Colony - 2.04 Panopticon - Review

Colony's fourth second season episode beautifully deescalates down back into a more human story, as viewers watch a contrast between the reconstruction of the life of the Bowmans with Will bringing Charlie home, while the lonely, but determined Jennifer comes under more scrutiny from a new character Detective Burke, assigned by the new Proxy Governor to investigate Jennifer and her past affiliations with Will and Beau.

What struck me most about the episode was Kathleen Rose Perkins' overall performance, which I found reminiscent to both Claire Danes' Carrie Mathison of Showtimes' Homeland and, due to various LOST allusions, including being under the thumb of this Detective Burke, was also able to channel LOST's Juliet Burke played by Elizabeth Mitchell.

Colony continues to try and make up for it's season one problems, which include having an array of characters at it's disposal, but just not ever giving them enough screen time or story to give them substance so that viewers will more ardently care about them. Characters are now positioned in more interesting places, allowing characters like Jennifer an opportunity to confront their own issues, which can juxtapose other ideas or concepts making Colony more layered and ultimately a better story. 

For Jennifer her overall story is heartbreaking, as she fixates on a life she once thought she would one day have through the surveillance of the Bowmans' home life. She struggles between being loyal to Will and wanting to understand Katie's decision to take action, which after all, Jennifer did too, it just she bolted for Homeland Security instead of the resistance. But Jennifer finds that the opportunistic nature of her new bosses and revelations about what Will thinks about her, pulling her emotions back and forth, realizing that she is stuck between a rock and hard place. She even begins to confide in a new character named Betsy, simply because she has no one to talk to.

Jennifer's story contrasted with the Bowmans' also calls back to a prominent LOST philosophy, "Live together, [or] die alone." The Bowmans decide to stick it out together, despite the problems they face from both bad decision-making and circumstances that are shaping their children in ways they wouldn't normally want for them, where Jennifer's story, seemingly a loner, tries to showcase if going it alone is really ever an asset or if it's ultimately self destructive?

In some ways this contrast also calls back and warps itself around Colony's fourth episode of it's first season. It's the episode that Phyllis decides to have Broussard commit a double homicide by killing her and then her catatonic husband, while our current episode opens with a flashback scene featuring rather neurotic Helena going before a board to decide on the state of the LA Block (she's also seemingly a woman alone whom kind of took Phyllis' place in the story last season--and then with Jennifer attempting to commit a quiet suicide by this episode's end all further explore a theme of alienation.

But as we also know, Jennifer too has been going through the ringer and being watched, but the catch 22 is that the person whose responsible for watching her is missing in action and could potentially be her savior! But who could it be? Betsy? A family member she didn't know she has? Could of her fiance survived after all? Hopefully Colony doesn't waste too much time getting to the answer.

The episode title Panoptigon is reference to an architectural design by Philosopher Jeremy Bentham. Bentham was also a reference in LOST. Bentham as a reference was also carried with this same particular reference of Panopticon into another Bad Robot work, Person of Interest, which was about artificial intelligence in relation to surveillance and data-gathering technology. But moreover, metaphorically, Panopticon can represent the idea of a specific vantage point translating into the idea of 'a certain point of view'. This nicely feeds into Colony's more recant forays into Religion or Spirituality, as even in just the last episode, we see Katie eager to embrace and teach Grace the importance of HUMAN belief systems, but continue to struggle with the Aliens': The Greatest Day teachings, as she simultaneously has to apologize to Maddie and better recognize her induction into the Alien Religion, just so Grace can have better life.


Other things I enjoyed about the episode include watching the dynamics of Bowmans, especially Charlie's reaction to long lost way of life. I find young actor Jacob Buster able to convey both something startling and distant from civility, but yet a sense of loyalty to his family, as he attempts to do something about Lindsey, realizing he feels the same way about her as his mother does. But also, like his mother, his actions in starting a house fire didn't seem to account for the possibility of hurting other family members and this idea fits well into calling back Katie's impulsive decision to join the resistance, which Katie has now begun to regret. After giving it some thought, Grace then follows suit with Will's belief that family needs to stick together, as she tries to include and consider Charlie's feelings with a touching scene where she sleeps on floor with him. I'm curious if Charlie will become the glue that keeps everything together or too destructive for his own good, but I'm at least hoping that he may also have vital information he gained from his life in Santa Monica Block.

It's true this episode didn't have the suspense or mythology reveals of previous season two episodes--outside of a realization that the Aliens themselves may not be sure about how to govern humanity, as we learn there are 'test cases' and a board that can vote on something referred to as "total rendition" of a block, but even without those things, Colony reminds viewers that at the heart of series is a family drama survival story and social commentary on the human condition. Unlike most episodes that tried to do this last season, this episode did much better job in conveying that idea due mostly to better acting and execution--and at a time that think works, as viewers are about to cross mid season, where it would be natural to start building the story and it's mysteries back up for a climatic finish.


Some Lost Allusions:

Orange Exchange Between Will and Charlie = Lost early season one montage where Sayid Passes Sawyer an orange despite the their differences.

Charlie giving Will the Orange and generally being ok with people dying, reminiscent to Benjamin Linus under the alias of Henry Gale asking for milk or when he responds, "So?" after John Locke tells him he's going to get everyone on the Island killed.

Katie giving Charlie a Haircut = Kate giving Sawyer a haircut/Claire giving Charlie a haircut.

Bowmans/Jennifer being watched in home-setting = Ben & Juliet watching Jack's house in season 3 Lost. Sawyer watching with Phil/Miles in Season 5 aka various Dharma surveillance monitor Scenes.

Burke was Juliet's married surname, her husband Edmond Burke seemed to have a hold over her, despite the two characters became estranged. (but, he was killed by bus!)