Way back last summer, before "Invasion" had premiered, Evan Peters already knew what he wanted to see happen eventually.

"I just want to get a gun and shoot aliens," said the 18-year-old actor, who plays teenager Jesse Varon on the ABC series.

Well, Jesse could use a gun in tonight's episode (9:01 p.m., Ch. 4). A bazooka. A tank. Maybe a cruise missile.

The aliens are on the march, and things aren't looking good for the humans in Homestead, Fla.

For those of you who haven't been keeping up, "Invasion" launched last September in the middle of a hurricane. Accompanying the storm were a whole bunch of lights falling from the sky — lights that turned out to be some sort of alien life form. If you happen to be a human and one of those aliens catches you in the water, chances are it will grab you, suck out your life force and DNA and turn into you. Or merge with you. That's a little unclear.

The "hybrids," as they're called, look altogether human and have the memories of the human they've co-opted. And, as a second hurricane bears down on Homestead, a hybrid army has plans for the humans who remain.

"Invasion" hasn't lived up to ABC's expectations — it hasn't done a real good job of holding onto the "Lost" audience, so the show's future is up in the air at the moment. And there's been some criticism that the action moved too slowly.

But, on the other hand, "Invasion" has been a better-than-average sci-fi show that doesn't depend too heavily on special effects. The characters ring true (at least most of the time), and there have been enough surprises to keep things interesting.

And "Invasion" has actually moved its story forward this season. We don't know everything, but we know a whole lot more than we did when the show began.

The same cannot be said about "Lost."

Tonight's second-to-last episode of the season certainly will leave you anxious to see what happens on "Invasion" next week.

MEANWHILE, ON "LOST" (8 p.m., Ch. 4), something actually happened last week. Actual events in the show's present, not in its past.

To make a long episode short, Michael (Harold Perrineau) returned from the jungle and — without explanation (yet) — shot and killed both Ana Lucia (Michelle Rodriguez) and Libby (Cynthia Watros).

You've got to figure Michael was brainwashed by those mysterious Others, but you've also got to figure this will open up a lot more questions without providing any answers.

More and more, I'm thinking that the Powers That Be at ABC have mandated that the writers and producers of "Lost" drag this show out just as long as possible in order to keep riding the ratings gravy train — that it's being written with commerce, not storytelling, in mind.

And that's not just my opinion. In a March interview with TV Guide, Terry O'Quinn (who stars as Locke) expressed his own frustration. "I can't tell if (producers) make these decisions based on what is truly good timing or if somebody's saying, 'You better make this meal last as long as you possibly can,' " he said.

Ah, well. At least that annoying Ana Lucia is dead.

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E-mail: pierce@desnews.com