Colony - Eleven.Thirteen - Review: “Back and Forth”
2.1 - “Eleven.Thirteen”
Directed by Juan José Campanella
Written by Ryan Condal
Reviewed by Kelly Anne Blount
COLONY starts off season two by going back in time to events leading up to the day of the arrival. Will gets ready to leave for work as his family is having breakfast. Everything seems well, except Will is worried that his partner at the FBI, Devin, “got her hands dirty.” Little do they know, Devin is the least of their worries. Their whole lives are about to change.
Katie is driving Charlie to school. The GPS on his phone is acting up.
Alan Snyder heads to work, where he’s a purchasing manager at a college. He has two visitors waiting for him in his office, who are posing as textbook salesmen. They quickly tell him they are not textbook salesmen, instead they are from the Institute for Global Advancement. They want him to join their team.
Devin and Will stop to get breakfast. He’s acting strange and Devin is on to him. He wants to know where she got the money to buy a house in Santa Monica. He breaks the news that he’s requesting a transfer, he wants off the task force. He tells Devin that her relationship with the Armenians makes him uncomfortable. Eek!
Back at work, Will and the team find out that several important people are missing. Wonder if they are all joining the Institute for Global Advancement?
Eric is back and his sister is thrilled to see him. She has bad news for him though, their mother is very sick and she’s on dialysis.
On the road, Devin and Will are trying to figure out why LA’s VIPs are missing. They head over to a palatial estate. Uh oh, there’s a bullet hole in the front door and someone has been shot and killed in the entryway. The owner of the home is in the panic room. He comes out, but only after Devin and Will show their badges and tell him they work for the FBI.
Eric heads over to the Bowman’s bar. He shoots the breeze with Katie and they have a drink together.
Back at the mansion, the owner is terrified. He says, “I’m not supposed to talk about this, but I’m on a list.” He explains that there are 1,200 people in the US on a special list. If a major catastrophe hits and in his words, “society ends, we’re the ones responsible for rebooting it.”
Meanwhile, Alan is brought to a strange place and given headphones and a warm jacket. He’s escorted to a holding room of sorts where he sees something incredibly strange. Something all geared up and covered in armor starts walking toward him. Is it a super solider? An alien? We’re not sure…
The men from the Institute for Global Advancement bring Alan to his old family home. His wife and daughter are there. Alan tells his sister to pack a bag and get out of town. His ex-wife doesn’t want to hear it. Alan tells the men who brought him to the house to take his daughter. They take her against her will and load her in their car.
At the bar, the satellite has gone out. Eric gets a call and suddenly has to go. He tells Katie if she ever needs anything, to call him and he hands her a phone number.
A lot of strange things are going on in Los Angeles!
The phone rings at the bar. Will tells Katie to pick the kids up because “something” is going on. He’s not sure what, but he’s visibly worried.
Katie calls her sister. She tells her to grab her kids and head over. Her sister is upset; her husband is flying to New York.
Devin tells Will that they need to get out of FBI HQ. Something is going down and she’s scared.
A few moments after Devin leaves, the power goes out at FBI HQ. At the same time, Katie’s car completely turns off, as does everyone else’s on the road. Looks like an EMP attack. Something big is happening!
Katie and Gracie have made it to Bram’s school. They need to get to Charlie, but he’s ten miles away.
Eric is at home and he’s gearing up. He grabs guns and ammo.
Katie, Gracie, and Bram are at the Yonk, the family’s bar. By the time Will gets there, it’s dark. They still don’t have Charlie. Will vows to bring him back. Looks like he’s going to have to take a bike, because there aren’t any other modes of transportation.
Alan Snyder has just showed up at what looks to be a top-secret facility with functioning vehicles. He is told, “It’s a brave new world, Alan, and you’re about to be the most powerful man in Hollywood.” Yikes!
Eric and a group of men meet at an unknown location. They have weapons and are ready for an attack. Eric tells one of the guys that they need to get out of there, that it isn’t safe.
Moments after he walks out of the building, he starts hearing loud booms and other strange noises. EEK! The sky just parted and something slammed down to the ground. Did that just take out the building Eric was just in?
Katie’s sister and her children head over to the bar. They all seem relatively calm while drones and loud booms are going off around them. I mean, Gracie is crying, but she’s a little kid. Why aren’t they running around and freaking out?
Eric is back at his house, where his mother has passed away.
Will is riding his bike, trying to find Charlie. He witnesses buildings under attack and large alien spaceships touching down in the streets of LA.
Okay, so apparently, we’ve now flashed forward to the place we left off at the end of season one. Was anyone else super confused while watching the episode? Why didn’t they put a little, “Present Time” or something along the bottom of the screen?
Will is looking for Charlie in what appears to be a rundown neighborhood in Santa Monica. He asks a group of men sitting around a trashcan if they’ve seen Charlie or Solomon, Charlie’s boss. One of them stabs Will and then they all take turns kicking him. After they’ve beat him, they tell him to leave.
Still in the present, Katie is visiting Bram, who is still in custody. According to Katie, they aren’t going to be able to get him out, even with her sister’s relationship and in with the new Proxy.
An officer tells Katie that she and Bram cannot have any physical contact. She asks Bram if he’s okay. Clearly, he’s not. She tells him that his dad is in Santa Monica, trying to find Charlie. She tells Bram to stay strong.
The episode ends with Will going over to Devin’s place. She pulls a gun on him, but drops it once she realizes that it’s her partner.
My Thoughts:
Interesting start to season two. I really enjoyed the episode, up until they flashed forward and didn’t tell anyone. I was super confused and had to go back like twice, trying to figure out what happened.
Do you think Will is going to find Charlie? Do you think Charlie will want to come home? What do you think Devin will say to Will?
Did anyone else find it interesting that Katie didn’t get on a bike to go find Charlie right away. Instead, she waited for Will to get home and then sent him. Also, why did they stay at the bar instead of heading home? Lastly, I touched on it above, but how were the kids so calm as buildings were being attacked outside?
Let me know what you thought of Eleven.Thirteen in a comment below!
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