Invasion season 3 episode 4 ending explained: Are Trevante and Mitsuki really dead after that crash?

Invasion season 3 episode 4, The Mission, premiered on Apple TV+. The WDC drafts Trevante and Mitsuki for a strike into the Dead Zone while Aneesha is swept into the mystery of Infinitas.

Season 3 of Invasion features a group of survivors fending off an alien menace that is constantly changing. The WDC in The Mission indicates that Neuro Darts are no longer functional, and vine-like growths connect hunter-killers to the mothership that crashed.

Aneesha is the one who gets Inquiries about Infinitas, whose real name is Marilyn Tanner. Trevante says that Caspar's dreams are linked to his EEG and the frequency of portals.

Disclaimer: The following article contains spoilers from Invasion season 3 episode 4. Reader’s discretion is required.

No, Trevante and Mitsuki are not really dead after the crash. The ending of the episode strongly hints that the vines intentionally targeted their helicopter, suggesting capture or connection rather than a fatal blow.

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Trevante and Mitsuki's helicopter crash in Invasion season 3 episode 4?

A still from Invasion season 3 (Image via Apple TV+)

Hollander and Nikhil watch helplessly from the second bird as vines explode inside the Dead Zone, severing the tail of Trevante and Mitsuki's chopper and sending it spiraling into the forest canopy.

That is lethal on paper. Mitsuki's mind continues to be a unique conduit that the WDC seeks to take advantage of, while Trevante's "memory flashes" synchronize with Caspar's EEG pattern and the gateway tone.

Because of these growing feelings, killing them here would hurt those ties. Interestingly, the vines seem to grow right along their flight path while missing Hollander's bike. That beat is a capture-or-redirect, to use cliffhanger terminology.

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Did the alien vines target their chopper on purpose?

A still from Invasion season 3 (Image via Apple TV+)

Yes, the pattern shows purpose. In season 3, the vines are shown to be networked pathways between the mothership and the hunter-killers, like live phone lines. In episode 4, it's made clear that "old" guns don't work because the webbing makes HKs work.

When two helicopters breach the same airspace, only Trevante or Mitsuki is clipped, and at that exact moment, a glowing growth surges upward. If this were random proliferation, both crafts would risk impact. Trevante’s resonance with Caspar’s pattern and Mitsuki’s unique susceptibility to alien frequencies.

That targeting preserves Hollander (a useful pawn bringing the bomb) while isolating the two humans who keep “tuning” to the network. Invasion season 3 thus reframes the vines from environmental hazard to tactical organ—able to swat, shield, or shepherd.

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What does the cliffhanger mean for the shard-bomb mission?

A still from Invasion season 3 (Image via Apple TV+)

The WDC's strategy is simple: go inside the Dead Zone, find the core, and set off a bomb made of metal from space. However, the blind spots in the scheme are revealed in Invasion season 3 episode 4. First, the vine-mesh of every portal is a protective lattice; second, Neuro Darts can no longer enter; and third, no one sent into the Zone came back.

The mission splits into two tracks if Trevante and Mitsuki survive the collision, where Trevante and Mitsuki are pushed further by the hive itself. Given that Mitsuki's cerebral link turns into either the key or the trap, it is more likely that Trevante's visions will "unlock" a path to the core.

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A still from Invasion season 3 (Image via Apple TV+)

Episode 4 weaves its threads into a single pressure line: the aliens adapt; humans scramble; truth leaks. It’s the first hour where Invasion season 3 stops widening and starts converging, and each incident pushes the characters into harder choices that set up the fall after that cliffhanger.

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Trevante’s visions become the map

Interrogated beside Mitsuki, Trevante ties his flashes to Caspar’s EEG and the portal frequency. The WDC tries to replay the tone; nothing happens, hinting that the hive chooses when to connect. Trevante accepts the mission fast, grief over Caspar fueling resolve, while Invasion season 3 positions his memories as living reconnaissance.

Mitsuki revisits the room where she was “tuned” like a trapped HK, fury rising at Hollander and Nikhil. He offers a neuro-dampener to quiet the noise; she rejects it, equating it with a cage.

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Aneesha’s interrogation and the setup for a jailbreak

A still from Invasion season 3 (Image via Apple TV+)

As Aneesha is being held in Boise, she is asked about Infinitas. Search logs from her house (which was really Clark's) put her on the hook. Clark leaves the kids with a friend and runs in with Jamila when she gets a call in a minute. Stalling, code-noting, and pleading are all parts of a quiet hallway dance that sets the tone.

"Verna," the older prisoner, gets pills from a "nephew," but then she passes out with anaphylactic symptoms. Ayesha jumps in to help, and the "paramedics" rush her out the door. Things are wrong inside the ambulance, but then an EpiPen shows up and the written information finally arrives, i.e., Verna is Marilyn Tanner—Infinitas.

On the tarmac, soldiers load the shard bomb. Hollander offers Mitsuki a non-apology, progress over pain. Two helicopters lift into the sky, humming with growth.

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Stream Invasion season 3 episode 4 and other released episodes now on Apple TV+.