give said the little (muddy) stream

So on this week's episode of The Colony, while one gal works on restoring a record player for a little entertainment in their world that is rapidly making them a little nutso, another group of the lab rats are out gathering water out of the "river" (L.A.'s sewage, I'm pretty sure), which they will truck back to their compound and "purify" using their homemade purifier methods, including a machine that filters it through OZONE. I'm serious.

So anyway, they're in the river collecting muddy water, when a band of wandering doomsdayers approach. They're dressed in tattered, filthy layers, their faces and fingers dirty with grime that Discovery has artfully applied. The Colony members are all wary. They're scared of strangers. Recently, one of their members was "removed" from the experiment - he "disappeared," and most of them believe he was abducted. They don't have much to share in the first place, and they don't want to share. Except John C., the member of the colony who has been dubbed "the faithful" survivor. As the others turn away, John C. breaks from the group and gives them his personal water supply as well as a tool he's created. In his commentary, he talks about how he realizes his mission, his duty, that he knows what God would want him to do. As the group of wanderers leaves, one woman turns around and gratefully places a small can of food, vienna sausages, in his dirty, worn hands.

It was an unexpectedly tender moment. In a TOTALLY FAKE AND MADE UP WORLD. Nevertheless, John C.'s mentality is that others in the world are in need, just like he is in need. Now, perhaps his fellow colonizers are going, "Dude, I'm not giving up my food to a bunch of actors," but in any case, John C.'s actions made me think.

Would I do the same? I watched this on Tuesday, yet I can't stop thinking about it. Would I do the same? In an experimental or a real world? What would I do?

Later, a couple wanderers stop by their compound, begging for water. They refuse to share, speaking to them through a second story window as they don't want to reveal what supplies they have inside. But as most members of the group refuse to help - they make the point that if they give now, they'll just have to keep giving - John C. lowered out the window again, his water, and his can of vienna sausages.