‘Invasion’ Finale Explained By Showrunner Simon Kinberg
After a slow build in the first episodes, the Apple TV+ drama, Invasion, concluded its first season with a surprising cliffhanger. Without giving too much away, showrunner Simon Kinberg broke down the finale. And he also explained the thrilling ending.
[Spoiler alert: This article contains spoilers for the Invasion season finale.]
What happened in the ‘Invasion’ Episode 10?
After the United States nukes the alien ship in the penultimate episode of the season, the Invasion finale focuses on the aftermath. Assuming her husband is dead, Aneesha (Golshifteh Farahani) takes her kids to an abandoned home for the night. Luke (Azhy Robertson), who is understandably upset over his father’s death, questions why they’re still hiding, knowing the aliens are dead. Aneesha tells him that in her gut, she feels like there’s still more danger to come.
Meanwhile, Mitsuki (Shioli Kutsuna) encounters a monk who invites her to his temple. After logging on to the JASA communication system, she finds something troubling and looks up at the sky.
Despite Ward (Shamier Anderson) and Jamila (India Brown) efforts, Casper (Billy Barratt) dies. But toward the end of the episode, Casper’s consciousness seems to merge with Hinata’s, as he sees her father give him the compass she got as a child.
Ward heads back to the U.S. and finds his wife. And later, during a visit to the beach, the couple sees an enormous alien ship emerging in the distance.
Showrunner Simon Kinberg explains the ‘Invasion’ finale
In a recent chat with Collider, Invasion showrunner Simon Kinberg talked about the structure of the final episodes. He explained why the nuclear attack is in the penultimate episode of the season. And he noted that he wanted to follow the climax up with character reaction.
“I really like when television shows, when the second to last episode is the big massive action episode,” he said. “And then the last episode is the sort of aftermath for the characters episode. As opposed to going out with a huge bang.”
“So I always knew just from a structural standpoint that Episode 9 would be our big blowout, knock the ship out of the sky, fight the aliens on the ground episode,” Kinberg added. “And that Episode 10 would be what the emotional aftermath would be when you’ve lost the people that you love so that you can really actually live in the reality of that.”
In explaining the finale, Kinberg revealed that the ship Ward sees signifies the aliens returned to Earth with a vengeance. And while describing the aftermath in episode 10, he added that it’s like, “When you think you might be safe, but you’re not sure entirely. And then yes, to have the sort of surprise twist cliffhanger at the end of the season be, oh no, they actually just pissed off the aliens even more.”
‘Invasion’ Season 2 is confirmed
Just ahead of the Invasion season finale, the show was picked up for a second season. In teasing what’s to come, Kinberg told Collider that fans can expect more character drama. And he said viewers will get a little more insight on the alien invaders.
“There would be more primary characters,” he suggested. “There’d be a lot more secondary characters that would come into contact with our heroes from Season 1 — And then there’s a lot I want to explore with the aliens in subsequent seasons.”
The entire first season of Invasion is currently streaming on Apple TV+.
