Dominion is an American apocalyptic supernatural action television series created by Vaun Wilmott. It is loosely based on the 2010 feature film Legion, written by Peter Schink and Scott Stewart.

In December 2013, Syfy ordered a pilot episode. Season 1 of the series (with 8 episodes) premiered on the American cable television network Syfy on June 19, 2014. Season 2 of Dominion (with 13 episodes) started airing on Syfy on July 9, 2015. It was cancelled by Syfy in October 2015 and has not been picked up by any other network. The show was filmed on location in Cape Town, South Africa.

Short Synopsis

God vanishes and in his absence the archangel Gabriel wages war against mankind, believing them unworthy of God’s love. Although most higher angels remain neutral, Gabriel has convinced the lower angels, the “dogs of Heaven,” called “Eight-balls” by humans for their black eyes, to fight alongside him. 25 years later, mankind survives in a few fortified cities. The Archangel Michael has chosen to side with humanity against Gabriel, living among humans in the fortified city of Vega (once Las Vegas) until the time a prophesied savior appears to save mankind.

source: wikipedia

Detailed Description

WARNING: Contains spoilers for season 1

The year is 2038, and mankind is struggling to survive. All but a handful of settlements across the western Americas have been wiped out, and the few that remain fight a daily battle against their most hated enemy — the angels.

Twenty-five years ago, Archangel Gabriel declared war on humanity, whom he blamed for the sudden disappearance of God. He was joined by a large force of lower angels — lesser spirits who claim human bodies to make up for their own lack of physical form. Humans were possessed and transformed by the millions, waging a war like earth had never seen before.

Michael, the greatest of archangels, chose to fight for mankind, defending them and teaching them how to strike back. Strongholds were built, and humankind, under the leadership of General Edward Riesen, defeated Gabriel in the Battle of Hoover Dam. Gabriel was thought to be killed in the bombing of his command center, his army decimated and discouraged.

Among the humans, word spread soon that Michael had saved a newborn baby who was singled out as special. This baby, whose identity Michael kept secret, became known as the Chosen One. It was said that the Chosen One could be identified by the markings on his body, but in all the time since the Extermination War, no such individual has yet been revealed.

25 A.E. (After Extinction), one of the leading human sanctuaries that still stands strong is the city of Vega — once the glamorous Las Vegas, now the fortified remains of a bygone era surrounded by 25 miles of impenetrable wall. Tens of thousands of survivors sought refuge here after the war, and no one was turned away.

Organized into a strict caste system (the V-System), Vega provides every human being with a job, a place to live and nourishment. The city is led by the Senate, its citizens under the protection of Archangel Michael who resides in the Stratosphere Hotel’s tower. With his help, the humans have regrouped, rebuilt and reinforced their will to survive for the past quarter of a decade.

But now something’s changing. Attacks by the lower angels, also called Eight-balls for their pitch-black irises, are becoming increasingly frequent and vicious. When one day Sergeant Alex Lannon, one of Vega’s Archangel Corps soldiers, reports a run-in with a lower angel with unfurling wings, Michael knows that the tide may be turning and the times of uneasy truce may be over.

Michael’s fears are confirmed when his old friend Jeep returns to the city after fourteen years of trying to decipher the markings that Michael himself had transferred to Jeep’s body — the markings of the Chosen One that would eventually be passed on to the now grownup when he was ready.

Jeep has found out that Gabriel is massing for another war against the remnants of mankind, gathering a massive army of angel soldiers. It gets worse. Gabriel has managed to persuade some of the higher angels to join him in the war; angels that are virtually indistinguishable from humans if they choose to appear as such. It means that war is coming, and mankind may be facing extinction once again.

Michael and Jeep take this information to the leaders of the Senate, where it is received with mixed reactions. General Riesen is alarmed and concerned, others such as Machiavellian Senator David Whele less so. Things come to a head when Whele unleashes a captured Eight-ball in a cage fight during the city’s annual Jubilee, but not before he announces the offering of his son William’s hand in marriage to General Riesen’s daughter Claire — a unity made of political motivation rather than love. Despite Whele’s careful precautions, the creature starts wreaking havoc before Michael kills it, throwing the city into disarray.

While Michael fends off an attack on the city’s reactor by three of Gabriel’s higher angels, the ranks of humans are threatened from within. Roan, an angel disguised as a child of the neighboring city of Helena, exploits a moment of weakness and kills Jeep. Alex, who is Jeep’s son, can only watch as helplessly as the rest of the city’s leaders when Jeep dies in his arms. As Alex presses down on his stab wound, Jeep forms the last words he would ever speak. “You’re ready. I believe in you. You are the Chosen One.” The astonishing revelation is underlined by the appearance of the mysterious tattoos on Alex’s body for everyone in the room to see. Faces stare in awe and disbelief.

Reluctantly accepting his new responsibility to be the savior of mankind, with the help of Michael’s guidance Alex embarks on his task to decipher the tattoos and find the path to salvation. And what a winding road it is, with unexpected twists and turns along the way.

If you wish to read more on the background of Dominion and its universe, we have episode and character descriptions of all the major and recurring characters. A good resource is also the Vega Handbook that gives you an in-depth insight into the show and has details that were never mentioned in any of the episodes.