Home Invasion
Episode 6 of Invasion Season 1 actually looks to be moving things in the right direction, delivering a creepy and tense self-contained chapter with Aneesha and her family. Before we get there though, the chapter begins with Aneesha changing her mind and deciding to head back to her family after all. Stopping the ambulance, she charges through the abandoned road back whence she came. Along the way she finds a whole military convoy, completely ravaged and mutilated. Sure would have been nice to see some of that action in this show, eh? Aneesha eventually heads back to Patrick’s cabin but finds the place completely deserted. And seemingly quite recently too. The kettle is still on the gas hob, whistling fearfully, while something appears to be in the house with her. Aneesa scrambles up to the rooftop where she finds her family, along with Patrick and Kel, hiding out. When fighting inevitably breaks out thanks to panic and fear, Sarah falls through the ceiling and lands hard on her back. As she begins crying, Aneesha charges down to help her. Together, they scramble into the closet. It’s here we catch our first glimpse of our alien invaders, complete with sharp limbs and legs that seem to move around its hulk. At 23 minutes into this episode there’s a pretty good shot of the creature in the mirror, and its way of moving is quite unique. Unfortunately, Kel slips in the same hole Sarah did, and finds herself mutilated by the creature. The sickening chomps are enough to confirm she’s a goner, alongside her bloodcurdling screams of course. Meanwhile, Aneesha and Sarah take cues from A Quiet Place, believing these aliens move based on sound. She and Sarah sneak down to the basement and decide to hang tight for the time being. Up on the landing, Luke and Ahmed communicate down with them, complete with hand signals and a pretty impressive overhead shot with all four in the same frame. It’s incredibly tense, as Ahmed does his best to try and shift the barricaded furniture in front of the door to escape. Ahmed tentatively moves everything, one piece at a time. Aneesha notices the creature though and tries to get Ahmed’s attention. But it’s too late. The creature pounces, knocking Ahmed down, while Aneesha grabs the kids, smashes the window and heads out to safety. Scrambling for the car, Patrick too is still alive and he throws them the car keys. When Patrick is taken out by the alien, the creature comes for the kids. Armed with the chunk of metal Luke grabbed from before, Aneesha stabs the creature multiple times, which eventually kills it. Ahmed stumbles out the house and reveals that he’s still alive too, although very clearly in a rough way. As the four drive away, the episode comes to a close.
The Episode Review
So Invasion returns with a self-contained chapter that lives up to its title “Home Invasion”. Following Aneesha and her family we finally get some action in this creepy and tense chapter. This is easily the best of the whole season, but the fact it’s taken this damn long to get it is a real disappointment. It also doesn’t help that most of this season has been consumed by character drama and brushed over a lot of the actual fighting and invasion part of Invasion. It seems it’s already happened now and despite the lavish set design and visuals, we don’t actually see humanity’s downfall. Like the military soldiers earlier this episode, for example, it would have been nice to see them taken out or at least pepper in a few flashbacks to see that. However, credit where credit is due, this was a really good episode and the shorter run-time at 30 minutes is certainly a good way of packing this home invasion plot into a digestible and tense little package. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come for the season ahead. Edit: A fair few people have commented online about the brightness level, both in the comments and on forums which is pretty important. Having re-watched bits of the episode, there’s definitely a lighting issue here so do be aware of that when watching guys!
