Invasion 1.10: "Origin of Species"

Written by Shaun Cassidy and Juan Carlos Coto
Directed by Steve Shill

In which Dave is abducted by people with interesting information about what has been happening, revealing much to Russell in the process, and Underlay makes a terrible choice…


It certainly took long enough, but now I feel like this series is loving in the right direction. Shipping off half the cast to a safe location for a while gives the narrative a chance to focus on the two sides of the invasion equation. The fun part is that both Russell and Underlay are searching for answers and reacting to what they uncover, even though they stand on opposite sides of the fence.

Dave’s blog is a bit too open for the topic at hand, and it’s good to see the writers going somewhere with that. Dave is also the character that ultimately knows the most “truth”, and so it stands to reason that he would be the one to find himself in this exposition dump of a situation. The process was a bit painful and contrived, but the writers do explain a few things that help add depth to the mystery.

It’s intriguing…previous contact between the “aliens” and human populations led to an imperfect process of conversion. That process seems to have led to a predictable outcome: the Pod People go after their own young. That’s not good for anyone, but it does highlight something very important: something is unique about the situation in Florida, and not just at this point in time. Underlay’s experience strongly suggests that he was the first person to go through the process successfully.

So why would that be the case? One obvious possibility is that the “aliens” just got it right with him and then waited for the chance to do it again. But that doesn’t account for the fact that his encounter took place before the nasty incidents all over the rest of the Atlantic coast. So it’s not just that the “aliens” worked it out with him; there’s something about the location that matters.

Now another question is: how long has this been happening? Just a few decades? Or does the trail of unusual killings after hurricanes go back centuries, even thousands of years? That’s important, because if it all began after Underlay’s experience, that is a huge clue. It would suggest that his experience was something unforeseen, and that the “aliens” then attempted to replicate the process. (This is assuming, of course, that the “aliens” have been around for a while underwater; they could have landed right around the same time as Underlay’s plane crash.)

Russell and Dave now know that Underlay is something inhuman, and they have reason to believe that the other “survivors” are also Pod People. The biology of the “aliens” is geared towards the whole Pod Person concept, anyway. If someone tried to kill Connie (or Pitra, or whatever), then that suggests that someone knows about the incursion and wants it to happen…someone other than Underlay. The military is the most obvious suspect.

Underlay’s plot thread had its moments, but it fell apart with that final act. It’s hard to tell if he really knows what the process is. He clearly wanted something to happen to Lewis, but when Lewis was pulled under, he seemed surprised. Why would that be the case? And his conversation with the priest strongly suggests that the vast majority of the Pod People don’t know how or why they survived or what they are supposed to be doing.

It was easy to guess that Lewis’ arm would be restored; after all, the Pod Person process would likely involve quick gestation of a genetic hybrid, which wouldn’t take into account loss of limb. And certainly, that was too obvious a sign to the rest of the world that something was happening. But I don’t care how religious Lewis is…the man wouldn’t have the conviction or stupidity to cut his own arm off with a chainsaw!

Writing: 1/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 1/4

Final Rating: 6/10