Invasion – Recap – Episode 1-6

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Last Thursday, Invasion was officially picked up for the full season. This means no worrying about getting left hanging mid-story arc at least until the almost inevitable big cliffhanger of a season finale. Will the next episode make us happy that the show was picked up? Or filled with a sense of dread? Let’s find out.

This week’s episode opens with Russ searching the swamp for Boris (a friendly gator). He and a fellow ranger soon find Boris before noticing a man in a makeshift boat. He doesn’t speak English but Russ can speak Spanish so he is able to find out that the man came from Havana. The man tells Russ that he could not save his family.

Back at Russ’ house, Dave and Larkin discuss what the air force could be up to. We learn that Larkin suspects that she has been followed since she snuck into a restricted area at the air base. Dave has a theory as to what may be in the boxes but Larkin is skeptical and surmises that it may just be pieces of the crashed plane.

Jesse and Kira are taking some ice back from town when Derek drives up in his truck. Kira is annoyed with Derek, particularly since everyone thinks they slept together, and she gets into his truck to settle things. Kira is mad that everyone thinks they slept together; she says the night was a bit hazy, but she is sure she would remember that. Derek tells her that the last thing he remembers is kissing her and that when he woke up in the morning he felt great. This is enough to get Kira liking him again and they drive around a bit.

Derek, as he has previously done, proves to be a tool, and starts swerving all over the road and speeding, presumably to impress Kira (causes nothing impresses the ladies like reckless endangerment) when they are pulled over by a cop car. Kira tells Derek he’ll probably only get a warning once they realize she is the sheriff’s daughter. Of course it turns out that the sheriff Kira quickly abandons her theory. Tom tells his daughter to go wait in the car and warns Derek to stay away from his daughter.

Derek apparently is not one to heed such warnings however as the very next scene sees him show up at the Underlay household when Kira is home alone. The two go up to Kira’s room and start making out when they hear Mariel arrive home.

Derek is shoved into the closet while Kira talks to Mariel. Derek has reacts to seeing Mariel and as soon as Kira lets him out of the closet he says that he has to go. He tells Kira that her dad was right and that she is not his type. Ever the gentleman, Derek then goes downstairs and peeps on Mariel as she gets ready for her bath.

Back at the swamp, Russ is preparing to set off in search of the mysterious lights. When Jesse finds out, he asks to come along. Russ thinks that it is too dangerous but that does not put off Jesse. Dave says that he is going to go if Jesse gets to go. Larkin suggests that all three of them go so they can watch out for each other.

At the church’s next hurricane survivor meeting we hear a man talking about how he feels like a new man ever sine the hurricane struck. He also mentions that he is happy that he will never again have to be alone.

While random man is speaking Derek shows up at the meeting. When the meeting is over he approaches Mariel. He tells her that while he did not have an ordeal during the hurricane, something happened to him a week after. He asks Mariel if she feels like things, particularly water, feel different to her now.

Larkin is playing with Rose on a tire swing when she sees somebody lurking in the bushes. She convinces Rose that they should play hide and seek and gets Rose to run inside to hide. Larkin then runs after the man but he drives off in a car before she can catch him.

In the swamp, Russ, Dave and Jesse find an unusual sonar reading. They surmised that it is the creature they are chasing and, after hiding under the boat briefly, it comes to the surface and speeds away. Fortunately, the boat with a small outboard motor that may have upwards of SIX horsepower is able to keep pace with the fast moving creature.

The Underlay family is sitting down to supper and while talking about their days Mariel mentions that she met Derek at the latest survivor meeting. Tom is quite curious and obviously not very happy about this latest development.

Back to the boating adventure as the creature is considerate enough to stop and wait for our heroes to catch up. They take advantage of the opportunity and throw a net over the creature. It turns out that mysterious creatures do not enjoy being caught in a net and it struggles to get away. Before it can escape the net however, Russ manages to shoot it with a tag, allowing the group to track the creature at their leisure.

Tom continues to be none too pleased with Derek so he talks to him again. Derek tells the sheriff that he isn’t interested in Kira anymore. Sheriff Underlay is well aware of that fact and he threatens Derek. Derek has ‘zero value’ to the sheriff and he would be wise to stay away from Mariel. As soon as the sheriff leaves Derek responds by fondling his pocket knife.

Derek goes to the hospital with the knife and demands to see Dr. Underlay. He then slices open his hand and tells her that he cut it while unscrewing a light bulb. He asks Mariel if she can give him a drive to the meeting as he does not feel like he should be driving with his hand like cut up.

In the swamp again, we learn a bit about Russ’ past. He immigrated to Cuba on a boat when he was ten years old. His parents were supposed to be on the next boat but there wasn’t a next boat and he has not seen them since.

The trio decide to break for the night and set up camp. They sit around and talk about things such as the power of science versus the power of being a visionary (Dave thinks that a single man with a vision can change how science perceives the world but Russ is on the side of the scientists).

We take a quick break from the campsite to see Larkin reading a scary story to Rose. Rose does not seem to be very scared of it but Larkin becomes concerned when she thinks she hears someone at the door. She then sees what appears to be car headlights turning around. She goes out to check on it but there is nothing to see by the time she gets there.

And we are back to the campsite. Dave is now snoring peacefully but Jesse seems to be having trouble sleeping. He gets up and finds that Russ is sitting by the water and the two sit down together. Jesse asks about his grandparents and whether Russ ever tried to find out what happened to them. Russ is somewhat vague in his response and it can be taken to mean that he never was able to find them or that they were killed. Russ then asks Jesse if Mariel ever mentioned being in the water or seeing the lights. Jesse asks Russ if that is why she has been acting so strangely lately.

We head back to the Underlay household where Kira is picking at a cup of instant soup. When Kira complains about it Tom offers to make her something to eat and tells her that he used to make a ‘mean spaghetti’ when he was younger. He asks Kira if she is still upset about Derek and she says that she is but for a different reason. She then tells her father that Mariel called and said she ran into Derek at the hospital and that they were going to the survivors meeting together. The sheriff is quite upset by this news and quickly leaves.

Mariel and Derek are on their way to the meeting and Derek is trying to charm Mariel. She tries to discourage his advances and he says that he just wants to show her something with the water.

We then cut back to the Sheriff radioing Kira. Mariel and Derek are not at the meeting and he wants to know what happened with Kira and Derek the night of the bonfire. Kira says they spent the night on the beach. Tom asks which beach it was and when Kira tells her he takes off again.

Arriving at the beach, Mariel and Derek stare at the water. Derek explains the almost hypnotic pull the water has and Mariel agrees with him. Derek tries to get Mariel to come into the water with him but she resists so he starts trying to pull her in. Before he can succeed, Sheriff Underlay shows up, tackling Derek in the water.

Having subdued Derek, the sheriff tells his wife to go to her meeting and that everything will be okay. After a moment’s hesitation she complies, leaving Derek and the sheriff in the water. Derek tries to apologize to the sheriff. The sheriff just asks Derek about how much he likes water and pushes him under.

After a brief struggle Derek gets a calm look on his face and the sheriff pulls him back up. Derek tells the sheriff that “That was amazing” and he agrees not to bother Mariel anymore. He says he won’t go to the meetings anymore either but Tom says that he thinks that Derek should go and that with the right guidance he could become a valuable member of the community. But first the sheriff is sending him to a work camp in the Glades for a six to eight month stint to sharpen him up.

As morning comes, Russ and company are back on the trial of the creature. The others, apparently not excited by miles and miles of swamp, are sleeping but Russ is following the tracking signal from the tag. Eventually it leads him to dry land.

Russ gets out of the boat and goes under a roped no trespassing area as the beeps get stronger. He finds a shack and a truck. In the back of the truck there is a net similar to the one they used on the creature but it just has some fish in it.

The owner of the house sees Russ and is not too pleased about his appearance. He levels a shotgun at Russ and asks why he is there. Russ starts to explain about the tagged fish when the man asks if Russ had done anything to his son, Stevie.

Stevie comes out of the shack and approaches the duo. The closer he gets, the faster the beeps on the tracking device get until they are a near steady beep. Russ asks the man if something happened to Stevie and the man says that he has been acting strangely ever since he got back this morning. The man asks why the tracker is beeping so much and seems to be getting further agitated.

Dave shows up and aims a spear gun at the man. Dave tells him to drop the gun but the man does not seem eager to do so. The man suggests they get off his property.

Once they head out in the boat again Dave asks Russ how the creature got away. Dave was not there when the tracking device was beeping and apparently Russ never said anything to him.

Back in town, Larkin has dropped Rose off at her mother’s and is on her way to cover a story. She has a brief conversation with Russ and indicates she is worried about something but that she will tell him more when she sees him next.

Larkin notices she is being followed by someone so she veers on to an off-road path in an attempt to lose them. She does not get very far however as, thanks to looking behind her, she does not have sufficient time to react to a blocked path and she flips her vehicle.

A very good episode this week; hands down the best so far. The story is really picking up as we now know enough information to start trying to piece things together but not nearly enough that we know things for sure.

The tracker leading Russ to Stevie, who apparently suffered some sort of trauma shortly prior to their encounter, raises some interesting questions. It has been hard to know what exactly has been happening to the townspeople with their experiences. Were they being replaced? Or merely infected or influenced in some way? With Stevie having the tracker on him, it certainly points more toward the outright replacement (especially when you consider the unusual blood test results Mariel had a few weeks ago). Then again, if the creatures are smart enough it could have implanted the tracker in Stevie somehow.

The stuff with Derek was quite interesting as well. Apparently the ‘survivors’ feel some sort of instinctive connection with one and other. And his sudden change in behavior after his dunking at the hands of the sheriff leads to all kinds of questions.

The only real negative I had with this episode is the Kira and Derek relationship. As with the first time we saw Derek, Kira seemed completely unimpressed with him but then after a few kind words on his part, she was back to being willing to make out with him again. I understand that it makes for a better story if he is getting intimate with Kira when he loses all interest at the first sight of Mariel, but Kira’s attitude seemed to change a little too quickly to be believable. Fortunately, one complaint does not a good episode mar.