Invasion

This episode opens with Mariel asking Tom to dredge the swamp where she saw her body.

At the survivors' meeting, Mariel is getting ready to tell everyone about her seeing her body in the water, but Dave crashes the meeting, and Mariel backs out.

Meanwhile, Larkin and Russel are in the forest, preparing for a brief romantic getaway, since they have not had much time for each other lately. As they kiss and play around, Russ notices dead animals lying around. He runs over to get a clear view of the swamp and finds it full of dead things. He gets angry. Someone has been poisoning the swamp. He storms off and Larkin follows, trying to calm him down.

Russ goes to two people (apparently drug dealers) and holds them at gunpoint, blaming them for the dead swamp. They deny any connection with the poisoned swamp and Russ gets angrier, and hits one of them with his gun. Larkin seems unsure of what to do.

Dave and Mariel meet to have lunch. They discuss the weird things that have been happening and Dave makes a joke about "pod people", and Mariel goes silent.

Tom goes to talk to Father Scanlon. He confesses that he is scared that he is going to lose Mariel and doesn't know what to do. The priest delicately suggests that Tom lie to Mariel to keep her happy.

Mariel and Dave talk some more, later, in the place where he keeps his information on the aliens. Mariel seems ready to tell Dave about her experience, but Tom stops by, ruining the moment. Mariel tells Tom that she still wants him to dredge the cove.

At the lab, Russ discovers that the guy he hit has a broken jaw, and the DA is considering pressing charges against him. Russ's past comes up, particularly the instance where he went to a work camp. Larkin thought he went there voluntarily. Russ says he did, but only because it was either that or juvenile prison. Larkin questions him further but Russ blows her off so he can examine a dead alligator that he brought from the swamp.

Tom is called in by the coroner, who tells him about several bodies that have turned up since the hurricane. All of them have strange puncture wounds. The wounds didn't kill them, but they sped up the decaying process. Tom's interest is peaked at news of an unidentified blonde woman.

Dave is at the Internet cafe, ready to post his latest blog, when Larkin comes in to talk to him. She tells him that Russ has a record but he won't talk to her about it, and Dave uses his Internet knowledge to pull it up.

Back at the lab, Russ and his assistant are performing an autopsy on the dead alligator, which apparently smells worse than it should. While they are performing the autopsy, Dave comes in and tells Russ that Larkin knows about his record now. Tom tells him he'll talk with her later. He cuts the gator's stomach, and a flood of acid pours out, burning him. He rushes to wash it off, and then notices something on the floor. It doesn't look normal, and has a claw-type thing attached to it.

Dave goes home and excitedly blogs about what they found, now that they have proof of aliens. Russ comes home, searching for Larkin, and Dave tells him she went to the swamp. He advises Russ to tell her the truth. Russ finds Larkin and tells her about his past.

He used to have to sell cocaine for his uncle, who was a gangster, or else he would be beaten. His uncle would always pick on his friend, Leon, and when Russ finally told him to stop, his uncle shot the boy. Russ killed his uncle by bludgeoning him to death. His lawyer convinced the judge that it was self-defense and he got off easy.

Dave goes home and finds Mariel there waiting for him. She asks him what he saw when he was attacked by the orange lights, and he tells her about his experience, and lets her see the marks on his legs. He asks her what she saw, she says "me".

Dave later goes back to the survivors' meeting. Dave makes a speech about them accepting them, and asks him to help him as they have helped each other. They seem to go along with it. Outside, he speaks into his tape recorder, stating that he has them where he wants them.

Meanwhile, the test results on the claw thing have come back. It's filled with various poisons and seems to be the source of what poisoned the rest of the swamp. Traces of human DNA have been found in the claw as well but more testing has to be done.

At the swamp, the dredge is being done. It appears that nothing will be found, but then a body turns up. It's the body of a blonde woman, but it's not Mariel. Tom explains to Mariel that she saw the body but imagined that it was her body. Mariel reluctantly believes him.