We’re heading towards a second season of Invasion on Apple TV. The original season took some entirely justifiable flak from my learned colleague Greg for being very, very very slow and having watched it I agree. There’s one near-unwatchable episode due to how dark it’s shot and a lot of the rest varies between trying your patience and taking its time getting anywhere.

And yet, for me, it ended in a really interesting place that has me honestly excited for season 2. So, because Greg and I did so you don’t have to, here’s a brief rundown of everything you need to know going into Season 2…

  1. The Earth Has Been Invaded

Genuinely unsettling aliens with colossal spaceships and a fondness for rapid violence have invaded the planet. The first casualties were a group of Japanese astronauts, one of whom may have been absorbed by the aliens. Hinata (Rinko Kikuchi) is a national heroine and the secret partner of Mitsuki (Shioli Kutsuna). Mitsuki watches her die on screen and becomes convinced that somehow she can still talk to her. Given the aliens consistently use the Japanese word for various objects, this seems pretty likely.

  1. Some People Felt It Coming.

Caspar (Billy Barratt) is a quiet, artistic kid who realizes over the course of the series that he’s connected to the aliens. Aided by school friend Jamila (India Brown) and, to his immense surprise kind of aided by colossally unpleasant bully Monty (Paddy Holland) Caspar accepts what he can do as the world burns down around them. He apparently sacrifices himself to save Jamila and Trevante from three aliens. As the season ends we find him in a very different location, talking to Hinata’s father (Toro Igawa) in a manner that implies both have psychic abilities and both are connected to the aliens.

  1. The War Is Everywhere

Trevante Cole (Shamier Anderson) loses his entire squad to the aliens in an attack in Kandahar. London burns. Japan quietly begins to collapse in on itself and America is torn apart both inside and out. The show’s global feel is one of its legitimate strengths and also leads to one of its most trying plots. The Malik family start the war in a terrible place, Ahmed (Firas Nassar)’s infidelity coming at the worst time for his wife Aneesha (Golshifteh Farahani and kids Luke (Azhy Robertson) and Sarah (Tara Moayedi). Ahmed is made of terrible life choices and the family’s entire plot is to bicker, run, bicker, make up, bicker, run and ultimately be torn apart. They are the most trying, least interesting part of the series. It’s a shame too because the actors are all good and the core of the plot is timely and interesting. But eight episodes of running in place tries everyone’s patience. That being said, the plot ends in a really interesting place. Luke appears to have an object that can harm the aliens and Aneesha, after a brief stop off as a triage medic for a besieged group of soldiers, feels like a different character. She’s one of the characters I’m most interested to see in the next season.

  1. The War Isn’t Over

Trevante Cole is a special forces operator and the face of the series in a more conventional show. Anderson is always great and Trevante’s combination of PTSD and guilt makes him one of the more compelling characters. His evacuation from Kandahar, helping who he can, is a chilling echo of actual events and his brief stop over in England is a pleasant surprise that ties the series together in a way it desperately needed.  Plus Trevante makes bad choices for understandable reasons, knows that, has decided he’s damned and is at equilibrium with it. He’s fun and interesting and nuanced in a way the show struggled to hit with other characters and he’s only going to get more interesting.

Especially as, as I say, the war is not over. The series ends with Mitsuki making contact with what might be an aspect of Hinata and the military using that to launch a nuclear strike on what they think is the alien mothership. It apparently succeeds and as Caspar is mourned and Trevante makes it home, we get the last reveal. A colossal alien spaceship, larger than the Moon. The war is just starting.

  1. The Aliens Are Very Hard To Kill

Caspar burns his brain out controlling three of them. Aneesha witnesses frantic attempts by the military to find something that wounds the aliens enough to put them down. Aneesha is only able to hurt one using the object Luke found. The aliens are very tough, here in massive numbers and want the planet.

 

Invasion‘s first season had a raft of problems but they certainly seem to be addressing that in season 2. Whether it works, remains to be seen but I’m going to give it a shot. And now, you’ve got what you need to maybe give it a shot too.