Colony: Seppuku

February 18, 2018 3:52 PM - Season 2, Episode 12

Will, Katie, and Broussard battle the Red Hand for control of the RAP gauntlet and Snyder helps Helena regain control over the Los Angeles block.

** Private Security Camp, Basra Province, 2014
* Broussard's playing billiards in a field tent, Wierzbowski prods Broussard not to rat out a teammate who indiscriminately killed (a) civilians(s)
* Broussard's specialty is as a marksman
* Collins (company "suit") interprets/treats Broussard's whisteblowing as asking for the most expedient way to cover it up, "Nobody in Baghdad or Washington wants this to be a problem. So don't make it a problem.", Broussard signs, the team is sent home


* Alcala is in his office, making eyes at a political poster of himself; Burgess steps in
* 114 dead in the RH attack in the GZ, including 4 department heads and an ambassador from the IGA
* Alcala's feeling the pressure, vents on Nolan tells him to get rid of Maddy
* Nolan says yes but has real feelings for Maddy's - not his, as Alcala points out - kid
* Nolan brainstorm on casting the blame on Helena, Alcala reminds him again to get rid of Maddy
* Maddy sees Hudson off to a protective 'retreat' as Nolan looks on, Nolan can't make the break from Maddy
* Back home, Nolan tries to cheer up Maddy, starts getting handsy, Maddy's not in the mood
* Afterwards Nolan and Maddy talk about pragmatism, Maddy asks if he really believes in 'Greatest Day,' "I mean, we have to. Otherwise how could we live with ourselves?"
* Nolan leaves the house with Maddy still in bed; after a beat Nolan lets the assembled Red Helmets proceed
* Maddy is removed with her hands ziptied behind her


* Alan is much more chipper again now in a decent suit, pays a visit to Dan's office and makes himself at home
* Alan bullies the hell out of Dan for info on Nolan, Alan becomes animated when he finds out Maddy - "Katie Bowman's sister" - was involved with a stolen file
* Helena is intrigued with Alan's new intel - and Alan's "interesting" spin of the sordid events
* Alan enthusiastically outlines how to squeeze Nolan for juice on Alcala, Helena savours her Alan
* Alan takes the opportunity to ask Helena what she knows about 'The Countdown'/LA Bloc Attrition Rate, Helena tells him to be a grownup
* Alan visits Nolan at his home, Alan brings up 'The File,' Nolan's sees it all coming and tiredly spars with Alan
* Alan tries to salvage the contest, makes a play on Nolan's loyalties
* Dan resignedly entertains a kinetic Alan who has once again intruded into Dan's office
* Alan wants Dan to give him Maddy, Dan sees an opportunity to strike back (?)
* Nevertheless, mask firmly on, Alan meets a still ziptied (but now to a chair) Maddy in an interrogation room
* Alan offers to make everything fine, Maddy is confused
Alan: "I'm here to help you."
Maddy: "No. You're here to help yourself."
* Maddy resigns to helping Alan, perhaps remembering Bram, but also that helping Alan means hurting Nolan
* Maddy asks Alan about 'Greatest Day'
- there is no Greatest Day
- yes there's a camp, but its to train RAP servants/soldiers
- Alan is sorry that Maddy "chose the wrong guy"

* Nolan returns home, flustered, and pours himself a large whiskey
* Smug Alan sitting in Nolan's offic chair, drink in hand: "Hello Nolan."
Nolan: "What are you doing here?"
Allan: "I'm enjoying a drink!"
* Alan underhandedly plays the Maddy card, wants only "to save this Bloc.", dangles the position of Proxy-after-Alcala for Nolan... but Alan gets to pull all the strings
* All-In-Grinning-Nolan: "To new friendships. And new roads."
* Alan concurs: Hmm. Mmm.


* Noa reports her failure to contact RH to Katie, Will, and Broussard at BHQ; she will not leave the Bloc without the gauntlet
* Pragmatic Katie asks Bram for a contact, Bram Stonewalls, Will: "I don't believe him."
* Katie parents, Bram gives up a contact - and RH leader Karen's name
* Will and Broussard power their way in, Broussard: "I admired your Green Zone attack. We thought your group might want to take it to the next level."
* Will dangles his (all but useless now) pass as "a backdoor to Homeland" as bait for a meet with Karen
* Noa and Will spot for a meet, Broussard and Katie are on the ground in a killzone
* Karen approaches with a couple of masked bodyguard, Broussard requests the gauntlet with good reasons
* Karen gets smarmy and devolves into ideologue speachifying
* Noa and Will spy ambushers, alerts the others, Broussard is a professional, the parties break contact
* Broussard: "That woman is a plague. She'll burn this Bloc down without a second thought." ... "We'll take the gauntlet. And wipe them all out."
* Morgan has been doing some great surveillance work, identifies a potential RH HQ
* Morgan was able to get a drone undetected into RH HQ; a grand old theatre with chandeliers filled with masked RH soldiers and located the gauntlet in the treasure room
* Noa insists that the gauntlet is a 'game changer,' Will angrily asks for exposition - "It's because we have a RAP."

* That RAP is a defector

* Broussard and Will strategize banking on RH being amateurs
* Will asks Katie what she thinks, "I think our kids need a future."
* Katie visits with Bram, half treats him as an adult, //sad music swells// "I love you." "Mom. Be careful."
* Geared up Broussard and Will approach the gate of RH HQ, Noa and Katie take out the guards, Morgan covers the rear
* The team spec ops assaults RH HQ with CQB modded carbine asssualt rifles
* Noa-Katie-Morgan look for the gauntlet, Noa is shot but mobile, Katie recovers for Morgan freezing
* Kicking down the door to the treasury, Noa is shot dead by Karen, Katie shoots Karen dead
* Katie retrieves the gauntlet box, the surviving team executes a fighting retreat under heavy fire
* Will is dry, Broussard covers his retreat
* Broussard is pinned down by about 10 gunmen, activates the RAP drone garage door opener
* Three RAP drones arrive, casually splat the RH soldiers, turns to stare down Broussard
* Will assumes Broussard is gone, Morgan is incredulous, Katie is pragmatic


* Alan with Dan in tow investigate RH HQ, Dan shows Alan the drone calling device - which came from the gauntlet
* Alan connects Broussard, stymied as to why Resistance attacked and essentially destroyed RH

* Alcala's secretary scrambles to announce Helena before Helena manages to walk through Alcala's door
* Helena merrily (and correctly) accuses Alcala of falsifying his reports to the IGA - info she got from Nolan Burgess
* Helena offers to merely politically castrate Alcala instead of reporting him, Alcala asks about Nolan, Helena mentions something about 'people she trusts'
* Working at home, Black Helmets storm in and rendition Nolan

* Maddy, still in her camisole, is given 10 minutes to retrieve her person items from her home
* Maddy asks about Hudson, Nolan which wastes one of those 10 minutes
* Maddy slowly walks out into the world with a rolling luggage

* Katie and Will ponder what to do without Noa, Broussard returns to BHQ unsplattered but shocked to the core
* Will sympathizes, Katie brings up 'The List' Broussard found

* Over wine Alan and Helena enjoy a departing transport in lieu fireworks
* Alan: "To Nolan! Who shot for the moon, and finally got there."
Helena: "You're baaad."
* Helena receives a call from Sabine Arnaud the Chief Counsel from the IGA with bad news
* Los Angeles Bloc has been scheduled for total rendition

* Upon Helena's return Alan senses something is wrong, Helena leaves him in ignorance

posted by porpoise (9 comments total)

All that gunfire, and the Drones only show up because Broussard calls them. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Oh, and that's yet another woman of colour who gets introduced just to move the plot a little bit and then die.
posted by tobascodagama at 5:55 PM on February 18, 2018 [1 favorite]

Heh, at first I thought that Morgan hacked into a RAP drone that had been casing the inside of RH HQ until I figured out that she managed to get her own drone in there undetected.

I kinda appreciate the themes that the writers are throwing darts at re: the difference between Broussard/ Katie Bowman-style Resistance and Karen-led Red Hand resistance but it skews pretty darned (traditional) conservative "ra-ra military service automatically makes you a better person."

But they do contrast with Karen's simplistic ideology - which triggered the rendition of LA Bloc.

But the episode opened with Broussard being disillusioned with the corrupt imperialistic military/industrial/mercenary complex, so there's that.

My read on Karen - she swallowing too much of her own kool-aid and started power tripping from the social feedback of having a quasi-brainwashed/ low-information army of youths.

--

I totally don't blame Broussard and it was necessary for plot - but I wonder if, after the RAP drones left, Broussard was tempted to retrieve the RAP drone caller.
posted by porpoise at 6:51 PM on February 18, 2018 [2 favorites]

I have this feeling that they are going to get out of the bloc and discover that the valuable item wasn't the gauntlet, but the drone caller.

I liked the parallel with Broussard signing a false, prewritten statement in the open to Maddie signing a false, prewritten statement here. Who is in charge has changed, but the game hasn't.

Nolan is an ass.

Really disappointed that they killed Noa - it continues the trend of all PoC actors disappearing from the show, plus she died stupid - standing in front of the door they were going to clear, instead of off to the side like we've seen the other characters (including Katie) do several times this season.

Not only do the drones only come when called, it is amazing to me that Broussards cell can figure out where the Hand is and get a drone there while "omnipresent" Homeland surveillance apparently couldn't.

Feeling a little more frustrated with the show as we approach the finale.
posted by nubs at 7:43 AM on February 19, 2018 [3 favorites]

I think a good reason is that the Red Hand so far hasn't revealed themselves as much as Broussard's group has. They have multiple cells with limited contact. Whenever they're going on operations as a group they're in disguises and masks. Liabilities are killed before they can be interrogated. Frankie was caught because she was recruiting bombers. Karen and the Red Hand are amateurs, but they've been good so far at hiding. It was only through her willingness to meet with Broussard that they were exposed via that bee drone.

I will admit that it's silly that Homeland didn't just deploy all those thousands of drones in the walls to blanket the city to find the Red Hand.
posted by numaner at 9:54 PM on February 20, 2018

I think a good reason is that the Red Hand so far hasn't revealed themselves as much as Broussard's group has

But given the level of activity at the theatre base, and the supposed "total surveillance" option that they've implemented in the LA bloc in the first few episodes of the season (still miss you Jennifer), you'd think it would have been noticed. I mean, we had several episodes in which the massive surveillance center was shown off, with the indication being that they could monitor the entire bloc, including inside people's homes - so why didn't they pick up the fact that lots of people come and go at this supposedly abandoned theatre?

They've developed some frustrating inconsistencies with their world building this season, where threads like these are introduced and then dropped. It could have been used to create some great pressure on the situation - not only does Broussard's group have to storm in and get what they need, they have to do it in advance of/during a Redhat brigade coming in to break up the Red Hand.

It's hard not to pick at things like this and not come across like I hate the show. I enjoy it; that's part of why I pick at it like this - because I don't want to see flaws in it like this that take me out of the story. Because I overall think this was a really solid episode.
posted by nubs at 1:15 PM on February 21, 2018 [2 favorites]

It's hard not to pick at things like this and not come across like I hate the show. I enjoy it; that's part of why I pick at it like this - because I don't want to see flaws in it like this that take me out of the story.

Extremely same.

Also, I feel like the first season set a pretty high bar in this regard. It was a lot smarter and more internally consistent than this season, in my opinion.
posted by tobascodagama at 1:19 PM on February 21, 2018 [1 favorite]

One of the things I do give the show great credit for is how they move things along. I thought for the first two episodes, we were going to have a fragmented family season - Katie and Gracie in LA, Will and Charlie the next bloc over, Bram at the distribution centre. Then I thought we were going to have a season of Will trying to survive as a double agent inside Homeland, with Katie running with the resistance. Then I figured we were getting set for an exploration of belief and what it drives people to do. Then I thought we were going to end the season with an arc that explored the differences between Broussard's style of resistance ("professional")and the Red Hand's amateur tactics but larger numbers and fanaticism (which, honestly, I think I would have really enjoyed - there's some meat there to chew). But they've brought each of these into play and just as quickly moved through them; the through-line has been the steadily worsening situation and the need to escape.
posted by nubs at 1:52 PM on February 21, 2018 [1 favorite]

Yeah, I think that's why I never gave up entirely on Season 2 and will definitely keep following the show in Season 3. It's frustrating occasionally, but it's at least good about not wasting my time with filler.
posted by tobascodagama at 7:17 PM on February 21, 2018

It's frustrating occasionally, but it's at least good about not wasting my time with filler.

Good call. There were probably three different seasons that could be spun from this one. I'm really glad they're moving quickly plotwise, too.
posted by porpoise at 9:55 PM on February 21, 2018 [1 favorite]