Caemeron Crain
The following recap contains spoilers for Invasion S2E7, “Down the Rabbit Hole” (written by Dan Dietz and directed by Brad Anderson)
Editor’s Note: This piece was written during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. Without the labor of the actors currently on strike, the series being covered here wouldn’t exist.
Now that Jamila (India Brown), Alfie (Cache Vanderpuye), Monty (Paddy Holland), and Penny (Ruby Siddle) have found Caspar (Billy Barratt), they expect him to tell them what to do. The problem is that Casp is clearly pretty out of it and keeps saying he doesn’t remember things. This includes the children he apparently drew on the wall of the hospital (he doesn’t remember drawing them, either). He doesn’t remember waking up, or know how he survived when the aliens attacked.
Yet, he has the feeling that these “exceptional children” may be the key to everything. Certainly the people running the hospital seemed to think so, but they weren’t getting much of anywhere. Regardless, Caspar claims he can hear their voices, far away, and so the gang sets off towards Orléans, because Jamila has found something to indicate that the researchers at the hospital were building a lab there.
So far, so good, but as they search a store for supplies they sense that aliens are nearby (from their thrumming, I guess), and trust Caspar to tell them which direction they should flee in. He’s totally wrong and leads them right to the aliens, who proceed to try to hunt them down.
They get away, of course, but something definitely seems to be amiss with our buddy Caspar. Maybe the Green Day and a nice little kiss from Jamila will help.
Aneesha (Golshifteh Farahani), Luke (Azhy Robertson), Clark (Enver Gjokaj) et al. arrive to Camp Pierce and there’s a spat about how many people The Movement lost along the way in getting there, until Aneesha gives a speech about fighting for something larger than yourself that seems to bring everyone onto her side.
Like many things with the Maliks over the course of Invasion, the whole setup here feels a bit strained to me. Sure, the military kidnapped Sarah (Tara Moayedi), and that’s bad, but should it inspire attacking a military base?
The military in this show has been consistently presented as harsh in a way that tracks with my ideas of the military in the real world, but I keep wondering if they have their reasons for doing what they do. It made sense that they would take the Maliks into custody in Season 1 in order to research the shard relic, for example, and while they didn’t necessarily treat them in the kindest way possible, I don’t know that they were totally out of line.
After their convoy was attacked and the Maliks fled, it makes sense that they’d have an APB out for them, and, again, it makes sense that they want the mysterious shard thing that might be a weapon against the invading alien forces. I’m not saying that justifies taking a child against her will, but desperate times… There is an alien invasion going on, after all.
Regardless, Aneesha doesn’t even try a soft touch. It’s clear that The Movement doesn’t trust the military, so maybe Invasion wants us to presume they’re right about that.
Luke tricks the guards at the gate, who both end up with concussions. They don’t kill anyone, though Aneesha seems potentially prepared to, which does make sense since she’s had her daughter taken from her. Regardless, it turns out Sarah isn’t there. They find paperwork indicating that she’s been taken to Idabel, Oklahoma.
Meanwhile, in Oklahoma, Rose (Nedra Marie Taylor) has mapped out the locations where people have disappeared and is trying to match them to things in Caspar’s notebooks. Trev (Shamier Anderson) figures out that they form a spiral, and the center of that spiral is—you guessed it—Ben Shelton’s farm, where Sheriff Tyson (Sam Neill) disappeared all the way back in Invasion’s premiere.
Trev and Rose go to investigate, but this farm has now become the center of the military base in Idabel. They’re spotted and become fugitives. Rose finally tells Trev who Billy is—her husband, whom she was divorcing when he disappeared. They have a nice little moment where they hold hands, and Trev leaves her a note in Caspar’s notebook, which she reads as he infiltrates the base at the end of the episode.
I’m not sure how to take that note. At first I thought it was going to be some kind of farewell, but instead it reads more as an expression of affection that doesn’t even veer into questionable territory. So, that’s nice.
Of course, it could be a farewell because when Trev gets to the mysterious bunker/hole in the ground he and Rose spotted earlier in the episode, he decides to just go down there, and maybe she didn’t sign off on that plan.
When we first see this hole, the soldiers surrounding it are taking lots of precautions. They say they’ve found something, but we don’t get to see what (or whom). So it is exciting if we’re going to learn things from Trev’s perspective in the episodes to come.
S2E7 is titled “Down the Rabbit Hole,” which is a reference to Alice in Wonderland. Is Trev off to a place both wonderful and strange? I hope so.
See you next week.
