“Colony” 1.09 Review: Is “Zero Day” the Point of No Return for Will and Katie?

With the finale dead ahead, more and more pieces of the Colony puzzle are starting to come together, and the ninth episode, “Zero Day,” delivered the biggest of them all. After weeks of speculation, this episode finally gave us a glimpse of one of the enigmatic Hosts—a glimpse that was very, very telling. From the beginning, I theorized that the reason the Hosts were so reluctant to show themselves in public was that they have a physical disadvantage about which they don’t want humans to know. Now, after watching “Zero Day,” I realized I wasn’t that far off the mark.

Before I get into that shocking revelation, I want to discuss some of the other pivotal moments that occurred over the course of this episode, namely the heated confrontation between Will and Katie. For the most part, Will and Katie are on strikingly different paths, with Will actively working for the Occupation and Katie passionately fighting for the Resistance. Nevertheless, I can’t help but feel that the common denominator for both of them is their fear and love for their family. Will is desperate to find his lost son Charlie and has convinced himself that the Transitional Authority is a necessary evil. What’s more, he’s terrified by the prospect that Katie’s actions could put their family in present danger.

Katie, on the other hand, is worried about their future and sees the Resistance as the only way in which she can prevent their children from growing up in the oppressive environment of the Occupation. Additionally, she distrusts the Transitional Authority and by extension all of its promises. In other words, she thinks her husband is being led astray and being used as a pawn, something that doesn’t sit well with her.

In their own ways, both of them are fighting for their family’s safety, but while Will is focused on the present, Katie is looking ahead toward the future. This has inevitably led them down different roads and has forced them to maneuver around each other, which in turn has led to a lot of pent up hurt, anger and betrayal. All of that repressed emotion was bound to boil to the surface at some point—and that is exactly what happens in “Zero Day.”

I think it’s worth noting that Will gave Katie several chances to tell him the truth, but she didn’t take advantage of any of them. Therefore, Will had no choice but to tell her flat out that he knows what she’s doing. This results in an impassioned altercation, during which several interesting things are brought to light. Under the pressure of the Occupation, it’s clear that neither of them trusts the other’s judgement anymore, primarily because their experience with the Transitional Authority has taught each of them something different. Will’s time as an agent for the Occupation has made him skeptical about the Resistance’s chances; therefore, he views what Katie is doing as fruitlessly dangerous. His plan is to get the family out of dodge and go to Big Bear with Beau, but Katie isn’t having any of it.

She views Will’s proposition as cowardly in a sense. Her experience with the Occupation has increased her urge to fight and she won’t stop fighting just because Will tells her to stop. Her dream is to get Will to fight with her, but Will is too disillusioned at this point to even entertain that idea.

Sadly, I think Will and Katie have reached an impasse that could change their relationship forever. I don’t see them compromising any time soon. But what does this mean for them moving forward? There’s no doubt that they love each other, but will that be enough to help them overcome their differences?

And what’s up with Maddie? It’s obvious that she’s not just trying to one up Charlotte in this episode; I think that she wants to climb as high up the social ladder as she can, and she’ll step on whoever she needs to in the process. For this reason, I think she’s latched onto Nolan as her ticket to esteem and wealth. Since Nolan and Proxy Snyder are close, Nolan probably has a bright political future ahead of him, a future that Maddie finds irresistibly attractive. Regardless of her aspirations, I know she has her son’s best interests at heart. I only hope that she isn’t banking on the wrong horse.

Now, let’s turn our attention to the episode’s eye-opening ending. After Broussard, Katie, Morgan and the rest of the team successfully derail a train transporting a Transitional Authority Ambassador into the Bloc, they discover the body of one of the Hosts, clad in an impenetrable body suit. This leads me to believe that the Hosts themselves aren’t seen on Earth because they can’t survive on Earth; they are biologically incompatible with some aspect of the environment. This would also explain why they would have to rely on human Collaborators to maintain order. Based on these new details, I think that the Hosts are trying to find a way to adapt to the conditions on Earth—perhaps via the Factory. Once they figure it out, I don’t think they will need humanity anymore.

All in all, this was an intense episode that set the stage for what’s sure to be an outstanding finale. How are the Hosts going to react to one of their own being kidnapped? What are Katie and the others going to discover about these mysterious beings? And how is Will going to prevent the wrath of the Transitional Authority from descending on Katie’s head? Whatever happens, I have a feeling that it’s going to change the Bowman family and the fabric of the show forever.

The season finale of Colony airs on Thursday, March 17 at 10:00 pm ET/PT on USA.