Invincible Season 2 Mid-Season Finale Explained: Same Superheroes, New Problems
This article contains spoilers for the "Invincible" season 2 mid-season finale.
"It's been a while."
So says Nolan Grayson/Omni-Man (J.K. Simmons) to his stunned son Mark/Invincible (Steven Yeun) upon their unexpected reunion on the planet Thraxa in "Invincible" season 2. That's also what Allen the Alien (Seth Rogen) said to Mark in the season 2 teaser — a cheeky tip of the hat to the long break between the first and second seasons. After the incredibly violent events of the season 1 finale (in which the show took advantage of the fact that it's animated to go to some real extremes, the likes of which gave Prime Video's other ultra-bloody superhero comic book satire, "The Boys," a run for its money), audiences probably needed some time away to recuperate, if not as much as Mark.
Season 2 finds the heroes of "Invincible" trying to move on and quickly realizing just how hard that is to do. After weeks of going numbly through the daily motions as a superhero following his father's betrayal, Mark is ready to finish high school and take on new responsibilities at the behest of the Global Defense Agency (GDA). His mother Debbie (Sandra Oh) is similarly eager to return to work, even as she continues self-medicating with wine in between fits of tears and rage over Nolan calling their 20-year marriage as meaningless as having a pet (which is insulting to both Debbie and pets). Thanks to the "Atom Eve" special that dropped between seasons, we also learned more about Samantha Wilkins/Atom Eve (Gillian Jacobs) and her backstory, which helps to explain the tensions between her and her (as we now know, non-biological) parents in season 2.
With season 2 now halfway done, how does "Invincible" leave things for its characters? Not that much better, really.
What you need to remember about the plot of Invincible season 2
The monkey on Mark's back in season 2 is whether he will ultimately become his father. "Invincible" even kicks off the season with what at first appears to be a flash-forward to Mark switching sides and joining Nolan in conquering Earth for the Viltrumites, only to reveal what we're truly seeing is one of the many alternate realities where Mark broke bad. It's all part of a subplot where Mark inadvertently makes a new enemy out of Angstrom Levy (Sterling K. Brown), a scientist who wishes to harness the knowledge of his alternate universe variants and use it for the benefit of the universe. Instead, he ends up heavily scarred and thirsty for revenge, traveling to other realities to learn how to kill the Mark we know (and seemingly one of the few in the multiverse who didn't team up with Nolan).
Good intentions that go (frequently horribly) wrong are a recurring motif in the first half of season 2. Eve tries to use her powers to rebuild Chicago in the wake of Nolan's attack, only to nearly get a grateful mother and her daughter killed after constructing a park on what turns out to be an unstable lot of land. Likewise, Debbie joins a support group for spouses of deceased superheroes and bonds with a kindly man named Theo (Daveed Diggs) before discovering he was married to Green Ghost, one of the members of the original Guardians of the Globe who was murdered by Nolan. Upon learning this, Theo swiftly becomes angry and warns her not to return to the group, much to Debbie's anguish.
Then there's Nolan, who settles down on Thraxa in search of redemption, only to cause even more bloodshed and suffering with his actions.
What happened at the end of the Invincible season 2 mid-season finale?
Where Nolan's redemption came relatively easy to him in the original comics, that's not the case in the "Invincible" TV series. Instead, Mark — now in college and, for that matter, no longer a virgin — reacts with righteous fury upon learning he's been secretly invited to Thraxa by his father. There's no time for Mark to stay angry, though. Nolan has endangered the Thraxans by fathering a child with one of them. That's a huge no-no for the Nazi-like Viltrumites, who are unsurprisingly speciesist and insistent their kind should only mate with other humanoids, as opposed to the insect-like Thraxans. Mark can claim he doesn't care all he wants, but Nolan perhaps knows better than anyone that isn't true.
Unfortunately, it's too late. No sooner does Mark arrive than a squad of Viltrumites follows, having been hunting Nolan ever since word reached them he abandoned his post on Earth. Speaking of good intentions going wayward, the Viltrumites only know this thanks to Allen, who told the Coalition of Planets about Mark and what happened with Nolan, not realizing there's a traitor in their midst (something that may have also led to Allen's death after he's assaulted by some Viltrumites demanding he tell them everything he knows). It's only by heeding his father's words — that he needs to stop holding back and trying not to kill his opponents — that Mark survives the ensuing brawl by the skin of his teeth, even as Nolan is beaten and taken prisoner.
Before he is, however, Nolan hints to Mark that the books he wrote on Earth may hold the key to defeating the Viltriumites. Too bad Debbie barely threw them out as part of her ongoing efforts to move on...
'You who wish to conquer pain'
"Invincible" season 2 features some choice needle drops, starting with Mark glumly saving people in a montage from the season premiere set to Radiohead's 1997 single "Karma Police" (a song whose lyrics speak to the malaise Mark feels after what Nolan did). Then there's Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds' cover of Leonard Coen's 1971 ode to loneliness and solitude, "Avalanche," which plays in the mid-season finale over a similar montage of a melancholic Nolan — having just left Earth — traversing the universe and contemplating killing himself by flying into a black hole, only to stumble upon a ship of Thraxans in need of saving. This sequence is juxtaposed with Debbie visiting Nolan's "grave" in the episode to the tune of Blondshell's "Olympus," a song that's fittingly all about an unhealthy, toxic relationship.
These moments all speak to the same overriding idea: Everyone's trying to pick up the pieces after Nolan devastated Chicago in the season 1 finale, but in doing so, they only end up making a completely different mess. That extends to some of the smaller story threads developing on the fringes in season 2, including those concerning the new Guardians of the Globe and especially Rudy (Zachary Quinto); his ongoing quest to control his fear — an emotion he never had to deal with back when he fought as Robot remotely — seems doomed to lead him down a dark path. As for Mark, he survives his (very nearly deadly) encounter with the Viltrumites only to be charged with continuing Nolan's mission on Earth or else risk the planet being destroyed.
All your favorite "Invincible" characters are indeed back, but they've brought a whole lot of new problems with them.
"Invincible" season 2 will continue in 2024 on Prime Video.