Colony finale recap: 'Ronin'

Welp. It’s a good thing we know that Colony will return for a third season, because this finale is anything but a finisher.

Let’s start by talking about the episode title, “Ronin.” As any Keanu Reeves fans in the crowd will know from his recent film of a similar name, the term refers to a samurai whose master has fallen. Tonight, that term seems to apply to Alan Snyder, who’s arrived as the low-key most important player of this season.

He’s a guy who lives and dies by his oath that he always keeps his promises, and yet he’s the biggest snake in the bush when he wants to be. At the end of the day, the only person Snyder’s worried about looking out for is himself, and he proves that once and for all tonight. He doesn’t wield a sword, but the cuts he makes are for himself from here on out, not Helena.

Let’s take it from the top of this emotional gut punch of an episode, yes?

So, remember that Rap that supposedly defected and fell into the hands of Noah’s rebellion group that got overrun while she was away in L.A. trying to scare up the missing gauntlet? Well, it’s been captured by the Global Authority, and they’ve successfully revived the thing to bring it back online. Whether it’s still ready to raise hell with its fellow aliens or not remains to be seen, but rest assured, it’s no longer in the hands of Noah’s pals in the other bloc, whether the Bowmans know it or not.

The Los Angeles bloc is in total chaos as Homeland heads up an evacuation of the entire city so as to alleviate supply shortages, and Snyder senses that his dear leader Helena has not been completely honest with him about what’s going on right now. He tries to get some intel from Homeland by paying another visit to Bennett’s office, but all he can intuit is that the bloc is being cleared out in search of the gauntlet. That’s when he confronts Helena directly. She informs him that “total rendition” is nigh, and, yes, we finally get to find out what that means. Every living person found in the bloc is set for immediate transport to the factory, and Snyder’s on the exemption list (his daughter, too) but the catch is this: He’s going to be a meager staffer on her new team at the Authority, so it’s gonna be a major ego burn for him.

Will and Katie are also in a bind after their hiding spot is infiltrated by blackjacks. They’re able to mow them down — with Morgan’s life lost in the process — but their underground station is no longer safe for laying low, so Katie decides to call upon the one remaining resource she has. Luckily for her, the bible group leader she’d been friendly with before is happy to take in her family and Broussard for a temporary stay. Once they regroup, Will decides they have one last card up their sleeves worth playing, and that’s to contact Snyder about handing over the gauntlet. In their minds, the gauntlet is the reason for all this madness anyway, so maybe they can save more lives than their own by turning it over. Broussard’s not a fan of this plan, but he goes along with being overruled.

Will calls Snyder and tells him what he’s got, and it’s a conveniently timed call indeed because Snyder’s definitely interested in exploring other options for his own future aside from the one Helena’s carved out for him. He approaches the blackjacks, on his own behalf instead of as an agent of the Governor General, and offers a trade: his safety and security in exchange for recovery of the gauntlet. But Will doesn’t know that…

So, when he meets with Will to discuss their next move, Will agrees to take him along for the ride in their last-ditch effort to escape the bloc. He wants out, he says, because he has no intention of becoming some lackey in the Global Authority ranks after Los Angeles is all said and done. “After spending the day watching the rats flee a sinking ship, I decided I don’t want to be a rat anymore,” he says. And it’s almost convincing — certainly convincing enough to rope Will and Katie and their kids into the fray.

Broussard decides to hang back and take his chances with the Los Angeles evacuation effort. Colony fans will no doubt hope this is not the last we see of him, but his goodbye to Will and Katie certainly makes it seem like it is.

After taking out a few redhats who are asked to meet with Snyder, Will and Katie suit up and start the process of transporting Snyder, in his “official capacity,” through the Wall. Bram has no interest in Snyder being part of their escape detail, but since he’s the only one with clearance enough to convince a redhat to wave them through, he has no choice, does he?

Once they’re stopped at a checkpoint, Snyder does his best to convince the staff sergeant that he’s under instruction to transport the children in the car to the other side, but the sarge is not so convinced. Charlie and Gracie might pass muster, but one look at Bram and the officer’s suspension of disbelief is done. He asks them all to step out of the car, and even though Snyder insists that Will not break ranks and try some renegade move, he strips his mask and pleads to the sergeant’s sensibilities.

He reminds the redhat in charge that they’re all just parents and people at the end of the day, and that total rendition is coming — he’d better consider his own family right now, too. After the sergeant does his best to confirm that the evacuees are being properly processed, which they’re not, Will’s account starts to check out, and even the head redhat has to have a heart for him in that moment. He waves them through, yes, even with the boxed gauntlet, just in time for the Raps’ ships to start setting in for the bloc. And with that, the Bowmans are finally free… but are they? Just as they’ve gained a safe distance from the wall, Snyder gives Bram a pointed look that seems to say “you were wrong about me” and then immediately reaches into his pocket to tamp what must be a tracking device of some sort because his Smug Snyder face is on full display as he taps it.

Self-service is what keeps this system afloat, and there’s no one more in it for himself than Snyder.

Maddie is in a bad way right now, too. She’s homeless and separated from her son, and, worst of all, her attempt to sleep outside the Yonk in hopes of catching a moment of her sister’s mercy is wordlessly ignored. She has no choice but to return to her Greatest Day cathedral, and even they want nothing to do with her. Actions have consequences, of course, but even Maddie doesn’t deserve what’s coming to her.

She’s rounded up into an evacuation bus while waiting on line for her rations at her church, and after seeing all the men, women, and children courted into one room to await their processing papers, she realizes she’s made a huge mistake. But it’s too late. As she steps outside of the facility, she sees the ships coming in overhead to whisk everyone away.

Meanwhile, Burke’s still alive and singing cheery hymnals at that. And here we might’ve thought we saw the last of that frightening face. Oh, and he’s got a one-way ticket all set up for him to escape this total rendition death sentence that’s swinging over everyone else’s heads. Turns out, serving “honor and duty” at all cost to humanity might not have been a bad call on his part, after all.

So, that’s where we’re at. The Bowmans are outside of the bloc with the gauntlet, en route to try to make contact with Noah’s resistance team. But they have no idea that they have a traitor in their midst (in their very car, at that) who’s probably just signaled their location, and Noah’s sect of the resistance has already been taken out, and that defected Rap she spoke of is back in the hands of the Global Authority.

Again, it’s a good thing we know a third season is coming on Colony because even though the Los Angeles bloc is now officially in the rearview, the fight has only just begun.