Pilot

"Pilot"
Season	01
Episode number	01
Air date	Jan 14 2016 - US Apr 7th 2016 - UK - Sky One
Writer	Carlton Cuse, Ryan J. Condal
Director	Juan José Campanella
Episodes
Next	Brave New World

"The most important day in human history is coming"
-Proxy Alan Snyder

Synopsis

After being separated from their son during the invasion, Will and Katie Bowman are willing to do whatever is necessary to be reunited with him. When the powerful Proxy Alan Snyder offers Will a chance to get his son back if he will collaborate with the occupational government, Will and Katie find themselves faced with the toughest decision of their lives.

Plot

The series opens with a view of an L.A. house and we hear a radio announcer telling us that it's going to be another "beautiful, boring day" in L.A.

Inside it's a normal enough breakfast scene. A father, Will is cooking (and spilling) eggs for his children, Bram and Gracie. Katie, his wife comes in, looks at a picture on the fridge and kisses the kids

Bram goes out to pick oranges from the tree In the garden. While he’s there we see the razor wire on top of the fence

Will goes out to work and kisses his wife, more than just a normal kiss goodbye and that puzzles her.

A radio announcer is heard saying “New transportation passes are required by the 5th of the month, so be sure to pick yours up.”

We see Will where he works as a garage mechanic with colleagues Carlos and Parko. Parko tells them that his brother has been taken and sent to “The Factory”.

Will and Carlos load the van, We know it’s not for a routine delivery when Will tells Carlos that he can come with him if he wants to; Carlos declines but asks him to pass a message to his family members and gives him a slip of paper.

On the road there are very few motor vehicles, mostly push bicycles. Will has to stop at a Red Hat road block but gets through with no problems.

At a car park Will pays a man and is given a “Santa Monica ID” in exchange for his LA ID. Will is hidden in a freezer in the back of a truck with the man and they are covered with an insulating blanket and a layer of ice. Inside the freezer is a small screen so that they can see what is happening outside. Will tells him that he’s looking for his son who has just turned 12 in Santa Monica

At the gateway the truck is scanned and gets a driver for the Santa Monica area. The LA drivers wait at the gateway.

The scan doesn't pick up the two men hiding in the back and the truck drives off. As it’s clearing the compound a large explosion throws Will and the man around - and out of the freezer. The other man, the Spider, is dead and Will climbs up and out of the lorry where he is captured by Red Hats and airborne drones.

We see Katie cycling down the road with Minnie running alongside her. She stops to look at a wall covered with pictures of missing people - but is moved along by a Red Hat.

A little later she witnesses a man being arrested by some other Red Hats, he is dragged out of a roadside cafe and bundled into a troop transport.

Katie goes into a house, leaving Minnie outside. She meets a woman called Heloise and asks her if she makes insulin - Heloise does, she says and Katie agrees to buy some for a bottle of Glenlivet whiskey. Katie know that insulin needs to be kept cool and that medical quality insulin is clear, but the liquid in the bottle Heloise has given her is warm and cloudy. At best it’s very spoiled - Katie has to hold a pistol on Heloise to get her whiskey back and then has to threaten people with the gun so that she can leave.

She takes Minnie and cycles off.

At school, Abraham is trading as well - swapping lunch with his friend.

An older student, Jackson turns up, asking for his cut of whatever is being traded. Abraham appears to agree but then hits Jackson with his backpack and he and his friends shove him to the ground. They run off shouting “Five Oh!” when teaching staff arrive.

Will is in a holding cell with some other men, he shouts at the Red Hat guards that he wants a phone call, but doesn’t get one.

At home Kate and Bram are worrying about Will. Maddie, Katie's sister, arrives and is upset that Katie couldn’t get the insulin; she only has a week’s supply left. Katie tries to reassure her and asks her to stay as Will hasn’t arrived home, she’s going out to look for him. They are both worried that it’s nearly curfew but she goes anyway.

She goes to see Carlos and asks about Will, Carlos doesn’t tell her anything. As she starts on her way back curfew starts and she has to hide under a military vehicle - which only drives away when the Red Hats come back with their prisoner and drive off. The prisoner, a man, sees her but doesn't give her away.

Katie arrives home and tells them what has happened, and that she doesn’t know where Will is.

The next day she goes to see an old colleague of Will’s. Both he and Will had to go change their names after The Arrival. He tells her to check the hospitals and that he will make some calls. At the hospital she hears about the explosion at the gateway and asks about Will. She takes an opportunity to steal some insulin from a fridge. The nurse returns and tells her that Will isn’t there. She rings Will’s friend and asks - in a very guarded way what happened. He replies in the same guarded way and tries to reassure her.

Will is identified as Will Bowman and taken to Alan Snyder, the Proxy Governer. Snyder wants Will to give him the leader of the resistance “Geronimo”, in return for the lives of his family.

Will arrives homes in a Red Hat transport and scares his wife. When she gets over her relief at getting him back she yells at him for his choices, and Will yells back.

In the morning they are woken by Snyder cooking breakfast in their kitchen. He offers them luxuries, bacon, coffee, tutors for the children and protection in return for Will’s services. Will says he wants his son back, which Snyder says that “Good things come to the loyal.”.

Later on, Katie goes to see someone, it turns out to be the resistance. She tells them that Will has taken the job with Snyder and that this gives them someone on the inside: her.

Cast

Main Cast

• Josh Holloway as Will Bowman
• Sarah Wayne Callies as Katie Bowman
• Amanda Righetti as Maddie Bowman
• Peter Jacobson as Proxy Snyder

Recurring And Guest Cast

• Alex Neustaedter as Bram Bowman
• Tory Kittles as Broussard
• Isabella Crovetti-Cramp as Gracie Bowman
• Charles Baker as The Spider
• Paul Guilfoyle as Quayle
• Jason Butler Harner as David
• Deidrie Henry as Heloise
• Gonzalo Menendez as Captain Lagarza
• Jacob Vargas as Carlos
• Erik Aude as Doorman
• Tristen Bankston as Drew
• Tom Beyer as Café Patron
• Hilty Bowen as Tabitha
• Johnny Cannizzaro as Franco
• Justin Chu Cary as Checkpoint Home Security Officer
• Cooper Friedman as Hudson
• Trevor Lee Georgeson as Prison Guard
• David Haley as Parko
• Maxwell Hamilton as Jackson
• Jermain Hollman as Redhat Captive
• Eme Ikwuakor as Redhat Squad Leader
• Bo Kane as Truck Driver
• Omar Leyva as Apothecary Nurse
• Nina Millin as Nurse Sinclair
• Aedin Mincks as Alex
• Betty Murphy as Grandma
• Alejandra Pérez as Katrina
• Kayla Radin as Young Nurse
• Kim Rhodes as Rachel
• Tom Yi as Husband
• Betsy Zajko as Visitor

Episode Deaths

• The Spider

Gallery

Stills

Katie looks at a picture on her fridge that includes Charlie Bowman

Abraham on the bleachers at school, on the left is Bram's girlfriend Pia in her first appearance

The Spider and Will

Will tries to look as cold as he can

Katie at the hospital, looking for insulin for Hudson

Will Bowman after being captured

Katie turns to Broussard for help, not for the last time

Proxy Governor Alan Snyder knows who he's got, and how he can use Will

Katie, looking relieved after the Homeland APC drives off

"Hard day at the office dear?" clinks glass "Oh, you know, same old same old" necks it

Videos

Colony Pilot Episode 101 Commentary

Colony 'The Secret Comes Out'

Colony 'The Offer Of A Lifetime'

Colony 'Collaborate And Die'

Colony ‘Family or Humanity’

Trivia

The pictures of Snyder are nicely edited, by someone or other

• The song playing in the opening scene is Walk Away, by Ben Harper.
• The experiment that Heloise talks about, extracting insulin from a dog's pancreas, refers to a real study by Nobel Prize winning scientists Frederick Banting and John Macleod.
• Did you notice the poster with edited pics of Alan Snyder?