Invasion 1.22: "The Last Wave Goodbye"

Written by Shaun Cassidy and Charlie Craig
Directed by Lawrence Trilling


As everyone is now well aware, “Invasion” has been cancelled after one season. Frankly, I’m not surprised. It’s a bit of a miracle that it made it this far. Nearly every series that fell into the “Lost” formula this season found itself cancelled or barely renewed (“Supernatural” being the sole survivor). “Invasion” had the benefit of an entire season to tell a relatively complete story, and while there is much left unanswered (including the final cliffhanger), it’s possible to look back on the series as storytelling success.

In terms of the finale, the entire first act was insane and more than a little terrifying. After the previous episode, I mentioned that the circumstances were horrific, and that just carries over into this final hour. Appropriately, Dave (the one person who seemed closest to the truth all season long) is the one who makes the critical call to save the remaining humans in the town. Was someone in the military going along with the plan? Almost certainly, but this was an interesting way to bring a resolution.

The rest of the episode was fallout and potential setup. The fallout comes first. Szura finally gets it in the end, and it’s a sweet moment for Underlay. In fact, Underlay and Russell have been working together very well, which is a nice extension of the family metaphor. Once again, most fractured families manage to pull together when something external threatens the whole. But Underlay in particular was at the center of the episode, especially the action scenes, and that made me very happy.

Now, the setup. Clearly the fact that the surviving pregnant hybrids made it to the sea and were carried away would have been important. Russell’s constant warnings about the hybrids as a bridge species for something far more invasive was probably foreshadowing. And of course, the idea of Larkin as a hybrid, especially with the baby, brings up other issues of compatability. After all, a baby is essentially a parasitic organism; would that qualify as a reason to reject Larkin, or would the baby have been something unintended?

Unless the writers reveal the intentions on the impending DVD set, there will likely be no answers to the open questions. The second season would have been all about the offspring and the consequences. It could have quickly turned into a commentary on “us vs. them”, and the question of whether “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”. If something worse came along, would that have pushed the hybrids and humans into cooperation (turning, once again, to the family metaphor)?

In a way, that’s the only complaint that I have with this finale. The producers have been fighting a battle to keep the series on the air since early in the run, so the possibility of cancellation was always there. Why set up a cliffhanger at the end of the season, knowing that the fans would likely be left hanging? It’s not a sign of defeat, especially since writers should have the tools available to write a resolution that also points towards future exploration. The fact that they didn’t plan for it leaves the series with an unnecessary open ending.

This is the part where I would usually launch into a discussion about the season and series as a whole, but I’m doing things a little differently moving forward. The “Invasion” post-mortem (so to speak) will be the main focus of this week’s episode of “Dispatches from Tuzenor”, a new podcast started as an expansion to the written reviews conducted every season. That episode should be up after the weekend, so I invite anyone interested to drop by the archive site (www.entil2001.com) and click on the link. (It’s also available on iTunes.)

Writing: 2/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 3/4

Final Rating: 9/10

(Series Final Average: 7.3)