Caemeron Crain
The following recap contains spoilers for Invasion S2E2, “Chasing Ghosts” (written by Tatiana Suarez-Pico and directed by Alik Sakharov).
Editor’s Note: This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the series being covered here wouldn’t exist.
Last week’s season premiere of Invasion focused on Mitsuki (Shioli Kutsuna) and Aneesha (Golshifteh Farahani), so it’s not surprising that with Episode 2 the perspective shifts to characters that Episode 1 ignored.
Trevante (Shamier Anderson) and Jamila (India Brown) follow similar paths in “Chasing Ghosts,” as they are both haunted by Caspar (Billy Barratt) and his visions. Trev is obsessed with the notebooks Caspar scrawled in, whereas Jamila has been having dreams where she hears Casp calling out to her, but both leave relatively comfortable and safe situations with family in order to pursue the way they think Caspar just might be the key to stopping the alien invasion.
Whether we believe that or not, and whether or not it ends up being the case, Invasion S2E2 asks us to ponder whether the right move in a situation like this would be to do one’s best to stay safe, and maybe have a barbecue with loved ones while there’s still time, or if it’s justified to shoot off on an outlandish mission in the hopes of doing something to change things.
The episode clearly argues for the latter, and it’s hard to dispute that from the events of the hour. You might worry that by going against the orders of the powers that be individuals might mess everything up and make things worse for everyone, or something like that, but at least in S2E2 we don’t really confront that as a possibility.
It’s true that Trevante could have broken one of the vials in the lab he stumbled into, I guess, but mostly “Chasing Ghosts” calls the paternalism of the authorities into question. Invasion is largely positioning the military as a secondary antagonist, and I appreciate that far more than a story where they’re set up as the heroes.
Trev is led to McCurtain County, Oklahoma by arranging letters in one of Caspar’s drawings, and it’s great to see Oklahoma drawn back into this story. You’ll recall that back in the series premiere of Invasion, we followed Sheriff Jim Bell Tyson (Sam Neill) in Idabel, OK (is the county seat of McCurtain County). He followed a mystery to a crop circle and apparently died.
Now, there is a military base that’s overtaken the area. Trev wants to know what’s going on more than anything, but he doesn’t find out much in S2E2 before he’s caught and thrown in a cell for the night, with the plan to ship him out of there the next day. We’re getting big Top Secret vibes from whatever’s going down in McCurtain County, but are left to speculate about those samples Trev saw in a lab. And I’m not sure I object to the government doing science here. We’ll have to see how this shapes up.
Meanwhile, Jamila reunites with Alfie (Cache Vanderpuye) and Darwin (Louis Toghill), who decide to join her on her mission to get to Paris and find Caspar. They decide to steal a car from Monty’s parents, which leads Monty (Paddy Holland) and his previously unseen little sister Penny (Ruby Siddle) to join their gang as well.
I do like how Invasion is playing on something like Explorers with this group of intrepid kids setting out in the face of the unknown, so whatever we might think of the logic of all of this, I’ll allow it.
We don’t check in with the Maliks this week, which is fine by me even if I am curious about what this group that’s taken them in called The Movement is all about. Neither do we check in with Mitsuki, who we last saw having some face time with some gelatinous alien goo, sharing a mutual appreciation of David Bowie. I presume Invasion will pick up these threads in Episode 3.
See you next week.
