Invasion – Season 2 Episode 1 “Something’s Changed” Recap & Review

Something’s Changed

Invasion’s new season begins with a TV broadcast by Benya Mabote, the president of WDC. The World Defense Coalition, or the poor man’s UN, is fighting against the new alien ship that arrived at the end of last season. Four months have already passed and many territories across countries have been rendered unusable. Around 30% of Earth’s air is infected by alien spores. They are terraforming the atmosphere to make it inhabitable for human beings.

Benya makes a plea to fight together as one coalition to defeat their common enemy. But that notion is rejected by the divisive tendencies of man. A new front called The Movement has emerged that wants to fight against the aliens as well. But the military has regular run-ins with them in their bid to suppress it. The first visuals we see of the attack are from Osaka, Japan.  Aliens are wreaking havoc, especially spider-like small creatures who are very mobile and ruthless.

Mitsuki is seen marshalling people towards safety. Suddenly, she starts walking toward the aliens and burns a bunch of them. She continues to attack them with Molotovs. That is until she is taken by two men who come in a chopper and claim to be from the WDC. They need her help with the first alien ship that was shot down.

We then turn our attention to British Columbia, where the Maliks are on the run. Sarah distracts the owner of a gas station as Luke steals supplies and Aneesha steals gas. They just make it out of there as the owner shoots at them with a shotgun. Aneesha is livid with Luke for delaying his escape. This is an emerging theme in this episode as their bickering continues further.

Aneesha and Luke have an argument about what to do next. He wants his voice to be heard and is being a perfect teenage brat. He finally gives in when he hears Sarah crying. They pack up their stuff from the town and move up further north. 

Mitsuki is brought to the location of the alien ship shot down last season. It currently rests in the Amazon rainforests in Brazil. Nikhil Kapur is the dynamic and megalomaniac head of Dharmax, a research organization. He is running point on this project and expresses his desire to learn what the aliens actually want from humans. He believes the ship isn’t “dead.” She is given a baseline test to prepare her for any trauma she faces subsequently, a little like the one K was administered in Blade Runner 2049.

There are some tense moments when the cognitive scientist, Maya Castillo, asks questions about Hinata. Nikhil is told by Castillo that Mitsuki has failed the baseline test and she shouldn’t be sent to the ship. But instead of not making her go, Nikhil decides to send Castillo with Mitsuki to the ship. We are also introduced to Tomas, who is friends with Maya and the lead chemist in the program. Mitsuki’s task is to learn how the ship transmits data since it is still operational. The inside of the ship is “as big as Canada,” according to Castillo. A power source is running the entire ship but they can’t figure out what it is. The reason is that they cannot get past a wall of the electromagnetic field inside the ship.

Everyone who has tried to go through it has suffered some sort of neurological damage. But Mitsuki goes in anyway. To everyone’s shock, the alien field responds to Mitsuki as she collaborates a frequency to communicate. Even though Mitsuki has spent 15 minutes in the room, Nikhil urges Maya not to pull her out. Mitsuki tries emitting different frequencies to see how the alien force would react. She plays David Bowie’s Space Oddity which prompts the force to interact with her.

On the way, they stop for more supplies near a resting military entourage. Luke gets out against Aneesha’s instructions and gets caught by the soldiers. Aneesha tries to talk him out of trouble but the soldiers intend on checking her to see if they are with the Movement. One of them finds a gun on Aneesha and arrests her. Things get even more tense when they find the alien piece in the back of their car. They are able to identify her as Aneesha since the WDC has her on their wanted list.

The military apprehends her along with the kids and they’re placed in a vehicle with Clark, who turns out to be the leader of the Movement. The military convoy is intercepted and the trio along with Clark are broken out of there. Clark takes the trio to the Movement’s safe house. He promises to drop them off at a refugee camp the next morning. Luke begins to hear humming as the alien piece in Aneesha’s hand starts changing shape.

The episode ends with French doctors monitoring a comatose Caspar lying in bed. One of them remarks that the tremors in his body are rhythmic and keep on changing patterns. “Something’s changed.”

The Episode Review

Apple TV has played a nice trick by distastefully titling the new episode as “something’s changed.” Well, clearly not. There’s hardly any evidence of any change from the last season whatsoever in episode 1. Invasion continues to be dull without being dramatic. We don’t get to see too much urgency on part of the creators to make the plot more actionable, although Mitsuki’s challenging foray into the ship was a positive development.

Other than that, the effort in episode 1 was generic with an existential scarcity of creative ideas. World building, which was supposed to be a covet in the previous season, should be their way out of this mess. But as of now, that does not seem to be on their horizons. It will be interesting to see how The Movement progresses as a group.

We have seen this story before and very well know how it ends. The buck rests with the makers to tether us to the screens by putting in significantly more effort than the baseline.