Before I start to go through all of my thoughts on Colony, season 3 episode 8, I want to talk about something really important:

We Need to Save Colony

We’ve all been patting ourselves on the back as the ratings numbers for more recent episodes of Colony have risen compared to the first couple of episodes this season, but I was listening to the Colony Official Podcast with Ryan Condal and Wes Tooke. I’m sorry, but I’m not sure which is which when I hear them talking, so I’m not sure which one of them said this. They were talking about how each season opens with a scene involving eggs being cooked and one of them said, “If there ever is a season 4 of Colony . . .” He said it like he’s really not sure if they will renew it or not, and it almost sounded like he’s starting to lose hope that they will renew it. I don’t want to be an alarmist; you all should listen yourselves to see what you think.

[Note: they talk more about the eggs and you should really listen to the podcast, there’s some great stuff in there and I think I’m going to listen to this episode again after I re-watch Colony episode 8. But my point here has to do with whether the show will be renewed so read on.]

So, I think we all need to start writing to USA Network and telling them how great this show is. I know USA has what I feel are somewhat old-fashioned ideas about content licensing. Old fashioned in this day of streaming video. For example, I often re-watch an episode two or three times after it airs, before the next one comes out. One week, I watched it on demand on my cable TV, either on Thursday or Friday. Then on Sunday, I tried to watch it again and that most recently aired episode wasn’t on the on demand list anymore. Turns out, USA had a repeat viewing of the show at 9 am, so I guess they pulled the on demand episode to try and force people to watch it on live TV? only problem was, I was going to be in church at 9 am, and I was ready and willing to watch it at 7 am, but they wouldn’t let me. This is what I mean about old fashioned, and I believe it means that their executives put a greater emphasis on the “live” viewing numbers than on other times and ways people might watch it.

Obviously, we super-fans all watch it live. And I’m sure some of you re-watch it on streaming. So you’re already doing a big part of what you need to do to get them to renew this show.

But I think we need to do more. I think we need to start writing: tweets, emails, letters. Here are my suggestions, but if you have any other ideas, post them in the comments below. I think we should each do as many of these as we possibly can.

• Tweet to @USA_Network and @ColonyUSA telling them how much you love the show and want to see seasons 4 and 5.
• Visit the Colony Facebook page and “like” it, and leave a comment telling them you want the show renewed.
• Sign up for the official Colony newsletter. (to do that, visit the USA Colony page and click on the envelope icon over toward the far right in the red menu bar). I’m not sure if there really is a regular newsletter, and I’m not sure if this does any good, but a flurry of new subscribers can’t hurt. I just tried to subscribe and it says I already am subscribed, but I don’t remember actually getting any newsletters.
• Subscribe to, download, and listen to the Official Colony Podcast. Post a comment after you listen to each episode. Visit iTunes or GooglePlay or Spotify or wherever you find it and leave a review of the podcast, but mentioning how we want the show renewed couldn’t hurt.
• Sign up so you can post in the USA Network Forum and leave a message there.
• Send an actual physical letter to USA Network, 30 Rockefeller Plaza, 21st Floor, New York, NY 10112. Bonus points if you first take a photo of the letter/envelope and post the photo on Twitter and/or Facebook (and/or Instagram) and tag USA_Network in the post (but still actually mail it — your post might encourage others to do the same).
• Leave a message on the USA Network’s feedback page (you’re required to give your name, email address, city and state, age and your TV provider). You have to click around to find this, they’ve got it hidden rather well, but I did the work for you, so all you have to do is click on that link. You’re welcome, and now you have no excuse not to do it. I just did it again while writing this post.
• Call the NBC switchboard at 212-664-4444 and ask to leave a message on the USA Network viewer hotline.

Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, on with my comments about season 3 episode 8.

Katie’s New Discovery

I was really afraid Katie was going to be taken all the way to Portland, and not be able to get back to Seattle, or that she’d lose her job for snooping, when she was forced to ask for a ride back to Seattle. Google says the drive from Seattle to Portland should take at least 2 and a half hours. I’m thinking they just drove to a less conspicuous spot and transferred them to the IGA bus. Otherwise Katie would have been absent from her job all day.

Clearly, she wasn’t supposed to be snooping. But it seems like her boss will not be throwing her under the bus right away.

Speaking of the boss, Michelle, she’s on first-name basis with Kynes. Interesting.

So the question is, are they really being taken to Portland? I feel like either Portland is a colony where they have a big “Factory” downtown, like the one they’re presumably wanting to build in LA. Or they’re being taken to some kind of Factory that’s located outside of any of the colonies.

Bram’s New Job

Last week, I really thought Bram’s story of wanting to look out for Gracie was just a story. I mean, no matter how much he loves his sister, what young man would prefer to play surrogate parent to his sister if he had the choice to live completely on his own for the first time in his life. But I think if that were just a story, he wouldn’t have talked to Gracie about it. She’s the one who will be let down if he really wants to live on his own.

Besides wanting to look out for Gracie, Bram is also concerned for Gracie’s career. Gracie is 12, and the Earth is occupied by aliens, and another alien race is ready to turn Earth into a battlefield, and Bram wants to make sure Gracie doesn’t grow up to be a grocery delivery person. Is Bram just a little naive?

But let’s think about this for a minute: Bram is how old? Eighteen at the most, I’m thinking. He was in high school until he got arrested going under the Wall. Remember? Katie said “I know how important school is to you,” and managed to wriggle out of any plan to have Bram tutored along with Gracie, in season 1. But there’s no talk of him going to college. I wonder if they have colleges in the Seattle Colony?

Bram says that the school in North Shore has advanced science and math and computer classes. But Gracie is already studying physics and she’s only 12. So even in her presumably average school, she’s being taught what could be considered advanced science for her age. And remember in season 1 we saw that even in Bram’s high school there was an approved curriculum. The teachers were not teaching whatever they taught before the Arrival. We saw a teacher dragged from her classroom for teaching a subversive book. And Lindsey told Gracie that children were to play a very important role in the Greatest Day. So I’m wondering what the Hosts’ plans are for Gracie and her peers.

Broussard’s New — Roommate?

We want to know what is the exact status of Broussard’s relationship with Amy.

• He refers to her as his new partner when talking to Will.
• Amy “found the work-around” to get Broussard into the colony. Was that as simple as “leaving the back door unlocked,” or did she pull some official strings? Whatever, Broussard is apparently “off the grid.”
• Yet he’s clean and comfortable enough in Amy’s house to let himself in the front door and help himself to what’s in the fridge, and later when Will shows up, he’s apparently there by himself. Does he live there? If so, is it a roommate arrangement or are they also partners romantically?
• On the Official Colony podcast, the creators mentioned a scene that had to be cut, where Will and Broussard arrive at the house and Broussard makes Will wipe his feet on the doormat before he will let him go inside. Sounds like the actions of someone who occasionally sneaks in the back door.
• Amy seems willing to trust Will based on Broussard’s say-so, which says a lot about how much she trusts Broussard. (I wonder if she calls him Eric?) Will, on the other hand, almost dismisses her. “Who’s she?” he asks Broussard, despite the fact that Broussard said the first step was to meet his new partner, and then he formally introduced them just seconds before. The day after the op, when Will shows up and Broussard demands an explanation, Will refers to Amy as “your girl.” I wonder if he’ll still feel the same when he finds out she’s not only a doctor, but a neurosurgeon.
• I wonder if other Colony fans will agree with me: I think Amy reminds me of Jeanne Benoit, one-time girlfriend of Tony on NCIS. She was also a doctor, and pretty cool under pressure, if you remember the episode when the drug mule was in the ER and his strung-out sister and her boyfriend held Jeanne and Tony at gunpoint. That season was my favorite for that show.

Will’s New Plan

We finally see what’s been driving Will these past 6 months: the desire for revenge. I’m sure Will realizes that Snyder, alone, was not responsible for Charlie’s death, and that there were other mitigating circumstances. Here are some of my thoughts:

• Will may never have gotten Charlie back from Santa Monica if not for Snyder.
• Bram certainly owes his life to Snyder, though Will probably doesn’t know that, and indeed I’m not sure Bram sees it that way either.
• The Gray Hats arrived at the Camp at the moment when Will, Katie and Bram were about to be executed by MacGregor and his goons. If the Gray Hats had not come, Charlie would still be alive, and Gracie, and they’d be orphans because the other 3 family members would be dead.

So really, it’s all about timing. If Snyder had told the Bowmans that his mission was to help the IGA recover the missing Host, they would have ditched him alongside the road or killed him (or not taken him with them, depending on when he told them). But after MacGregor showed his true colors, I think Snyder could have told them and they would have gone along with a plan to press that beacon button. If they’d have done that and planned correctly, they could have all survived. But the window of opportunity for that was very small, because soon enough they were all in “the brig” but held separately so they couldn’t communicate.

I don’t think Snyder intended that any of the Bowmans would die, but he didn’t have a chance to keep that from happening. Snyder was not forthcoming with the Bowmans, but when you get right down to it, the Bowmans were not always open with him either.

I think what Will is feeling is betrayal. The idea that this man spent 6 months living with his family and all the while had a secret plan. Except — exactly how does Will know it was Snyder that caused the Gray Hats to know their location? I can think of some other ways the location of the resistance camp may have been discovered:

• Maybe some sort of delayed signal that was given off by the RAP while the gauntlet was connected to it. Or
• It’s conceivable one of the resistance group members got fed up with MacGregor’s behavior and went and ratted them all out. Or
• The camp could have been discovered by normal surveillance means, either flying or walking drones finally saw them.

I know Will wondered at the attack on the cabin, but that was an attack on a family in a cabin. Surely he realizes that the IGA would see a large resistance camp as a threat, especially one that had a kidnapped RAP, and that they would take measures to eliminate that threat. Why is he so sure Snyder is the one that ratted them out? Is it only now that he sees Snyder in a fancy coat and nice clothes that he’s deduced that Snyder has those things as a reward? Or is Will just now bent on destroying anything and anyone who seems to be a collaborator?

If you watched the clips they showed as a preview for next week’s show, you know something about what’s next for Snyder. I’d hate to be in his shoes, however fancy and expensive they may be. I feel bad for both Snyder and Will about what it looks like will happen next week.

Watch for Part 2

There was so much in this show that I ended up dividing it into 2 posts. The second one will be posted in a couple of days. It will have thoughts about the Outliers, the new Alien tech and some predictions on what’s ahead for our beloved characters.