Colony - 2.08 Good Intentions - Review

Over the course of the season Colony has been a vast improvement from it's first season predecessor, but it's rare episodes like this that show it's audience the kind of thrill-ride potential Colony really has.

Picking up threads and ideas from the previous few episodes, this week follows one plot from last week that includes a search for a young man named Emmett, whom Will let escape the Red Hand safe house.

Bennett determined for progress, sends Will out to do field work by returning to the safe house, separating him from his previous joint effort with Burke, as he is assigned to look for Emmett through surveillance. Will goes to the safe house to find almost next to nothing, except for Frankie's mother, whose determined to blame Will for the loss of her daughter after he reveals a bit of what happened to her, including confirming that she is dead. But one of the great twists revealed a bit later in the episode, is that Frankie's mom was no innocent woman who just sadly somehow lost her daughter to a radical resistance group, but a bigger player in the Red Hand group itself!

In the meantime Katie, with Will's approval, goes to Broussard's team to try and sway Broussard to try to find Emmett before the Proxy Government does, believing similar to what Broussard believes, that the Red Hands would be an asset if they want to escape the block before what might be The Greatest Day extinction event.

Broussard sets out with Katie to make contact again with Hennessy by bringing him the dangerous radio-active alien tech and the first data pulled from Nolan's hard drive for an exchange, but Eckhart continues to be furious with Broussard's actions and tries to convince his now ex, Morgan to assassinate Broussard and then make a run for it! The two discuss Eckart's situation with his mother, but it isn't clear until towards the end of the episode, upon Broussard's return, where Morgan really stands, leaving Eckhart another dead youth in Colony's wake.

Hennessy turns out to be a more useful contact, as Emmett actually came to him for safety. It's revealed that Emmett is no longer safe from his own resistance group! Hennessy provides them with Ememtt's new safe house location, but Broussard and Katie get stuck in a life and death situation, as Burke was able to follow Broussard to Emmett through surveillance. Broussard and Katie make it out alive, but not with Emmett--That unfortunate honor goes to Burke, leaving another loose end for the final episodes of season, placing Will and Katie in more possible jeopardy!

Elsewhere Lindsey is at back at the Bowman's residence teaching Grace as usual with Charlie's animosity limited after Lindsey previously had threatened his life with a realization of yet another kind of disciplinary program where even children can disappear and never be reunited with their families--But it's Charlie's good instincts from living in the Santa Monica block that saves his and Grace's life before a few members of the Red Hands invade the Bowman's home, killing Lindsey on site!!

Will and Katie are reunited, as they return home and realize that something is wrong. They are able to kill the members of Red Hands hiding out in their house and find Charlie and Grace out on their roof. The Proxy Government then comes to assess the situation, in which the Bowmans are taken to a safe house.

Ultimately my favorite scenes were the ones that involved Snyder and Bram. At the beginning of the episode, Helen is advising some of the Proxy Governors how to proceed after the incident at the labor camp with the shipping explosion. The newer LA Proxy Governor is convinced that using the situation as propaganda machine is the best way forward and ultimately defies Helen's wishes for him not to do so.

At the labor camp Snyder first has a chat with Bram, pointing out how idiotic his ideals to help the resistance were. His plan is to clean up the mess, making sure there is no evidence that anything sinister was afoot, and he forces Bram to stand along more of his young workmates and watch them fall to their deaths besides him, in effort to not only clean up loose threads, but also make sure Bram gets the message of "consequences".

And speaking of consequences, the Aliens seemingly see through all of the human attempts to deceive, as Helena arrives on the scene just in time to save Snyder, but Snyder proves his former words from earlier in the season meaningful, as he insists that Helen take Bram too! The labor camp is no more, as the blow back from the explosion is seen through the rearview window!

Unexpectedly for the Bowmans, Bram is reunited with his family at the safe house where he embraces Charlie, now seeing him for the first time since his disappearance on the day of the arrival!

The writers just used it's previous episodes' plots, themes, and immediate sense of extinction via the revelation of the countdown clocks , and potential consequences from the labor camp explosion to their advantage. There are no safe houses, because we're getting to point where maybe no one is in fact is safe, anywhere! The Bowmans continue to find themselves at the center of the chaos, but with the luck of almost no one else. The next two episodes have an opportunity to keep the train moving for a strong finish, as there are still some things left open to play with, but will they?