The Invaders 1.12

The Betrayed

David Vincent is digging around the Carver Oil Fields one night when he spots a UFO. He takes pictures. He sees Invaders drop something off in a railway car. He goes into the car as the Invaders are leaving and finds a control room there with a map of the world and blinking lights. He takes a computer tape but on the way out an Invader tries to stop him. He kills the Invader and escapes with the computer tape.

David goes to see Simon Carver, owner of the Carver Oil Company. He shows him the computer tape and tells him about what he saw. Carver thinks he is crazy but Vincent convinces him to come out and see the train car. The train car is still where it was but everything that David saw is gone.

David takes the tape to Neal Taft, a former NASA employee who specialized in cryptography. He wants Taft to decode the computer tape. Taft is reluctant to do it but Vincent pays him in advance and warns him that people are after him. He recommends that Taft should go into hiding while he is working on the tape. Taft agrees and they make plans to meet again that night near the intersection of 26th and Maple.

David returns to the place where he is staying only to discover two Invaders waiting for him. They want the tape back. They use a device to force him to tell them about Neal Taft.

Evelyn, Simon Carver's assistant, blackmails Susan, Simon's daughter, into helping her find out what happened to the computer tape and where they can find Neal Taft. Susan tries to play hardball but Evelyn threatens to expose secrets from her father's past.

Neal sends his brother Joey to bring David to him. The Invaders get to Joey, thanks to Susan, before David can get to him. They hit him with a car. He dies later in surgery. David tries to tell Neal about the Invaders and that they are from outer space. 

David and Susan conspire to fool the Invaders but the aliens suspect something is off. Susan tries to make a run for it but the aliens catch her and take her to the old railway car, which is back to the way it was when David saw it before he took Simon to see it. The Invaders force Susan to tell the truth. The Invaders kill Evelyn, who is also an Invader, and set the rail car to self-destruct, once they learn the truth.

David and Neal save Evelyn before the railway car disintegrates. Susan dies. The Invaders get away.

Thoughts

What about the tape? Why didn't David and Neal turn it over to the FBI? Shouldn't that be proof of something?

I don't understand what killed Susan. They used the same device on her as they did on David earlier in the episode. How come it only left him dazed but it killed her? I don't understand.

There is some talk in this episode about David and Susan being in love but there was very little evidence of it. Simon insists, in his final meeting with David, that she loved David. I laughed.

This is not a great episode but it is more or less standard fare for this series. 

Notes

Susan Carver was played by Laura Devon. This is the only episode of this show in which she appeared but she also appeared in an episode of Coronet Blue, which was created by Larry Cohen who also created this show. That episode of Coronet Blue, which also aired in 1967, was her last screen credit although she didn't die until 40 years later in 2007.

Evelyn Bowers was played by Nancy Wickwire. This is the only episode of the show in which she appeared. 

Neal Taft was played by Norman Fell, whom I know best from his role as Stanley Roper on Three's Company and The Ropers. This is the only episode of the show in which he appeared. He was a regular cast member on at least 6 different shows from the early 1960s to the mid-1980s: 87th Precinct, Dan August, Needles and Pins, Three's Company, The Ropers, and Teacher's Only. 

Simon Carver was played by Ed Begley, the father of Ed Begley, Jr. This is the first of two episodes of this show in which he appeared. The other was part of the second season and he played a different character in that episode. 

Laura Devon, Nancy Wickwire, Normal Fell and Ed Begley all made guest appearances on The Fugitive. Wickwire. Devon, and Begley also made guest appearances on Route 66. Fell and Begley also made guest appearances on The Wild, Wild West.