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Colony Recap: Poor Cell Reception

Colony

In From the Cold
Season 1 Episode 8
Editor’s Rating 3 stars
Colony - Season 1

Colony

In From the Cold
Season 1 Episode 8
Editor’s Rating 3 stars
Charlie Bewley as Eckhart, Tory Kittles as Broussard. Photo: Isabella Vosmikova/USA Network

Throughout the season, Quayle’s basic manipulation tactic has been a glorified game of, “I know you are, but what am I?” It was tiring. He needed to be put down. And just as he stood up from a chair in the Authority’s Hoover Street safe house, Will obliged. Only moments earlier, we learned about Quayle’s history as a former CIA station chief in Berlin (maybe he knew this lady?) and Defense Intelligence op. Now here he is, a victim of his own tactical hubris.

But who could fault the fallen cell leader for underestimating Katie? Rebellion might be “in her bones,” as Quayle confesses to Will just before meeting his end, but it’s rarely apparent in her unsteady composure and flip-flopping commitments to the cause. She (the character, not Sarah Wayne Callies) is either a terrible actress or — as Quayle seems convinced — a cagey opportunist, but her real motivations remain a blur to all the men in her life: the late Alexander, Broussard, and most of all, Will. Though, wouldn’t this all be a lot easier if her husband just came out and shouted, “I know you’re Resistance, so just tell me and we’ll figure it out from here!” rather than continually testing her and further ensuring there’s a rift in how they plan to subvert Proxy Snyder and reunite with Charlie?

Oh, a recapper can dream.

In the meantime, Katie has to reconcile how her efforts abetting Broussard’s escape and the Authority’s staked-out trap indirectly led to the death of her only female ally, Rachel. Those two really buddied up in recent weeks. Not convincingly enough that anyone was sure Rachel would stand in solidarity with Katie in her quest to leave the Resistance, but still. The anguish she emotes over her fallen friend — not to mention Rachel’s two sons, also executed — indicates they were besties, so we’ll take her tears as truth. “This is why we fight,” Broussard whispers into Katie’s ear as they witness the spectacle of Rachel and her boys strung up in the street and branded as terrorists. Katie understands it’s not that simple, but presumably gets the message that it’s time to make some clear choices.

Her boy, Bram, for whatever reason, decides he’s all-in on this space-exploring gambit with Mr. Carson. And hey, what’s there not to trust about a disheveled, disgruntled, lonely science teacher who gives homemade hooch to teenagers and suggests they try to find out if the Hosts are based out of a curious impression on the moon? Isn’t that how all mentor-mentee relationships start? If Katie knew Bram were planning to chaperone his comrade outside the walls to steal high-tech telescope equipment from USC, she might have realized it’s damn near impossible to protect your kin — no matter how many government leaders you conspire to assassinate.

Hard to tell if that plan’s still even in motion. The plan, that is to coordinate with another rebel cell — one that happens to have access to super-duper spy tech (from USC perhaps?) — and take out the chief minister of the Pacific Coast while he swings through L.A. to do a performance review of Proxy Snyder. Broussard mentions that he’s gotta lay low for a while, and one would think any ambitious sabotage would be on hold so the Resistance can regroup. It’s reasonable to assume Broussard, Katie, and their skeleton crew might align with the aforementioned rival cell, represented thus far by a mysterious newcomer named Eckhart (Charlie Bewley), who at least seems to understand that meeting on park benches while hiding behind baseball caps and aviator shades is like screaming, “I’m plotting to destroy the Authority!”

If only Broussard, Will, Katie, or any of the adults running around cutting off heads knew how high they’d have to crane their necks to see where the enemy really convenes. Like in so much science fiction, the imaginative kid with an open mind is the one coming closest to epiphany. Bram’s got a good hunch that whatever has left its mark on the moon isn’t a shipyard or mine, per Mr. Carson’s suggestion, but the Factory itself. And based on what we see at the outset of this episode, he might just be right. When Carlos gazes out his window after a day of constructing nebulous multi-ton pods at the Hosts’ behest, Earth looks half a galaxy away.

“It’s not gonna get any closer just cause you keep starting at it,” Carlos’s cellmate says. The same backhanded advice could apply to Will and Katie about their photo of Charlie. But what the haters don’t get is, this is why they fight.

Apart From All That:

  • This season has gotten very cluttered, but as Quayle would say, it’s got lots of promising seeds planted to nourish for next year.
  • We want aliens!
  • Basically, this show is sci-fi Homeland.
  • Which is fine.
  • “I could hide in your house for six months, you’d never even know I was there,” Quayle says. He’s more or less dead with Katie as a mole. Mwahaha.
  • Why’s Will gotta make life so hard for Carl Weathers?
  • Do not disregard Lagarza, or that look he gave Jennifer. Something’s up there.
  • Helena quotes Orwell’s 1984: “If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stomping on a human face forever.” Is that intended to parallel the massive impression pounded onto the moon’s surface?
  • Eager to see how this very ambitious rookie show wraps things up in the season’s last two episodes.

Colony Recap: Poor Cell Reception