This week’s episode of the 3rd season of the Apple TV+ science fiction drama series Invasion takes us back to the past, focusing on events from more than 2 years ago, when the first alien invasion had taken place. The episode entirely follows Marilyn Tanner and gives an insight into how she had survived the invasion and how she eventually went on to form Infinitas. At the very end, Invasion season 3, episode 6 also presents Marilyn’s whereabouts at present, as she plans on putting on a big show, positioning herself entirely against the WDC.
Spoiler Alert
What had Marilyn experienced in the past?
Invasion season 3 episode 6, titled “Marilyn,” begins in an American metropolis, more than two years before the present day, when Marilyn Tanner had a very usual life as a secretary to the director of an accounting firm. It is evident that although Marilyn had ambition and the talent to become an accountant herself, she had been restricted to the role of a secretary, seemingly because of casual racism. As a Black woman in a predominantly white office, she was perhaps never taken seriously as a possible accountant, and she had found peace in successfully managing the whole firm indirectly, as the secretary to her boss, and therefore was responsible for looking into every minute detail with regard to the operations of the company.
Despite the casual racism seemingly in the works against her, which her sister, Angie, understandably did not like at all, Marilyn had grown quite close to her boss, Greg. To be able to assume an important role, almost that of a leader, despite being at a lowly professional and social position seems to have been an integral part of Marilyn’s character from the very beginning. Therefore, when tragedy first struck at the office, Marilyn became the one to try and calm everyone down and advised them all to return home safely, while her boss, Greg, was completely dumbstruck. This first unexpected incident was a loud sonic boom shattering the glass of the office building, and as was the case everywhere on Earth, Marilyn and her colleagues believed that it had been a terrorist attack.
With poor cell reception and a slow but usable internet connection, the shell-shocked workers read the initial reports about the incident, which was indeed being reported as a terrorist attack at the time. Nobody in their wildest dreams could have imagined that the sonic boom and the destruction of property, including buildings, had all been caused by an alien race invading the planet. Amidst all the chaos and the panic, Marilyn remained composed and acted as a true leader, even advising Greg to return home, stating that she would soon go and meet him there, once she has sorted her own life out. A single woman who had been going out on dates in search of a perfect life partner, Marilyn knew that she had to carry out her next steps towards survival by herself, but she definitely could not keep the thoughts of her family away.
Is Joel really Marilyn’s nephew?
Marilyn had always been extremely close to her younger sister, Angie, as she was really the only family member the woman had. She was also naturally close to Angie’s only son, Joel, meaning that the man we see introduce himself as Marilyn’s nephew later on was indeed related to her. On the day of the invasion, Angie had been encouraging Joel, a teenager at the time, to fill out his college application form. Joel was extremely intelligent and resourceful with computers and technology, and so he was expected to pursue a degree in computer engineering from one of the reputed universities. Like Angie, Marilyn had high hopes of the boy excelling in his studies and building a successful career.
But his promise-filled life was disrupted in a matter of minutes when the invasion took place, and basic amenities like electricity were instantly cut off. The government and the army advised people to evacuate their homes and go to the nearest emergency shelters, still believing the incidents to be linked to some global act of terrorism. Like everyone else, Marilyn too rushed to her family members, Angie and Joel, and decided to journey towards the shelter with them by her side. Marilyn even tried to seek help from Greg, who had decided to move into some secure bunker belonging to some of his friends, but he outright refused to help her, making it obvious that Greg had never really seen her as anything more than his secretary. As a result, Marilyn, Angie, and Joel had to travel to the nearest bus depot, since taking their own car was not an option because of the severe traffic jam on the roads.
It is at this bus depot that absolute tragedy struck, as the gathered humans finally realized what exactly was going on around them and how it had nothing to do with any terrorist attack. The hunter-killers appeared out of the portals for the first time, and they started to kill humans mercilessly. In order to protect themselves, Marilyn and her family had to board a bus, which had been taken over by the military to take citizens to the emergency shelter. Although Marilyn and Joel managed to get onto the bus, Angie could not do the same, as the bus had already started moving. Despite Joel holding his hand out to grab his mother, Angie could not hold on to him and was left behind at the depot. To make matters terribly worse, Angie was then killed by one of the hunter-killers at the depot, right in front of Joel and Marilyn’s eyes.
This incident had absolutely traumatized Joel, who just could not accept losing his mother, that too in such a tragic and violent way. During the next phases of their journey towards the safehouse, Joel first remained completely silent and unresponsive before holding everyone around him, especially Marilyn, responsible for his mother’s death. Marilyn herself could not get over the shocking incident and kept blaming herself for the death of her sister, as she kept feeling that it was her decisions and actions that had led to Angie getting left behind and then killed by the alien beings. However, as time passed, the aunt and nephew gradually got even closer and started to work together, with Joel using his computer skills, while Marilyn used her expertise with regard to financial management.
How did Marilyn become the leader of the survivors?
After being driven away from the city in a bus controlled by the army, the survivors eventually found themselves in even more trouble, as the bus broke down midway, and they were essentially left stranded. Working together as a group, they managed to get to a local church, where the pastor, Allen, welcomed them in, despite the objections of his assistant, Carolann. Dealing with the emergency situation, the church had become a shelter for the local survivors in Illinois, and so Carolann, who had taken up one of the leading roles, was against letting any more people in, as doing so would lead to a shortage of food and supplies. When Marilyn heard of the dwindling stocks of food, she decided to step in and help the survivors, now that Pastor Allen had let her and the others in her group in, allowing them to stay for as long as required. She used her management skills to ration the supplies with great efficiency, choosing to give food to families as a unit instead of to individuals, and single-handedly helped all the survivors.
Marilyn simply started running the church in a more efficient way by distributing food and supplies in a controlled manner to ensure there would always be enough for later and by also dividing the duties of every worker into various departments, like cooking, cleaning, security, and so on. Despite being heartbroken and lost in the initial days, Joel eventually took charge of trying to establish a connection to the internet to find out more news about the ongoing apocalypse. It was because of his contribution that the survivors could suddenly connect to the internet one fine day and realize what was really going on. By this time, the US government had officially clarified that humanity was facing a full-fledged alien invasion, and this news was too depressing for a lot of the survivors.
Among them was Pastor Allen himself, the leader of the church, who was left completely disillusioned with his faith, and when asked for a prayer inside the church, he openly spoke about how God had abandoned all humans. Pastor Allen was soon found dead in his office, as he was unable to live on with his loss of faith and had taken his own life. The church was also hit by an equally bad situation, as a few of the survivors had stolen everything from the pantry, including all food and supplies, and fled the previous night, leaving nothing at all for the rest of them. Frustrated and helpless, Marilyn had walked into a nearby field to look for some sort of divine intervention, and much to her surprise, she saw a gleaming alien being up in the sky (the same as the one Mitsuki communicated with in season 2), through which her dead sister, Angie, spoke to her.
She ran back to report this strange incident to Joel and even brought him to the spot. Although Joel could see absolutely nothing at the place and wondered whether his aunt was starting to lose her mind, something miraculous happened in the very next moment. A truck being driven by an elderly woman crashed by the side of the road, and the cargo happened to contain tons of Military-Ready-to-Eat meal packets, all fresh and ready for consumption. Marilyn and Joel immediately took the woman in at the church and also brought back all the MRE kits, which instantly brought joy to all the survivors. In such a desperate moment, when they would not have had anything to eat otherwise, the survivors immediately started seeing Marilyn as their savior, and she truly became the leader of the survivors now.
How was Infinitas formed?
During her bizarre experience with the gleaming light in the sky, which was an alien being, Marilyn was convinced that it was genuinely Angie on the other side, and that the being wanted to help her reconnect with her dead sister somehow. Although Joel initially had his doubts, and naturally so, he too was convinced when Marilyn told him about how Angie, through her alien form, had told her about a house that she had wanted her son to own someday in the future. The plan of owning this house had always been a cherished secret between Angie and Joel, which they had not shared with anyone whatsoever, not even Marilyn. Yet, his aunt, now knowing about this plan, convinced Joel that she must have indeed spoken with Angie, and thus he soon joined her in her endeavors. The experience, meanwhile, had made Marilyn firmly believe that the aliens, or at least this one in particular, were not evil entities as they were being called by the rest of the world, but had actually come to help human beings.
She soon shared the details of her experience with the rest of the survivors as well, telling them about how the aliens were seemingly here to help all humans reunite with their loved ones who had passed away. Marilyn also started to believe that the aliens had some bigger plans for us humans and our planet Earth, and so she soon settled on the idea that the aliens should be worshipped instead of being attacked and killed. She was contemplating taking direct action to help the aliens settle on our planet, and by this time she had gotten the rest of the survivors on her side as well. However, they were completely heartbroken and enraged upon seeing news of the fall of the mothership, which had apparently been destroyed by the WDC, and the invasion was finally over. While the rest of the world rejoiced at this development, Marilyn and her followers decided to form their own organization, called Infinitas, to not just expose the secrets of the WDC government to the world, but more importantly, to help the aliens return to Earth.
What is Marilyn up to at present?
At the very end of Invasion season 3 episode 6, we are brought back to the present, at the WDC airfield where Marilyn and her Infinitas soldiers had carried out a violent attack in the previous episode. She had killed the WDC head of defense, Jack Hollander, and is now seen threatening a soldier to lie about the situation to the WDC base through radio comms to ensure that the Infinitas members will be long gone by the time the government authorities arrive at the place. When asked whether she is worried about Joel’s well-being, as the young man had jumped into the WDC helicopter and is now technically in enemy captivity, Marilyn very nonchalantly states that she is not, for Joel is not alone, wherever he is. This confirms that Infinitas has members inside the WDC as well, having infiltrated their army also.
Next, Marilyn clarifies that her next plan is to visit the Dead Zone and to help the aliens revive and regain power so that they can continue with the invasion of Earth. Unlike what the WDC believes, Marilyn very strongly feels that the area around the downed mothership is potent with new life and has unique and beautiful alien lifeforms living in it, as reported by her scouts. She feels that it is extremely unjust to term the place a ‘dead’ zone, and so she wants to continue fighting against humans to help the aliens, who are the saviors of planet Earth. Therefore, we can expect to watch Marilyn and the Infinitas members clash against Trevante, Mitsuki, Aneesha, and Jamila in the episodes to come, with Marilyn taking on the role of the main antagonist in this season of Invasion.
