Although many nagging questions surrounding Invasion's central aliens remain unanswered, one can draw speculations about their motives and plans.
Warning: This article contains major SPOILERS for Apple TV+'s Invasion.
Summary
- Invasion explores an advanced alien species with mysterious motives and abilities, subverting typical science fiction tropes.
- The alien species in Invasion has a hive mind, with interconnected elements like the spaceship walls and the power source reacting to human interaction.
- The purpose of the alien claw and the motives of the aliens in Invasion remain unknown, but speculation suggests they may be rectifying environmental damage caused by humans. Caspar holds the key to understanding and potentially stopping the invasion.
Invasion ambitiously explores the unknown with its complex depiction of an advanced alien species, leaving audiences curious about their motives, abilities, and inner workings. Created by Simon Kinberg, Invasion attempts to subvert science fiction tropes by portraying aliens in a unique light. Instead of depicting them as humanoid creatures who intend to wage a war on humanity, the show shrouds their purpose and origins in mystery.
Almost throughout its first season's runtime, Invasion even avoids revealing what its central alien species looks like. Although season 2 breaks this trend and delves deeper into the mechanisms of their technologies, it still comes off as a Möbius strip of a series that creates more mysteries than it can solve in its limited runtime. However, even though many plot points surrounding the central alien species remain loose threads, Invasion drops enough clues throughout its runtime to make room for speculation and discussion.
The Aliens' Hive Mind In Invasion Explained
From the fallen spaceship in the Amazon forests to the spiky alien creatures that wreak havoc on Earth, every element of the alien species in Invasion seems to be connected to a hive mind. Unlike the human world where a clear distinction between the animate and the inanimate exists, the aliens and their technology in Invasion seem to have a collective sense of consciousnesses. Invasion season 2, episode 1 brings more clarity to this by highlighting how even the walls of the fallen alien spaceship have microscopic neural networks that connect to the alien species' higher consciousness.
Somehow, even humans like Caspar and Hinata have become a part of the alien's hive mind. While Caspar seemingly had the psychic ability to tap into the alien's consciousness from the beginning, Hinata became assimilated into it after her outer space incident in Invasion season 1. To reinstate how humans can also integrate with the hive mind, Invasion season 2, episode 1's ending featured a scene where Mitsuki tried interacting with a powerful alien power source in the fallen spaceship. Like the spaceship's walls, the power source also seemed sentient as it altered its shape when Mitsuki transmitted the frequency of David Bowie's "Space Oddity" to the power source.
Since Mitsuki and Hinata bonded over their love for David Bowie and "Space Oddity" was their favorite song, the alien power source's reaction to the music suggests that Hinata's consciousness still exists somewhere in the hive. The fact that Luke and Aneesha hear a strange singing sound in their heads and also see waveforms develop on their alien claw implies that they, too, are connected to the hive mind in some way. The bioelectrical activity in Caspar's brain also starts acting up, and even the walls of the spaceship light up, cementing how the alien in Invasion is not one singular entity but a complex network of several interconnected elements.
The "Tesseract" Design Of Invasion's Aliens Explained
The spiky alien creatures in Invasion tesseract as they move and use the sharp black shards emerging from their bodies to attack humans. Invasion's creators confirmed in a promotional video that they wanted the alien to have a primal, organic look to make them stand out from every other representation of aliens in pop culture. The showrunners also revealed that the alien creatures are made of ferrofluids, making them hard in appearance but soft in touch. Their magnetism explains why they absorb bullets but can be destroyed using fire. It also hints that other alien technologies like the claw probably change shape and develop strange ripples on their surface as a reaction to nearby magnetic fields or electrical impulses.
What The Purpose Of Aneesha Malik's Alien Claw Is
The origins of the alien claw remain a mystery in Invasion. The Apple TV+ series has also abstained from diving deeper into its purpose in the grand scheme of things. What is evident, however, is that much like other technologies and creatures connected to the alien hive mind, even the claw seems to have a sense of sentience. Like the walls of the fallen spacecraft, it develops mysterious symbols and patterns on its surface when Mitsuki plays the David Bowie song to the energy source in the Amazon spaceship.
Luke and Aneesha also hear an alien voice singing in their heads, suggesting that using the alien claw has somehow connected them to the alien's combined consciousness. Something similar happened in Invasion season 2 when Luke almost seemed possessed by the claw and could not let go of it. By connecting to its human host, the claw also seemingly becomes an asset to its beholder by emitting an anti-frequency that repels others of its kind. While its true purpose will only become more evident as the show progresses, it serves as another example of how the alien species in Invasion is neither good nor evil and seemingly reflects the complex nature of humanity.
The Aliens' Motives In Invasion Revealed
On the surface, it is hard not to believe that the aliens are on a pursuit to conquer the planet by terraforming its atmosphere and ecology to make it more suitable for their species. However, this theory stops making sense when Caspar, Luke, Aneesha, and Mistuki's connection to the alien's hive mind is considered. While the aliens are clearly "invading" the planet by spreading their spores and gradually wrapping its surface with a black membrane, their motive is not as one-dimensional as it seems. By carefully manipulating the biology of the planet's natural resources, could it be possible that the aliens are rectifying the environmental damage caused by humans?
While at it, could they also be evolving humanity's perception of existence by wiping out their physical bodies but sustaining their consciousness on a higher dimension? These speculations surrounding the alien species' motives might ring true in Invasion's future episodes. However, they still do not explain why the aliens are resorting to violent methods if they are not ill-intended. Considering how Invasion has been extremely ambitious with its depiction of alien life forms, one can also speculate that the alien species' reason for invading Earth is so complex that it is beyond human comprehension and will always remain unknowable unless humans like Caspar learn to understand them.
How Caspar May Be The Key To Understanding The Alien Invasion
Invasion season 1 established that Caspar was a doorway to understanding the alien species and the higher power that controls them. By putting himself in a seizure, Caspar also proved that he had the ability to stop the aliens from invading the planet. In season 2, while he dives deeper into the alien hive mind and understands its true motives, Trevante can use his drawings as a guide to determine what the alien species plans to do next. Meanwhile, Mitsuki can use her connection with Hinata as a conduit to control the alien's technologies, and Aneesha can exploit the claw's powers to fight back against the invasion.
Since Caspar has now immersed himself in the alien's plane of existence, he will be the key to solving its mysteries and possibly deducing a way to stop it from taking over the planet. However, given the direction in which Invasion season 2 is heading in, all four protagonists will likely have an equal part in either destroying the alien species before it completes its invasion or realizing its true motives. As the four main characters band together to confront the looming alien threat in Invasion season 2, their individual tools, strengths, and unique ties with the alien will determine the planet's fate.
