Colony: Company Man

January 28, 2018 2:32 PM - Season 2, Episode 5

Will returns to an unfamiliar workplace. At home, Katie tries to stay on her best behavior. Broussard and his cell make a startling discovery about the Wall.

* A drone flies through the city, finds the Rap tranceiver/ comms unit, shuts down
* Broussard's crew (Morgan, Eckhart, BB?) tries to abduct the drone, fails; Morgan tapes a camera on the drone and the gang flees as the drone boots up again, goes on its merry way
* Back at their hideout Broussard is disappointed in his team, team sees inside the wall where the drone returned - to its bazillions of friends
* They hear a strange background sound, brainstorm over its significance, makes a copy on a drive
* Broussard sees his wanted posters, makes a meet at a movie theatre showing an old B&W film
* Hennessy discusses making contact with the Red Hand crew who had attacked the Recruitment Center
* Broussard hands off the strange background sound to be analyzed
* Broussard wakes up next to Angelica (?), has relationship talk


* Sgt. Jenkins surveys the razor-wired perimeter with a jumpy Alan, something explodes at the labour camp
* Alan: "Suicide bomber?"
Jenkins: "They were making a bomb. Got the recipe wrong."
The look on Alan's face.
* Bram's cohort of detainees are administratively tortured, Jenkins wants his anwsers, Alan cuts that short does another Schindler impression
* Bram's pulled aside "You. Cleanup duty.", has a tête-à-tête with Alan in his office, who wants answers of his own
* Bram has a meal with Angel who accuses him of being a mole, Bram pushes back and offers to be a double agent/ misinformant, Angel picks some patsies and eyebangs Bram
* Alan makes use of Angel's disinfo, requests the patsies for interrogation, Jenkins executes them instead
* Alan promotes Smirnoff vodka, pours himself two or three fingers neat, pours half of one for Bram
* Three Red Helmets show up unexpectedly and notify Alan of a shipment, after they leave Alan: "Just keep doing good work. As long as we don't make any mistakes, you and I are going to get out of this shithole. I promise."
* Alan takes a heavily guarded shipment delivered by semi
* Angel and another dude join Bram in the canteen, gives Bram a pep talk, Bram shares info about The Shipment


* Lindsey is excited to continue indoctrinating Gracie, Gracie pushes back against Lindsey, Lindsey gets suspicious
* Will and Katie decide to "take the dog for a walk"
* Will wants to look up Jennifer, him and Katie decide to stay in cover, relationship friction
* A paranoid Will returns to FBI headquarters, has his ID tag confiscated "I have him. Come with me."
* Dan Bennet (Chief of the Special Police Division) welcomes Will back, is suspicious and grills him on Beau, Quayle, and Bram
* Will stays in cover, wants his badge back
* Dan assigns Bob as Will's new partner "Det. Burke is familiar with my way of doing things."
* Burke is 100% Authority, denies having ever heard of a 'Jennifer McMahon,' assigns Will a desk in a bullpen
* Will asks Betsy about Jennifer, Betsy is cowed, demurs
* Will explores the bowels of the HQ, discovers the limits of his access privileges
* Bob tests Will, wants to assassinate Broussard's reputation if he can't have the man (implying the attack at the Recruitment Center by the Red Hand crew was a setup/ inside job - backed up by the Hennessy scene above, which was subsequent to this one)
* Will shows up at work, Bob brings him Broussard's (prodigious) physical file "I expect you to be current by tomorrow morning."
* Special Police HQ is bombed, everyone evacuates, there are casualties and a Red Palm print on the wall
* Using this distraction, Will enters the previously barred 'Surveillance Annex' door, discovers the extent of surveillance everywhere
* Will visits Jennifer's home; after knocking, walks through the front door, finds the house empty
* Bob's waiting outside: "Agent McMahon wasn't adaptable. She didn't have the constitution to survive in the new system. See you tomorrow."


* Katie returns home, discovers Charlie gone, Lindsey's all IDGAF
* Charlie's returning from a food raid, Katie: "This isn't Santa Monica, you can't just go around stealing people's stuff. There are rules here... you can let me and dad take care of you again."
* Charlie's in his room doing a Steve McQueen solitary confinement impression, after being told by Lindsey to stay in his room
* Katie's pissed, confronts Lindsey and sets down some rules, Lindsey's all FU, Katie banishes her: "I don't give a shit about your book. Get out of my house." / "You're making a big mistake." / "I don't care."
* After WIll comes back from Jennifer's, he and Katie walk the dog, shares intel
* Somebody dropped off clothes for Will - some well cut (Hugo Boss?) Authority en-pinned suits
* Katie visits Madeline at her home while a dinner party takes place, Madeline counsels apologizing to Lindsey
* Madeline has bought into 'Greatest Day,' Katie is incredulous about her Bram info, Madeline unlocks Nolan Burgess' desktop and shows Katie
* Madeline is called away, Katie does the obvious

posted by porpoise (10 comments total)

sooo I went back and watched all the scenes with Bram and the girl. Her name is Maya, but you won't find that out until the next episode, but I was curious as to when we learn that. Turns out, she never tells him her name on screen. At one point he just starts using her name. In the credits she's also Maya, as far as the second episode when we meet her, so I'm sure you can use her name without spoilers.
posted by numaner at 4:04 PM on January 28, 2018 [1 favorite]

!!

I was using "Angel" because that's what's listed in IMDB.

Thanks for clarifying that, numaner!
posted by porpoise at 7:44 PM on January 28, 2018

I don't have a ton specific to say about the episode, but I really enjoyed it because we get to see so many ways in which people are cracking beneath the fascist regime. In particular:

* Lindey and Madeline going creepy fanatic.
* Bob and Dan in the role of opportunistic collaborators.
* Philosophical differences between resistance groups.
* Katie getting sloppy.
* Alan and Jenkins butting heads about how to control their prisoners.

I really liked Colony S2.
posted by mordax at 9:59 PM on January 28, 2018 [1 favorite]

I was using "Angel" because that's what's listed in IMDB.

wait am i blind? i ctrl-f every episode's full cast page and i couldn't find Angel, I thought you were using that as a placeholder since they hadn't said her name yet.
posted by numaner at 9:13 AM on January 29, 2018

Huh. You're right. Maya.

I have no idea where I came up with Angel. Oh, I see - I guess I was trying to be clever and kept using it as a placeholder.

Thanks for setting that straight, numaner!
posted by porpoise at 10:54 AM on January 29, 2018

it's weird that they didn't say her name at all until the next episode. like when she sat him down with her crew that would've been a good time to just go "I'm Maya", or just have him drop her name in on any of the conversations they have
posted by numaner at 11:19 AM on January 29, 2018 [1 favorite]

So, like, Maddie did that on purpose, right? Maybe the Greatest Day indoctrination package doesn't include basic infosec training, but come on.

Also, Bram is super lucky that Jenkins shot those patsies. I don't think Snyder would have been all that impressed after interrogation revealed that neither of them knew jack shit.
posted by tobascodagama at 6:29 PM on January 29, 2018 [1 favorite]

i was under the impression Maya gave him those names knowing they would either corroborate their lies under interrogation or be prepared for the worst.
posted by numaner at 6:53 PM on January 29, 2018 [2 favorites]

My read was that Maya expected Jenkins to go all extra-judicial so she chose a couple of peeps that she wasn't fond of. The patsies are definitely not members of Maya's crew, and this is now established MO after using Bram's stolen shoes to 'finger' a Mayan enemy.

I still can't decide whether Maddie left the computer unlocked on purpose or if she was so systemically psychologically attacked by 'Greatest Day' that even her defenses in support of GD were compromised. If you need your subject's brain to turn to mush, don't expect any parts of their brain to remain non-mushy.

Also: fallout from "need to know" operational philosophies.

The toxic paternalism feedback probably meant that the Rap psychologists could have missed this flaw in this way of hacking humans.
posted by porpoise at 9:58 PM on January 29, 2018 [2 favorites]

So, like, Maddie did that on purpose, right? Maybe the Greatest Day indoctrination package doesn't include basic infosec training, but come on.

It read as very deliberate; Kate was following her from the room, and Maddie turned to her and said to wait there, very pointedly. Maddie is not all the way gone; the show is been pretty good at making it clear that choices/actions matter and that people are very aware of that fact.
posted by nubs at 4:46 PM on February 5, 2018 [1 favorite]