Colony recap: Broussard

If there’s one thing Colony knows how to do, it’s unravel story lines. And that mystery and intrigue is part of what helps keep the show interesting, even seven episodes in. Cuse is a master of this kind of slow reveal — it’s what he perfected while working on Lost and it’s also a storytelling technique he uses frequently on Bates Motel. It works on Colony, which, like Bates (and to a lesser extent, Lost), operates on a shortened season…meaning that it only has so many hours to tell a story and to make sure the audience becomes invested enough to keep watching.

We’re still not sure what “The Arrival” is — but we seem to be getting closer to an answer. A sermon touches on how society has been changed thanks to this event, with the proclamation of, “We all knew in our souls one day, our destiny would be fulfilled!” It’s inspiring, but it’s also a little preachy and cult-ish. Included in this scene are two key moments: the announcement of a visit from Adrian Pasdar’s “Brother Nolan” (Charlotte’s husband) and the reveal of the Bowman’s tutor, Lindsey (Erin Way). This doesn’t seem to bode well for Katie, who is in constant PTSD mode. She has a nightmare about coming home from work to an empty house, where she finds Broussard sneaking around and shoots him. At this point, Katie is struggling with feeling cut off from almost everything in her life: her husband, the Resistance, her friends…even her family. When Gracie seems more interested in spending time with Lindsey rather than going to the park with her mom, Katie’s rightfully taken aback. Given that we now we know that Lindsey’s motives may not be as innocent as we thought, this is concerning to us, as well.

Lindsey talks to Gracie about a paper man they’re playing with — a man who was misunderstood, who helped people learn about the universe. People believed for 2,000 years he’d come back and save the world and that everyone would start over brand new when he did. The sermon earlier mentioned how “we must prepare our children,” and as such, Lindsey makes sure Gracie is enticed by the idea that she’s going to be a big part of this new, changing world. She even gives her a special book called Greatest Day. She can read it, but, you know, it has to be their little secret. I’m thinking Lindsey definitely needs to be paired up with Elder Price so the two can go head-to-head on who has the better technique for selling religion.

At Homeland Security headquarters, Will, Jennifer, and Snyder are looking at a picture of Broussard, a.k.a. “Dwight Ford.” All they know about him is that he enlisted with Homeland Security nine months ago, which means he’s apparently been collecting intel on them for a long time. The Red Hats (and Will and Beau) attempt to go to his house and take him out, but Broussard’s already got that covered, setting up some C-4 to greet them. Jennifer works on getting more concrete information on Broussard via a special machine that Snyder helps them access, which Will hopes will give them more leads. In the meantime, Will and Beau chat up a few Homeland guys who were riding with Broussard. They don’t learn much, except for the fact that one of them noticed he had a tattoo of a skull with wings on his chest. Will correctly identifies this as being a Marine special ops logo because he’s the smartest. Fortunately, Jennifer got the machine to work! Unfortunately, while there’s a ton of information on Broussard, there’s nothing about his involvement in the military, which leads Will to believe that there’s more to this guy than they can see on the surface. Speaking of things that aren’t as rosy as they seem on the surface…

Maddie’s plush life in the Green Zone looks really good. She’s getting some via an affair with Nolan but only because Charlotte likes watching. This makes things supremely uncomfortable work-wise, especially when Nolan approaches her and tries to get her to sleep with him alone. Maddie won’t let him because “three is the magic number” apparently. But when Charlotte puts Maddie back on envelope duty and threatens to take away her job as well as the source of insulin for her son, things get tense. Maddie confronts Nolan, thinking he did something to jeopardize her job when she refused to sleep with him. Although Nolan protests he didn’t do anything, she threatens him to fix it.

NEXT: I’m a trust fund baby, you can trust me

Broussard is attempting to cover his tracks as best he can. He steals a similar-looking, already-deceased body and meets Quayle so they can stage a suicide. They make sure to effectively burn everything so that no one will actually be able to tell if it’s Broussard. (Spoiler alert: Will, when he arrives later to check it out, isn’t fooled.) During this scene, Quayle gives Broussard some long spiel about Caesar and mythology (because that’s what you talk about when pretending to kill someone). The moral of the story is that “war is about making hard choices.” In other words, Quayle doesn’t trust Katie (good, because Katie doesn’t trust him). She’s made a mess of things since she got involved, and he’d like her dead, please.

Katie, for her part, has been trying to get in touch with Broussard. She goes to his house (pre-explosion) but can’t find him, so she calls him via code and then manages to finally connect with him via a secret message that needs to be decoded by using her copy of Nostromo. Remember when I said that book would come in handy? I wasn’t wrong! Katie gets the message (“eighteen hundred where you meet the general a friend”) and then gets into a car with Broussard, who takes her to a cliff overlooking the city. Broussard tells her they need to talk in private and then talks a little bit about her family before asking her if she ever gave Will information on them. Katie is appalled that Broussard would think of her as being any kind of double agent — “everything I have is on the line right now because of you. I came to this cause because of you,” she tells him angrily. Broussard goes to visit Rachel afterwards, admitting that Quayle wants Katie dead. But Broussard, surprisingly, trusts her and doesn’t want to do it.

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When Katie returns home, she finds Will waiting for her with both good news and a drink: A visit to Snyder’s house resulted in getting a file that has a photo of Charlie in it. Katie is visibly emotional at the reveal that her son is alive and well somewhere just out of reach, and maybe that contributes to her growing unease about this whole situation. She urges Will to get out because she thinks he’s being manipulated. Will says he’s trying, but I think Will is probably more tangled up than anyone knows or expects. Later on, Will presents Katie with a photo of Broussard and mentions that she may have seen him before. Katie’s hesitant to answer but then reveals that she saw him a few times when he came into her bar. She tells Will he lived at his mom’s house and liked doing home improvement jobs. Is Katie lying to protect her friend? Nope — she’s actually telling the truth. That truth helps Jennifer narrow down Broussard from cross-indexing IDs and credit cards, finding information on a delivery from Home Depot to the home of one Harriet Broussard, who died during the Arrival. But she had a son, who was Force Recon in the Marines. Ding!

Rachel shows up at The Yonk, surprising Katie. Katie asks if she knew about Broussard being involved in the gateway bombing, which was new information to her. Rachel says Broussard really does trust her, which is big in of itself because he doesn’t trust anyone. Katie takes comfort in this, calling Broussard and alerting him to the fact Will’s coming for him. When the Red Hats mobilize at the house, they find a whole lot of nothing except some personal photos, Homeland Security clothes, and a clueless neighbor (Quayle). But Will finds something else among the deserted house: a copy of Nostromo, which he remembers seeing when he found Katie’s hidden box in The Yonk. We can almost SEE the pieces fitting together as Will takes in the fact his wife is working with the Resistance because this is as big a confirmation as any. And now we know everything is about to get real.

Bacon Bits:

• Like a good man, Will never turns down coffee
• Snyder’s got a daughter! Jennifer used to work for an online dating company! I like all the slow reveals of our supporting players, and I also like how they’re all building toward helping us learn a little more about what makes them real people behind these groups that are so focused on government control. Peeling back all these layers is what makes Colony different.
• Can I talk again about the amazing chemistry between Holloway and Callies? I could watch scenes between them all day; they’re just that good.