Invincible ended its second season but not before smacking you harder than a Viltrumite punch.

Everything came to a head for Mark as he finally confronted Angstrom Levy in a manner that looks to change the entire trajectory of the show. While this episode wasn’t perfect, it provided some heavy emotions that continue to show how Invincible is some of the best the superhero genre has to offer.

Before we breakdown the episode, be sure to check out our past season 2 reviews of the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh episodes. You can also check out our recap of season 1 for further context.

Spoiler Warning: This review will cover what happened in Invincible Season 2, Episode 8 “I Thought You Were Stronger” as well as events leading up to it.

Synopsis: Of Guilt and Responsibility

Mark rushes home to confront Angstrom Levy, who is holding his mom and half-brother hostage. Levy toys with Mark, sending him to other dimensions. Levy begins hurting Mark’s mom and terrorizes Oliver, leading to a big fight.

The two fight across multiple dimensions before settling on a desert wasteland. Mark proceeds to pummel Levy and seemingly kills him. This sends Mark into a spiral of guilt and confusion.

A future version of the Guardians of the Globe helps Mark return to his own reality with Eve confessing her love for him before he returns to his own time. The GDA helps Debbie and Oliver as Mark meets them at the Pentagon where all involved recover.

Mark continues to struggle with the guilt of killing Levy despite the reassurances from Cecil. Mark sees himself becoming his father. Mark meets with Eve and he seems to be ready to share how he feels about her, but hesitates.

Elsewhere, Nolan endures the Viltrumite ritual prior his execution, which includes beatings and imprisonment. Allen is brought to the same prison as Nolan and mentally communicates with him about breaking him out.

In the mid-credit scene, Nolan seems to have given up hope though he seems to feel remorse for his past actions, ultimately saying he misses his wife.

Other moments included the reveal of Dupli-Kate being alive and visiting the Immortal in the Arctic. Robot and Monster Girl reconcile at the Guardians headquarters.

Analysis: A Flawed Ozymandias-Level Episode

There are few moments in TV that made me strongly emphasize with the character. Breaking Bad was one of them with its third-to-last episode “Ozymandias.” I strongly felt Walter’s world crashing in on him and I felt his guilt.

I felt a similar sense in “I Thought You Were Stronger.”

I’m not saying this episode reaches the levels of “Ozymandias” in quality. Rather, I’m commenting on how well it made me emphasize with Mark as he kills for the first time.

Oftentimes, killing in a superhero show isn’t given the proper weight. We all know Batman doesn’t kill, but what does that really entail? On the flip side, the Punisher has a body count a mile long and no one bats an eye.

Invincible‘s season finale captured the gravity of a superhero taking someone’s life in a way that few others in the genre can do. This was the episode’s biggest strength.

This started with a tense exchange between Levy and Mark as the former continued to threaten the latter’s innocent mom and toddler half-brother. You could see Mark’s rage building, but he resisted despite Levy’s antagonism.

The buildup was too much and Mark brutally killed Levy. The aftermath was where the gravity set in for both Mark and the audience. You see Mark fly through every single emotion imaginable and you can’t help but feel for him.

There’s an ethical justification to what he did, but Mark sees it differently. Rather than seeing him killing Levy as a way to protect his family, he sees himself being like his father.

This point is particularly poignant because early in the season, Mark was emphatic that he was not his father. Nolan slaughtered countless innocent lives at the end of the first season, feeling little remorse for his actions.

Of course, there is a difference in what Mark did, but he doesn’t see it that way. He sees the son of an alien mass murderer killing someone in a similar way.

It was definitely a heavy episode, something it tried to break up though I believe this was its biggest weakness.

The first half of the episode saw Mark battling Levy while his mother and brother looked on helplessly. Levy was sending Mark to alternate realities, which included destinations of talking dinosaurs, a Spider-Man parody, and a visit to what seemed to be Gotham City and Batman.

The dimensions were played for laughs, and on their own, they were pretty funny. The problem is these comedic dimensions were breaking up moments when Levy is holding a toddler and threatening to hurt him.

The juxtaposition was particularly jarring because there was one moment where Mark is casually talking around a campfire before returning to his dimension with renewed aggression.

I get that the episode was heavy and needed some spacing, but this way felt like a misfire.

There’s also a moment later in the episode where there’s a comedic callback to one-off joke from the first season involving a mummy resurrecting in the tomb only for Mark to accidently thwart his return.

It was a funny callback that may go over people’s heads but it came when Mark was flying through the desert grappling with his guilt.

The juxtaposition was too wide and hurt what could’ve been an emotionally powerful episode. Don’t get me wrong, it still hit the emotions well, but the attempt at breaking up the heaviness hurt the overall tone.

This leads us to what’s coming next. I plan to breakdown the entire second season in a future article so I won’t go into too much detail here.

I’ve already seen some voicing displeasure over a perceived dull ending. We just see Mark feeling guilty and Nolan wishing for his wife. This is where Invincible‘s time off is felt.

Season 1 aired in 2021 and it took until late 2023 before it returned. If the trend holds, it could be 2025 or 2026 before season 3 returns. That said, show creator Robert Kirkman said this upcoming gap should be shorter.

Even so, I can only imagine the show wouldn’t want to leave a big cliffhanger because of that wait. The ending of this episode set the new status quo without relying on a cliffhanger, making it easier to wait.

The animation of this episode was superb and the action was on par with the finale of the first season. The voice actors really outdid themselves, especially Steven Yeun with how he voiced a guilt-stricken Mark. Sterling K. Brown deserves recognition for his Levy as well.

Lastly, the show started teasing an Eve-Mark relationship, which seems in line with the comics. At this point, it feels a tad rushed just given that Mark and Amber broke up last season and there haven’t been too many hints of this romance.

Final Score (4.5 out of 5 Stars)

This was a near perfect episode that took a small beating from some ill-timed comedic relief. There’s a time to be funny, and Invincible does have underrated comedy, but shoehorning it in this way was a misfire.

Still, the episode packed a punch and was a release of all of the pent up emotion we’ve seen this season. The way it came full circle to the season 2 premiere was fantastic as Mark still grapples with the shadow of his father.

Invincible has been emotional the last few episodes, but this one took it to a whole new level. It left Mark’s world a little bit darker than before and seems to mark a trajectory shift in tone moving forward.

As a season finale, it checked all the boxes and then some thought it could’ve sailed a bit higher.

Featured Image: Prime Video (via PopVerse)

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