Through the Valley of Shadows - S1-E2
Question: Spoiler alert! At the end of the first episode, Ian attacks Niko with a knife. In self defence, she round house kicks him into an electrical current that kills him. She was reacting out of self defence and he struck first. With that being the case, why in the second episode is she not explaining that to the rest of the crew? She simply says he was a threat to the crew and she killed him... Leaving out completely that it was self defense and he attacked first. Why? It started causing tension immediately with some of the crew ready to turn on her for murder. Why didn't she just tell them he attacked her first and she defended herself?
Answer: This is a mistake and should be listed as such.
If it can be verified as such, sure. It seems there was a conscious decision by the show makers to do this though.
Answer: First, it should be pointed out that Ian didn't actually attack Niko. He had a knife, made a vague threat about not being as magnanimous as she was to him, and did raise the knife after approaching her, but she kicked him first. But the crew had already mutinied against her. The way I see if, she wanted to make sure the crew thinks she was willing to kill anyone who was a threat to the mission. Whereas if she claimed self defense she would either look weak or a look like a liar.
Bishop73
The crew members that followed Ian might not believe he would try to attack for no reason. She had no marks on her, so if she claimed he attacked her first, she would be lying. Most of the crew that was awake already mistrusted her, so claiming self defense at that moment wouldn't make them start trusting her.
Bishop73