A heartfelt shout-out to the quintessential TV bottle episodes: Jerry, George, Kramer, and Elaine impatiencely awaiting their Chinese-restaurant reservation; Peggy and Don locked in a heated debate over the purpose of their funds; and, notably, Mulder and Scully stranded in Alaska, grappling with an alien parasite bent on global domination. I specifically call out the season-one episode "Ice" from The X-Files, as it expertly executes numerous facets that the sixth episode of Invasion, "Home Invasion," distressingly falls short of, despite its mere half-hour runtime. "Ice" crystallizes the stakes, clearly delineating who or what poses a threat and spelling out the dire consequences should Mulder and Scully fail to contain it. It stirs up tensions among beloved characters, casting doubts on who to trust and who to suspect. Conversely, six episodes into Invasion, it remains a mystery as to what the heck is actually unfolding, severely testing my patience across the board!
The aliens' design lacks any semblance of originality, and the human characters continue to grate on my nerves. I find myself wishing Aneesha had simply left her family behind, revealing a surprisingly cold streak in me. I yearn for a moment where Luke casually mentions, "Oh, by the way, I've been toting around this odd metal-like object for days, which apparently serves as an alien weapon or something?" And I wish Sarah could muster the composure to stay quiet when explicitly instructed to do so, amidst the looming monster. Come on, Malik family, pull yourselves together!
Alas, they do not. And thus, this recap will be brief, as "Home Invasion" offers little in the way of plot progression. The episode opens with Aneesha, still in the back of a military truck with other medical workers and first responders, being transported to another town in dire need. This time, a school has been "hit by something," and the fellow passengers alongside Aneesha refuse to buy the president's explanation of an extraterrestrial attack, instead blaming Russia or perhaps China. None of this matters to Aneesha, who realizes she has abandoned her family. Despite medicine being her theoretical dream, she abruptly bolts from the barely halted vehicle and embarks on a Forrest Gump-esque sprint through what seems like countless towns. Their journey had been lengthy, yet Aneesha's directional prowess and endurance are nothing short of astonishing. She passes an attacked military convoy and charred bodies, and upon reaching Patrick and Kelly's, she stumbles over yet another corpse in their living room, fearing the worst. However, after Invasion borrows heavily from the basement scene in Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise's War of the Worlds remake, Aneesha is hoisted into the attic by Patrick, where everyone is hiding, hoping to ride out the aliens' vibrations shaking the house.
We've witnessed numerous characters across the globe grapple with comprehending the unfolding chaos, and "Invasion" repeats this pattern, almost to the point of redundancy, in the tense attic scene. Patrick, who dispatched the intruder downstairs, is justifiably enraged that the Malik family cannot refrain from their incessant chatter and maintain silence. QAnon-conspiracist Kelly, shortly before an alien tears her in two, remains steadfast in her belief that the extraterrestrials are after their water supply. Both perish as a result of their generous act of welcoming the Maliks into their home. While fleeing, Aneesha, Ahmed, and the children uncover more grim details about the aliens.
As we witnessed in Afghanistan, these beings boast a metamorphic, metallic exterior, capable of sprouting extra limbs, tentacles, or mouths. In Japan, they seemed to communicate via soundwaves. New insights reveal that they can perish from numerous gunshot wounds or from an assault employing the same material that comprises their bodies—perhaps their armor, given their smooth, non-threatening appearance upon death, as opposed to their earlier aggressive, prickly demeanor. Once again, the dimly lit scenes and indistinct CGI render these revelations challenging to decipher! However, one thing is unmistakable: "Home Invasion" concludes with Aneesha earning yet another title of "Very Protective Mom, Increasingly Bad Person" for locking the doors, preventing Patrick from accessing his own vehicle. Luke solidifies his reputation as the worst child on television by never once clarifying what he has been carrying around. Ahmed somehow weathers a direct onslaught from the alien intruder, but is he perhaps compromised (or infected)? We speculate similarly about Sam Neill's fate by the end of the premiere episode. Where is he? Can he rescue us—and salvage this series?
