Do you remember back in the first season of Alias? Sydney Bristow believed she was working for a covert arm of the CIA, SD-6, only to discover that she was in fact working for a criminal and espionage organisation posing as a branch of the CIA. Then she was recruited by the actual CIA to continue work at SD-6 as a double agent. She/we never really knew who was on whose side half the time, this included her friends and her family. It was all quite head-fucky but led to some brilliant, tense, suspenseful, adrenaline fueled television.
In Blind Spot, Colony had a chance to add a similar twist into proceedings. Sadly, they bottled it.
Will's boss, Phylis, found out the truth about Katie's allegiance to the Resistance, and she was going to levy it to have Katie work for her, without Will's knowledge of course. So we could have had Katie Bowman, wife of Will, the Homeland collaborator and all round good guy, playing the supporting, loving spouse whilst her man attempts to track down Geronimo and his followers. Unbeknown to him, Katie's a Resistance operative, feeding them information she garners from her husband about Homeland's plans to help fight against the occupation. Unbeknown to the Resistance, the intel would have been now been cherry-picked and supplied by Homeland themselves. With this in place Homeland would've had a significant advantage, but unbeknown to both Phylis and Katie the opening scenes of Blind Spot revealed that one of Homeland's Red Hats is also Resistance operative, giving him access to the Green Zone and all the collaborating VIPs safely housed there. The closing scenes of the episode saw him take out Phylis, put a stop to her plans, a dent in Homeland's control and dashing the chances of, what could've been, a really interesting situation to witness unfolding.
Kathy Baker played Phylis wonderfully, and I'll miss her character. She obviously had an agenda, and someone higher up to report to, but she still managed to protect Will's son Bram and not log his tapes of Geronimo as evidence. Like Will, she seemed to be able to see the shades of grey existing in this new world. Not everything is strictly black or white, good or bad, us or them. Many people are just doing what they have to do for a greater reason. Will to locate his missing son and keep his family safe, and Phylis, seemingly, to provide medical care for her husband.
Which brings me on to Katie's younger sister, Maddie, who found herself a new job in the Green Zone cataloging art for, and drinking wine with, Charlotte Burgess, all to provide the vital insulin her son needs for his diabetes. Will Maddie blow it all for a quick roll in the Hollywood Hills with Mr Burgess? It certainly looks like that's being set up.
All round, though, Blind Spot was another great episode of Colony. It was very very light on the invaders or anything to do with them, focusing more on character development and plot set-ups. Once again, we had Katie Bowman at the forefront of the story, leaving Will in the shadows, and this seems to work for the best as it helps keep the show away from the bog standard police procedural format that I feared it may fall in to. Yes, I'd rather they'd kept Phylis alive and let the double-double crossing play out for a while, but there was so much to enjoy in this episode, and we're left with loads of intrigue going forward, that I can mark her early exit down as part of the bigger picture. One I'm excited to keep watching.
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