We Need to Talk
Episode 7 of Invincible begins with Debbie awakening to find Nolan standing with his bloodied uniform on the table downstairs. The secret is out and things are about to get messy. Nolan admits he wasn’t being controlled, leading a furious Debbie to tell him to leave. When Omni-Man blasts through the roof, she phones Mark and tells him to come home. Unfortunately, she only gets his voicemail. Just then, Cecil’s soldiers arrive to take her away. They arrive at HQ, where the group contemplate whether they can stop Omni-Man or not. Unfortunately, the only person who can stand toe to toe with him is Mark – and right now it’s unknown if he’ll do that. Well, Mark has bigger problems to deal with. Amber completely avoids him after his recent periods of absence and letting her down. After admitting the truth to her about his identity, Amber reveals that she actually already knew. She’s more annoyed that he didn’t tell her. Defeated, Mark flies away. While all this is going on, Robot greets The Mauler Twins and unveils his real plan – he’s been growing an organic body for him to move into. That body has been tampered with by the Mauler Twins but Robot is clever – he sees straight through this deception. Robot’s mind is essentially copied into this boy’s body. His name is Rudy, a child version of Rex. Thanks to the neural link chip implanted by The Mauler Twins, Rudy awakens as a human/robot hybrid. The Robot we knew before is gone. Rudy can control different robots with his mind, including duplicates of the metal monster we’ve seen leading the new Guardians of the Globe. He makes quick work of the Mauler Twins. Robot/Rudy heads back to the Guardian’s base and introduces himself. He claims he’s done all this to empathize with Monster Girl more. Robot realized that she found Rex interesting so he modified the boy’s DNA in a bid to grow closer. The gang don’t know what to make of this, but they’re interrupted by big news. Omni-Man is on the move. Our antagonist realizes Cecil and Donald have been spying on him all this time. Nolan is not happy and immediately storms into the house across the street. He grabs Donald and crushes his spine. Just before he dies, Donald presses a button which blows up the house. Unfortunately, it’s not enough to kill Omni-Man. While Omin-Man goes on the rampage, Mark talks about his woes with Eve after being dumped. She empathizes with him, and gives the boy some sound advice. However, explosions in the distance interrupt them both. Out in the field, Cecil buys our heroes some time, sending a projection of himself to confront Omni-Man. He asks the supervillain just why he killed the Guardians. Nolan has no remorse for what’s happened, and makes quick work of the cyborgs Cecil sends to fight him. This, as we soon find out, is all a big distraction. He actually intends to use this time to teleport Invincible and Eve to safety. With Omni-Man shrugging off the threat, Cecil is forced to bring in that squid kaiju (called Hail Mary) as the last line of defence. As Nolan looks set to be killed by the kaiju, Mark suddenly jumps in and gets involved. He’s helping his Father. At the same time, The Mauler Twins revive The Immortal who’s irate and immediately flies off in search of Omni-Man. With the whole world watching, Omni-Man destroys The Immortal. He blasts a hole straight through him and rips the man in half. As he turns to confront Mark, he tells his son they need to talk.
The Episode Review
Invincible roars out the gates with a stunning episode of action and drama. The opening parts of the episode perfectly set the scene for what follows, as this Father/son relationship looks set to be ripped to its very foundations during next week’s finale. Forget Falcon and the Winter Soldier and WandaVision – this is the superhero show to beat in 2021. The animation is sublime, the voice acting incredibly well-realized and the entire picture is perfectly balanced with a focus on both Robot and Omni-Man as the antagonists. The former is not-so-evil after all, with good intentions masked with nefarious acts. By comparison, Omni-Man puts on a front, deceiving people into thinking he’s a good guy when he’s actually the worst villain of all. It’s a really interesting juxtaposition and the ending definitely sets the scene for this Father and Son to go toe to toe in the coming episodes. This has ultimately been what the whole show has been building up to and the ending definitely hints that we’re going to get an epic showdown between the two moving forward. It’s ultimately the characters though that help make this show so memorable. Sure, there are the usual superhero tropes, but much like The Boys these characters are multifaceted and deep enough to help make Invincible such an enthralling show. The ending next week is shaping up to be one heck of a grudge match, and it’ll be interesting to see if this one is renewed for a second season or not. Based on this showing I really hope it is. What an amazing episode!
