The good guys face some serious trouble when USA’s apocalypse drama Colony returns Wednesday (10 p.m. ET).

But at least they’re well rested.

Will Bowman (Josh Holloway, top), his wife Katie (Sarah Wayne Callies, top) and their three kids – Bram (Alex Neustaedter, below, with Holloway and Callies), Charlie (Jacob Buster, below) and Gracie (Isabella Crovetti-Cramp, below) – escaped at the end of Season 2 from the Los Angeles “bloc” where the ruthless invading alien force known as The Hosts was about to murder everybody.

Will, Katie, and Bram have been active in the outmanned and outgunned Resistance that is desperately trying to reclaim Earth from these aliens, who are seen primarily through the technology with which they oppress and control the conquered human population.

For the part of oppression and control that requires hands-on contact, like policing and government regulation, The Hosts employ collaborators, the elite unit of which is called the Redhats and bears a striking resemblance to the SS, the KGB, and secret police everywhere. It’s pretty clear they’re expendable, too, but they figure they have a better chance working for The Hosts. Maybe they just want to be on the side that’s winning.

Will, for a time, was blackmailed into a collaboration arrangement about which he remained ambivalent right up until he decided better dead than Redhat and returned to the Resistance.

While it sometimes feels like every network except Sprout has an apocalypse dramas these days, Colony creates compelling enough characters so it’s interesting to watch their chess match with the seemingly omnipotent Hosts unfold.

Like its predecessor episodes, Wednesday’s has a lot of action, some mystery technology, and an appreciation for the complexities of a resistance movement.

Those complexities start with the old “Who do you trust?” question and the knowledge that getting the wrong answer just once finishes up the ballgame.

The Bowmans have the personification of that trust question bunking in with them. Alan Snyder (Peter Jacobson, right), the former collaborationist leader of the Los Angeles bloc, begged to come with them when they bailed out of L.A., and they agreed on the theory he might know some useful stuff.

That’s true. It’s also true that he’s been a weasel from day one, and they trust him about as much as they would trust a glass of water from a Superfund site.

For the six months since the end of Season 2, the Bowmans and Alan have been holed up in a small cabin in the remote woods. There are worse ways to spend six months in a world where aliens want to wipe you out. It’s rustic, they seem to have enough food, and no one bothers them.

Until someone does. So the Bowmans quickly snap into battle mode and flight mode, because holding off the bad guys only buys the time to find some new place to elude them for a little while longer.

Complicating their own case, the Bowmans have something – “the gauntlet,” a mysterious piece of technology – that The Hosts want back. So the Bowmans are more than just five people who need rounding up: Will and Katie are high-value targets.

The odds don’t look good. The odds have never looked good. The bright side: That’s what makes shows like Colony fun to watch.