Invasion – Season 1 Episode 7 “Hope” Recap & Review

Hope

Hope is a pretty accurate title for episode 7 of Invasion, because any hope that this show would actually deliver compelling drama are dashed early on. The episode itself begins with Aneesha in her car with the family. Ahmed takes a turn for the worst, but Aneesha manages to patch up his wounds and use her medical knowledge to save his life.

It seems to do the trick too, and as we cut to her and Ahmed the next day, Ahmed is now conscious and able to walk. They make it to an abandoned diner and settle in, making hamburgers and switching on the breakers.

They don’t stay there though, filling up on gas before heading over to Northview College. This school has been turned into an emergency evac center. Inside, Aneesha is greeted as Dr Lockhart than none other than David, who happens to be working there. With a lot of soldiers on stand-by, the place is pretty secure.

There’s also definite chemistry between David and Aneesha, something Ahmed immediately notices. Oh goodie, looks like we’ve got a love triangle on our hands!

Over in the desert, we return to Trevante as he tries to make his way back to the airfield. On the way he finds a local family who break the bad news to him. The airbase has been destroyed, obliterated in the ensuing fight with the aliens. To show Trev they’re peaceful, the locals hand over some food and encourage Trev to join them in Kabul. That’s over 200 miles away and then intend to walk it.

Well, not on Trev’s watch. He bundles them aboard  his car and starts driving to Kabul. On the way, Trev and the family begin talking, discussing the horrors they’ve seen in combat and from the invasion as a whole.

The family do eventually make it to Kabul Airport but the place is completely abandoned. They have hope though, which is given a kick up the backside when a family comes charging past them, scrambling through the deserted terminal to the landing strip outside. There, a single military-controlled aircraft happens to be the runway.

Trev immediately jumps ahead of the queue and flashes his credentials, trying to get this family safe passage with him. With panic gripping the soldiers, Trev decides to bargain and hand over his gun in order to sway their opinion. “God watches over you,” The man says appreciatively, as the doors close and the plane prepares to take off.

Back in the UK, Casper and the kids stumble across a woman speeding through a small village in her car. She’s clearly shook up from the invasion. The invasion, I may add, that’s actually happened off-screen. Thanks show. Anyway, the kids manage to bag a lift back to London.

After wishing the kids luck, she leaves them to their own devices as Casper and co. begin travelling through this urban jungle. Just before they all part ways and head home, Monty and Casper bury the hatchet and patch up their differences.

With Casper and Jamila alone, she speaks to Casper about his sketches. After all, he seems to have some sort of connection with the aliens. As does Luke I may add, given we saw him suffering from nasty migraines earlier in the season.

Casper speaks cryptically to Jamila, mentioning how there’s a sort of voice that communicates with him. Before he can elaborate further, the pair are startled by one of the alien creatures, luring about in the distance. Gunfire startles it though, sending it jumping (rolling?) over the fence. Casper realizes his mum may be in danger and sets out to head back and check on her.

Over in Japan, Mitsuki Yamato claims she’s the lead project specialist and manages to blag entry to a satellite station that has been relaying information to the Ministry of Defence. Yamato immediately settles in, greeting an enthusiastic but naive guy called Yoshi and assuming control.

Yamato immediately shows off the signal to them and sets out to try and find its origin in order to send a message back.

As Yamato and the gang get to work, they uncover noise that seems like music. Or, as Yoshi says it, a cacophony likened to switching on a million radios at once. Yamato deduces that what they’re listening to is some sort of network, like a sort of hive mind all talking as one.

In essence, Yamato is trying to find a single signal among many. In order to narrow this search down, Yamato suggests they use filtering techniques to get to the bottom of this.

While working through the results, Yamato uncovers a rogue satellite and tries to isolate the signal away from the others. This is actually the Hoshi-12’s distress signal, as it turns out.

Yamato remains determined to track down the signal though, as soldiers show up and immediately stop them. They pull Yamato and the others away from the console just as she’s about to communicate with the ship.

The Episode Review

So I’m guessing the invasion part of Invasion happened off-screen. Thanks! Given there was some good material early on in this show, Invasion has essentially done a switch and bait, turning into a character drama with sprinklings of aliens for good measure.

Now, don’t get me wrong there’s nothing inherently bad about that style of storytelling but it does feel a bit disingenuous given the official trailer and the first episode seemed to promise something much more immediate and action-packed like the start of War of the Worlds. Since then, everything in Invasion just seems to have petered out – and not in a good way either.

Last week’s home invasion seems like it’s a blip and while not many people were sold on that stand-alone segment, I actually think it’s exactly what this show needs more of. It’s just a pity that we’re back to old tricks this week.

There’s a lot of walking, a lot of talking and a whole lot of nothing. In essence, this is The Waling Dead all over again during some of its slow filler chapters but seemingly with nothing else to build up to.

The only intriguing parts of this episode yet again come late on, and Invasion is honestly in danger of losing a lot of viewers following this week’s chapter. What did we even learn here? Nothing. There’s absolutely no progression beyond moving the chess pieces across the board and even that’s done in thee most sluggish, unimaginative way possible. What a poor episode this was.