Colony season 3, episode 9: The Big Empty

Sarah Wayne Callies made her directorial debut with this week’s episode of Colony. In the episode, Will finally confronts Snyder and we finally learn why Will wasn’t killed by the drone in season one.

There has been a string of actors making their directorial debuts in episodes of their shows this year and Sarah Wayne Callies became the latest to add her name to the list. Though her role in this episode of Colony was small, the emotion she was able to pull out of her co-stars made it well worth it and we’ll look for her to direct more things in the near future.

This week’s episode of Colony focused primarily on Will’s interrogation of Snyder. There were many tense moments and a lot of emotion from Will, Snyder, and Bram. The end result is that both sides learned something they didn’t know before they entered the room.

Flashback

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This week’s flashback showed us what happened with the guy who Broussard killed for the briefcase last week. His name was David and he was reporting directly to Kynes. He was warned that Snyder would be poking around which means the substance he was carrying was a secret from the IGA. We learn in this flashback that the material is strong enough to withstand a blast from a drone.

Snyder vs Kynes

Back in the present, Snyder shows up at Kynes office to tell him that he’ll be staying a few extra days. They have another chess match as that ends with Kynes finishing on top.  Snyder was hoping to snoop around unobstructed but ends up having a security detail assigned to him.

Will acting different

Over the past few episodes, Will and Katie have been fractured. The kids have noticed and things are bad at home. Will has been working at night and Katie during the day so they don’t cross paths often. Today, however, Will is up early and seems to be in a good mood. We find out why later.

Capturing Snyder

In the next scene we see Will arriving at a hotel with Amy. They’re undercover as a couple. Broussard, meanwhile, is getting a guy drunk playing a game of poker so he can steal his maintainance uniform.

When we see Snyder arriving at the same hotel it becomes clear that he is the mark. Will is watching from across the street as Snyder works to convince his security that they don’t need to follow him into the hotel. He’s successful, and as he walks in we see that Amy and Will got the room across the hall from Snyder. Amy comes down the hall behind Snyder carrying too many things and catches his attention. She gets him to help her and he comes into the room.

Will comes into the room behind him and they tie him up.

Phase 2

We then see that Bram is part of the mission. He switched patrols with another guy so he’d have an excuse to be downtown. He alerts Will and the rest of the crew that there is a security guard outside the door they were about to sneak Snyder out of. The crew reverts to plan B and find an empty storage room to question Snyder in.

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The interrogation

Amy sets up a camera to record the interrogation and Snyder asks Broussard for a guarantee that he’ll survive the meeting. Broussard refuses the guarantee.

Snyder starts to open up with little coercion, saying that he’s there to dig up dirt on Kynes. Pleased up to this point, they ask him about the bio weapon and Snyder initially lies. After Broussard slaps him, he decides to open up again. He tells Snyder that the island that he and Kynes went to when Will followed him last week has a storage space where “Outliers” are being held. They are people, mostly ex-military, who are being used by the hosts as an army. They are the people who were in the pods in season 1 and drones know not to kill them.

He further tells them that these Outliers were initially sent to space but are now being stored at this island. These people are the bio-weapon, and there are hundreds of thousands of them. The group discerns that Will is one of these Outliers without saying this out loud. Amy then shows Snyder the material they found and it’s clear he’s never seen it. He also tells them that the IGA wants to take Kynes out because they know he’s doing shady things.

Results

After all of this, Broussard asks if Will is buying any of it. Will tells him that part of what Snyder is saying is true, the problem is that you never know which part.

Amy and Broussard escape

After realizing Snyder lied to them, saying that no one would be checking on him until the morning, Broussard and Amy prepare to leave. Amy doesn’t want to leave Will with Snyder and starts to talk to him about PTSD but he tells her to go.

Broussard and Amy leave just as the security guys get backup and begin searching the building for Snyder.

Snyder and Will

Will sits down in front of a terrified Snyder and tells him that he knows Snyder played him and his family. Snyder tries to act like there was no plot with the IGA but Will isn’t buying it. Snyder make one good point when he says that Will would have died if the IGA forces hadn’t showed up when they did. This just further proves Will’s point that Snyder had a way to contact them the entire time and used him and his family.

At this point Will is done and puts the gun to Snyder’s head while begging him to confess to being the reason that Charlie is dead but Snyder won’t do it. He takes a big risk in blaming Will by saying that they should have left the camp when he initially suggested it. I was sure that Will would have pulled the trigger at that point but he doesn’t. He walks away and puts the gun down.

Snyder then tries to further say that he saved lives as proxy but concedes after Will puts deaths on him that he can’t deny. Snyder then goes back to saying that he mourns for Charlie too and he loved him. He says that he buried him though we only saw him look at him and walk away.

This backfires as it ends with Will holding Snyder’s head under water in a toilet for what felt like a full minute before letting him up.

Bram wants blood

Amy tells Bram that he can leave and that Will can handle it, but Bram goes inside instead. When he gets to the room he’s surprised to see Snyder is still alive. When he realizes Will isn’t going to do it he offers to. Bram offers additional examples of why Snyder needs to die, things Will wasn’t aware of. Will tries to talk him down by saying he doesn’t know what it’s like to take a life but then Bram tells him the story of a man he killed in the Green Zone in LA.

At the end of it all, a teary eyed Will tells Snyder to leave and he does.

Conclusions

After the security guys find Snyder, he lies about where he’s been and why his face is beaten. He tells them he was with a dominatrix essentially before heading back to his room.

Back at Amy’s house, she is upset about Will killing Snyder and says that she won’t work with him anymore. She thinks he’s suicidal.

Meanwhile, at the “Dalton’s”, Gracie tells Katie about Bram’s girlfriend. Then, Katie walks downstairs to find Will in the living room. He’s not just sitting in the dark this time however. He’s bawling. They finally have an emotional moment together.

Next: Colony recap: Lazarus

What’s next

With four episodes left in the season, Colony is building toward its next big reveal. The previews for the next episode let us know that Will is going to find out that the people running the Seattle colony have known who he is the entire time. It also appears that Will locates another “Outlier.” We don’t quite know if this is a dangerous revelation or one that makes Will more powerful but we should get some answers next week.

Colony returns next Wednesday at 10/9 Central on USA Network.