TV Review: Colony (Season 2, Episode 2)

Episode two of Colony’s second season, ‘Somewhere Out There’, reintroduces us to the present-day LA bloc.

Since the Resistance’s kidnapping of a Host last season, security has been stepped up significantly under the new regime as Katie’s whole world becomes far tenser than it had been.

As we follow Katie around LA on her bike at the beginning of the episode, we see Redhats symbolically tearing down posters of Snyder. Now, however, we crave for someone as predictable as Snyder to be put back in charge, one whose motives of self-interest are reprehensible, but comprehensible.

Colony’s narrative style, which favours gradual exposition over sudden information dumps, allows for the viewers to rediscover the world they thought they knew by following Katie doing the exact same mundane activities we had watched her do last season.

As she rides her bike through the streets, bribes people for information using bottles of liquor, goes about her house making food, everything feels a lot heavier and darker than it used to be.

Sarah Wayne Callies’ truly brilliant performance in this episode tugs at the heartstrings; her family has been ripped away from her in every direction. She has to witness Gracie and Maddie being taken away from her through their indoctrination into the religious cult of the Greatest Day. It exposes one of the themes I’m anticipating for this season – things can always get worse.

After Katie and Will’s relationship was thoroughly damaged when he found out about her role in the Resistance, both her sons have been taken away from her, Gracie seems lost to her crazed tutor, and Broussard’s whereabouts are unknown.

The only relationship Katie has left in the bloc is that with her sister Maddie. Yet, even this last lifeline is becoming tense, as we start seeing cracks form in their relationship when it becomes clear just how different their objectives are.

Maddie is concerned with staying safe and living comfortably in the Green Zone with Nolan, whilst Katie’s main concern remains reuniting her family. The dichotomy between the sisters lies in the different attitudes, taken by the human population towards the Hosts. Either one learns to embrace it and thrives in glorified slavery, or they resist the new world order together and are punished for it.

The Santa Monica bloc couldn’t be more different to the LA one. Davon reveals that according to rumours, the warden of the occupation had made a deal with the Hosts, so that as long as the warlords of Santa Monica captured and turned over a certain number of people every month, the redcoats would be kept from the ground.

It’s suggested that these people would be going to the Factory, and that the number of people asked for every month is gradually increasing. This could very well be a glimpse into the reason for the occupation.

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Davon and Will therefore carry out a bounty for a young teacher, and deliver her to the warlords in exchange for a meeting with Solomon, the leader of a group of child soldiers to which Charlie belongs.

Solomon agrees to return Charlie to his father, in exchange for the pass that got Will through the gates, a trade that is accepted by both parties. Will soon finds and is reunited with his son.

I was personally hoping for a longer search for Charlie, since thus far he has been an important symbol of an unattainable return to the way things were, a lost dream and ideal destroyed by the Hosts’ arrival.

However perhaps the changed, feral child can be a new symbol, one of the old human society's need for survival corrupting them.

Meanwhile, Bram is being transferred to a labour camp rather than the Factory, something which Nolan takes full credit for. He displays a sharp intelligence not previously accredited him for, when he lies about his age and profession to the guard in charge to secure a spot in the labour camp.

It’s then discovered that Snyder, having been stripped of his title as proxy, is now the warden at the very camp in which Bram is being imprisoned, and as the two lock eyes for a brief moment, it’s hinted heavily that Snyder may have much to do with Bram’s favourable treatment.

Once again the writers have reunited characters in unlikely scenarios (as with Will and Davon), to keep some kind of core cast and relationship dynamics even whilst the story is being pulled in multiple directions.

Reunited with Charlie after a year apart, Will finds out just how changed his son has been by his brutal treatment under Solomon.

Will takes revenge into his own hands when Charlie explains how Solomon had threatened the life of his closest people if Charlie doesn't return to him.

Will's shooting spree through Solomon’s base is the perfect climax to this episode, and as he realises that his killing of Solomon has been witnessed by the orphans, he briefly comes face to face with the person he has now become: desperate and morally compromised, and he does not seem to recognise himself.

A lot has happened in ‘Somewhere Out There’. The alien invasion may have had its roots as early as 1969.

The Greatest Day seems to promise to be explored further. Maddie is finally initiated into the Circle and has an otherworldly experience when touching an alien cube.

Jennifer approaches Katie and makes it known that she knows of her involvement in the Resistance, Will and Charlie have no way out of Santa Monica now that they’ve lost the pass.

Despite all of this, it’s still unclear as to what direction this season is taking, as the horror and appeal of Colony has always been in the unseen. And that’s great.

Colony airs on Wednesdays at 9pm on Sky One.

TV Review: Colony (Season 2, Episode 2)

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