Colony Season Finale Recap: Down the Hatch

Colony

Gateway

Season 1 Episode 10

Editor’s Rating 3 stars ***

Josh Holloway as Will, Kathleen Rose Perkins as Jennifer. Photo: Isabella Vosmikova/USA Network

Well, the mystery has finally been solved: Actor Jacob Buster will be playing Will and Katie’s estranged teenage son, Charlie. What, you were thinking we’d glimpse the species beneath the impenetrable tech suit that armored the Hosts’ VIP Daft Punk robot-alien? P’shaw. Wait ’til next season.

Plenty has been held back until 2017, in fact. We’re not sure what becomes of demoted Proxy Snyder (it’s doubtful Nolan signed on for his Level 3 reassignment, though he almost assuredly implemented some of that Seattle emergency protocol); Katie needs to get her act together, help Maddie come to her senses, and free them all from conniving Nolan and crazy Lindsey’s duplicitous clutches; Will’s gotta hunt down Charlie in Santa Monica (thanks to a transit pass Snyder’s daughter, Cynthia, refused to accept) and pry him away from some mysterious kid–criminal overlord named Solomon; and Bram — well, he’s just gonna need to figure out how to break free from Occupation imprisonment on his own.

The Bowmans’ eldest son gets the honors for this finale’s most foolishly impulsive behavior. He and creepy Mr. Carson get busted in the tunnel by Red Hats, thwarting their plan to verify whether the mythical Factory was headquartered on the moon. But that’s what he gets for leaving Maddie’s side at the Green Zone’s West Gate and going rogue, just like a certain matriarch we know. Not only is he isolated from anyone who knows him (except for weirdo-beardo science teacher), now he can’t protect Gracie and Hudson from Lindsey and Nolan’s indoctrination as Occupation Youth. Charlie and his crew might be scavenging for handguns and tin cans, but that’s a state that can be rehabilitated. What Mr. Burgess has in mind for little ones is far more sinister.

And let’s briefly consider Maddie, who has a very simple task: Get herself and the Bowmans’ three kids into the Green Zone, where they can ride out the chaos that follows Katie and her pals’ kidnapping of Daft Punk VIP guy (or guy/gal, as it apparently has both male and female “ports”). Instead, she loses sight of Bram and lures the remaining kids into a booby trap of eminent brainwashing and ostensible kidnapping. But hey, she still looks fabulous.

Her sister, however, has been through the ringer. By episode’s end, she’s slumped in front of her dishwasher, tousled, bedraggled, and all alone. Her efforts at usurping the Hosts and their appointed human tyrants haven’t exactly been for naught, but they sure have led to a lot of bloodletting and blown-up buildings across Los Angeles. And what do she, Broussard, and their new wack pack of hacker nerds have to show for it? A lot of unanswered questions about their extraterrestrial hostage — now extracted by Will and in the Occupation’s hands, no less — and accountability for a new and even less-forgiving regime than ex–Proxy Snyder’s seizing command of the bloc.

That having been established, Will’s not being fair or objective to chastise Bram about how his mom has no clue what she’s doing. Katie was arguably shortsighted about the implications of the Resistance, but her passion for its underlying M.O. was steadfast. It’s doubtful her faith will waiver going forward. If anything, she might get steelier and more determined. Less clear is whether Broussard, BB, Eckhart, and Morgan will have her back after she disrupted containment at Eckhart’s loft and forced them underground before they could fully examine their alien specimen. Perhaps Katie will form her own splinter cell that develops friction with Broussard’s army, which one assumes will grow as they lie in wait for new government leadership to get complacent.

What’s not in any doubt is that Katie’s now being watched in her home, likely the result of Lindsey’s handywoman work, at Nolan’s presumed behest. And with Nolan’s promotion as Proxy Governor’s chief of staff, he can authorize whatever infringements on privacy he desires under the auspices of Homeland Security measures. In showrunners Ryan Condal and Carlton Cuse’s L.A., terrorism begets militant-government response, thus justifying further limitations on citizens’ freedoms. It’s a scene we witness in actual foreign engagement time and time again, but to its credit, Colony depicts what might happen if the cycle played itself out entirely on American soil.

In the end, “Gateway” pulls a fast one. It will probably fail to satisfy viewers who want something ghoulish, grand, or definitive, but it nevertheless teases us by introducing Charlie and setting the stage for several thrilling scenarios. Looking back at the season as a whole, it does feel as if the first handful of hours were artfully restrained, but once more episodes were ordered, the gloves came off and all possible moving parts were put into play. That’s not without repercussions. Tonight’s finale tries to leave us with the impression that Snyder has (in pro-wrestling parlance) pulled a face turn, but who watching can tuck away the memory of how he coldly manipulated and executed the DJ dispatching Geronimo’s message? His arc was a bit incomplete. And while we’re at it, how’s Carlos doing up there in space?

But if Condal and Cuse tighten the reins and resolve Colony’s two most compelling story lines — i.e., can Will find Charlie and restore him to his peace-sign-flashing innocence, and when will we really get to know these big, bad Hosts? — this show could become the scrappy sci-fi drama it’s almost nearly been.

Apart From All That:

• Dallas is decimated. Eh, no big loss.
• Boy, that Morgan really lost her spunk, huh?
• Good to see they had some of Chuck McGill’s Better Call Saul foil on hand to help block the Host’s tracking signal.
• Faraday cage.
• Birdcage.
• Cynthia basically pulled a Margaret Sterling.
• It’s unsettling to watch, but all those moments of police brutality, à la at the West Gate, give the show some grit.
• Jennifer, in a nutshell.
• And Will? Better listen up, Snyder’s right: “You’re an honorable man Will. Don’t let them take that from you.” Or do this.