Last week in Invincible, Robert Kirkman landed on the promise that we would be receiving the show’s most brutal scene to date. The prologue to the Viltrumite War began as they fought off Lucan (Phil LaMarr), Kradd (Andrew Morgado) and Conquest (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), which ended in Mark’s (Steven Yeun) near death but victory as he brought Conquest’s life to an end. As Mark and Oliver (Christian Convery) witnessed a dying Mark, Tech Jacket (Zoey Deutch) and Allen (Seth Rogen) were hiding among a Viltrumite ship, waiting for the perfect time to clear out.
The season’s nearing its end, and the tensions are rising as the Coalition and Viltrumites prepare for an all-out war. We got a great balance last episode with Nolan (J.K. Simmons) trying to repair the relationships he ruined, such as Debbie’s (Sandra Oh), where we got Sandra Oh carrying the show on her shoulders with a magnificent voice performance. Despite Nolan trying to make ends meet, he comes to the realisation that people aren’t ready to accept his apologies fully, making it much harder for him, and that’s something writer Amber Dupre is able to bring into conversation this episode as we spend time alone with Nolan and Oliver, the last person he’s yet to have true alone time with.
War is brewing quickly, and both Thaedus (Peter Cullen) and Thragg (Lee Pace) are providing speeches to their respective people, the Coalition and Viltrumites, preparing them for the battle that’s coming ahead. The Viltrumites are relying on their pure brutal strength, while Thaedus has his engineers working with the Viltrumites’ weaknesses to create weapons that can hopefully bring them to a halt. The Coalition and Viltrumites engage in continuous space battles that see no end, which angers Thragg, who believes they brought order to chaos. He speaks to Argall’s skull, claiming that Viltrum will take its rightful place in the universe.
It’s worth noting here that Lee Pace feels like the perfect choice for Thragg. He’s a character we’ve not received much of in this season, but with the small amount of screentime that we’ve seen from him, Pace brings this raw intensity to the character that we’ve not really got from any other Viltrumite. He’s afflicted with anger as people try to fight back against him, but he doesn’t burst out in fits of rage; he remains calm and carries everything with his dialogue, which only increases the anticipation for seeing the character in action.
On the desolated, rocky planet that Nolan, Mark and Oliver were left on, we see a brutally wounded Mark who’s being left to heal. Unable to leave the plant due to being in Viltrumite airspace, they’ll have to wait months for Mark to heal before they can leave. Oliver is distraught at what’s happened to Mark and also doesn’t want to have to wait months while the Coalition are out there fighting, risking their lives.
“People at home hate him almost as much as they hate you” is what Oliver says about Conquest to Nolan. It’s clear that Oliver wants a relationship with his dad. Throughout this episode, Oliver opens up to him while they scavenge for food (liquids only) for Mark and discusses how he wanted to be like him, wearing his symbol as proof.
Overhearing his father talk about his mother in a disrespectful manner makes him believe that he also doesn’t care about him. While at first, I initially thought we were moving fast through this, we get some nice development between Nolan and Oliver as they get the only alone time they’ll be allowed in a while. Nolan admits that he’s been trying to fix his mistakes and even reveals that it has been harder than he originally thought.
Their conversations throughout this episode are also a reminder that although Oliver has the strength of a Viltrumite and the power to rip through a planet, he’s still a teen, and with how fast he’s aging, he’s going to always get emotional quickly and struggle to understand certain things in life. While Sandra Oh gave her best performance in the last episode, it seems like Christian Convery also wants to join the ranks with his performance enhancing Oliver’s dialogue.
After the two spend time training for the ongoing war and Nolan finally gets to understand his son a little better, he refuses to kill a creature once Oliver puts into his head that it’s intelligent life just defending its children and that if they want more food for Mark, the creature would have to make more eggs. It’s the small moments like this where Invincible excels with its writing, heightening characters.
This episode is full of deep conversations between Nolan and Oliver, but I think the most important one is where Nolan admits that what he said about Oliver’s mother wasn’t true at all and was said in a moment of stupidity trying not to make matters worse with Debbie. He learnt a lot from going to Thraxa and witnessing how Oliver’s people don’t dwell on the past due to their speeding age and instead forgive and do better.
It was an epiphany that came to him, realising that he could become a better person while also taking accountability for what happened to Oliver’s race. He admits going there was a mistake but reassures Oliver that he and his mother were never mistakes. Repairing their relationship will take time; his acknowledgement of his failure as a parent is proof alone that he’s trying to make a real change, and thankfully, with Oliver asking to be told about his mum, it seems like this could be the start of good times for the pair.
Tech Jacket and Allen overhear that the Viltrumites are heading to Glacier Prime, which also means that they’re heading there too. While waiting, they spend most of their time playing video games and bonding, truthfully a better time than Nolan, Oliver, and Mark. Once they arrive, they notice the Coalition, and although they want to continue playing video games badly, they make for it in hopes of not being seen by Lucan and Kradd. Unfortunately for them, that plan doesn’t work well, as they have the two Viltrumites instantly on their tail.
Tech Jacket is falling back due to the speed of her mech suit, but Allen pulls back, launching her forward and taking on the two Viltrumites to stall for time. The two overwhelm Allen, with Kradd about to land the killing blow, but to everyone’s surprise, Tech Jacket returns, but this time with a friend. Space Rider (Winston Duke), who blows a hole through Kradd, killing him and straight to the Viltrumite ship, which explodes. Lucan and the rest of the Viltrumite ships retreat… for now.
Allen and Tech Jacket finally arrive on Talescria, and we get a heartfelt reunion between them and Telia (Tatiana Maslany) before she takes them to debrief with Thaedus. As they make their way, Data Twin 2 (Fred Tatasciore) makes a strange remark about them surviving; if it wasn’t already obvious, we’re about to get the worst reveal seen on TV later on in the episode. They also meet Battle Beast (Michael Dorn), who is thirsty for blood, violence and more battles, which Allen essentially promises that he’ll get.
Thaedus says that the two are key to defeating the empire, asking where Nolan, Oliver, and Mark are, which is a surprise to Allen as he thought they already had arrived. They look at the war map to see the sectors they’ve liberated but say it has been a tough fight, as the Viltrumites’ forces are too strong, but Allen assures them that that’s all going to change.
After a montage that shows the Coalition fighting back while Nolan and Oliver stay training hard, Thragg remains confused on how they’re making such good progress. Kregg (Clancy Brown) reveals to him that planets have joined their coalition to increase their forces. The impact of Thaedus’ words is proved to be powerful in this scene where Kregg mentions that Talescria is too well defended as he responds with “Is it?”, telling Kregg all he needs to know and setting him off on his next task.
As Oliver talks to Nolan about how he feels different back on Earth and confesses how he felt “fizzy” for this beautiful sea creature, they return to Mark’s resting spot only to find that he’s no longer there. Mark, finally back on his feet, is seen back at Conquest’s final resting place and falls to his knees, assuming that he failed again, thinking the worst has happened.
Thankfully, Oliver comes flying to Mark, filled with joy to see him up and walking again. Assuming that Nolan and Oliver took care of Conquest, they’re quick to tell him the truth that he was the one that put his rageful wrath to an end. While we get a beautiful reunion, there’s no longer time to waste as the war between the Coalition and the Viltrumites continues.
Annoyingly, we witness Data Twin 2 lower the planet’s defenses, allowing the Viltrumite to enter the planet and blast them with surprise. With the horrifying ship looming above their heads, the Anissa (Shantel Vansanten), Kregg and Lucan begin to fly out, one by one. “Leave no one alive,” says Thragg, expecting total destruction as he sends his soldiers down to kill their civilians alongside the attacks from the ships.
It’s a total slaughterhouse on Talescria, but the Coalition does its best to fight back. Thaedus faces off against Kregg; Telia is distraught from all the innocent lives lost but still keeps her mind on the fight; Allen faces Lucan once again; and Tech Jacket takes to the skies, fighting off their soldiers while Allen assists as usual.
Anissa gets ahold of Tech Jacket, ripping apart her mech suit, but Mark, Nolan, and Oliver arrive in time to save her and join in the battle. The ship continues to rain down destruction with its attacks, and in an epic Captain Marvel moment, Mark and Oliver fly through the ship, delivering beautiful animation and impact frames as it explodes, with Thragg jumping out to save his comfort skull (Argall’s skull).
The fight continues, strike after strike, but Thragg calls them off, and the remaining Viltrumites retreat. The Coalition’s problems aren’t over yet, as the remains of the ship are still falling. Mark, Oliver, Nolan, Thaedus, Allen, and Tech Jacket all fly up, using all their strength to push it out of the atmosphere, one of the most heroic moments yet in Invincible Season 4. “Did we win?” asks Oliver, realising he asked a dumb question after witnessing the total destruction of Talescria from above.
Thaedus calls the destruction a “minor setback”, which sets off Allen, who mentions how many people they lost, but Thaedus only considers the war and what must be done to win it, showing how their morals differ and also showing that despite Thaedus’ hatred for his people, he still has Viltrumite blood in him. Telia discovers that someone disabled their planetary defense system. Allen rushes to Data Twin 1 (Jay Pharaoh), holding him in a chokehold, believing that he’s the traitor, but the latter then realises it was Data Twin 2, shooting him in the head.
It’s all revealed that he’s been betraying them for years and that he believed in their victory and didn’t want to die. He reveals that Thragg is retreating to Viltrum to plan another attack when all the other Viltrumites arrive as he’s calling everyone home. Thaedus sees this as a perfect opportunity to strike Thragg before he’s reunited with his remaining forces; they may have a chance to win and end the war. His plan is to take the fight back to their home: Viltrum.
As per usual, the episode ends with a mid-credit scene that jokingly teases that Conquest is alive, but as expected, he’s truly dead this time with no return in sight for him.
While this is a fantastic end to an action-packed, bloodsoaked episode which we can expect more of in the next two weeks, the worst part about this final scene is the overall reveal of the traitor. It lacks any impact as they show us over the course of the show who the Coalition traitor is, which takes away from a traitor existing in a show, as it only works when both the audience and the characters are in the unknown.
To make matters worse, I can’t stand that in both the comic and the show Robert Kirkman decided to make Data Twin 2 a traitor. There are so many characters you can choose from to create a real sense of betrayal, and yet they choose the one character that looks like background character 12.
Invincible Season 4 Episode 6, “You Look Horrible”, provides a real sense of healing as Nolan and Oliver pour out their hearts to each other while Mark heals in the literal and physical sense before all hell is let loose in the latter with chaos and destruction finding its way to Telescria. The Coalition seems to have the upper hand in this war, and with two episodes left, I’m for once excited to see how Invincible can keep me on the edge of my seat for the next two weeks.
