The first season of the USA Network drama series Colony has been an unexpected surprise, in the best way possible, with numerous twists and turns, and triumphs and deaths, and thankfully, it already has a Season 2 pick-up. The final episode of the season definitely left all the characters in uncertain situations and with very interesting possibilities for what roads they’ll head down next season.

During an exclusive phone interview with Collider, co-creator Ryan Condal teased what’s to come in Season 2 and talked about putting the big brush strokes in place, showing more of just who the Occupiers are, how Will (Josh Holloway) and Katie’s (Sarah Wayne Callies) dynamic will shift, getting real answers about what’s happened to their son, expanding the world, the military wing of the operation vs. the political wing, and what we can expect from the leadership changes. Be aware that there are some spoilers.

Collider: Do you already have the big brush strokes in place for Season 2, or is that something you’re working on right now?

RYAN CONDAL: The writers’ room just opened [on February 29th], so we are already hard at work, cracking Season 2. It’s 13 episodes this year, so we have more of a canvas to work on. But I think that’s good for the show because we want to go down the little alleys and corners, and you can’t do that as much in a 10-episode first season. Carlton and I, have had plenty of time to talk during Season 1, and in the interim between the wrap and the launch, about what the show is and we have a really good idea of the stories that we want to tell in Season 2.

With one of the “aliens” being captured, we got to see glimpses of just how dangerous the Occupiers can be. Will we see more about just how far they can and will go?

CONDAL: Yes, and that’s always been the plan. We wanted to start in a place that’s very familiar. They were trying to figure out how to rule and how to establish law and order. I think that across the board, you’re going to see a much more well-realized world next year, both in terms of how the science fiction part of the story is told and also in how the occupation reacts to this new environment and setting that they’re in. You’re going to see a much darker, stricter rule than you saw in Season 1. That’s the nature of these things. The nature of occupation and colonialization is that things tend to get worse and not better, over time. We wanted to start in a place where we could give this story a place to go, in terms of the strictness of rule and the way that the occupation kept control over the masses.

After everything Will and Katie went through in Season 1, and Will finally having definitive answers about what Katie has been up to, how will that change their dynamic?

CONDAL: In a big way, I think. One of the things we’re excited about, as storytellers of Season 2, is that regardless of what you thought about the story of Season 1, where we leave it at the end of Episode 10, it should be clear to everybody that the story next year has to be different. Will’s story and what he’s doing is different. Katie’s story and what she’s doing is different. Same for Snyder and Broussard, and all of those guys. In the way that Breaking Bad and Battlestar Galactica evolved from season to season and were conceptually the same show, but found a new way to tell the story every year to keep the show feeling fresh, we want to do that with Colony.

Now that we’ve seen a glimpse of Santa Monica, will we see more of what life is like there?

CONDAL: Yes. The plan has always been to expand the world a bit. You’ll see more of Santa Monica next year, as well as other places that haven’t really been explored yet.

Will there be a more active pursuit of Charlie?

CONDAL: I will say that Will is definitely going to Santa Monica. However that story resolves, we do want to tell that part of the story because it was the emotional throughline of the first season. The fact that their son, Charlie, was missing and that he’s lost in Santa Monica is the reason that Will took the job with the Occupation and it’s the reason that he fought so hard to break up Broussard’s Resistance cell in the first season. We definitely do want to play that story out for fans and have it reach some conclusion.

What Grace’s teacher is up to started to get really creepy. Will we learn more about what the plan is for the children?

CONDAL: All of that is about an occupation and how they command and control the people. There’s the military wing of these things, which is the Red Hats on every corner and living in fear of militant occupation. And then, there’s the political wing of these things, which is the wing that pushes the political message of the occupation, and that’s what you’re seeing there. Those that are less outwardly violent are usually much more insidious, and you have the right to be creeped out by it. That will continue.

With Proxy Snyder removed from his position, what can we expect from any new leadership in Season 2?

CONDAL: As Will said in Episode 6, when they were trapped in the Yonk with Snyder was, “He’s the devil we know.” With new leadership always comes new and unforseen problems and hurdles. We envision a darker version of the Occupation for Season 2, and I think everybody will see that playing out, right from the top of the year.

Snyder is such an interesting character because you initially detest him, but then learn to sympathize with him, as you realize just how much worse things could actually be.

CONDAL: Yeah, and that’s great. We always saw Snyder as the human villain. While he’s, in many ways, despicable in the things that he’s done, there can always be worse. Movements like this, whether it be Fascism or Totalitarianism, or whatever you call it, always tend toward the extreme. Wherever they start, they very rarely finish in a more moderate place than they began. I think people will see that Snyder was, in many but not all ways, the picture of moderation.

Colony will return to the USA Network for Season 2.