“Geronimo” is episode five of season one of Colony.
In the previous episode, “Blind Spot”, Homeland caught the man on the radio but Will said, and Phyllis agreed, that he wasn’t Geronimo. It turned out he was receiving his radio scripts through a drainage pipe from the Green Zone. The episode opens with new Geronimo posters being shipped out and posted and new ones being put into the drainage pipe. The boy doing that gets caught by Redcaps who were waiting for someone to do that.
Will is in bed but Katie isn’t. She is downstairs repainting the wall where the firebomb was. Even though it’s six AM. Phyllis had confronted Katie with a photograph of her at the ambush site in “98 Seconds”; Katie had removed her face scarf to try and help the Resistance member who was shot, Justin. Phyllis told Katie she now worked for her. That’s probably why Katie can’t sleep. However, Katie had already identified Phyllis to Quayle, and Broussard went to Phyllis’ home and shot her.
Beau knocks on the door and Will tells him it better be good, as in won the lottery good. Beau has instant coffee that expired two years ago. He asks if they can talk privately and Katie heads upstairs, but pauses to listen. Beau tells Will that Phyllis is dead, shot at her home in the Green Zone at close range. Her husband is dead too.
The two arrive at Phyllis’ home to meet Jennifer, who tells them that Phyllis’ husband was a stroke victim – Phyllis actually asked Broussard to kill her husband as well, presumably because of this. The bodies are already at the morgue; both were shot at close range by a single assailant, a good one. And they need to see what is in the living room. Which has ‘Geronimo’ written on the wall. Proxy Snyder arrives at this point and he isn’t pleased to see that. Or what happened to Phyllis. She was one of the few people with direct access to their hosts, and one of the most important people in the Transitional Authority, yet she was killed in the Green Zone by Geronimo under their noses. Will tells him that’s because Geronimo is probably operating in the Green Zone, telling about the drainage pipe. Phyllis knew and said the Green Zone was fair game. Snyder wants them to be discrete. Then Jennifer gets a call about the person caught at the pipe. He’s at the office.
Will speaks to the kid, Sean Miller, who says that his dad is the head of public health and hospitals. Will looks forward to meeting Sean’s father when Sean gets put on a bus to the factory. Sean says he can’t do that. He was found with Resistance propaganda in the Green Zone; of course he can. Will gives him one chance to help – who gave Sean the posters?
Will, Beau and a bunch of Redhats arrive at a house in the Green Zone and start storming the place. A woman starts telling them they can’t do that and Lagarza, the Redhat who found Will in “Pilot”, clubs her in the face with the butt of his rifle. Some people are enjoying their jobs far too much. The house seems to be empty and Beau doesn’t think Geronimo is living here and Will agrees. Then finds a secret door to a room with a young man and woman and a whole print setup together with a typewriter. The man claims they are Geronimo.
Snyder has it announced that Geronimo’s HQ was breached and many of his trusted lieutenants were killed. Not simply an exaggeration; utterly false. The selfish forces of terror have been defeated. Will is not convinced; the two they caught didn’t firebomb his house nor did they kill Phyllis. Beau replies that Snyder needs a victory. Which is probably going to look bad for Snyder when what was announced doesn’t pan out. Snyder is in interrogation and Jennifer says he wants to see Will.
Snyder says he just announced to the block that they have caught a fearsome terrorist. Will tells him he might have checked in first. Especially as that’s the second time in two episodes he’s done that. The two they caught are an ad executive and a graphic artist. The man already broke watching what happened – which is not specified – to the girl. They are Geronimo, but they didn’t have guns, just words. Which inspired the real insurgents. Will wants Snyder to fulfil his end of the bargain; Geronimo has been caught so Will wants his son. This wasn’t the Geronimo that Snyder wanted, so he doesn’t think Will has done what he asked. Moving the goalposts. Although he does claim it’s in progress.
Katie speaks to Broussard, telling him that Phyllis is dead. Which he knew; he shot her. Which Katie realises. Phyllis was a threat to them all and was eliminated. Quayle uses the broadcast about Geronimo’s capture to state that the Resistance can use it as a source of strength, and that they are going to begin the war. Pia takes Bram outside the Colony, on the other side of the wall, using the method she showed him before. Outside, it’s utterly, and creepily, deserted. There are supplies, though.
Will accuses Jennifer of being the leak; she doesn’t take that well and instead suggests that Will himself is, through his wife. Else why did Phyllis question Katie separately? So, Will asks Lindsay about the day of the firebombing and taking the kids to the park, asks Katie about why Phyllis spoke to her on her own and has a poke around the Yonk himself. Snyder has a plan to make everything look good for him and Will gets to know some more about Jennifer, which probably reveals why she is, according to Beau, a true believer.