanda become suspicious of her behavior, Amanda removes the control stem from Yewll's neck. Now that she has her free will back, she uses her expertise in destroying Omec ships to help Amanda, Nolan, Irisa, Berlin, and the Tarrs in their effort to save the town. She joins Nolan, Irisa and Datak in boarding the ship with the intent to destroy it, but Irisa talks Nolan out of this plan.
In the series finale, Nolan and Yewll are trapped together on the Omec ship, flying towards a wormhole. According to show runner Kevin Murphy, when they entered the wormhole, they would time travel back to the Pale Wars where they'd meet up with the young Rosewater sisters before returning to Defiance in the present day. [2][3]The show was cancelled after season 3 and this never came to fruition.
Personality[]
As an Indogene – a technologically advanced Votan species – she often finds her natural pragmatism perceived as a lack of bedside manner by most humans. However, Yewll’s unflappable brilliance is indisputably one of Defiance’s greatest assets. Unlike most members of her species, Yewll is not arrogant, rather she is modest and level headed. Her extremely dry humor and aforementioned pragmatism, however, do make her somewhat frustrating to deal with. Beneath it all however, she cares deeply for the people of Defiance and will do anything to protect them.
Trivia[]
- Trenna Keating appeared in 34 out of 39 episodes as a guest star. Given only 3 characters have appeared in all 39 episodes, this is hardly fewer episodes than most stars on the show.
- In My Name is Datak Tarr and I Have Come to Kill You, Trenna Keating plays a human character unrelated to Yewll. Several other actors have played both humans and Votans, but she is the most prominent actor on the show to do so.
- On the subject of having to wear a thick prosthetic mask that covered her head and made it difficult to emote, Trenna Keating noted the importance of using her eyes to communicate Yewll's thoughts. She stated: "Wearing such a heavy mask leaves only my eyes and my posture to convey my emotion. But the eyes don’t lie, so if you are present, it will read."
- Yewll appears to be friends with Eren Niden.
- Because most Indogene technology was destroyed when the Arks exploded in space, Yewll has been forced to cobble together equipment from old world salvage and bits of Votan technology that she's taken from fallen arks.