Colony: Good Intentions
February 8, 2018 8:17 PM - Season 2, Episode 8 - Subscribe

Snyder and Helena do damage control. Will's position gets risky. Kate is back in the Resistance. Bram comes home. Lindsay meets some fanatics. Charlie's instincts kick in.

Everyone has skin in the game now; the choices and alliances they make have repercussions. Snyder's play to limit the damage may have failed, but he still saves Bram - I think because he thinks Will is a valuable friend to have down the road. Not sure what explains Helena's loyalty to Snyder right now, though.

The Redhats and Will are kind of shit at their jobs; the Redhats apparently could secure that house if their lives depended on it. And Will...seriously, did you not think there was anything suspicious about the woman (Dr. Carrie Weaver, no less!) showing up looking for Frankie? If nothing else, haul her in to at least try to demonstrate that you have an interest in your job. Will is still playing like he can somehow stay clean in all of this, while the shit is rising.

The religious angle keeps getting played up too; The Red Hand is compared to ISIS, and they have no compunction about gunning down the RAP evangelical Lindsay, though she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
posted by nubs (11 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
I was actually shocked that Lindsay went out like that. For all her meddling I thought her death with have more screen time.

Upon a second watch, I don't fault Will for failing to notice Frankie's mom as the Red Hand leader. They did cast that role perfectly. She has that suburban mom hurting about her daughter vibe that no one would suspect anything.

The red hats are pretty shit at everything, I really wonder how they were trained.

Man.. Snyder is such a complicated character I never know whether to hate him or like him at any given moment. At least he doesn't go back on his word.
posted by numaner at 8:57 PM on February 8, 2018 [3 favorites]


Lindsay's death actually made perfect sense to me, once it became apparent that the house was about to be stormed; there's no other clean way to get rid of her - she's a threat to the family they can't deal with directly, while at the same time her narrative purpose is kind of done; we know about the Greatest Day now, and there's not much more to say, is there?


I think Snyder is perhaps the best character (well, most interesting at least) on the show - he's a survivor, and willing to do whatever it takes. At this point I'm really wondering what people like Snyder and Helena know; are they just trying to keep things going as long as possible? They don't strike me as believers in the Greatest Day.
posted by nubs at 7:25 AM on February 9, 2018 [3 favorites]


Anyways, the discussion over on MetaTalk about Fanfare posts for series that are streaming, as Colony is now, makes me realize I'm being too bare bones in my posts. I tend to watch an episode and try to come up with some vague statements about what happened for above the fold (to avoid spoilers) and then do a brain dump. So, in the interests of being better in the future (and I won't have time to do the detail porpoise does):

-Helena is dealing with some problems; the proxy of the Bloc where the explosion happened believes they should spin this as part of the wonder of their alien hosts (I still find that language awkward - the aliens came and occupied the world - why are they the "hosts", unless there's something else going on in terms of body sharing/swapping), but Helena wants to maintain the authority of the civilian governance.
-Will's boss and partner know that someone escaped from the safe house, thanks to the omni-present security cameras that work best when convenient for the plot. They suspect, but can't prove, that Will let him go. Burke and Will are split up - Burke to use the surveillance department and Will to hit the streets - in an effort to find the runner. The fugitive can identify Will as the person who let him go, so there is some urgency to being the first to find him.
-Broussard and Katie head off to meet Hennessy, taking him the gauntlet in the hopes it will find more use with Hennessy's contacts. Hennessy is also able to give them a lead on the kid Will is now hunting for.
-Back in the sewers, Simon is worried about his mom and convinces Morgan that they should turn on Brossard and turn themselves in as a means of getting his Mom free.
-Will returns to the Red Hand house, and discovers a woman has snuck in, looking for her daughter Frankie. Will is sympathetic, lets her know her daughter died but was strong, and lets the mother go. (This is now Will's House of Get out of Jail Free cards).
-Snyder realizes Bram has been playing him after finding Redbeard and the capsule woman. He gets Bram to name names with the threat that the entire camp will be killed if they can't clean up the situation before the Occupation comes to assign blame. Bram gives some names, and Snyder executes them all in front of a shaken Bram who didn't realize the stakes of the game he's now in.
-Kaite and Broussard find the safehouse where the runner is hidden, but Burke and the goon squad are right behind them. The runner runs; Katie hides. Fortunately, the goons find their target before finding her obvious hiding spot. Under interrogation, the runner (Emmet) does not immediately give Will up.
-Lindsay takes Charlie and Gracie to a sermon, where she flat out threatens to disappear Charlie if he doesn't shape up.
-Helena arrives at the labour camp; her purpose is not to punish or lay blame, but to rescue Snyder. Once Snyder figures this out, he also grabs Bram, and they flee before the camp is leveled (have we ever seen how that gets done? Things just get flattened, but there's no evidence strike or explosion, just the collapse).
-Back at the Bowman home, Charlie interrupts Lindsey for the last time...hearing some noises outside, Charlie's survival instincts kick in and he grabs Gracie to run upstairs just before Red Hand operatives enter the house, kill Lindsey, and begin to search. Will and Kate arrive shortly thereafter, and methodically clear the house (seriously, when did Kate get this good at this stuff?), eventually finding Charlie and Gracie hiding outside, on the roof (Kate should take some hiding lessons).
-Snyder brings Bram back home, reuniting the family.
posted by nubs at 8:22 AM on February 9, 2018 [2 favorites]


I love me some weird Helena-Snyder scheming. I really want to find out what makes Snyder so special that Helena is willing to go to bat for him like this.

The new LA Proxy is such a smug dipshit.
posted by tobascodagama at 9:02 AM on February 9, 2018 [1 favorite]


If you don't feel like doing recaps, I have no problem adding one in-thread after a post is up. I just have an erratic show-watching schedule, but for Colony - which was shown weekly last year in Canada and had a Netflix dump a little while ago, I was aiming to space out posts every 4-5 days, but whatevs - been fun watching this show with you all.
posted by porpoise at 12:53 PM on February 9, 2018 [1 favorite]


Lindsay's death actually made perfect sense to me, once it became apparent that the house was about to be stormed; there's no other clean way to get rid of her - she's a threat to the family they can't deal with directly, while at the same time her narrative purpose is kind of done; we know about the Greatest Day now, and there's not much more to say, is there?

Plus, it adds some stakes for the Red Hand, who are doomed to lose most engagements with Team Protagonist out of sheer narrative necessity. Seeing her die has a visceral jump scare value.

I love me some weird Helena-Snyder scheming. I really want to find out what makes Snyder so special that Helena is willing to go to bat for him like this.

My feeling there is that a lot of it comes down to 'it's hard to get good help these days.' Snyder's a weasel, but he's a weasel with the foresight to stay bought and make reasonable bets. That puts him way ahead in utility over more craven opportunists like Nolan, or (as you rightly point out) dipshits like Alcala.

Basically, I don't think the Authority has a very deep bench in the wake of the Rap invasion.
posted by mordax at 1:35 PM on February 9, 2018 [1 favorite]


Also, extra thanks to everybody posting recaps. Having done detailed ones myself sometimes, I really appreciate the work you're putting in.
posted by mordax at 1:36 PM on February 9, 2018 [2 favorites]


Alan is my fav character! He's a weasle and a cockroach. I keep flip flopping between whether Alan is purely in it for himself (and his daughter) and playing both sides by potentially gaining Will Boweman's goodwill, or if he's actually kinda sorta wants to do the right thing. Or maybe that's just his 'fuck those fucking fuckers in their fucks' showing?

+1 the Frankie's mom character. Will got so punked.

Red Hand taking credit for the bomb - maybe the resistance inside the camp really was affiliated?

The surveillance seems really inefficient. Maybe some middle manager somewhere realized that every "useful" human is one that might be spared from eradication?

The labour camp looked like it was the subject of orbital bombardment. Each of those strikes could be a tungsten projectile maybe the size of a carpentry nail dropped from orbit.

Helena going so far to bat for Alan was a little baffling, but agreed, Alan's shown himself to be competent and a survivor - a valuable asset for Helena. I'm surprised that Alan managed to yank Bram.

Good riddance to Eckhart.

Bit odd to mention that "there are 8.8 billion inhabitable planets..." so whats up with the Raps invading earth?

Ding dong Lindsey's dead, Wake up Lindsey's dead, She's gone where the goblins go.
Yes, let the joyous news be spread, Lindsey at last is dead!

posted by porpoise at 2:21 PM on February 10, 2018 [2 favorites]


I get the feeling that maybe Snyder knows something about the Bowmans that we don't yet. Maybe knows the reason the Drones pointedly ignored Will & Charlie on the wall. (Not suggesting he knows about that specific event. Just that he knows what makes them so special that the Drones let them live, and he knows that that quality extends to Will's kids. Some kind of eugenics thing?)
posted by tobascodagama at 2:33 PM on February 10, 2018 [1 favorite]


I keep flip flopping between whether Alan is purely in it for himself (and his daughter) and playing both sides by potentially gaining Will Boweman's goodwill, or if he's actually kinda sorta wants to do the right thing.

I'm in the 'kinda sorta wants to do the right thing' camp. It's pretty obvious that he had a visceral distaste for the murderous conditions at the labor camp. I also think his interest in Will mirrors Helena's interest in him: Will is someone who is smart enough not to buy the company line about the Raps, (or pretend to), but is still able to perform his work inside the Authority. He's got some scarcity-added value in the current world.

At the same time, Snyder will only stick his neck out so far, because at the end of the day, his concerns are more important than altruism, honor or anything else.

Basically, I believe him when he lays out his priorities to Will: 'I want to help you, but you have to help me.'

I think he's one of the more realistic characters Colony features, really: he's a regular, kinda sleazy guy placed in an impossible position, sort of torn between taking advantage of the opportunities he's afforded, horrified by what's happening, trying to make connections but stifled by the paranoid horrorshow he's now living in. (He feels more real to me than the Bowmans, most episodes.)
posted by mordax at 3:20 PM on February 10, 2018 [2 favorites]


If you don't feel like doing recaps, I have no problem adding one in-thread after a post is up. I just have an erratic show-watching schedule, but for Colony - which was shown weekly last year in Canada and had a Netflix dump a little while ago, I was aiming to space out posts every 4-5 days, but whatevs - been fun watching this show with you all.

It was me mostly realizing that I'm watching an episode and taking like 5 minutes to put together a post on it, trying not to spoil anything but in the process leaving out the context that people who have seen the whole season already would need to make sure they limit their discussion. So, yeah, not quite sure what to do going forward - I tend to watch an episode or two and want to get the post up right away. I may just wait for you; I am enjoying the show and the discussion perhaps even more, so I want to make sure we get a good discussion going. The show is pretty good at not letting things linger - developments tend to occur in each episode, so I think a good recap is necessary to remember where each development occurs.

posted by nubs at 11:48 AM on February 12, 2018 [2 favorites]


« Older Movie: Babe...   |  Supergirl: Both Sides Now... Newer »

You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments

poster