Invasion Review: Home Invasion (Season 1 Episode 6)
To put it bluntly: Invasion Season 1 Episode 6, “Home Invasion,” is the best episode of the series to date. Granted that’s not saying a ton, given, well, everything that’s come before it, but it’s a start of a sort.
This is likely because “Home Invasion” is the first episode that focuses on a single story thread, rather than attempting to balance half a dozen plots at once.
And by following just one specific story, the show is able to both maintain a consistent tone and allow what’s happening onscreen to breathe in a way that has rarely happened before, and certainly never in any story that wasn’t Mitsuiki’s.
This isn’t to say that Aneesha or Ahmed are suddenly more interesting as characters or that we care more about the state of their marriage than we did last week. (We don’t, really.) But this is one of the first moments where it’s actually felt like Invasion was watchable. (For whatever that means.)
The plot of “Home Invasion” is pretty much what it says on the tin. Aneesha, somehow, finally remembers that she has a family and should go back to the weird farmhouse where they’re shacking up.
She departs the army medic vehicle with a truly laughable quickness and next to no explanation, ultimately returning to the house she left that morning, only to find something is very very wrong. (And a lot of dead soldiers along the way.)
What follows is sort of an alien Apple TV+ version of A Quiet Place, as Aneesha, Ahmed, the kids, and the random obvious cannon fodder hide in the attic and attempt to be quiet enough to avoid detection by the alien creature rampaging through the house.
The tension is mostly legitimate, heightened by a cacophony of creepy noises, strange growls, and the ongoing argument between the group about what the creature wants. (I wish I felt like Aneesha or her children were ever in any true danger, but Invasion has never felt like a bold enough series to do something that shocking.)
Yet, somehow exactly the people you expect to get eaten are the ones that do, and though Invasion dangles the prospect of Ahmed’s death in front of us, it’s ultimately a take-back, if only because it’s clear the show can’t conceptualize her character in any real way that doesn’t include her designated status as wife.
That said, she at least gets to do some serious butt-kicking this week, stabbing an alien to death and accidentally discovering that the strange black stone that’s been randomly appearing all season can apparently do them harm.
I mean, I feel like all the viewers guessed that weeks ago, but forward progress is forward progress, I guess.
It’s worth noting that Is also the first episode to actually show us an alien and..well, after finally seeing one it’s clear why the show hasn’t bothered until now. As aliens go, they’re pretty underwhelming visually and look more like large slugs than highly advanced extraterrestrial threats.
In fact, they’re so meh that I’m struggling to understand all the damage that they’ve supposedly wreaked on the surrounding countryside. Is it simply because they’re essentially indestructible unless stabbed with the weird black rock? Is it because they can shapeshift/grow extra appendages? I wish I had any understanding of how these things work.
I also wish I could have actually seen the alien better after waiting for six episodes – the dark lighting and weird blocking certainly did not help matters, is what I’m saying. Like, it’s ok to let us see things, show!
Stray Thoughts and Observations:
- So…there’s literally no way — after the alien’s other two victims were literally ripped to pieces — that Ahmed hasn’t been body-snatched, right?
- I wish I had any hope that Invasion was going to do anything interesting with the fact that Aneesha essentially abandoned her family. Yes, she snapped out of it or whatever, but like…come on.
- My hat is truly off to Sam Neill, who has somehow managed to still not appear in this show since its first episode.Talk about nice work if you can get it.
- This episode’s shortened run time also felt like a gift for me, specifically.
What did you think of this episode of Invasion? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Lacy Baugher
Lacy is a pop culture enthusiast and television critic who loves period dramas, epic fantasy, space adventures, and the female characters everyone says you're supposed to hate. Ninth Doctor enthusiast, Aziraphale girlie, and cat lady, she's a member of the Television Critics Association and Rotten Tomatoes-approved. Find her at LacyMB on all platforms.
One thought on “Invasion Review: Home Invasion (Season 1 Episode 6)”
Dark Skies? Once they melted down some alien metal and turned them into bullets they could shoot through an engine block OR an alien tri-pod thingy!
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