Intruders Review: “Time Has Come Today” (Season 1, Episode 3)

The bulk of the episode is dedicated to Jack and Amy’s story. He returns home to find Amy in bed – suddenly returned and miraculously unharmed. Their argument spirals out of control as he yells at her for failing to contact him. She fobs him off with an excuse and the night descends into eccentricities. Finally John Sims and Mira Sorvino have chance to gnaw at what exactly the consequences of the intruders’ actions are. She is a revelation, tottering between the real Amy and her intruder. At times it’s impossible to tell who is in the driver’s seat. Dropping the biggest bombshell so far in the series, she, or her intruder, finds it impossible to contain the truth. Her eyes glisten unburdening her secret. “We don’t die,” she tells him, smiling and assured. “Thoughts of death are for the ignorant… we die, but we can come back.”

It’s here that cracks in their marriage are exposed. His exasperation at this completely new side to his wife is too much for him to bear – especially when she then demands they separate. Their sequence, marking the erosion of their coupledom, plays out like theatre. Careful, cautious, and unsettling. It’s dialogue heavy, with a lot of exposition landing on Sorvino’s shoulders, who is tremendously convincing as a person battling with two personas. Sims fills out his character’s shortcomings, a flashback to his time as a cop affirming his response to his wife’s decision to split.

The third episode has settled into its groove as a sinister examination of what it means to be true to one’s self. It’s to be expected, as the central conceit surrounds the effects of a person taken over by the soul of another. A continued pleasure is the very fact that no-one mentions ghosts, spirits or the afterlife. Not yet anyway. At the root of this episode lies the notion of what distinguishes one person from another. The physical body and memories, these are shifted around like blocks of data, capable of being absorbed. Just how exactly can we become who we’re supposed to be under the weight of society’s preconceived rules about identity? With Jack struggling to reconcile his emotions over Amy’s choice to leave, she delivers the biggest punch, one that will have this writer watching next week: “I’m not leaving you, Jack – I’m leaving myself.”