Invasion – Season 1 Episode 2 “Crash” Recap & Review

Crash

Episode 2 of Invasion begins with the Malik family in Long Island huddled together, watching as the street is ravaged by numerous bits of debris raining down from the sky. Needing to get to safety, Ahmed decides they should hide out in the basement. In close quarters. Aneesa and Ahmed butt heads, until the latter decides to head out and see if he can figure out what’s going on. With the street in disarray, no one quite knows what to do.

Weirdly, the debris seems to have hit every single house apart from Ahmed’s. Could it be that Sam is the key to all of this? Well, screaming from inside brings Ahmed and Aneesa scrambling back to try and help Sam, who’s clutching his head in pain. He’s beside himself and he repeatedly screams “stop”. And just like that, he’s absolutely fine and the lights come back on. This voice appears to be communicating with him telepathically.

And once it’s finished, and Aneesha overhears Ahmed talking to his mistress in secret, the glass shatters completely in the house, blowing their windows out. Aneesha has seen enough and decides to leave, collecting up her things and packing her bags.

In the middle of this, with the kids in the back of the car, Ahmed breaks the news that he was actually going to leave Aneesha that week. She shrugs this off though and decides she should drive.

Over in London, England, a group of kids show up at school. Among those is Casper Morrow, who seems to suffer from social anxiety, is bullied by an obnoxious student, and has the hots on fellow student, Jamila. It’s school trip time though, as all the kids bundle on the bus and prepare for the day.

Electronics soon begin to short-circuit and as the bus hits a pothole, Casper’s sketchbook slips on the floor and is picked up by Jamila. With things looking good between them, the pair share an earphone each and listen to “old” music… which sounds like Greenday. As they listens to the music, Casper notices sheep flocking together before debris pieces rain down from the sky. As it does, the bus swerves off the road and tumbles down a sharp cliff.

Meanwhile in Tokyo, Yamato receives the horrible news regarding the HOSHI12. Heading into JASA, Yamato learns that the I.S.S. has gone completely dark and they’re not alone. Both the Russians and NASA are also experiencing widespread issues.

Eventually though, the Japanese manage to get the video feed from the HOSHI12 online and see the ripped hull of the ship for themselves. Because of this, news spreads across the country as Yamato slumps into a depressive state. She drinks heavily, sleeps with someone from a club and begins to experience some pretty freaky visions.

Another new location this episode; we cut to the US Combat Outpost in the Kandahar Province in Afghanistan. Trevante Ward is our main character, and between estranged relations at home and the pressures of leading his platoon, you can tell he’s got the weight of the world on his shoulders.

The squad eventually make it into a small town where the villagers head out to greet the US soldiers. A translator does his best to interpret what these men and women are saying, and eventually decipher that there was an attack somewhere near a school.

Once there, Trevante and his squad find the roof caved in and a single student, bloody nose and weird trance-like posture, repeatedly drawing circles on a table. All the kids point out the window where a dust cloud on the horizon points them in the location they need to go.

Trevante and his crew make it through the dust cloud and find a strange tripod towering over them within. Blasting the object with a barrage of bullets, nothing seems to phase it, as a pulse knocks them down.

The Episode Review

So the second episode of Invasion slows things down in a big way, with two new stories and characters to contend with, along with very little to sink our teeth into in regards to the main plot line.

Yamato is in a depressive state while the Malik family appear to be the key to all of this that’s going on. Casper looks like he could be important to the main story going forward too, as it appears that kids are the link to all of this. We’ll have to wait and see though but it would appear that the aliens are trying to communicate through Sam. And was that “watcher” they were saying?

I appreciate that the show is trying to slow-burn its way into this alien invasion but this is a rather slow hour, and after such a tense and dramatic opener, it’s a little disappointing. Hopefully this is just a blip though given we’ve still got a third episode to get through, but beyond some news characters and debris falling to earth, everything looks prepped for a dramatic third episode to come.