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Colony: Episode 5 Review – Geronimo, Taking a Leap

Halfway through the season, and the mysteries get bigger. And the answers – what answers? are completely missing. And that’s just one of the things that makes this show so terrific.

Geronimo, whom Snyder has been chasing for months, is a figurehead, a catalyst – a nom de guerre. But what Geronimo has had to say over those months has inspired citizens throughout the bloc to resistance of the Transitional Authority, and the Visitors. Phyllis is dead, and Broussard has left Geronimo’s “calling card” on her wall.

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Every movement needs a face, or at least a name, and Snyder believes that Geronimo is a single person, which leads him to jump to conclusions. Will and Beau are able to track down two people – an ad exec and a graphic designer – who seem to be responsible for the posters and the scripts that Luis Ortega reads on the air.

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Under interrogation – read torture –  “We didn’t have guns,” the male suspect tells Snyder. “We had something more powerful – words and images. We had the power to get inside people’s heads.” The other suspect is more forceful – “We were working for every citizen of this bloc, you Nazi collaborator asshole.” Geronimo turns out to be more an idea than a person, and Snyder’s urgent need to find him and stamp him out leads him to tell the entire bloc, through loudspeaker and TV broadcasts, that Geronimo has been captured, and now he’s worked himself into a box.

Will is finally beginning to suspect that Katie is involved in something unsettling. After Jennifer tells him to look in his own yard rather than accusing her, he goes through Katie’s office at the Yonk, questions tutor Lindsay about being sent to the park with the kids at an unexpected hour, and asks his wife to go through her conversation with Phyllis. I honestly can’t predict what his reaction will be when he finally discovers what she’s been doing – and the day is coming quickly. I think the only part of the reaction we can count on is concern that she’s putting herself and the rest of the family in grave danger. Beyond that, does he basically, theoretically support the Resistance? The female “Geronimo” suspect saw it in him, yelling, “Seriously, how are you doing what you’re doing? You are not one of them. You’re one of us.” He told Katie in an earlier episode to trust him, that he knew what he was doing – has he been swayed at all by working for Snyder?

So Will finds Katie’s not-so-well hidden stash behind the vent cover at the Yonk – Charlie’s ball, some cash, a treasured family photo… all the things she wouldn’t want to risk losing forever. And a book, by Joseph Conrad? Hmmm.

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I doubt he has been, though – he confronts Snyder after they talk to the two suspects, telling Snyder that it’s time for him to make good on his side of their deal and to return Charlie to his family. Snyder snaps at him, saying that the deal was predicated on actually finding Geronimo, not two mouthpieces pretending to be Resistance leaders; but he quickly realizes that he’s talking to a distraught father – there’s a human inside Snyder somewhere – and tells him that moving a person from Bloc to Bloc is complicated because of the bureaucracy involved, but he’ll do his best.

Do you wonder how many Blocs there are? Is the entire world colonized? Is there a Paris bloc, a (or multiple) Beijing bloc? Do they talk to each other? I’m hoping that future seasons of Colony (now that we know we have a second season!) will answer some of those questions!

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The scene of Pia and Bram walking through the ruined, empty streets past the wall and outside the Bloc brought home the fact of the invasion in ways that the ultra-clean, undamaged LA streets can’t do – in the LA bloc, you have to look to peripheral clues that something devastating has happened (no cars, red hat thugs). But outside the wall, destroyed buildings, no people, warehouses full of food and supplies – here’s where a war was fought and lost. But it was strange that there was nobody in that warehouse – obviously, the Transitional Authority knows about this warehouse – they’re probably the ones that set it up – you would think there would be people working there! Why else would boxes of coffee, markers, and other luxuries be stored up? But like teenagers everywhere, they don’t quite understand the danger and menace, and I know they’ll keep returning to it. After all, this was Pia’s 11th trip, “but who’s counting?”

We met Helena (Ally Walker) tonight – she, apparently, is a conduit between the Visitors and the Transitional Authority, in a higher role than Snyder. When he asks if she’s told the Visitors that they’ve captured Geronimo, she dismisses his attempts to save himself, and basically tells him that the Visitors know that there’s trouble with the Resistance, but how they’re taken care of is not something the Visitors are concerned about, as long as it’s done. She may not be his boss, exactly, but she certainly can cause him trouble, so he wants to keep her – and thus, the Visitors – happy.

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Was it a surprise that Snyder didn’t keep his deal with Luis? Not to me. He’s definitely an opportunist, and he had the opportunity to find the patsy he needed to support his reputation with the Hosts. Promising Luis that he would save his life and relocate him was second nature to him. Yesterday, creator and producer Ryan Condal talked with several reporters, including yours truly, and one of my questions was whether those in power were there because they recognized the futility of resisting an overwhelming force, or because they saw a chance to save their own necks and come out in a better position than they were before the Arrival (his answer will be in my interview coverage post, probably tomorrow). Snyder is definitely in the second category. What did he do before? Who was he before he was Proxy Snyder? I’d be very interested finding that out. And Luis goes to his death, surrounded by silent witnesses, people afraid to voice their anger at the hanging for fear of reprisal, but certainly not supportive of this demonstration of the Authority’s power.

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And so, the confrontation between Will and Katie is coming. Following the announcement of Geronimo’s capture, Quayle addresses his Resistance compatriots:

Their goal was to kill our hope. So we’ll use this tragedy as a source of strength. Show the Occupation that we are undiminished, in fact stronger. Prepare yourselves. The war’s about to begin.

Videos, recaps and producer commentary on Colony’s Website

Complete this week’s mission on ColonyTV.com

Follow me on Twitter: @ErinConrad2 and @threeifbyspace

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