@chrisjdel said:

He was probably planning to at least get the Bowmans out of there.

Right, I think so. He has to walk a tightrope dealing with the occupiers. But he is a very smooth liar and he would have come up with something to get the Bowmans out and protect them. He looked for them and could not find them. When he saw the dead son (name I still don't recall without looking up) he probably figured the whole family met the same fate, thinking they would have been all together.

I like the writing on this show. And the guy playing Snyder does a great job acting his role. His facial expressions say a lot.

@Thebridge said:

Yes, when Snyder was walking through the hotel trying to play off the kidnapping he must have realized that if the Bowmans and crew were caught, he too would go down because he had been compromised even just by talking his way out of it. Snyder is on his way up the ladder if he can get anything on Keynes (sp), and that 's all he wants to do right now. As for what happens if he gets to the top of the IGA, I don't know. He could be the biggest, baddest mofo, or he could look to salvage as many of us as he can. And I have to add that I'm not sure about Snyder's slight smile after looking at the pics from the outcome of the camp. Might he have been a bit relieved that because he thought all the Bowmans were taken care of, he wouldn't have to worry about them coming after him or getting caught and talking during his attempted rise in the IGA?

I don't think he was happy about Charlie's death. I think during the six months he was with them Snyder did develop something of an attachment to the younger Bowman kids, who were calling him Uncle Alan. Not that it stopped him from doing what he went to the camp to do - but I don't think he's a true sociopath who doesn't care, just a guy determined to survive the ѕhitstorm that's been unleashed on humanity and make the best he can of it. Which means getting as high up in the occupational authority as possible. The IGA elite in Switzerland are likely to survive the invasion even if no other humans do.

Given the paranoid climate common to all totalitarian regimes, the last thing Snyder can admit to doing is being with (voluntarily or not) infamous resistance figures like Will and Katie Bowman or Eric Broussard. The mere association would throw suspicion on him and undo everything he's accomplished. His superiors will conclude that the time he spent embedded with the Bowman family compromised his loyalties. He probably helped them escape the camp. And then, in Seattle, help them with ... whatever it is they're planning. A nice thorough interrogation should fill in the blanks. Nope. Snyder definitely doesn't want them finding out about his little chat with Will.

@chrisjdel said:

@Thebridge said:

Yes, when Snyder was walking through the hotel trying to play off the kidnapping he must have realized that if the Bowmans and crew were caught, he too would go down because he had been compromised even just by talking his way out of it. Snyder is on his way up the ladder if he can get anything on Keynes (sp), and that 's all he wants to do right now. As for what happens if he gets to the top of the IGA, I don't know. He could be the biggest, baddest mofo, or he could look to salvage as many of us as he can. And I have to add that I'm not sure about Snyder's slight smile after looking at the pics from the outcome of the camp. Might he have been a bit relieved that because he thought all the Bowmans were taken care of, he wouldn't have to worry about them coming after him or getting caught and talking during his attempted rise in the IGA?

I don't think he was happy about Charlie's death. I think during the six months he was with them Snyder did develop something of an attachment to the younger Bowman kids, who were calling him Uncle Alan. Not that it stopped him from doing what he went to the camp to do - but I don't think he's a true sociopath who doesn't care, just a guy determined to survive the ѕhitstorm that's been unleashed on humanity and make the best he can of it. Which means getting as high up in the occupational authority as possible. The IGA elite in Switzerland are likely to survive the invasion even if no other humans do.

Given the paranoid climate common to all totalitarian regimes, the last thing Snyder can admit to doing is being with (voluntarily or not) infamous resistance figures like Will and Katie Bowman or Eric Broussard. The mere association would throw suspicion on him and undo everything he's accomplished. His superiors will conclude that the time he spent embedded with the Bowman family compromised his loyalties. He probably helped them escape the camp. And then, in Seattle, help them with ... whatever it is they're planning. A nice thorough interrogation should fill in the blanks. Nope. Snyder definitely doesn't want them finding out about his little chat with Will.

I think it was in Snyder's own interest that the Bowman family (and he) survive, after all MacGregor was a paranoid psycho who couldn't be reasoned with. Snyder realized this and since it was in his best interest to get them all out, he tried. So this could be looked at in different ways, as all of Snyder's action can. And was MacGregor so wrong? I don't think so as he did have Snyder and who knows who else embedded in his camp.

I think the show is trying to warm us up to Snyder. They're doing a good job, as we constantly question his motives and seem to land on the more beneficent side. Don't forget that the IGA had put Snyder in the midst of the resistance and knew what was going on to some degree. Did Snyder look hurt to you when he saw Charlie's body or was he thinking of the impact it would have on his "journey" with Will and Katie. These two aren't people to be messed with. And we know he never actually buried Charlie. I think Snyder is looking to move up the ladder in the IGA and he's going to turn on Helena in a big way. After he's gotten to the top he will be a raging fascist and will not need to take care of any resistance members, but will wipe them all out. Bram, whom he saved in the prison, is more attuned to what Snyder is trying to get away with right now. Uncle Al my @ss. Of course, I could be wrong, it's a little early to call, but I think I'm right on this.

Whoops, that second paragraph is mine also.

Oh Snyder also lied about the Rap's signal being the reason the occupation found them. He was afraid for his life and wasn't about to say anything that might anger Will. Actually, we don't know whether he made sure Charlie was buried or not. They didn't show that part. But again, even if he didn't he would have said that to Will in the hope that maybe it would help his case.

Part of what this show is about is how formerly free people respond to being conquered and living under the enemy's bootheel. Just like there were those in Nazi occupied Europe who hid Jewish families at their own risk (such people would be shipped off to the camps alongside them if caught) while others looked the other way, or even reported Jews in hiding, to gain favor with the occupiers. If you look at their stories most of these people weren't evil sociopaths. They were just cowards. Granted, when you have children it's no longer all about you and your personal sense of honor. You'll do bad and shameful things if you have to in order to keep them safe. But some people just aren't the courageous type to begin with, and in their fear give full cooperation to an evil regime so they'll be spared. That's the kind of person Snyder is. Not the villain, but the coward whose complicity - along with that of others - enables them.

We'll have to agree to disagree. I think it's true that Snyder will help those that he can help if it also suits him, but that's as far as it goes. He does keep us guessing though. But I still think we're being groomed to tolerate Snyder's behavior and we'll find that he's someone that needed to be gotten rid of early. He's making it to the top and perhaps will mimic a very well-known, and hated, dictator from World War 2.

Snyder is like a bureaucrat or a mid level manager who excels at office politics. He knows how to get "brownie points" and please his superiors. He also knows how to show up other bureaucrats, even take credit for their work. He knows how to make himself look good in order to beat out others for promotions. But he isn't a leader.

When the aliens came he was classified as a butt-kissing useful tool. He sized up the situation as one in which he could only survive so long as he made himself useful to his superiors and pleased the aliens. He has no backbone, he isn't a rebel, he isn't a fighter. He has never been that kind of person. He is someone who looks out for himself. So we rightly dislike him for this lack of character. But he doesn't like much of what is going on. He doesn't like that the aliens are killing off large groups of people. However he realizes he cannot do anything about it, and he doesn't want to wind up as one of that group. He looks the other way, tries not to think about their fate, and does the only thing he is good at. He rationalizes that he helps those he can when he can, but he only does this when it won't reflect badly upon himself.

I agree with chrisjdel. He is most like one of the collaborators in occupied France during WWII. Those people buckled under the pressure the Germans put on the population and helped them in order to get special treatment, better food and housing, etc. They were hated by the general population for this, even the collaborators who didn't turn in their neighbors, but were merely friendly to the Germans in order to get along. The collaborators would have preferred the Germans gone. But they were too weak in character to resist them. Some of them were awful people who were willing to turn in their countrymen, but some were single moms with no food for their kids who became friendly with the Germans. Some young women traded on their good looks and dated German officers because it was the easiest way to survive. After the war those women had their heads shaved and letters branded on their foreheads marking them as collaborators. Probably some were killed as well. Snyder is a little more like those women than the really awful kind, but he is culpable for enabling the aliens in rounding up humans for "the factory" and otherwise killing them.

Kathy, I think Snyder is nothing like a dictator. He has never had designs on that kind of power. He is more of a butt kissing weasel and an opportunist. He would probably be a yes man for a dictator, but would rather not be that close to him, and would never be a dictator himself. (Snyder is savvy enough to realize that being a dictator's yes man has too many downsides. Dictators tend to kill off people when things go wrong, and after they're gone, the people often take revenge upon those seen as their enablers.)

Snyder was sad when he saw that Charlie was dead. He actually enjoyed his time with Will and his family in the wilderness. He didn't want to leave there.
Snyder was correct, and Will knew it, when he told Will that Charlie wouldn't have died had Will listened to him and left the camp when Snyder repeated urged him to do so. He could see things were likely to turn south and tried to warn Will several times.

I could be wrong, but I think Snyder will wind up being helpful to the resistance partly because he wants to help the Bowmans, not just because he is pressured into doing so. I think he really does like the Bowmans. Will had it wrong when he figured that Snyder escaped into the wilderness with them as some sort of calculated plan to find the rap. (Of course Snyder told his superiors he went undercover for that purpose, but that was just Snyder lying in order to make himself look good so he would get promoted. ) And now in retrospect Will is probably realizing that Snyder could not have been doing that. At every point along the way he tried to convince the Bowmans to stay away from civilization, to stay away from that group, and to leave that group after they got there. That isn't congruent with an undercover agent trying to get inside the resistance organization.

When Snyder went "undercover" with the Bowmans, the IGA was aware of it and were the ones who furnished him with the contact beeper. I think he was using them all along, though he would prefer not to see them killed in front of him. Yes, he tried to tell them to leave MacGregors camp, because MacGregor was the biggest threat to himself, and if he could get out of that situation and still remain parasitic with the Bowmans, so be it. While I understand why you would align the character of Snyder more with the collaborators of WW2, and he is behaving this way ostensibly to us now, I just think that the character arc will have to necessarily go further if the writers want to keep Snyder in the story. Hitler was a failed artist and a coward who managed to bs his way to the top making promises about how well he would run the country. I can definitely see the Raps or whatever turns up using him as a human front man and rising him to the top of the heap. I don't think he will turn that down and when there is no longer any need to use anyone for his own benefit, he will not bother to help anyone. Of course this is all conjecture, I'm looking at the same thing you are, but I'll say this - if Peter Jacobson doesn't get an Emmy for this then they're rigged, lol.

@Thebridge said:

While I understand why you would align the character of Snyder more with the collaborators of WW2, and he is behaving this way ostensibly to us now, I just think that the character arc will have to necessarily go further if the writers want to keep Snyder in the story. ..... I can definitely see the Raps or whatever turns up using him as a human front man and rising him to the top of the heap. I don't think he will turn that down and when there is no longer any need to use anyone for his own benefit, he will not bother to help anyone. Of course this is all conjecture, I'm looking at the same thing you are, but I'll say this - if Peter Jacobson doesn't get an Emmy for this then they're rigged, lol.

I agree with you on a lot of stuff I think. The thing with good writing for shows like this one is that characters can morph, story lines can change and surprise you, and that makes it interesting. Snyder has always seemed ambitious so he might like the top human position if the aliens told him they wanted him there. Of course I am basing that conjecture on what they have shown us about his personality up to this point; with television, characters can change dramatically. He could become drunk with the power and privilege afforded by such a position. What's the old saying about power corrupting people, absolute power corrupts absolutely? Perhaps he wouldn't merely like the position, perhaps he would be changed by it, he might love it, he might lose the small amount of humanity he still retains. I kind of doubt the writers would take Snyder down the totally evil pathway. I think he is more interesting as a cowardly weasel with major flaws who still has some humanity. But who knows what they have planned?

I still think he was sincere when he tried to get Will and Katie to stay hidden in the wilderness. Snyder knew that the situation in the colonies was volatile and could change quickly without advance notice. He had managed to keep his superiors happy enough, avoided drawing negative attention to himself, and grabbed a few kudos with help from Will. But he had seen how quickly people like himself can fall from favor and he was all too well aware of the dangers involved.

Being with Will and Katie allowed him to survive in the wilderness, something he could never have managed on his own (as he admitted), and being in the wilderness freed him from the pressures and dangers of working for the aliens. Katie felt compelled to renew her involvement with the resistance and she persuaded Will. Snyder was against that idea. He was content to remain hidden in the wilderness and was fearful of leaving. That suggests to me that he wasn't working undercover. He begged on with the Bowmans on their way out simply because at that time it seemed the surest way to survive when things fell apart in LA.

He was extremely lucky the way things turned out, and he is such an adept and excellent bullshitter that he seamlessly took credit for finding the Rap, even pretending he had planned it from the start. That ability to think quickly, to bullshit convincingly without really giving anything away, and to make himself look good, to read other people, understand their motivations, etc. THAT is Snyder's major skill. So when the soldiers raided the camp Snyder made the most of it, took credit for everything, and used it to take temporary retirement in Switzerland.

That's how I view what has happened so far. I think I may go back and review a few episodes to double check my impressions, but that's my point of view currently.

Now I am wondering what Bram is going to do. Do you think he will try to kill Snyder on his own somehow? He sure wants to kill him. I think Will was forced to consider what Snyder said to him; that if they had stayed in the wilderness, or if they had left the camp, as Snyder had urged him to do, Charlie would still be alive. Bram is still thinking emotionally, not considering those facts. And he wants to kill Snyder.

I see your point about Snyder perhaps thinking he could separate himself from the IGA and survive successfully with the Bowmans. Of course that's on the plate for us to consider. Yes Bram was thinking emotionally when he just wanted to be rid of Snyder, after seeing how Snyder was able to manipulate him during the prison stint. But wasn't Will also thinking emotionally when he seemed to hate himself for letting Snyder go? Will we see him regret that down the line I wonder? I love that Snyder can keep us wondering about every move he makes!

At some point in the story Snyder is going to have to make that crucial decision and get off the fence: either give himself wholeheartedly to the occupation and stop telling himself he's just a regular guy in a bad situation, or turn against them (possibly sacrificing himself in the process). He could go either way. Eventually disgust and self-loathing can drive even someone who's normally a coward to step up, and we do see some evidence that Snyder is growing disgusted with his own cowardice. The fact that we don't know which way he'll ultimately break makes his story that much more compelling. Peter Jacobson does a really good job playing this character!

Kathy, oh yeah Will was emotionally charged and conflicted over letting Snyder live. I just watched the latest episode. When he told that doctor he let Snyder live, during that conversation he seemed to express some doubt as to Snyder's complicity, or ultimate guilt or whatever, regarding Charlie's death in the camp. I think he realized he had needed to blame Snyder; he needed a focal point for his grief and anger. I think he had blocked out the facts which didn't fit that picture until Snyder pointed some of them out while pleading for his life.

chisjdel, I agree that Snyder will have to make a decision at some point on whether to play it safe or step up and do the right thing. The writers will likely take their time in putting him in that situation though. They are getting plenty of mileage out of him for now. Currently he is still focused on his political point making game, the kind of thing he in which he naturally shines. He seems to have discovered something he can use to take down the guys running Seattle if he wants to. What will he do? Will he blackmail them? Will he turn them in in order to move up the ladder in the IGA? What are those guys up to? Why keep those outliers off the ice? Are they putting together the makings of a resistance army? If so, is Snyder going to derail that effort? It seems like he is threatening to upset that resistance effort simply to make political points with his superiors. If so, Will is going to deeply regret not killing him when he had the chance.

Snyder is a weasel, a smarmy, shifty, out for himself, apple shiner. But I have to give him this; he is pretty smart. He is usually careful not to overplay his hand. He is going to get the goods on these guys running Seattle somehow. The question then is, what does he do with that information?

I wasn't as into this show at the beginning of the first season but things have become a lot more interesting. The writing is really pretty good. And you're right. Peter Jacobson does a great job.

It looks as if it's been Kynes to fill the role of the collaborator who tries to save the many while unwillingly letting go of a few. He probably knew about the lesser colonists being re-directed to Portland and then most likely murdered somewhere else, but he had to allow it so it would look as if he was still running Seattle appropriately. And I really don't think Snyder is any ones idea of a leader either, but try telling that to Snyder! I think Helena was becoming a bit worried about him over-stepping his pay-grade and moving up again in the IGA. He ignored that she had a false flag operation in the works and took his own initiative with that murder/explosion.

@Thebridge said:

It looks as if it's been Kynes to fill the role of the collaborator who tries to save the many while unwillingly letting go of a few. He probably knew about the lesser colonists being re-directed to Portland and then most likely murdered somewhere else, but he had to allow it so it would look as if he was still running Seattle appropriately. And I really don't think Snyder is any ones idea of a leader either, but try telling that to Snyder! I think Helena was becoming a bit worried about him over-stepping his pay-grade and moving up again in the IGA. He ignored that she had a false flag operation in the works and took his own initiative with that murder/explosion.

Yeah, Snyder is really showing his ambition in this latest episode, and his skill at political maneuvering. He is also much more cold blooded than he has previously demonstrated. He is becoming more interesting. I think he may be interested in taking his boss's job. I don't know how much higher his ambitions lie though. He is a clever calculating bastard for sure. But I think he really is sorry for what happened at the camp to Charlie.

I just think Snyder is an emotional terrorist , lol, and he's good at putting together a slight tear for Charlie with some bs story of how he couldn't leave him without burying him. Snyder is more talented in a tough situation than he even knew!