After a steady start to the second season with Something’s Changed, which showcased the new world order of a post-invasion dystopia, the second episode of Apple TV+’s Invasion, titled Chasing Ghosts, brings the narrative flow to an abrupt halt. Information that could have easily been added to any other episode with two additional narrative segments is needlessly stretched out to almost an hour-long episode, as it seems the makers are wilfully shackling down the otherwise strong potential that the first episode promised.
In the previous episode, viewers learned that four months after the invasion, the world government has mingled into a single overseeing organization named the Coalition, which is facing adversity in the presence of an insurgence group known as the Movement. The Coalition is also working with the eccentric, fabulously wealthy investor Nikhil Kapur, who abducts Mitsuki and requests that she venture into the alien mothership in the Amazon rainforest that was nuked down in the finale of the previous season.
The mothership’s power source is seen to be guarded by a formless female energy-based telepathic being, which, contrary to its hostile behavior towards other scientists, reaches out to Mitsuki and attempts to communicate with her. On the other hand, after being taken into custody by the army, Aneesha and her kids get rescued by members of the Movement and decide to seek shelter in their base for the time being. It was also revealed that Caspar is alive in a catatonic state, and Mitsuki’s communication with the entity has somehow affected him. After such an eventful first episode, it’s kind of a letdown the way the second one basically stalls the plot in a ridiculous way.
Spoilers Ahead
Why Did Jamila Want To Go To Paris?
Invasion Episode 2 opens in an alleyway, presumably in London, as we see a despondent Jamila Houston walking through it. All of a sudden, she senses someone’s presence and turns around, but finds no one in her line of sight. Jamila desperately calls out for her friend Caspar, whom she believes to be alive even after the events that happened at the hospital four months ago. Previously, before the aliens invaded for a second time, Jamila, Trev, and Caspar went to the hospital in order to learn more about the alien invasion by inducing a seizure in Caspar. As Caspar shockingly connected himself with billions of synapses of the alien hive mind, a number of aliens attacked the hospital. Caspar was able to subdue them, but the mental pressure led to his collapse and presumed death. Coming back to the present, Jamila is understandably shaken due to the incident and wants to find the bare minimum hint of Caspar’s whereabouts.
A disembodied voice of Caspar responds to her calls, and Jamila starts searching for the source when suddenly she sees the sight of a red moon on the horizon—and her dream ends. Currently living in her country home in Wellingborough, she has been having these vivid dreams for quite a while, which she perceives as a sign of Caspar’s survival, details about which she has shared with her mother. However, Dr. Houston isn’t willing to concern himself with dreams and visions when she has to deal with alarming situations in real life. After a chance encounter with a survivor who was trying to steal supplies for his family, Jamila learns that an occurrence of the red moon had indeed happened in London the previous night. Considering this to be a sure sign of Caspar’s attempt to contact her, Jamila starts off for London and leaves an apology note addressed to her mother, Dr. Houston.
Evading getting captured by either the military or the alien constructs, Jamila reaches the hospital where Caspar was admitted, only to learn that he indeed survived and was transferred to Paris. At one of the refugee shelters, Jamila finds their school friends Darwin and Alfie, who were also stuck inside the ditch during the beginning of the invasion. She lets the duo know about her decision to go to Paris to meet Caspar, as she believes him to be the key that can finally put an end to the alien invasion. Although initially skeptical, the duo expressed their wish to join her as well.
Trev’s Investigation: What Did He Find Out From Caspar’s Notebook?
The scene moves to Miami, where we meet Trevante Cole at a poolside party at his sister Shiona’s house. It turns out that even after reuniting after so long, his wife, Learah, decided to leave him, thanks to his being preoccupied with the invasion situation. So far, the city is safe from alien attacks, but Trev can’t let go of the haunting memories from four months ago and continues to be fixated on the invasion discourse. As we know, losing their newborn child had already affected Trev’s guilty conscience, which gradually reached its worst state after his entire unit was wiped out in an alien attack and he saw Caspar die in front of his eyes while fending off an alien attack. Therefore, it’s just not easy for him to engage in merriment like others when he knows the horrendous situation they are still living in and the utter helplessness he feels due to that. Caspar’s cryptic, artwork-filled notebook is still with Trev, which he considers to contain clues regarding the deterrent to the invasion.
At the party, a kid named Jordan almost drowns in the pool until Trev rescues him, and as his PTSD kicks in, Trev lashes out at him in a nasty way, scaring all the attendees in the process. Later that night, Shiona practically kicks her brother out of her house, as she feels Trev’s war hasn’t yet ended. Trev goes through Caspar’s notebook, where a cryptic spaceship landing scribble consists of random letters and numbers, connecting which he finds the location of the site that might be of seminal importance: Oklahoma.
Did Trev Figure Out The Ground Zero Of The Invasion?
Meanwhile, Jamila, Alfie, and Darwin sneak into the former bully Monty’s household, who belongs to an extremely well-to-do family, and plan to steal one of their cars, which they can use to cross the channel as any conventional means of transport is unavailable. However, they get caught by Monty and his little sister Penny pretty easily, which leads them to share their motive for the theft with them as well. An argument ensues, which scares Penny. As it turns out, disagreements between their parents have led to a rough childhood for both her and her elder brother. Eventually, Monty agrees to let them go with one of their cars, and upon Penny’s pestering, he begrudgingly agrees to drive them to their destination as well.
Trev reaches Oklahoma, and we are once again taken to the cornfield where Sheriff Jim Bell died in the first season, where the first signs of extraterrestrials were felt, and apparently, a spaceship had landed as well. However, the area has been occupied by the military, and an entire experimentation center has been set up where Trev infiltrates by faking his identity. Inside the center, Trev sees a number of biological samples affected by alien lifeforms and separate alien bio-constructs as well, but before he can investigate further, he gets caught by the military and incarcerated inside the county jail. A frustrated Trev is out of options at the moment as his belongings, along with Caspar’s notebook, have been taken from him as well, but there is a possibility that he will get the answers he is looking for at ground zero of the invasion.
