What a packed episode! If you didn’t gasp at least five times while you watched, you weren’t paying attention. Go back and rewatch.
One of the biggest moments came right at the beginning – sure, those of us in the Resistance think that anyone who would sign up to be a Red Hat is contemptible – but we understand the need to feed your family. Still, slaughtering people who aren’t even hired yet?? But I’d like to suggest that this wasn’t the Resistance shooting – I don’t believe it’s beyond the Transitional Authority to conduct a massacre like this to try to build public anger toward resistors. This doesn’t seem like a Resistance tactic, to kill innocent (at least for now) people in a chained yard. If it is Resistance action, then they’ve really ramped up since we last saw them. And – where IS the Resistance? Other than flashbacks, we haven’t seen Broussard, or the “artifact” they removed from the Rap. So where is everybody?
And did you notice that there are moments through this episode where you see the little red “recording” dot in the lower left hand corner? Who is watching and recording?
Our other “gasp” moments fit into tonight’s topic for discussion, “What about the kids???”
One (of the many) thing I like about Colony is how it shows the effect of this horrific situation on all members of the family. Many shows seem to focus on the adults, and the kids are peripheral. Will and Katie’s three children are all caught in different stages, but none of them have escaped being traumatized in one way or another. Even Gracie, who has been shielded from the worst, is still trying to handle guilt over what she’s learned, and assumed, from Lindsey’s teachings.
Katie is finally, with the help of her interfaith group, understanding that it’s not all about her – it’s about her family, and what her actions are doing to them. Gracie is led to believe that she hasn’t worked hard enough, under The Greatest Day’s “qualities,” and that’s why Bram is gone, and Will and Charlie haven’t returned. Katie hasn’t been too happy with what Lindsey has been teaching, but hasn’t paid enough attention to it to object. Until now – and she realizes that she can’t outright ban Lindsey from tutoring Gracie, but she can subvert the “lessons” by showing her daughter that there’s really nothing new in The Greatest Day’s platitudes, and teaching her to think for herself.
Gracie’s chances for making it through without major damage: Better than Average
Charlie’s return home is no less harrowing than the last year that he’s spent outside the block. Waiting for Will to return, Devin and Charlie have a few minutes to bond. She notices those awful scars on his ankle – he had told his father last week that Solomon put him “on the chain” – how awful could that have been for a child? But she understands, and points out her own scar from a gunshot, and tells him, “Every scar is a story. The more you’ve got, the more you’ve lived. Nothing to be embarrassed about.” And helping him understand that everybody has had their own trials helps, I think!
She may still bear a bit of a grudge against Will for how he treated her, but she’s still willing to help. And because Will has now caused problems in the block, she thinks it’s time for her to leave with them – does she have any idea of what she would be going back to? So they’ve hired the “coyote” to lead them across the wall. There’s been some discussion, I know, about whether the coyote’s drone would actually have been able to haul the 150 ft rope, get it secured, how would they move it to the other side of the wall, how would the drone release the rope, etc. – but hey, this is fiction. I’m willing to believe.
As Will and Charlie try to sleep out in the open before climbing the wall, the love Will has for his son is out in the open. But Charlie is starting to open just a little bit, and asks the most heartbreaking question – “Why didn’t you come for me?” And how can Will answer that? His last year has been nothing but trying to come and get Charlie, but to kids, it’s the immediate that’s important. Sure, Will risked his life to try to get smuggled out of the LA Bloc, and worked with the hated TA to find some way to get to Charlie. Maybe some day he’ll understand.
But he’ll never understand how he and his father were spared from that laser-shooting drone! What the heck was that thing? SPLAT! Coyotes gone. SPLAT! Devin gone. I REALLY liked her! And you know, didn’t you, that we couldn’t have SPLAT! Will gone, because, hey, star of the show, but didn’t you gasp and jump? And I don’t think it was my imagination – did that drone blink, wink and nod at Will? Why did it kill the other three people and leave Will and Charlie? There had to be a human on the other end of that camera – we know Jennifer has been watching Will’s house, so was it possible she was controlling it? She’s been open with her new boss that Will was outside the block looking for Charlie. Snyder knows where Will went, but isn’t in any position to help him.
And the “mother and child reunion” (let’s all sing…) was incredibly sweet – Katie has her son back! Now we have to see if they can help him heal, and if Katie and Will can come to trust each other again.
Charlie’s chances at recovery: Decent, if nothing more traumatic happens, which of course it will
And Bram is still in the work camp, now being beaten up by another group of inmates, who steal his boots! And by the end of the episode, we learn that it was his friend, Maya, who set him up! For what? As an initiation, to see if he would run for help? Bram is, as Snyder quickly sees, more street smart than he looks, and understands instinctively that “snitches get stitches.” But he’s not about to roll over – he approaches the guy that Maya points out on the loading dock, and is quickly beaten, and then tasered by Jenkins, the guard.
But Snyder sees an opportunity to get inside the prisoner activity by offering Bram, who has no reason for loyalty to anyone at this point, a chance to help both of them survive this by spying for him. It’s sure nice that Snyder still has access to good food, even in the camp! There’s obviously more trauma coming for Bram. Will he be able to stay out of The Factory, or will that be the way we’ll get to learn more about it?
Bram’s chances of living to 21: Not great at the moment.
So we’re left with – Maddie and Nolan’s selection of “worship” facilities – worship WHAT? And can Jennifer give her hard-hearted boss enough info to avoid her own trip to The Factory?
Watch for an exclusive Q&A with Ryan Condal, Colony’s creator and producer, coming soon!
Colony’s Website
Join us to chat about the show at Colony: The Resistance on Facebook
Follow me on Twitter: @ErinConrad2 and @threeifbyspace
Like us on Facebook or Subscribe
Share this article using our Social Share buttons above!
