Invincible Season 2 Episode 6 recap: Relationship trouble

❘ Published: 2024-03-22T00:00:00

Allen and Invincible in Season 2 Episode 6

Prime Video

After neutralizing the Sequid threat, Invincible Season 2 Episode 6 delivers a worrying forecast for Mark and Amber — and hints at Omni-Man rebelling against his own empire.

Last week, Invincible Season 2 Part 2 returned to the scene of Mark’s beating on Thraxa, left to watch the planet burn after the Viltrumites took Nolan away for execution. General Kregg gave him a daunting offer: finish Omni-Man’s mission and prepare Earth for rule… or else.

However, Episode 5 didn’t concern itself too much with the task at hand. Instead, Mark hesitantly returned to Earth (with his alien brother), where he reunited with his mother, Amber, and William. Soon enough, he was roped into another space mission to curb the Sequid threat from Mars, leaving Rex-Splode, Dupli-Kate, and Shrinking Rae to fend off the Lizard League.

In the closing moments, things looked… pretty bleak for everyone (except Allen). Eve’s energy shield shattered and left them vulnerable to the Sequids, while Kate and Rae were brutally killed by Komodo Dragon, leaving Rex-Splode to die. Who will survive?

Invincible Season 2 Episode 6 shocks from the start

Episode 6 opens on King Lizard holding a gun to Rex’s head. “So brave… but is it the brave man who survives, or is it the one who waits until his opponent is too injured to fight?” he asks. “Just do it, you pr*ck,” Rex says — and, jaw-droppingly, he pulls the trigger and shoots him in the head.

Up in space, Invincible and the Guardians are desperately fighting the Sequids, smashing them to a pulp as they close the gap. Eve is out cold, and Rudy’s sonic device is nearly complete. “You could have been useful servants, we will grant you death instead,” Rus Livingston tells them as the aliens edge closer. Shapesmith stretches himself to cover Eve and Rudy. “It tickles,” he says, before they start hurting him.

Rudy finishes the device, but Invincible grabs it from the Immortal, because he’s stronger and faster. “Don’t fail,” the Immortal says, before the pair smash their way toward Rus. It works… but Eve and Rudy have two Sequids attached to them. Invincible and the Immortal manage to get enough power out of the device to save them, and the group flees before they wake up.

Back on Earth, there’s another shock in store: Rex isn’t dead. As King Lizard brags about murdering him, he wakes up with blood spurting out of his scalp. “Seems like the loss of your brain hasn’t hurt you as much as one might expect,” he tells him, but Rex can’t listen. “I said… shut up!” he shouts before beating him to a pulp. As King Lizard lies motionless on the floor, GDA troops arrive and ask if Rex is okay. “You know me, I’m practically…” Rex replies, cueing the Invincible title card, before he passes out.

That’s not all: Rae isn’t dead either. She rips through Komodo Dragon’s chest and slumps out onto the floor, covered in his guts.

Before the Guardians leave, the Martians want to say thank you — but they don’t want to let them take the “great betrayer.” They believe he deserves death, but Invincible won’t allow it: they flee into space and make light work of the Martian TIE fighters chasing them, leaving them adrift in space while they return to Earth. “That was amazing,” Eve says as she hugs him, and the Immortal offers a sincere “Good work” and a handshake.

Rudy tells Amanda about how he happy he was to overcome his “fear response” and solve a problem — and he offers to fix her, but her face turns sour immediately. “Don’t,” she tells him.

Cecil offers to help

Debbie and Cecil in Invincible Season 2 Episode 6

Cecil pays Debbie a visit to see the toddler and offer his assistance. “The GDA has an entire department dedicated to superhero children… we paint clouds on the ceiling,” he says, noting how nobody expects her to look after Nolan’s child with his other wife. “Mama,” the little boy calls out, heartbreakingly. Debbie explains that the baby is family to her because he’s Mark’s brother, and reminds Cecil that she already raised a superhero. “I expect to be kept in the loop,” Cecil says as he leaves.

The Guardians take Rus to the hospital — there, they find out about what happened with the Lizard League. We see the Immortal clutching the rags of Kate’s outfit as he sits in front of her smooshed corpse, while Rae is hooked up to all sorts of tubes inside an incubator, and Rex is undergoing surgery. Mark goes to see Amber, who greets him with a tearful hug.

The next day, Mark goes home to see his brother — who’s now named Oliver, after his grandfather. With thunder rumbling, he attends Kate’s funeral alongside the other Guardians. The Immortal delivers an emotional, “beautiful” eulogy. Talking to Black Samson, he asks why he feels this way. “Because you loved her, man,” his teammate tells him. “This is different… I thought we had more time together,” the Immortal responds.

Mark and Amber sit down for a coffee together, but it’s incredibly awkward; they speak over each other, and when they do talk, it’s worse than barber shop babble (Mark explains how Debbie has to chew Oliver’s food for him). They finally loosen up and admit they’re acting like it’s a “bad first date”, and Mark laments how college hasn’t turned out like he hoped; he doesn’t have time for class and he sees Amber even less than before.

Amber is struggling too. She hates lying to her friends about Mark, but she doesn’t resent him for his powers. “You have an obligation to make the world a better place… and if you didn’t feel that way, we wouldn’t be dating to begin with,” she tells him. “So, what do we do now?” he asks, a question that goes unanswered.

Rick returns

A still from Invincible Season 2 Episode 6

When Mark goes back to his dorm, Rick (the boy who was RoboCop’d by D.A. Sinclair in Season 1) is back and seemingly healthy, with Donald on hand to “facilitate his transition” back to normality. “He went through intensive body reconstruction. That kind of trauma can resurface,” Donald tells Mark as his fist shakes, but before Mark gets too suspicious, he leaves.

Mark visits Rex in hospital, who reveals he saw his whole life flash before his eyes when he was shot. “I didn’t like what I saw… I was such a dick… I don’t know why I had to get my brains blown out to see that,” he says. “What is it about being a superhero where we go around saving lives while ruining them at the same time?” Mark says. Rex quickly realizes Mark needs to vent about something.

We cut to Eve in the hospital — carrying home decorating magazines, which Rex likes “because he’s never really had a home” — and Mark bumps into her. She asks if he’s okay, but he brushes off the question and makes a hasty, polite exit. When she goes into Rex’s room, he reveals that Mark and Amber are having relationship problems.

Debbie starts interviewing nannies for Oliver, weeding out a spy straight away. The next knock at the door is April Howsam, who openly discloses that she’s been sent by Cecil but that she thinks it’s unacceptable to mislead a potential employer. Debbie welcomes her inside, where April outlines her experience and her knowledge of their family situation. Debbie says she doesn’t want a GDA agent in her house telling Cecil everything, but April insists she’d be working for her, not Cecil.

Amber and Mark are in trouble

Eve returns to her home in the woods to find Cecil waiting for her, who’s keen for her to join the Guardians after Dupli-Kate’s death. She says she’s still not ready, which Cecil nobly accepts. As he vanishes, Amber arrives to see Eve.

Mark pays a visit to Art, the super-suit tailor. He needs help with “girl trouble… it feels like the universe is conspiring against us.” Art tells him relationships aren’t easy, regardless if you have superpowers. Meanwhile, Amber has a similar conversation with Eve, echoing Mark’s feelings that they’re failing each other; they’re in love, but the writing’s on the wall… right now, it doesn’t make sense. Both Art and Eve say the same thing: they should be spending time with each other right now rather than talking to them.

Before he leaves, Mark tells Art how Nolan urged him to read his books before the Viltrumites took him away. Luckily, Art has a box of his old sci-fi novels; Lost Inside the Chasm to Oblivion, Hate Tribes on the Planet Wrekk, and much more.

William and Rick take a nighttime walk around campus, and they find a plaque commemorating Sinclair’s victims. “You’re the only one who recovered,” William tells him, but Rick’s mind is elsewhere. “I see flashes sometimes… it’s like I’m watching someone else’s nightmare,” he explains, adding: “Who am I if I can’t even remember what I’m missing?”

The Man with the Invincible Gun

Mark reads one of Nolan’s books, The Man with the Invincible Gun. The story follows the Space Rider, who roams the cosmos with his Infinity Ray. “It was said to emit an unstoppable energy wave that destroyed anything in its path… but it required a steady hand, and more importantly, a steady mind,” Omni-Man narrates, as we see the novel’s character being pursued by space piranhas. He lines up the perfect shot, obliterating them and the nearest sun.

He opens another book, Savage Planet Savage Beasts, following two soldiers on a planet with incredibly strong gravity. They’re ambushed by Ragnarrs, monstrous, vicious aliens with evolved strength. Mark has a realization, but it’s unclear what it is.

Over at GDA HQ, Cecil tells the Immortal to take a vacation. Before they can discuss it, a mysterious object from deep space starts barreling towards Earth. The Immortal thinks it’s Omni-Man, so he shoots off straight away — but it’s actually Allen! As he tries to remember where Mark lives, he’s punched by the Immortal, who’s not in a place to hear reason. Just as they’re about to enter a brawl, Invincible arrives to stop them. “I… thought you were someone else,” the Immortal says as he drifts forlornly back to Earth.

While Amber sulks at a college party and considers texting Mark, he goes to his dorm with Allen, who tells him about Thaedus. Mark tells Allen about Nolan and the events on Thraxa. When he asks if he thinks his dad is dead, Allen says: “Viltrumites are weird about killing their own people. I think because it doesn’t happen much anymore.”

Allen then tells Mark he needs to escort him to Talescria to see Thaedus and plot the rebellion against the Viltrumite empire — but Mark refuses, given all of his commitments on Earth right now. Before Allen leaves, Mark shows him Nolan’s books. He believes everything in them is real, or inspired by something out there in the universe, “and it’s all stuff that could defeat the Viltrumites.” Allen scans all of the books and shoots off. “Tell Thaedus when it’s time to attack… I’ll be there,” Mark says..

In the closing moments of the episode, we see the Viltrumite prison holding Nolan. “In order for a Viltrumite to be executed, he must be healed and whole, worthy to stand and face the end of his life with honor — even if his crime was devoid of it. Yet, for even such a craven betrayal, there is a path to redemption. Rejoin your people, Nolan. Let this not be your legacy,” Kregg tells him, but Omni-Man remains silent.

“You conquered hundreds of planets, brought glory to the empire. You were one of our greatest warriors. How did a mere moment on Earth turn you into a weak, sentimental traitor? Answer me,” he demands, before flinging Nolan against the wall like a piece of spaghetti. “That planet and its people are toxic if they could do this to you, they too will pay,” the general says as he walks out, and Nolan angrily punches the ground.

Rus returns to his pigsty of an apartment after the Shapesmith’s short stay — and disaster strikes: a Sequid made it home and leaps out at him like a face-hugger, capturing his mind once more.

In the post-credits scene, we see Angstrom Levy buying a new suit. “I’m visiting an old friend,” he tells the tailor, before walking through portals into tropical lands, undead hordes, snowy mountain tops, and Chicago’s city center. “It is good to be home,” he says, before the episode cuts to black.

Invincible Season 2 Episodes 1-6 are available to stream on Prime Video now. In the meantime, you can check out the second season’s release schedule, its enormous voice cast, and our review of Part 2.