Wow, we really learned a lot of things in this episode of Colony. As usual, those things brought up more questions. But I’m starting to form at least the beginnings of a theory.
I thought this would be a shorter post, but then I listened to some podcasts and they brought up more questions and now it’s a really long post. And, as always, Warning! there are SPOILERS!
First, the facts
Here are some things I think we can agree are true and can be taken as Fact in the Colony universe:
- There is a Rolodex that contains an unbelievable amount of information on just about everyone.
- The RAPs used some kind of Algorithm to identify candidates who would be part of the collaborators and, presumably, which position or level they would be suited for, or how far up they can rise
- The Algorithm isn’t perfect. Helena identifies one shortfall, that it doesn’t measure adaptability. Presumably, there are other weaknesses.
- We meet the man who developed the Algorithm, Everett Kynes. Apparently he doesn’t agree with the way “they” are using it. I’m sure we’ll learn more about him and what he’s up to later, but for now I’m more concerned with theories about what the RAPs and the collaborators are up to.
- Will Bowman was among those listed in the computer Broussard saw in the Grey Hats’ SUV back in season 2.
- We know Will was spotted by and not killed by drones on 3 occasions now, and that Broussard also had been spotted by and not killed by a drone.
- The Grey Hats are acquiring certain individuals and putting them into the pods we saw in the warehouse in season 2. We don’t know how these people are selected or where they’re going.
- Snyder said, in season 2, that he thought Will Bowman was “very special” but we don’t know what made him think that.
- Kynes’ algorithm has 2 tools:
- some sort of predictive profile that’s been gathered on every human
- the results of the “interview” which includes the subject being hooked up to a machine.
- The subject is told that if they lie, their interview, and chance to be considered for candidacy in the IGA, will end. The subject is approved if the interview supports the algorithm’s classification.
Then, the known theories
Here are some theories that I think most fans of Colony would agree are likely:
- Will and Broussard have something in common that puts them on a special list.
- It’s possible Will and Broussard are targeted to be put into those scary pods.
- The pod occupants are stripped of almost all of their clothing and fitted with a face mask which fills their airways with green goo. The ones in the warehouse at the Labor Camp were destined for off planet.
IGA incident report
Let’s set all of that on the back burner for a little bit while we examine something else interesting that happened in this episode. Snyder requested a printout of the incident report about the massacre at the resistance camp. What is he looking for?
- He sees Charlie‘s name. It lists his real name and cause of death.
- There is at least one “unknown male” on the list, and others who are named. We don’t get to see the whole list but presumably Snyder does.
- Is he just confirming that Charlie died? or is he trying to find out if they identified him as being a Bowman?
- Is Snyder trying to make sure the other Bowmans weren’t also killed? and how would he know for sure unless he knows for sure that they would be identified, that they wouldn’t be listed as “unknown.”
- If the Algorithm truly has data on every human, how can there be an “unknown male” on the list? Wouldn’t everyone be identified?
What else the Gray Hats know
Also, Paul and Caroline Daley brought up some interesting questions on their Colony review podcast. They talked about a lot of other things and you should definitely listen, but here are the relevant points/question:Vincent claimed that Katie was “a hero in the LA bloc resistance.” Exactly what did he mean, and who else knew about her role in the resistance? Here are my thoughts:
- We know that pictures of Broussard, Morgan, Eckhart and BB were plastered all over the place. (Now that I think of it, I’m not sure if they had pictures of BB and Morgan — we know they identified Broussard and Eckhart). We know that personnel at Homeland in LA, including Dan Bennett and Bob Burke, identified Katie Bowman as being part of the Resistance. We don’t know if that knowledge made it out of the bloc before the Rendition.
- What other Resistance was there? Morgan, Eckhart and BB all died, and before that Hennessey, Quayle and Rachel and — we don’t know if there were other members who survived but since we see Broussard hunkered down in the bunker with just Morgan, Eckhart and BB, we presume most of the resistance from LA is dead. Noa also, is dead.
- It’s a very long way from LA to Seattle, or even from LA to the location of MacGregor’s camp, which we still don’t know the exact location of. There are two ways we know of that information may have traveled from the LA resistance to reach Vincent: either by radio or by train.
- So how would Vincent know Katie Bowman was a resistance Hero? Here are some possibilities:
- He’s making it up or exaggerating (clearly he knew about the gauntlet).
- He has old information, possibly from Hennessey before he was killed.
- Information circulated on the resistance radio network. We know Hennessey had a radio and we see how Amy used it and obviously Baker 5 was in regular contact with the Camp. So this is the likely
- The question remains, do authorities in Seattle know about Katie’s role in the resistance? And further, is it known that Will was working with her and Broussard? I see a couple of possibilities here:
- Maybe there just wasn’t time for that information to get beyond the LA bloc.
- Can we hope that both Dan Bennett and Bob Burke were part of those who were Renditioned and therefore they are dead and their information is lost?
- Is Will’s “special,” characteristic enough to overcome the negative of being part of the resistance? It saved him from being imprisoned for trying to go through the gateway and has saved him when the drones killed others, so maybe it will save him again.
- Will Kynes’ alternate reading on the conclusions of the Algorithm be a benefit to Will and his family?
- Does lying about your identity matter if you’re Will Bowman? Or are they only worried about lying about the answers to other questions in the interview?
- Clearly, Will believes that both he and Katie will be identified as resistance members by the Seattle authority.
- Getting back to Snyder — he pulled Will out of confinement where he was likely about to be sent to the factory, based on what he knew about Will at the time of his attempt to get through the Santa Monica gateway. Clearly he saw him as useful in the pursuit of Geronimo, but was there more to it than that? Wouldn’t trying to sneak through the Gateway be a pretty serious offense? And it’s a little surprising that no one thought Will had something to do with the explosion as well. Seems like he’d have to be pretty special to be saved from the consequences of these crimes.
Finally, my Theory
So I’ve thought all of this over and I have at least the beginnings of a theory:
- The people was saw being put into the pods in season 2 are not going to the Factory. I said this before, and I’m still convinced it’s true that they’re going into space, somewhere where there will be a vacuum. The pod is to protect them and the green goo is both to keep their bodies oxygenated and to prevent their lungs from collapsing from the vacuum or pressure.
- Now that we know about this Algorithm and, presumably, a database generated by that, I feel like there’s probably a listing for just about everyone. But we still know there’s something that sets Will apart and presumably also Broussard.
- I think the process is that they run everyone through the Algorithm, but they only interview certain people based on their profiles. If their interview confirms what the Algorithm predicts about them, then they are placed in a job.
- I’m beginning to wonder if it’s true that Will has been singled out to be put into one of those pods. I still hope we’ll learn about those and what they’re for, but I’m not sure they’re going to put Will into a pod and send him off planet at this point in the story. I think they will find a job for Will, and I suspect that Kynes will learn about it and want him to be placed somewhere different. So that’s my prediction at this time: Will will be placed in a position that allows him to look for clues about what’s going on with the RAPs, but he will still have higher-ups to answer to and he will not be sent to space. I can’t wait to see what happens.
Other story threads
Snyder
Thursday morning, I listened to Colony, the Official Podcast. They had Peter Jacobson on as one of their guests, and he gave us quite a bit of insight into Snyder’s character arc. I was surprised, because I really thought we’d see Snyder feeling guilty about Charlie’s death and wanting to do something to atone for it somehow. You’ll have to listen to the podcast yourself and maybe you’ll let me know in the comments, but it sounds like Snyder’s heading down a darker road, as evidenced by the stunt he pulled with the two Proxies. He said Helena needed “a fixer with a mail fist, not a velvet glove.” Sounds like the cuddly side of Snyder was left behind in the cold, rainy woods of the Pacific Northwest.
On the Talk Colony podcast, Tracey and Jay were talking quite a bit about Snyder. Tracey said that Snyder “feels.” They both seemed to believe that Snyder was feeling bad about what happened to Charlie and that his guilt would motivate him to do good deeds in the future.
After listening to what Peter Jacobson said on the Official Podcast, and watching the scene with the Proxies being taken away, I’m not sure I agree that Snyder will be a sympathetic character going forward. I think he has hardened his heart and will be more manipulative and less sympathetic to others, going forward. Consider these points:
- Before, we knew Snyder looked out first for Snyder, but he seemed to want to help people if he could do so. Also, he exploited information he was aware of, “dirt” he had on someone, but did he ever make up something completely false and use it to get someone in trouble? We have no evidence that he knows the Proxies are traitors, just his word. He uses his position to make up something and get these Proxies taken away and replaced.
- Jay seemed to think Snyder is anticipating how he’ll feel if he sees the Bowmans again, knowing his part in calling on the gray hats that resulted in Charlie’s death. But I don’t think Snyder thinks he will ever see the Bowmans again. He’s in Europe and he last saw the Bowmans are in the woods in the northwestern US, far from a colony or any transportation that could bring them anywhere near Snyder.
What I’m wondering about is, what is Snyder’s plan? Does he have replacement Proxies in mind to fill these now-vacant positions? How will he ensure the replacements agree to go along with the rendition plan? I feel like he doesn’t know anyone in Switzerland except Helena and this woman he just met. Is he planning to put her in the position of Proxy?
Dealing with the loss of Charlie
Seeing Charlie’s name on the incident report made me realize they identified his body. We’ve had other deaths on this show but never a funeral, and it seems they’ve had to even leave the bodies behind. We saw Broussard with Morgan’s body, like he was saying good-bye, but then they had to leave the bunker so there was no burial or memorial that we know of. I guess that happens in wars.
But we have these pieces of the puzzle:
- Charlie’s body IDed at the Camp.
- Will Bowman IDed in the Seattle refugee area.
- Also, if the walker drones identify and transmit data, it’s possible the whole family was seen on the road toward Seattle.
So the question is, does all of the above data go to some centralized location where someone could put the pieces together and officially notify the Bowmans about what happened to Charlie or even return his remains for burial? Even failing that, maybe they will have a makeshift memorial service once they’re settled in Seattle. As a mom, I think the obvious horror of seeing your son gunned down in front of you is magnified by the questions that remain — is he really dead? what happened to his body? I feel bad that Katie is imagining him just lying in the woods and no one doing anything for him. Even in human wars, I think we take care of the dead. I hope the Bowmans get a chance to get closure about that.
Broussard
It will be interesting to see what Broussard and Amy decide to do. Amy was dead-set on getting the message to the resistance camp about what Broussard discovered with his paper puzzles. Now that the camp has been destroyed, what will they do next? We know they’ve seen flyers for Seattle. Also, we don’t know how far away the camp was from Seattle, nor do we know how much time passed between the shootout at the camp and the scene where Broussard and Amy arrive in the burned-out camp.
It looks like the Bowmans were walking for at least 3 days, but it’s hard to know how far they would make it in that time. The man in the car (Jim) seemed to think it would take 2 hours to drive to Seattle, though he also said if he dropped off his family and came back for the Bowmans, it would be “half a day.” The car ran out of gas anyway, but it was pitch dark when the Bowmans started driving and full daylight when they ran out of gas, so that was probably longer than 2 hours. Will mentions the possibility of finding a cabin in the Olympic Mountains, which are west of Seattle, and Iris calls for an emergency medical team at the eastern access point of the refugee area. So I’m stumped about the geography of this. I’m going to say that Broussard and Amy, being in better shape and not carrying a wounded child, could make it from the camp to Seattle in a couple of days, but that doesn’t mean they will enter the colony. And we still don’t know how long the time jump was. But I really hope we’ll see Broussard in episode 7. Surely we can’t have 2 Broussard-less episodes in a row — the Team Broussard members won’t stand for that!
The Seattle Protocol
So, we’re given to understand that “the Seattle Protocol” . . .
- already happened in Seattle (or, at least, the first stage of it).
- Involved 2 stages: Rendition, and then Reboot.
- If they plan to do this in Santa Monica and San Fernando, where are the residents going to be “renditioned” to, if the Factory has been destroyed? Are they rebuilding it on the Moon? The Proxies said they didn’t want factories in their blocs, as it “makes us a target” of the other aliens. So I’m really confused about what exactly this Rendition and Reboot process means.
- Where do they get new Colonists to “reboot” with?
That last question brings me to my theory of what’s going on in Seattle in our current timeline, where the Bowmans are now:
- If you’re going to reboot, i.e., repopulate the Colony, you need new people. Where do you get them? Two possibilities:
- Go round them up at gunpoint; or
- Lure them there with promises of some kind of benefit.
- So they’re luring people to Seattle, people who have been outside of the colonies but managed to survive the one and a half years since the Arrival. They bring them in and “process” them, get them settled and . . . then what? I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
I’d love to hear what you think in the comments below.
