Invasion 1.17: "The Key"

Written by Michael Alaimo and Michael Foley
Directed by Bryan Spicer

In which Russell and Dave track down Szura’s location and set out on a scouting mission, while Christina takes Mariel hostage to discover what kind of offspring she’s carrying…


I actually felt like this episode slipped on the pacing a little. It wasn’t as atmospheric and menacing as the previous episode had been, but on the whole, it delivered the goods. There was the usual metaphor within the troubled extended family, the discussion on survival of the fittest, plot progression, and even a twist at the end.

The only thing I didn’t really like was the subplot at the school, even though I recognize what it was meant to achieve. I guess cavorting with the naked hybrid a while back wasn’t enough to overcome Jesse’s natural (and completely justified) concerns about the whole inter-species cooperation thing. Jesse looks to be gearing up as an anti-hybrid soldier, if I read the signs right, but I can’t tell if that’s supposed to factor into the end of the season or serve as a potential plot thread for the (hopefully) second season.

I’ve always liked Christina as a character, to the point where I was beginning to feel terrible about the fact that she was probably going to die. It didn’t happen the way I expected, which is probably for everyone’s benefit. Did we need to see Christina’s torso explode, killing her in the process? No, we didn’t, so the writers found a way to let it happen while achieving another purpose with her death. We get to see how focused Szura is on the survival of the hybrid species, which is better communicated in that moment than any amount of exposition.

All that said, Christina’s experience brings up a disturbing point. The male hybrids seem to be a bit too aggressive with the male dominance, and it makes one wonder if Szura knew that the pregnancy would likely be terminal for Christina. It doesn’t sound like he cares about women overly much. It also makes it sound like the hybrids are a means of reproduction for the “aliens”, with the human victims being the cost of survival. Of course, we haven’t seen the final product yet, so it could be something completely different, like the next stage in the “alien” evolution.

I continue to love the interplay between Russell and Underlay. I was initially under the impression that Russell would be the main character, but the series has evolved so that the entire world of “Invasion” is guided by those two characters and their struggles within and without. They act as two magnetic poles: equal and opposite, yet undeniably linked. To be honest, however, Underlay makes it all come together for me.

Larkin’s purpose in the story is now a bit more clear. Russell, through Larkin, has something that Underlay will never have, because Mariel refuses to become the kind of victim that Christina obviously was. Mariel already feels as though choices were made for her (and they were), and she refuses to go along with Underlay’s desire for children. Thus Russell, for all his humanity, has something in Larkin that Underlay will not have in Mariel. That sets up another layer of tension in the narrative.

It’s a little hard to imagine that the hybrids missed the sound of the loud engine used by Russell and Dave, but since they didn’t leave the unidentified key yet, there’s still time to correct that plot contrivance. The important part is that the strengths of the episode more than compensated for the minor issues along the way.

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

Final Rating: 8/10