Lost Boy is centered by a violent act of resistance orchestrated by the Red Hand. We watch as each character responds in various ways on how these reveals who they are no and where they stand on dealing with the alien invaders.
Lost Boy opens with Karen giving an ominous speech about what will happen to collaborators. From the moment Bram hooked up with Karen last week, I knew that Bram would end up being a useful fool. This feeling is confirmed when the Resistance drinks a toast to their upcoming act of rebellion because this is what they do before an attack that leads to death. Bram however isn't given a good bye fuck before being sent to his death. Bram is teamed up with Patrick, and they head into the green zone together. Patrick is cool as he goes through the check point but Bram looks suspicious as fuck. I kind of wonder how it is that the Red Hats didn't hold him under suspicion given how nervous he's behaving?
Bram and Patrick spend a New York minute cutting shrubs before entering a home. Patrick is quickly shot dead, leaving Bram with the decision of either running for his life or pulling the trigger himself. At this point, the writers let the audience in on a secret which Bram keeps from his family, he kills the Ambassador King. Not only does Bram kill, he boldly puts the signature blood red hand on the door of the house. Bram wants both revenge for the loss of his girlfriend and he wants to feel like he's doing something important. The fact that he ends up lying to both his mother and father indicates that he knows damn well that his actions were wrong and put people he cared about in jeopardy.
Karen's mission was always a suicide mission and so there were no plans made for how the Red Hand soldiers would escape the Green Zone once word spread of their murderous actions. Bram knows at this point that there's only one way to get out of this situation - Aunt Maddie. Maddie is immediately suspicious when Bram shows up the door. She's suspicious enough to keep Bram away from her son, even as he insists that in order to be safe they need to leave. Maddie does take the time to question Bram and he has pat answers but of course, they ring false. Bram claims that he was just released from prison and found his family home empty. Maddie actually thinks she's dropping a bomb when she reveals that Will and Kate are collaborators and on the run. Then Maddie does something which surprises me, she decides to take Bram to the gate when he explains that if he's caught in the Green Zone now, the guards won't listen to his explanation, given that he's just been released from prison. At the gate, Maddie is asked to step outside of her car by the guard and informed that Red Hand youth have been killing high status collaborators. The look of betrayal is all over her face, even as she insists that Bram is her nephew and not a danger to her. The moment they get away from the gate, Maddie stops the car and orders Bram to get out.
Will's perspective begins before Bram decides to become a murderer. Will's playing a game of catch with Charlie, in his own way trying to normalise their situation and emphasising that they are still a family. It's Charlie who has noticed that Bram has been sneaking out. Rather than being silent in solidarity with his brother, Charlie decides to snitch.
I cannot even judge Charlie for telling, after everything he's been through he's more than capable of judging whether Bram is crafty enough to move around without bringing down the heat. There's also the issue that if Bram gets caught, it could spell doom for the entire family.
Will tries to do his fatherly duty and talk calmly to Bram certain that what's needed is a shift in perspective. Bram admits to falling in love in the prison work camp but adds that the girl is dead now. Bram then explains that the reason he snuck out was to inform his girlfriend's mother that she's passed on. Bram however does not reveal his part in blowing up the alien ship or his collusion with Snyder. Will is completely sympathetic and sees his son as a wounded sort of animal in need of comfort, rather than a teen in need of a good god damn slap.
When Bram does finally make it home, Will is pissed. He knows damn well that Bram has been up to no good. It's Kate who has to intervene because Will is about ready to remind Bram who the man in the family is. Bram admits to participating in a ride along with Red Hand but claims he didn't have it in him to kill anyone. Bram knows that he endangered his family and committed a murder but that doesn't stop him from playing wrong and strong. Bram actually has the nerve to turn to his father and accuse him of collaborating because of course he's all radicalized now. Will is pissed and points out that him collaborating is what kept his family safe. What Bram fails to realise is that there are people like Snyder and Nolan who collaborate for their own personal benefit and then people like Will who are just trying to survive. Will then turns his rage on Katie and blames her for all of this. I guess this means that Kate and Will are back to square one. Sure Katie may have brought her family into the resistance but with a countdown until the aliens destroy the bloc, what the hell does it matter now? Katie however is not responsible for Brams action because he was listening to resistance to media long before Katie got involved.
Snyder's been tasked with finding a way to reel in Proxy Alcala and to that end, he meets with the Ambassador King. Yes, Colony seems to run out of sensible titles to give characters who are in positions of power. The Ambassador is more concerned with the calm running of the Colony and an end up to the uprising which makes him a bit resistant at first to assigning yet another proxy. Snyder works his charm and they come up with an understanding of sorts.
Snyder doesn't get to enjoy his success for long because the Red Hand attack in the Green Zone begins. Snyder being brave runs for his life, and falls down a ditch and lies there until the Red Hats find him, and he promptly begs for mercy. Snyder is taken to see Helena and they discuss the turn of events. The Ambassador King was supposed to bring about more stability in the Colony but with his death, all of that is thrown out the window, along with whatever gains Snyder managed to achieve. Things are not looking good, particularly with the fact that the Global Authority has its eyes on what is going on in Los Angelos Bloc. If that were not enough of a problem, Proxy Alcala will not stay in his own damn lane and has spent much of his time undermining Helena at every opportunity he has.
For a moment, Snyder forgets who he is talking to and aggressively tells Helena that she has to get Alcala back in his place. I particularly loved that Helena reminded Snyder who is in control with a simple look, causing Snyder to temper his tone.
Snyder doesn't want to get his old job back but he's down with Alcala going down. There seems to be more advantages to working for Helena on the sly than managing a Colony that will not simply submit. Snyder then twists the knife that we've all been waiting for. Alcala himself might be clean but that doesn't mean that his closest allies are. Snyder suggests that it's time to have a closer look at Nolan. We all know that this does not bode well for Maddie given the fact that her sister and brother in-law have been classified as terrorists and she just helped Bram escape after killing the Ambassador King.
The unspoken elephant in every room in Colony this week is the countdown clock. Had Will explained to Bram why they are so desperate to get out of the Colony, Bram might have looked kinder on his father; however, it might have also pushed Bram into being more reckless than he already was. The one thing we know for sure is that this angsting teen has got to be brought into line because as it stands right now, he's a danger to himself and to his family.
Given what we know about the countdown clock, it almost makes Karen seem reasonable in her bid to make collaborators pay the ultimate price for working with the enemy; however Karen sounds like every other radical determined to tear shit all the way down. It's worth noting that Karen is more than happy lead impressionable youth like lambs to the slaughter but does not risk her own safety. She's probably decided like every other pseudo revolutionary that she's too important to the cause. The Red Hand leaves no room for nuance or compromise or even human frailty, as it convinces new converts that their deaths will be glorious and in the name of the greater good. The problem of course is that once you're dead, you're dead.
What exactly do you win if you don't survive? This is the point that Will is making to Bram about his actions with the Red Hand. Someone has to survive this. There is such a thing as running and living to fight another day. Yes, the Red Hand tactics are eye catching and they show that the aliens can indeed be hurt but they also end up killing the very people they are trying to save thus creating a paradox of sorts.
It's clear that there's going to be a confrontation between the Red Hand and the rest of the resistance. There's no way that Karen is simply going to hand over the alien tech though she clearly has no idea what to do with it. As much as the Red Hand is able to create a sense of terror in their community through the brash showy actions, at the end of the day, they accomplish absolutely nothing because they don't get to the heart of the matter. Sure, human complicity with the aliens is a problem but even if every single human managed to change sides and left off with self interest, there's still the matter of the aliens being far more advanced and the fact that humans no very little about them.
Maddie slightly redeemed herself in my eyes this week with the fact that she knew damn well that Bram was guilty and still drove him to safety. It's about time that she put family before The Greatest Day and her position of privilege inside of the collaborators. Given Snyder's renewed interest in Nolan, this is going to cost her in a big way. There's no way that Nolan, who sold out his own wife, is going to have her back after this, particularly because he's going to get even more pressure from Alcala. Maddie is going to end up running to the same family that she's been more than willing to turn her back on.
