overnights

Colony Recap: Bumblebee Tuner

Colony

Zero Day
Season 1 Episode 9
Editor’s Rating 2 stars
Colony - Season 1

Colony

Zero Day
Season 1 Episode 9
Editor’s Rating 2 stars
Charlie Bewley as Eckhart, Tory Kittles as Broussard. Photo: Isabella Vosmikova/USA Network

By now, Katie has fully channeled her inner Sarah Connor. The only hitch? Sarah Connor benefited from knowing how her failure to rise up would incite the apocalypse. Katie’s taking a leap of faith that the only way to save her family and humankind is by beating back the Hosts and their civil liaisons with unrecoverable force.

At least Will sees that clearly now. Katie spells it out for him as they argue in their yard, within earshot of impressionable Bram. Much to the relief of all Colony viewers, Will finally calls out his wife on her alliance with Broussard and the Resistance, and vents his exasperation with “cleaning up after your messes.” Each blames the other for being complicit for the deaths of countless Phyllises and Rachels. They’re at loggerheads over ideology, which is never healthy for a married couple already taxed by extenuating circumstances.

After all, Katie doesn’t quite find the time to update Will about creepy Lindsey’s adventures in babysitting with Grace, who’s all but indoctrinated into magical thinking about their looming otherworldly overseers. Plus, Bram’s plotting some kind of mysterious urban exploration, and it’s not as if the Yonk’s going to book alt-country bands by itself. So when Katie assures Eckhart’s sidekick, Morgan (hey there, Thora Birch!), that “17 years of motherhood and ten years running my own business” qualifies her as battle-ready, folks better recognize.

Besides, who’s Morgan to second-guess Katie on sight? She’s fairly slight-looking at first blush herself, and is prone to lame wisecracks about “G.I. Joe gallows humor.” Then there’s BB (Victor Rasuk, of the underrated How to Make It in America). He’s a tech nerd (or so his glasses and slacker tee would suggest) who’s amped to detonate a bomb underneath the wall, despite zero experience engineering live explosives. If I were Broussard and Katie, I’d be vetting this group even more suspiciously than they’ve interrogated me. But with Occupation forces having thinned out the Resistance’s herd, you take what you can get, even if it means a trio of Millennials spying on Homeland Security via a prototype bumblebee drone.

Likewise, Snyder’s out of options to contain further anarchy and avoid a demotion courtesy of the Pacific Coast’s chief minister, who’s set to arrive any day. So what choice does he have but to trust Will and Beau’s supposed intel about insurgents operating outside the colony? He’ll grant them access through the tunnel into downtown, but not without a chaperone. Fortunately for them, Lagarza’s something of a dunderhead and doesn’t even blink when a pair of alleged rebels purportedly pop off on Will and Beau before successfully escaping. As a bonus, their chrome-domed colleague can’t infer that they’d staged the gunshots and planted evidence to support their theory. (Though as I mentioned last week, no one should be surprised if Lagarza’s just playing dumb.)

Works for Will. Now he can pull off his defining act of heroism by clearing a path for Katie and the kids to rendezvous with Beau downtown and dart off to freedom in Beau’s cozy Big Bear cabin. And who wouldn’t want a roommate like Beau? Not to mention Will’s gonna reunite with them in a sec, just as soon as he rescues Charlie. And he’s right: On the surface, his plan seems saner than Katie’s, but she’s not wrong about the lack of guarantee that their life on the other side will feel safe or familiar.

If only anyone had much time to reason. The minister, apparently code-named (or just named?) Hyperion, is hours from arriving on the metro lines that still operate to shuttle VIPs in and out of L.A. Katie’s heeded Broussard’s advice about points of no return, absorbed Will’s lecture about family priorities, and made her choice: resistance 4-eva. Whether BB constructs a bomb that gently nudges the minister’s train off the tracks or blows it to bits, Broussard’s new gang is headed underground. And unwilling to go down without a fight, Snyder expertly manipulates his potential adversary, Nolan, into helping him maintain the status quo (so long, Charlotte). Although, there’s one thing that none of them predicted: When BB’s bomb goes boom, among its casualties would be one half of Daft Punk — or rather, the alien cyborg who (presumably) is the chief minister. Oy. No wonder Katie’s having trouble compartmentalizing.

Apart From All That:

  • I watched this episode twice, and I’m still not entirely sure what the hell happened.
  • I do know it appears Maddie’s on her way up the Occupation’s ladder.
  • Will Bram and creepy Mr. Carson execute their own impossible mission, or will Bram be stuck supervising brainwashed little sis for all time? Where’s Charlie when you need him?
  • Is it too late to dub Will and Beau as Beauman? Feels right to me.
  • The opening anniversary-ceremony-gone-wrong scene in Koreatown certainly smacks of The Leftovers.
  • Ahem, Eric — those are no ordinary elite bodyguards. They are Grayhats, my friend.
  • Pending the finale, it’s hard to forecast how Colony might effectively scale back next year when its world has gotten so big. Guess we’ll need to see how it all shakes out next week.

Colony Recap: Bumblebee Tuner