Invasion — Episode 4, The King Is Dead Review

By Mark

Back on the school-trip bus from hell and it’s been a rough night for teacher Mr. Edwards, Tom Cullen (“Knightfall (TV)”, “ Souls of Totality (Short) “), given he’s no longer with us.

The kids have a quarrel, in a quarry, and Casper, Billy Barratt (“Mr Selfridge (TV )”, “Mary Poppins Returns”), begins climbing the quarry walls.

When he’s near the top the other kids grab their stuff and follow, miraculously all making it out. At the top, they discover the road is destroyed, fragments of a Russian satellite litter the area, but, weirdly, Casper has drawn some of the writing from the satellite in a notebook he’s always doodling in. Casper stands up to the bully and they all begin walking to who knows where.

We discover that young kid Luke, Azhy Robertson (“The Plot Against America (TV)”, “The Americans (TV)”), has found, what looks like, an alien fragment, that he’s merrily carrying with him in his bag.

Whilst Aneesha Malik, Golshifteh Farahani (“Extraction”, “Gen: Lock (TV)”), makes a discovery of her own whilst going through husband Ahmed’s, Firas Nassar (“Sirens (TV)”, “Foxtrot”), phone…his girlfriend is pregnant.

They pull over at the side of the road to allow Luke to go pee and for them to argue with each other. This leads to them failing to notice that Luke has done a runner and it takes them forever to wonder the woods, stumble across a cabin, and find him inside with a nice old couple.

Over in Afghanistan, I’ll be honest, the weakest and most annoying part of the whole story as it’s filled with clichés and, Trevante Ward, Shamier Anderson (“Wynonna Earp (TV)”, “Son of the South”), is the most annoying, ungrateful man you’ll ever meet.

Anyway, he’s walking across Afghanistan for days with his new friend when suddenly his sat phone pings into life with a red dot, which he begins to follow.

It leads him to a hospital and, in the basement, he finds the interpreter who was with him on the mission, but he’s badly injured. Some fighters turn up and Trevante manages to fight his way out and steal their truck, which is lucky, as it wasn’t just them in the basement…

Over in Japan, Misuki Yamato, Shioli Kutsuna (“ Deadpool 2 “, “Oh Lucy!”), is trying to convince her Japanese colleagues that something hit the shuttle, but they don’t want to know.

Even her colleague Kaito, Daisuke Tsuji (“Brockmire (TV)”, “The Man in the High Castle (TV)”), doesn’t agree with her, for fear of being fired. She is fired, and heads to see her girlfriends father, Mr. Murai, Togo Igawa (“The Host”, “Giri/Haji (TV)”).

Misuki plays Mr. Murai the final recording from the shuttle and he does some EQ balancing and cranks the volume up and they witness the earth, in a plant pot nearby, vibrate into shapes. They’re going to need a bigger sound system.

Episode four of Invasion is written by Simon Kinberg (“X-Men: Dark Phoenix”, “This Means War”) and directed by Jamie Payne (“Luther (TV )”, “Outlander (TV)”).

I’m pleased that there are less clichés, though there are still a few. The series is also beginning to slow down from it’s frenetic start, which is a shame as the pace was a good thing.

Originally published at https://www.ocmoviereviews.com.