Invasion – Season 2 Episode 8 “Cosmic Ocean” Recap & Review

Cosmic Ocean

Episode 8 of Invasion begins with Mitsuki’s subplot. She has devoted herself to deciphering the language of the aliens. She has put in so much effort that Mitsuki is close to having a breakdown. Dr Maya Castillo intercedes and asks her to take a break. Without doing timely baseline tests, Mitsuki might be closer to becoming like the “others.” It refers to the scientists before Mitsuki who went into the chamber but were rendered speechless.

Suddenly, Mitsuki realizes that they might be the key. When she surveys the room full of scientists in complete silence, she concludes that they haven’t lost their sense of communication as they’re communicating in the language of the aliens.

Nikhil isn’t happy when he sees Mitsuki “wasting time on the burnout scientists.” When Maya protests his erratic and impatient tactics, Nikhil rightly guesses that Maya is attracted to Mitsuki. He talks to Mitsuki herself and tries to manipulate her to go back in. All he wants is for Mitsuki to fight the alien force and produce results to impress the WDC. Maya resigns and leaves the base when Nikhil insists on sending Mitsuki in.

He prepares to go inside with her. But the engineers stop them by saying that all of Mitsuki’s suits – even the backups – have been short-circuited and rendered useless. Nikhil confronts Maya, who is just about to leave, and she takes the blame. She wants Nikhil to go inside all on his own if he is so devoted to the cause. 

In an anticlimactic ending, Trev’s attempts to break into the hatch in the hole are unsuccessful. He is caught by military personnel and locked up. On his way, Trev also spots a room full of people who have things attached to their heads. It is like they’re being experimented on. General Mitchell talks to Trev about his situation. He rejects Trev’s requests to understand what they’re hiding in the hole and how the military got those people in the room “back from the aliens.”

Rose puts a gun to Wade’s head at the police station and locks him up. She wants him to know what is going on and alert him to something that the government is hiding from them at the Shelton farm. She asks Wade to look after the notebook and take its content seriously. 

The kids’ brigade has managed to locate the facility where all the “special kids” are being kept. They are all alive and it is almost as if they can communicate with Caspar, even through thick walls without saying a word. Caspar leads them to the room where a soldier almost shoots them. But Dr Esmee, who was treating Caspar when he was in a coma, stops him. She is shocked beyond her wits to see him alive. Dr Gabriel, who was also at the hospital, is surprised to find Caspar without any wounds or mental trauma. The hospital was overrun hours after they left. He suspects that perhaps Caspar isn’t the same person and had “help” from the aliens. 

The other kids suddenly recall seeing Caspar in the “darkness.” They were there with him. Caspar did not wake up but all these children, collected from hospitals across the globe, did. They are all affected in a similar manner psychically due to the invasion. Penny suggests that they try to draw a map of the place where they were. Jamila talks to a girl who can speak English about how they called out for Caspar. But to her surprise, the girl replies that they were calling for “someone else.” She is still “out there” and her name is Mitsuki! 

All of a sudden, the alarms in the Amazon lab start going off. Nikhil is trying to fight the alien force and destroy it. He has breached all safety protocols and cannot be extracted. All the other locations suffer the same fate. At the lab in France, only Caspar does not suffer an epileptic attack; all the other children do. Mitsuki is shocked to see the force swallow Nikhil whole as he disappears from the room. He is spotted out back and Mitsuki brings him to safety, with Maya’s help who stopped in her tracks the moment Nikhil instigated the alien.

The President of the WDC calls and Mitsuki picks up. She is strictly told to stop anything they might have set off. Mitsuki risks her life and goes back in, without the suit, to try to calm things down. The alien subsumes her like it did Nikhil, and Mitsuki turns up all the frequencies in the room to destroy it. She is spitted back out and lies on the ground, unconscious. All the seismic activity stops as soon as it happens.

Jamila is confused about Caspar’s loyalty as she questions if it is him who has come back. Mistuki wakes up from her slumber and instantly checks the readings on Nikhil’s suit. It was not in Earth’s atmosphere. Mitsuki ruefully tells Maya, who is beside her, that the alien was a portal into their world. And now she has destroyed it. They will no longer be able to communicate with them. 

The Episode Review

The creators of Invasion cannot thank Shioli Kutsuna enough for saving their blushes this season. The Japanese actress has been the best performer on the show and has managed to create a compelling character arc.

Invasion becomes interesting, direct, and clear whenever Shioli is involved. It might have to do something with how her subplot is written, but the question has to be asked: why not write everything in the same vein? 

Although we stayed away from a lot of nonsense that has defined the previous episodes of Invasion’s Season 2, we are still some steps away from clear answers. It is quite frustrating that the creators give us bits and pieces in every episode that do not quite make sense when collated. The other subplots still remain some way off in matching Mitsuki’s quality. I keep repeating this in every episode review I write: the subplot with the kids has nothing addictive about it and only increases the show’s woes.

I do not know if different writers are penning these subplots but that is the impression I am getting. Spreading all their screen time to the more complex characters of Rose and Trev, for instance, would have been a better strategy. It still seems very artificial and off-brand, even after Caspar has joined them. Apple has shot themselves in the foot due to some poor decision-making.

Invasion, in and of itself, had a lot of potential when this season started. Even in this episode, we saw a montage of beautiful special effects work come to fruition. But while there have been some shades of cinematic brilliance in this season, overall, it has just been disappointing and nothing beyond that.