REVIEW: ‘Invasion’ Season 2 Episode 3 — “Fireworks”

Last episode, Trevante (Shamier Anderson) was detained, Jamila (India Brown) was on the road with a group of Goonies-styled friends in the hope of finding Kaspar or at least answers as to where he went, Mitsuki (Shioli Kutsuna) was still grieving her lover but was welcomed into a project to fight the aliens, and Aneesha (Golshifteh Farahani) was embedded in The Movement, a militia set to fight the alien invasion. While each of the stories were contained to their own episodes in the season so far, Invasion Season 2 Episode 3, “Fireworks,” allows the audience to see the stories come together and push the story instead of just telling us where each character after day 121 of the invasion.

While Invasion Season 2 hasn’t been stale, with a pace that has embraced action while answering some questions from last season, Episode 3 is truly where we see the narrative begin to move quickly. With Maya Castillo (Naian González Norvind) barely trusting Mitsuki, given the way grief has affected her mental state, she keeps pushing towards a breakthrough, now focused on bringing down the alien ships cloaked in the sky. Mitsuki has shifted from when we saw her in Episode 1, no longer a husk of who she was; we get the chance to see her work as we did at the beginning of last season, even if only Nikhil Kapoor (Shane Zaza) accepts her aggression and Maya remains skeptical.

This tension in the research lab helps keep Mitsuki’s story of grief interesting. While her pain is the only reason why she wants to successfully attack the aliens, that anger, at least according to Maya, is a detriment. However, Nikhil pours gasoline on the fire, looking away from potential casualties and towards the need just to destroy the alien ship, first where they are, and then across the globe.

In Invasion Season 2 Episode 3, Mitsuki is the focal point. Her science and observations of the alien distress signal coming from the downed ship are pivotal in destroying it. But even when Mitsuki and Nikhil can plan a successful attack, leading the World Defense Coalition’s President, Benya Mabote, to announce a win in the war against the invasion, the episode doesn’t present a salve. Instead, we see one bright spot while other tensions begin to raise their head.

For her part in the story, Aneesha is trying her hardest to separate from the Movement, dedicated to protecting her children and staying away from the military’s radar. Instead, she and her kids are involved in a Movement rescue mission for those who sent an SOS. But in rushing to follow her son, who rushes toward the Movement as they fight against a wave of aliens, she loses her daughter in the process, offering a pin drop as the episode ends.

As an episode, “Fireworks” focuses on the series’ two most dynamic characters, both propelled by their love, one romantic and one maternal. Mitsuki and Aneesha are where my focus is, and because of that, Trevante’s section of the episode that happens in a holding cell with conversations that should be emotional feels empty. This isn’t for lack of trying. However, the dialogue between Trevante and the police officer does little to add to this specific episode, making me question if episodes that add more than just two storylines are the best way for Invasion to develop the narrative.

For the first time, I wish the series was less a story of perspectives in different locales and more focused on just Aneesha or Mituski, the two with the most interesting stories. There doesn’t seem to be much connection in this episode, making _’s absence less noticeable. While the uniqueness of multiple narratives threading together over the course of a series was a strength in season one, now that we’re in the thick of it, a more pinpointed approach is needed to make the show keep shining.

Despite this weakness, Invasion Season 2 Episode 3 captures my attention with its false sense of hope because the two women who need hope the most are under the shadow of an impending counter-attack. Whether from the aliens or, in Aneesha’s case, those who are antagonistic toward the Movement she’s found herself involved in.

Invasion Season 2 Episode 3 is a lot. There is action, and there are pleas to the empathy of characters that both balance each other out when you peel back their layers. Moving more quickly than I anticipated, this episode brings The Movement into focus and gives humanity a win. But with seven more episodes, it’s hard for the developments in “Fireworks” to feel earned or meaningful.

Invasion Season 2 Episode 3 is streaming now on AppleTV+ with new episodes every Wednesday.