Colony Season 2 Episode 9 Review: Tamam Shud

Colony changes its crazy, unpredictable, dangerous game yet again in "Tamam Shud."

This Colony review contains spoilers.

Colony Season 2 Episode 9

Remember how last week was full of twists and turns that blew apart the show’s world and reassembled it in a new and unusual configuration? Yeah, this episode knocks all of that over like one big poorly structured Jenga puzzle and doesn’t even bother with putting things back together again. “Tamam Shud” means “finished” or “ended” in Persian, and hot damn, is that ever an appropriate title straight out of the The X-Files school of cryptic yet relevant episode titles.

Practically all the Bowman’s sins against the Occupation are brought to light when detective Burke finally puts two and two together and realizes that Katie’s working for the Resistance and Will’s side gig is assisting her. Once this revelation is made, Colony’s protagonists are forced to choose the side of the Resistance once and for all instead of playing nice under the Hosts’ rules. Thus, the “double agent” intrigue that’s been a defining feature of the show is thrown to the winds – for the moment, at least.

But it’s about time, wouldn’t you say? My only gripe with Colony this season was that I didn’t understand why it was taking Homeland Security so long to make these connections in the first place, given that their surveillance efforts are so extensive. But in under five minutes or so, Burke has it all figured out. Meanwhile, we are trying our best not to soil ourselves while we wait and see what happens in what are, quite possibly, the tensest moments the series has delivered to date.

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(Again I ask: Who knew that Artie, the Strongest Man in the World would make a villain that you’d love to hate?)

What frames the action here – or at least, what stirs things up for our heroes – is the incident that the teaser focuses on: an older aircraft is hijacked by Resistance members outside the LA Bloc and flown across the wall. One of them escapes and parachutes down when the plane is shot down from the sky by the drones. Her name is Noa (as we find out in this episode’s final moments) and she’s here to pick up the gauntlet from Broussard on behalf of one of his former military colleagues.

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Let’s be real. Although we just met her and still know next to nothing about her character, Noa is more or less a walking deus ex machina in “Tamam Shud.” She literally falls out of the sky like a programmed storybot to push the ongoing gauntlet arc forward and to save Will from his sticky situation with The Occupation, not once, but twice. Without her running around the Bloc like a loose cannon, Will couldn’t have struck that deal with Bennett that bought himself both the time the means to improvise his escape during his arranged meeting with Noa. He also would have been shot down by the armed undercover operatives that chased him into a dead end corridor in some random concrete structure that just so happened to be next to their rendezvous point. In that sense, Noa serves an obvious function here, and a thinly veiled one at that. But in a world defined by its extreme consequences and lack of hope, Colony’s talented writing staff must set up as many escape hatches under our noses as they can get away with to make sure that our headliners live to see another day.

So yes. Will got busted. And Katie did too, but what really sealed her fate (and established her position as a Resistance member) was when she and Broussard ran into the dingy temporary apartment where her kids were being held, guns blazing, and took down a team of Red Hats.

Does this scene remind you of something? The ending sequence of “Somewhere Out There” (S2E02) maybe? Where Will goes ballistic and shoots down warlord Solomon and his crew so he can get retribution for Charlie’s abuse? The way this moment mirrors that not-so-distant memory is not just intentional, it’s necessary. Katie needed to break free from the Occupation’s rules and play things her way for a change. When her children are in jeopardy, Katie has the same instincts as Will. That’s why they’re a power couple. (Kind of.)

Now that their cover is blown, how can the Bowman family survive in Broussard’s sewer lair? Where is Gracie going to sleep? Do they even have a shower there? Or a toilet, for that matter? I guess we’ll find out.

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Meanwhile, drama is brewing between Helena and Proxy Alcala. One that’s about to cost him his job. Now, I like how Colony’s writers try incredibly hard to find an excuse to keep Peter Jacobson on the payroll. But is The Occupation really going to reinstate Snyder as a proxy again this soon after the giant debacle that occurred under his watch at the prison labor camp? My disbelief needs suspending again. Sigh.

By the way… does anyone else feeling haunted by the image of Will stabbing Burke in the stomach with a broken soda bottle in broad daylight, or is it just me?)

All in all, this was the hour that is going to leave a mark on this show for (probably) the rest of its run. Which is hopefully for four more years. Come on USA! You can do it.

Rating:

5 out of 5