In it’s first season, “Invasion” on Apple TV+ struggled with pacing. The streamer gave the Creators Simon Kinberg and David Weil a second season and they fixed the pacing, focusing on the titular “Invasion” and dazzling viewers with stunning visuals combined with a compelling story. Season 2 saw the series jump almost 20 percent points on RT while critics began to praise the show which had previously been considered underwhelming.
Apple TV+ has opted to put out season every two years for “Invasion”, which doesn’t help viewers who start to forget what happened at the end of last season. In a world where content gets shorter and shorter it’s maybe not the best move to delay an epic character driven save-the-world series so long between chapters of it’s story. Season 3 would come back in right after season 2 but then pick back up after a sizable time jump. Warning, beyond this point there are spoilers for anyone who is not up to date on “Invasion” which aired it’s season 3 premiere “The Ones We Leave Behind” on Friday.
Season 2 saw the series jump almost 20 percent points on RT while critics began to praise the show which had previously been considered underwhelming.”
Although season 2 was more favorably received than its predecessor, the anti-climactic ending with no real answer put some viewers off. The final sequence in the finale showed conflicted soldier Tevante Cole (Shamier Anderson) and alien sensitive Caspar Morrow (Billy Barratt) working their way into the mothership before revealing Casper’s eyes were possibly controlled by aliens before trailing away forth credits. The season 3 premiere kind of picks up where last season left off, but shows us a very wide angle of the entire mothership going down. The viewer isn’t privy to whatever happened inside that preceded the mothership crashing but all we know is that the aliens are down. The series jumps forward 2 years to a redshirt family celebrating M-Day – the day Trevante Cole and Caspar Morrow gave their lives to defeat the mothership.
The United States is titled the “Former United States, Earth” which tells us there has been a change in governments since the initial invasion. The redshirt family seems happy, like they feel safe. Their illusion of safety is short lived when the dad encounters an alien outside that kills him pretty quickly. Although there haven’t been any alien attacks for years, this scene makes it clear that season 3 is coming back for the next wave of the invasion. The intro sequence does a good job of catching us up to where the world is, but we do feel robed to not have seen whatever happened in the ship with Trevante and a possible alien controlled avatar of Caspar. After waiting for that moment to play out, it’s a bit disconcerting to just skip the moment although we’re confident flashbacks will ultimately give us back that missing time.
The next. Scene takes the story to portal 11 over the Atlantic Ocean. The government seems to have bases built around the portals to monitor them. The show brings us to this specific portal because its about to go active… and spit out an alive Trevante Cole after 2 years. Being assumed dead. This is the most compelling part of the show right now and it builds onto the mystery that is already left hanging from the season 2 finale. What happened on that mothership? When interrogated by a voice in an intercom, Cole claims with great frustration that he can’t remember anything that happened. The voice, who works for the government doesn’t believe him and quizzes Trevante on the personal and professional details of his life.
Before too much time passes, someone leaks that Cole has returned and the people want to see him, so the government schedules a press conference for the guy who saved the world. At time’s, Andersons acting can be wooden, but we’ve always viewed the character as a disconnected soldier with PTSD, so his portrayal has always had that mostly emotionless feel. The episode cuts to Jamila (India Brown), who was best friends with Caspar and there when his body died. Jamila is haunted by Caspar’s loss and is having trouble reintegrating into a somewhat normal world. When Jamila finds out Trevante is alive, her reaction is powerful and makes her decide to go to this press conference.
The government liaison that has been assigned to Trevante’s case Jack Hollander (Eric Lange) does not believe Trevante is what he says, but the President (not sure of which country if U.S. is defunct) clears the soldier for the press conference. Trevante predictably struggles at the podium, even with a teleprompter. Jamila interrupts his speech to correct him about something Caspar said, which in it’s own quirky way is a funny and believable moment. Trevante and Jamila talk privately where the world’s savior is pretty cold and callus about her need for closure. Jamila can’t accept that he doesn’t remember and selfishly makes it about her, which is also a perfectly normal reaction for a teenager. Just as Jamila is about to give up and leave, Trevante notices a printout she. is holding: the EKG readings of Caspar’s brain at the moment he died. This visual trigger causes Trevante to have some kind of episode. Cole remembers something from the ship, but only a brief flash. That flash is all it takes to convince Trevante the aliens are coming back, but the military didn’t believe his vision. This ultimately leaves Trevante no choice but to escape on his own and go confront the alien threat. Jamila foolishly tags along after him. The two leave in her car while Jack Hollander declares Trevante is now the most wanted man on the planet.
Overall, the episode ends on a good cliffhanger, but didn’t actually have a lot of progression throughout the episode. The story hasn’t checked back n with multiple important characters from seasons 1 and 2 that are presumably still alive and likely still important to the plot. It would have been nice to see more than just a flash of what happened in the mothership but we will hold out hope that this sequence of events will be revealed eventually.
What do you think? Has Trevante been replaced by an alien? Could Caspar also somehow still be alive? Will Jamila end up getting hurt? What is in store for the next wave of the invasion? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
