Thursday, September 1, 2016

Colony, Season 1, Episode 5: Geronimo



Last week saw the demise of Phyllis (and, like so many characters, some more complexity to her emotions arise). This has got the whole collaborator authority quite agitated and raised Will to being boss of the unit (which seems… dubious given his coerced loyalties but I’m guessing they have few real options given the givens).

He leads his team to continue to try and track down the mysterious Geronimo, continuing to showcase the brutality and suppression of the regime and the violence it inflicts. By brutally threatening some teenagers putting up posters they manage to follow a trail to find Geronimo…

…and Phyllis is right. Geronimo doesn’t lead any cell, Geronimo is certainly not the overlord of the resistance. Geronimo is a couple of not very menacing art and design professionals who produce good scripts and posters. They’re advertisers, not militant leaders

This puts Snyder in an awkward position because he has repeatedly put out fictionalised and rather ridiculous propaganda pieces on how the Occupiers have won and the Resistance lost only to learn over and over again that they’ve not really won anything. He needs a plan to save this, especially since his boss (Helena, aid to the governor – yes another hint that no-one seems to actually report directly to the aliens) is very hands off. She wants Snyder to succeed and do his own thing. I like this, it sounds so nice and sensible but you can almost hear the undertone “if you fail it’s entirely your responsibility”. A very nice subtle threat there.

So Snyder decides to put on a show trial with the captures Luis pretending to be the fictional Geronimo. Why would he go for it? Because he’s desperate, afraid and will to grasp at the straw offered by Snyder… of course he’s lying. Of course Luis isn’t living through this – but how many people would take that desperate chance?

The show trial is desperate propaganda and ends with “Geronimo” being hanged. And it’s likely to backfire because Kate’s cell is already planning something big and dramatic in response. I’m going to bet it involves blowing up a car with Snyder – and Will – in it.


Though Kate does seem almost a little shocked by the fact *gasp* Phylis was killed. Uh-huh did she think they were going to get a stern talking to?

Through this, we still get some development of Snyder because this show doesn’t like to create villains for the sake of villains. Snyder reminds us constantly how terrible the days after the occupation were and they only exist at the sufferance of their alien masters. Appeasement may be distasteful but from his home on the hill it’s definitely the easiest path.

Similarly, Jennifer, the uber quisling absolutely loathes the resistance not because she’s so pro-alien  but because the resistance killed a loved one of hers. Because, yes the resistance are terrorists there is collateral damage and innocents are dying

Now the bit of the plot and development I don’t get. I know Will is supporting Snyder so she can find his son… but why is he trying so hard? Can’t we see more struggle from him over what he’s actually doing? This becomes especially dubious when it’s suggested to him that Kate may be the mole for the Resistance (which she is) and he decides to investigate her…

…uh, we remember that Will isn’t actually loyal to their alien overlords, right?

In other news, Bram is using his new found route outside of the wall to a convenient warehouse full of cool stuff. He’s going to use it to find a lens for his teacher’s telescope