Invasion – Episode 10, First Day

Casper Morrow, Billy Barratt (“Mr Selfridge (TV )”, “Mary Poppins Returns”), is no longer with us. When the aliens were defeated his brain seemed to stop firing and they can’t get him going again.

Trevante Ward, Shamier Anderson (“Wynonna Earp (TV)”, “Son of the South”), wants to leave, go back home, much to the disgust of Jamila, India Brown (“Worzel Gummidge (TV)”, “The Stranger (TV)”), who thrusts Casper’s drawing book in his arms.

There are celebrations around the world at the defeat of the aliens, but not everyone is convinced. Aneesha Malik, Golshifteh Farahani (“Extraction”, “Gen: Lock (TV)”), isn’t convinced, something is telling her ‘not yet’.

Her son Luke, Azhy Robertson (“The Plot Against America (TV)”, “The Americans (TV)”), however, blames her for the death of his father and doesn’t understand why they can’t stop running.

Misuki Yamato, Shioli Kutsuna (“Deadpool 2”, “Oh Lucy!”), begins walking north, holding the compass Mr. Murai, Togo Igawa (“The Host”, “Giri/Haji (TV)”), gave his daughter. She comes across the final monk in a monastery and stays the night.

Trevante meanwhile, makes it back home, tells his partner that he’ll quit the army, they can make it better, make a fresh start, she agrees.

Luke, angry, throws the alien fragment into the woods, but then looks up and sees something in the sky. At the same time Misuki hears something on her laptop, whilst at the beach Trevante and his partner see something in the sky.

Casper, in the morgue, wakes up. He’s in his house, his mum and dad can be heard arguing outside. But when he opens the door he’s outside and Mr. Murai is handing him a compass, which he follows and ends up in the alien craft.

Invasion is a great premise, the thought that we’d see an alien invasion around the world, from different cultures point of view, rather than the usual single country view we usually get, is brilliant.

Sadly, Invasion doesn’t give us that. There are moments of that, sure. The Japanese story line is by far the best, standing head and shoulders above the others with a touching story, characters that you can invest in.

In contrast, the story of an American soldier trapped in Afghanistan gives you exactly one moment, when a local points out that he’s an alien to them.

I feel more pace needed injectimg to the series, seeing characters at the same moment in time, rather than constantly flipping back and forth, more jeopardy, more cohesiveness and definitely, definitely, less cliches.