A Hitchhiker’s Guide to Madison
INTRUDERS – the first three episodes – (speculative recap) ⁓
Madison O’Donnell (Millie Bobby Brown) reads from a book with a large ‘9’ on the cover, a book designed to be a guide to her new existence. “There is a lie they tell, a lie that is believed for the sake of control, that life, a single life, is to be lived in quiet terror because all they have seen is that death awaits them. Death awaits us all. People believe, because they have been told, that death is what God has designed; that God is a punishing god who hates us, destroys us. People believe death to be his final punishment at the end of our short spans of bloody sorrow. That this book is in your hands proves that death is not punishment; that no such thing exists.”
By the end of episode two, young Madison, the central character of INTRUDERS, has persuaded, or possibly bribed, Karen (Rukiya Bernard) to drive her to Seattle from Portland, Oregon. (Millie Bobby Brown was also the young Alice in the ill-conceived ONCE UPON A TIME spinoff ‘Once Upon a Time in Wonderland‘. This is a much better role for her, and she delivers a great performance.)
Conspiracy theorists have stopped looking for extraterrestrials, because a much more dire threat is at hand. A group calling itself Qui Reverti (latin for ‘He Came Back’) has learned to control reincarnation by displacing souls from people who have not yet died.

Donna Albert (Katherine Evans) killed herself after being intruded upon on her birthday in the early 1990’s
It seems this must be done on the subject’s birthday (perhaps at the age that corresponds to when the Intruder died) and there is some connection with the number ‘9’ which almost certainly is not age-related. Men in Black show up just before the ‘intrusion’ and give the soon-to-be-host (who are not as surprised by this as one might expect) informative literature, and sometimes bus tickets. Sometimes the Men in Black kill people, and other times they just threaten to kill people..
Amy Whelan, an ex-cop’s wife played by Mira Sorvino, gets intruded upon by someone who was a member of the Tsar’s police at the end of the 19th century. She wakes up from a dream speaking Russian, much to her husband’s puzzlement. Interestingly, her taste in music changes (from what we know not) to American jazz, which indicates that the ex-Tsarist survived the revolution and ended up in the US.
Either reincarnation is a basic premise of the show, or technology has been developed that can transfer consciousness from a dying person to another living one. Don’t know which yet. Another unknown is what exactly happens to the ‘soul’ that originally occupied the host body.
On the road to Seattle, Madison reads silently from her book. “We do not die, but we can return. The few, the very few, those who possess the will and strength and purpose. The self-chosen ones. Qui Reverti. This book will guide you through the prison doors back to freedom. Welcome back Reverti. Welcome back again.”
A renegade Man in Black named Richard Shepard (James Frain) was hired by a group called The Nine to kill an old guy named Marcus, but Marcus bribes him into not doing that, and Richard agrees to shepherd Marcus in his next incarnation. In the flashback that describes this transaction, Marcus implies that he has been around for a few thousand years.
‘9’ is the eternal number of human immortality in freemasonry.
There is an extended scene between Amy and her husband Jack (John Simm), an ex-cop with anger issues. Jack can tell that Amy is a different person and creates the impression that it’s a good thing, but the difference between Occupied Amy and Original Amy is not made at all clear. It is as though Original Amy is irrelevant to the story, at least so far. Amy tells Jack: “All you need to know is that I would never leave you. You’re my shepherd.”
The word ‘shepherd’ gets used a lot in INTRUDERS, and it could be another masonic reference. A shepherd’s crook accompanied by a cross is the symbol of the International Order of the White Shrine of Jerusalem, a group open to only Master Masons and their female relatives.
We haven’t been shown Original Madison either. Occupied Madison, however, is really scary and apparently very strong. She comments on a piece by Mozart being played on Karen’s car radio, saying she once played in the orchestra on the night of the composition’s introduction, which was 29 May 1791. Mozart was a Freemason. Later, having deceived Karen with whom she had hitched a ride to Seattle into trusting her, little Madison beats Karen to death in the women’s restroom of an I-5 rest stop, apparently with her bare hands.
Miscellaneous Info
The two main female host characters are named Amy and Madison respectively. Amy Madison was a character in Buffy the Vampire Slayer who was also a witch and turned herself into a rat, not realizing that in rat form, she couldn’t reverse the spell.

Amy Madison (Elizabeth Anne Allen) in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode “Doublemeat Palace”
Glen Morgan, who created this series for television (based on the book by Michael Marshall Smith), also wrote fifteen ‘X-Files’ episodes and the ‘Lone Gunmen’ pilot.
The first radio station Karen and Madison listened to (the one bemoaning the plight of fugitive Bill Anderson) was 650 AM, which must be CISL Vancouver. Madison switched to 730 AM which is playing Mozart. The only radio station in that area on that frequency is CHMJ Vancouver, which broadcasts only traffic reports.
INTRUDERS can be streamed on HULU, and is available on DVD and Blu-ray.
** — Updated. Originally published in September, 2014