Colony – Free Radicals

By: Gladys Luna

The episode opens with a young couple having sex when suddenly the man asks the girl to stop because he can´t breathe. She kindly takes the nasal canal standing next to them and sets it on the guy. After a while, they manage to get off of bed and get ready for the day. The young man appears to be nervous as he is buttoning his shirt in front of the mirror, but is immediately comforted by the woman´s embrace from behind. When he is done, the woman takes a flask out of a box and pours the contents of it in two oval wooden cups with a red symbol stamped on them and drink it. Later on, we see the same man standing on the check in line in order to enter to one of the green zones becoming even more nervous as he approaches to the spot where the red hat officers are checking on every one trying to cross. People around him begin to notice how anxious he seems to be and ask him if he is alright, but he gets frightened and decides to walk away. As he does, one of the dogs standing in the check-in line starts to bark at him drawing the attention of the red hats officers who immediately walk towards him asking him to stop. When he does, he excuses himself by telling them he made a mistake and he should not be there. Before anything else happens, a ticking sound coming from his backpack is set off and suddenly a bomb explodes. It is revealed that the one responsible for it is the woman from earlier who is now speaking to a radio and saying: “He didn’t reach the target but it´s done.”

Katie (Sarah Wayne Callies) and Will (Josh Holloway) are walking Minnie as they discuss the different possibilities they have to open the file that would reveal their son Bram’s status. With all the things happening recently, the restrictions and surveillance at Will´s office have increased making it truly hard for him to open the files. Katie suggests they ask for her friends’ help (referring to The Resistance team) and although Will seems to be hesitant at first, he finally agrees.

Will and Detective Burke (Toby Huss) are called into Bennett´s (Christian Clemenson) office where the man explains Will about the “bomber man” situation that morning at one of the green zones. He tells him that the man had been seen with a woman named Frankie Brun (Lyndon Smith) and that she may be their way into the cell. He asks Will to find her family and friends and, hopefully, they will get to something.

Katie pays a visit to Broussard (Tory Kittles), Morgan (Thora Birch) and Eckhart (Charlie Bewley) and tells them she needs their help in opening the files she stole from one of the proxy´s office. She explains that her sister Maddie (Amanda Righetti) showed the files to her and all she wants is to know some information about her son Bram (Alex Neustaedter) and they can do whatever they want with the rest of it. Broussard agrees and tells her they will contact her when they do it.

Bram is tricked with sex into stealing Snyder´s access card by Maya (Jessica Parker Kennedy). She explains to him how they plan to use it before leaving Bram standing there speechless without knowing what to do. Will and Detective Burke visit Frankie´s family and ask them about the girl´s whereabouts. They act suspicious before Will´s interrogations, but finally confirm they don’t know anything about her. Will feigns to believe them and tells Burke there is no way they can provide any information. Burke borrows their phone and makes a call. He then hands them their phone telling them their grandkids Johnny and Bella are now with some members of his team. The couple look at each other with fear and then the man takes the phone confirming his grandkid Johnny is on the other side of the line. Both detectives leave the house while Will confronts his partner for using the grandkids to get information from them, but Burke tells him that they both know the couple were lying to them from the beginning yet what he doesn’t know is why Will didn’t push any further. He tells him if he is not that committed to his job, they sure will find someone to replace him.

Nolan (Adrian Pasdar) confronts Maddie about a notification he received form the Minister of Intelligence who reported to him that one of the files containing the information of the prisoners allocations was downloaded from his computer a few nights ago. Maddie lies to him assuring that she knows nothing about said incident, but is pretty obvious he doesn’t believe her.

Bram manages to steal the key card from Snyder’s (Peter Jacobson) office, but when Snyder comes in and sees him standing there Bram suddenly changes his mind. He then decides to tell Snyder about his friends plan on escaping asking in exchange for the man´s help to send him back home.

Maddie visits Katie at her home and faces her about stealing the files from Nolan´s compute,  but Katie dares to lie to her assuring her that she wouldn’t do such thing and Maddie believes her sister´s words. She also suggests Katie make amends with Lindsey (Erin Way) in order to not to drag any unwanted attention towards them. Katie agrees to talk to the blonde teacher and ask her to come back and keep doing her work with Gracie (Isabella Crovetti).

Will and Burke, along with a team, arrive to the house where Frankie´s family told them she was hiding at. As they enter the place, some random people begin to come out and the shooting begins. Five people are put on their knees, Frankie included, while Burke asks them who runs the cell but nobody replies to him making the man shooting one of the five people. Will watches him from aside wearing a concerned and pained look in his face as he sees how he is executing them one by one when nobody tells him what he wants to know. Will decides to walk away from there and back into the house. He suddenly stumbles when another man who looks at him terrified, but Will nods at him as a sign to walk away allowing the man to escape from there.

Katie arrives at “The Greatest Day Wilshire Boulevard Congregation” to talk to Lindsey, but is immediately met with a tv spot where Maddie and Nolan are inviting people to join them. When she finally spots the blonde, she talks to her and apologizes for overreacting on her. Lindsey accepts the apology and tells her she is not only there for Gracie or Charlie (Jacob Buster) but also for her.

Broussard visits a mystery man (John Bishop) who explains to him that the recording that NASA had (and that was shown in an earlier episode) was announcing an event. It is known as “The Arrival” and he informs Broussard that the video he and his team stole from the RAP was similar to that one. The question is, what kind of event is announcing?

Bram delivers the key card to Maya and she kisses him in gratitude. She tells him she knew from the first time she laid eyes on him that he was one of them. So, she proposes a toast which is part of a ritual for them. The whole scene develops in a similar way to the one that Frankie had with the “bomber man.”

Burke is electroshocking Frankie as a way to obtain some information on who is the runner of the cell she is part of, but she keeps telling she doesn’t know. Will gets sick of hearing the girl scream so he breaks in the room and stops the torture. He kindly approaches her and begins to interrogate her, but she confirms him she knows nothing about the runner. She only explains to him her methods of recruitment, but before she can say anything else she passes out. Will tries to carry her out of the room to help her, but is stopped by Burke. Frankie is getting worse by the minute until she finally dies right in front of Will.

Morgan announces to Broussard they have managed to open Katie´s files revealing shocking news about the forecast of population that would be disappearing over the next years. Bennet scolds Will and Burke and tells them the story they will use to justify what happened to Frankie is that she managed to kill herself while being interrogated. Burke requests to be assigned with another partner, but Bennet declines his petition telling them they need to work together and bring him something useful or he will have their jobs.

At labor camp, Bram and Maya manage to escape to an isolated area where some containers are set all covered with red sheets. The girl uncovers one of the containers revealing a woman on the inside. She opens the container and the woman begins to vomit a green substance. Bram tries to help her, but is scolded by the girl telling him the woman is already dead. All of a sudden, the door of the room is opened and the girl sends Bram to check on who it might be while she sets the bomb. Bram goes to the front of the room and is met with Officer Jenkins (Mac Brandt). They begin to fight and when Jenkins is about to kill him, Edison (Max Arciniega) shows up beating the officer in the head until he kills him. Edison then asks Bram to go back before they notice he is missing.

Will arrives at his house and is instantly intercepted by Lindsey who tells him about Charlie´s impolite behavior towards her so he assures her he will talk to him. He goes outside to meet Charlie and shows him a Makiwara, something he was building before he went back to work and explains to him what the Makiwara is for. He tries to teach him to punch, but suddenly Charlie stares at him then finally walks away leaving his father on his own.

Katie meets Broussard. He tells her that according to the files Bram will be back in less than six months making the woman smile out of happiness. He asks her to go back to the team, but she refuses. She says she needs to focus on her family and Broussard informs her that this is about her family. He tells her that where they are now, it isn´t a colony but a death camp.

Back at the labor camp, Snyder is reported about the prisoners that were caught making a riot that served as a distraction for Bram and his partners to plant the bomb on the shipment that was set to be picked up that night. He is relieved that said shipment wasn´t stopped from happening by the incident. Then, the space ship that is supposed to make the transportation explodes in midair in front of everyone´s astounded faces. Snyder requests to take the prisoners to another space and look for Jenkins.

Bram keeps looking for Maya, but is told that she was the one who detonated the bomb while it was launched. Will tells Katie he can’t keep working for Bennett and she tries to brighten his mood by telling him the good news about Bram. Also, she lets him know “The Occupation” will be sending more people to the “The Factory” every month. In addition to that, she informs him about the encrypted coded countdown that Broussard and his team found telling him that it ends on the exact day that the zone will be emptied. It is a countdown to their extinction. Katie tells him that she promised him that she will not go back to work with The Resistance, but she needs to do something about it. And after a brief consideration, Will finally agrees. He asks her how long they have until the whole area is emptied to what she replies: “Two years, three months and nine days.”