What a fascinating second season this has been! Lots of twisty turny plotlines, a lot of surprises. We still haven’t gotten answers to some of the really big questions – like, what do the RAPs want? What does Helena do? We lost a lot of personnel throughout the season – RIP Lindsey, Bebe, Simon, Jennifer, Maya… At the end of this article there’s a poll asking you what story lines you really NEED to know more about, but are pretty sure you never will – let’s see what people think! And keep an eye out – tomorrow, I’ll publish an exclusive interview with Josh Holloway!
Did your heart stop in that first scene? Were you satisfied? Did you know WTF you were looking at???? The helmet visor goes up, the armor opens – and there’s a mechanical figure. I’m not sure what to make of the sphere they transplanted from one “body” to another. Is the alien in that sphere? The alien’s consciousness? It’s obviously important – one scientist says that if they screw up, they’ll probably get nuked from space.
And what Broussard and Will are calling the Rap’s “gauntlet” is actually an interface – between what? The individual alien consciousness and the drone hive? The rest of the aliens? Obviously, they debate and discuss – Noa said that “their” Rap didn’t agree with the rest of them; Helena tells Snyder that there was a “moderate” group. But we still have no clue what they want Earth and humans for, besides slave labor. Or where they come from. Or what they look like.
Will and Katie head to Hennessey’s to try to reach Noa’s group, after her death at the theater. The number station they reach on the radio was a callback to Lost! (and to Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot…) But they brought back more than just their frustration at not being able to reach the other group – they were followed by the Blackjacks. The shootout at the bunker was short and intense, and it had one unexpected casualty – Morgan. We never got to know her that well, and I didn’t feel the same amount of loss when Jennifer committed (assumed) suicide – we knew Jennifer was conflicted, and deeply sad, and her death was handled beautifully. But Morgan – an interesting character, a potentially important one, since she had a good deal of technical knowledge and expertise – but gone.
And the biggest consequence of Morgan’s death turns out to be Broussard’s decision to stay in the Bloc, even when they know what’s coming. From my interview with Tory Kittles:
In episode 13, Broussard makes the decision to stay when it looks like there will be imminent disaster. Why do you think that’s in keeping with his character, and what do you think his reasons were for that?
Tory: It’s about settling old scores. His objective has always been to end this occupation any way he can. He’s feeling the loss of Morgan, that’s weighing on him, and I don’t think it’s in his character to run away from that battle even when things look dire. I think it lines up exactly with who he’s set up to be, with who the writers have set him up to be.
Do you think he’ll survive and make it to Season 3?
Tory: That’s a writer question!
Maddie has been this show’s most tragic character. Hitching her star to an ambitious, unscrupulous man, she’s only been trying to protect her child – and in the end, she has to give him up. What this youth camp is that Hudson is going to, we’ll have to hope we learn more about. Snyder told her that it will prepare him “for what is to come,” but what that is, we have no idea. And it’s likely that Snyder doesn’t, either. She sleeps on the sidewalk outside the Yonk, hoping her sister will be there to rescue her – her look at the shoelace she tied around the lightpole was equal parts regret, anger, despair. But Maddie is complicit in betraying Nolan’s wife; is betrayed by Nolan; used by her sister; betrays her sister; and ultimately, is dumped and brought to the lowest level, lumped with the rest of the colonists on their way to the Factory.
Despite her very recent esteemed status, she’s now no better than anyone else, returning to where she started. It’s obvious that setting Katie up for the Blackjacks broke her heart, as it broke Katie’s to lie about being there to help her. We’ll have to see if the sisters are somehow reunited in Season 3. But it isn’t looking good for Maddie.
OMG, BURKE!!! Geez, I sure hoped this guy was gone forever. But something makes me think that he is more important than we were led to believe. The guard who comes in to tell him they’re leaving, and is taking him, and his family, to a mountain retreat. If there’s one thing we’ve learned, Condal and Cuse don’t throw in anything that isn’t eventually important, even if it seems trivial at the moment. So what was the point of bringing Burke back? WHAT WAS IT??? Makes my stomach hurt just to think about it. Ha, his stomach probably hurts too.
Snyder pingpongs faster than a ball at an Olympic table tennis tournament. He’s surprised by Helena’s revelation. “So that’s it. With a flip of a switch, they turn Los Angeles into glass.” He doesn’t seem too relieved by the decision to instead perform “total rendition” – evacuate the Bloc and move everybody to the Factory – because just bombing the entire bloc creates a labor shortage. And deep down, you know that, in his own selfish-overtone way, he really is concerned about saving as many lives as he can. So why isn’t Snyder pleased and grateful for Helena’s move to save him and take him with her Europe? And to put his daughter on the “exclusion” list? “I thought it was a fairly generous offer,” she tells him, “given where you were just a few weeks ago.”
It doesn’t surprise me that he took Will’s info directly to the Blackjacks to make a deal of his own. You know Will expected Snyder to use the info to make a deal of some kind. But if he can provide information that will put the gauntlet back in the Occupation’s hands, what can he get out of it? “And you’re asking on behalf of the Governor General?” the commander (who joins the creepy character list) asks. “Today, I’m asking on behalf of myself.” He sure did a great job conning Will, Katie and Broussard (and if you remember my previous interview with Tory Kittles, this is the only scene he and Peter Jacobson had together – and Tory says that Peter was noticeably nervous – “intimidated,” Tory says – and it came off beautifully on screen!). So is he serious? “I know you might not believe it, but I have a conscience. After spending the day watching the rats all flee the sinking ship, I decided I don’t want to be a rat any more.” Peter Jacobson has been a stunning part of this cast, even more so this season, with a nuanced, fascinating character. I’m looking forward to more of him next year.
The way they got through the Red Hat stop was brilliant – but you have to wonder, what did it really say on the paper that Snyder handed the Sergeant? Was it really a Snyder-created pass to “take the children to a camp,” or did it say “go along with me, whatever I say, and look reluctant so it seems real, but eventually let us through”? Until the very last scene of the episode, where Snyder pulls out the little pocket remote and hits the button, he almost had me believing he had played the Blackjacks and made a wholehearted conversion to the Bowmans’ side, at least to save his own butt. And Will and Katie made the only play they had – appeal to the guards, convince them of the truth, and remind them that their own families weren’t immune to what was coming. Unless… it was all a con.
So what did that remote do – was it a tracker? He wouldn’t have wanted the drones to just blast the car – first, he’s in it… second, he has to get the gauntlet back to the Occupation. Or, twisty turny, could he have been turning the tracker OFF? I guess we won’t know until next year!
One of my Three If By Space colleagues, John Baker, is just as crazy about this show as I am, and wrote a couple of the weekly reviews this season. Here are John’s thoughts about wrapping up Season 2:
I think season 2 of Colony did what is so hard to do on these types of shows – build off of season 1 while delivering a better and more fulfilling season 2.
While Colony fits comfortably in the Sci-fi genre, it’s also a human drama that often leaves the “good guys” feeling they have lost. Time and time again in season 2, the resistance (and human survival) seemed to take a small step forward only to be pushed back two steps as a result. Victories, true victories, for the resistance were few and far between. Perhaps the greatest one they had was at the end of the finale when Will, Katie and the kids got out of the bloc at last with the gauntlet. But even that was undermined by Snyder’s apparent treachery. I think that the writers and showrunners of Colony have done a tremendous job of taking sci-fi and merging it with human drama to create something very unique in the sci-fi genre. And I think it’s the human drama element that lifts this show above its predecessors and what has made it so wildly popular with those who follow it … like us.
I also like the little twists and turns that the show tosses our way, such as Snyder’s apparent betrayal on the road to freedom at the end. We also see Bob Burke, alive and recovering while playing with his granddaughter on his hospital bed. I hope everyone noted the song he was singing there. I think that despite the smiles and laughter of a Burke we didn’t know existed, there was a message of malice directed at an eventual reunion with Will (“don’t know where, don’t know when, but I know we’ll meet again…some sunny day.”). He has this look at the end of the song and I’m convinced he was thinking about a reckoning with Will. I’d be curious to know if that was intentional on the writer’s part. If so, a nice touch.
Snyder continues to be an interesting character, which is likely one of the reasons he’s so popular in Colony circles. He betrays (Geronimo), he helps, he falls, he rises again, he makes deals, he keeps his word, then he seemingly betrays the Bowman clan on the way out of town. He’s a man obviously torn between self-preservation, personal enrichment and overall decency that you never really know which part of the equation he’s playing – or if he’s simply playing them all because he just can’t help himself?
I think what’s really remarkable about this show is how many of the characters created, even those who’ve had limited time, have resonated with fans of Colony. From Beau to Lindsay to Burke to Helena, Snyder, Will, Katie, Bram, Karen, etc., this show has done a tremendous job of creating interesting characters that fans seem to want to invest in. I think that’s a really unique situation and not common in most shows today.
With the move of production to Vancouver, and the L.A. Bloc essentially being of no use anymore, I’m anxious to see if Colony starts to get us into wide open spaces in season 3. The season finale was tremendous and certainly provides us with lots of potential moving forward. Can’t wait to see what happens in season 3. Personally, I’m very curious about Broussard’s decision to stay in the bloc and fight. I hope we get to see more of what that looks like in S3.
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