Invincible – It’s Been a While review S2 E4

For the last new episode of 2023, Invincible delivers a tough and emotional mid-season finale with It’s Been a While. This episode has a little of everything that makes this show so great. Stellar character development with spot-on vocal performances, brutally hard-hitting action sequences, a strong soundtrack and major twists.

Some of these twists aren’t entirely unexpected for Invincible comic readers. For some of the gestating subplots, It’s Been a While marks the payoff to some of them. While the element of surprise isn’t there, seeing these major moments play out on the small screen is still pretty special.

Last episode featured a wild cliffhanger with Mark unexpectedly reuniting with Nolan, who’s made a home for himself as the emperor of Thraxa. Understandably, Mark isn’t thrilled with being misled so this reunion could take place. While his initial instinct upon seeing Nolan was to hug him, the anger he’s still struggling with, roars back to the forefront.

This is the crux of this arc. Mark (and Debbie) are getting back to their normal routines and everyday lives, but they’re still feeling the heavy weight of the anger and grief over Nolan’s betrayal. Now face to face with his father, Mark isn’t sure if he wants to punch him out or be content cursing him out.

Nolan adds a little more gasoline to the fire with a big reveal. But first, the genius of this episode is how it starts off with Nolan ‘s journey after leaving Earth. He was in his own depressive state for his two biggest failures — blowing his mission as a Viltrumite agent and not conquering Earth, but more importantly failing Debbie and Mark. The latter is proving more difficult for Nolan to understand. He had a job and he did it, but he’s empty after leaving his family behind.

Nolan’s journey through the galaxy is exquisitely told with some very distinct backgrounds and planets he passes by on his way to somewhere, anywhere. His travels halt when he sees a damaged ship about to crash. By instinct, Nolan reverts to Omni-Man mode and saves them. Was it guilt or just a habit after being a hero so long? Nolan doesn’t know, but he does accept the offer to stay on the planet.

Eventually that leads to Mark’s second surprise — meeting Nolan’s new wife…and his half-brother. While not an insect like the rest of the Thraxans, the baby sports purple skin and a close likeness to his big brother. Mark is heated for good reason, but Nolan eventually calms him down by telling him the Viltrumites will come to Thraxa and kill the baby and everyone else. As mad at Nolan as Mark is, he’s still Invincible.

Too bad the warning comes too late as a trio of Viltrumites — the same ones that left Allen for dead — have arrived and ready to do some serious damage. More on that in a second.

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Atom Eve is at a crossroads. She’s still smarting from her well-meaning effort to restore the park only for it to cause more harm than good. She’s not even up for hanging out with Amber and William, who always makes the most of even the smallest amount of screen time. Eve tangles with a supervillain, but her overconfidence appears to result in the death of a couple caught in the fray. It’s a crushing enough experience that Eve returns to her parents’ home and her less than encouraging father.

Debbie is working through more stages of grief. I appreciate this arc hasn’t seen Debbie flip a switch and just immediately go back to normal. She’s sitting in this grief and sorting through her feelings for Nolan. As terrible as his actions were she’s struggling to act like he’s dead to her. A conversation with Art helps Debbie put things in perspective.

That proved helpful enough that Debbie wants to be free of any ties to Cecil as well. Cecil has been a wildcard so far as he seems shady, but hasn’t done anything to warrant much distrust. Yet. By the end of the episode, Debbie has reached the point where she’s ready to move on and it feels well earned.

Mark doesn’t have time for a training montage with Nolan and gets thrust into the middle of the battle. His lack of wartime battles makes this more of a 3 on 1.5 battle with Nolan having to play goaltender and offense to keep Mark and his Thraxan family alive. After killing one and giving Mark a kill or be killed speech, the fight intensifies. Especially after Nolan sees the carnage of massacred Thraxans whose only crime was being in the Viltrumites way. This is a significant turning point for Mark and Nolan, who now understands the value of life in a way he didn’t on Earth.

There’s a lot of blood spraying around, which does more to convey the power of the combatants rather than come off excessive for the sake of being over the top. (See also: The Boys).

 

While he’s faring better and in position to win fights, Mark doesn’t want to be a killer and holds back after he’s won. This gesture nearly gets him killed as Thula impales him with her braid spear. Nolan isn’t nearly as merciful and Thula dies a rough death via Omni Man’s Judas Effect. Nolan was a little too hasty in the first fight and didn’t finish off the first of the trio, who smashes his back in a way that would make Bane jealous.

A broken and bloody Mark can only watch as more Viltrumites arrive and take Nolan away. Mark meets Gen. Kregg (voiced by Clancy Brown to underscore his importance), who tells Mark he will replace his father as the Earth agent. If Earth isn’t under Viltrumite rule, they’ll do what they did to the Thraxans. Well, that’s a tone-setter.

The Mauler Twins have settled on who’s the clone — the one without the scars. But the original won’t stop lording it over the other to the point he poisons his lemonade. And now the vicious attack of the Mauler Clones plays out all over again.

It’s Been a While had plenty of memorable moments with a dazzling action sequence showing the title character has a long way to go before truly becoming…Invincible.  It’s also going to be too long before this amazing series returns in early 2024 to complete the season.

Rating: 10 out of 10

Photo Credit: Amazon