The City of Mysteries (Original title: Invasion)
Today, with climate change, biological threats, and artificial evolution becoming real issues, this series feels more relevant than ever.
The Story
The City of Mysteries premiered in 2005, running for one season with 22 episodes. Invasion is a slowly unfolding sci-fi thriller set after a hurricane hits Florida. During the hurricane, mysterious yellow lights appear in the sky. Something arrives in the water — something not from this world. Most of the people who disappeared during the storm are found later, but almost all of them are discovered near the water, naked! Over time, it becomes clear that something inside them has changed.
Russel, a wildlife officer, believes a power line might have caused the yellow lights, but his brother-in-law Dave thinks otherwise. Dave believes aliens have taken over the town, and the military uses the hurricane as a cover-up. He calls the aliens EBEs — Extraterrestrial Biological Entities.
The series unfolds at its own pace: building tension gradually with psychological twists and political undertones.
Tom Underlay, the Sheriff: Played by William Fichtner, a complex character who is at once intimidating, charismatic, and mysteriously human, he is the series’ central figure.
Main Cast: Eddie Cibrian, Lisa Sheridan, William Fichtner, Kari Matchett
Creator: Shaun Cassidy
Network: ABC
Why It Was Special Then — and Why It’s Worth Watching Now
The invasion here isn’t about spaceships or lasers; it’s environmental, aquatic, biological. Alien creatures resembling aquatic beings change humans, but they don’t kill. This opens a moral gray zone: what if the new hybrid form is better than the old?
Themes include climate change and natural disasters (the hurricane drastically alters the city), pandemic-like fear with infection and quarantine, social division around who is “truly human” or “alien,” and evolutionary questions about humans versus hybrid beings.
Why Only One Season?
The series premiered just before Hurricane Katrina struck, making the hurricane theme hard for audiences to handle.
Scheduled for late-night viewing and struggling with ratings, ABC cancelled the show after 22 episodes, leaving the story unresolved but at a dramatic peak.
Note: All 22 episodes are gripping with no filler — the quality rivals today’s six-episode limited series.
What If They Had Continued?
Creator Shaun Cassidy had planned a five-season arc!
For season 2, the story would have continued as follows:
Larkin is shot at the end of season 1 but is saved by Tom Underlay throwing him into the water — a “transformation” in the water allows him to survive.
The baby also survives, and Larkin returns as a more advanced hybrid, retaining his previous human consciousness, with new abilities and a strong moral compass.
He would struggle as a mother, a transformed being, and a potential antagonist. The hybrid baby would raise new ethical and biological questions tied to the show’s evolutionary themes.
Tom Underlay’s character would become morally ambiguous, no longer clearly good or evil. Cassidy wanted viewers to question whether the Sheriff truly wanted to save humanity or was only acting out of self-interest.
Tom’s first wife, Grace, believed to have died in a plane crash, is actually alive — she has transformed and leads the hybrids. She and Tom clash for power in a Cold War-like standoff. Cassidy imagined Tom becoming a tragic hero by the series’ end, potentially sacrificing himself to prevent violent power struggles. Tom advocates peaceful integration, unlike Szura and Grace, who seek control through force.
Final Thoughts
If you haven’t seen it yet, give it a chance! If you have, it’s time to watch it again.
This summary was compiled from watching the series, reading Wikipedia, and with the help of OpenAI’s ChatGPT for answering questions and refining content.
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