How One Line Changes EVERYTHING : Invincible Season 2 Episode 8 Review

say the line Bart I thought you were stronger just when Mark thought his life couldn't get any lower he found out the hard way that the deepest holes are the ones you dig yourself into this finale was fantastic it was tense horrific and ended way quicker than I thought it would but this did leave Mark plenty of time to finally start thinking about all his life choices now I'm not sure what the reaction this finale is going to be as I know this isn't the showstopper like season 1 was but when it comes to exploring character and themes I think this thing knocked it out of the park with it leaving us with just the worst implications of what might happen in the future I suppose you weren't paying attention when we discussed not damaging the time stream shut up Rex not to mention the finale finally said eff it and started slapping Mark and Eve together like a paddle ball cuz the other woman is gone so we're back to our regularly scheduled Cannon event this this is going to be just my breakdown finale and all that I loved in it with only just one or two Scruples as no show is perfect and we can't pretend that that one thing is a complete DSX Machina and shockingly it wasn't Batman this time you're a man who dresses like a bat you know I mean like don't you think that's kind of lazy so let's start things off by talking about angstrom this guy was magnificent in the early parts of this episode and I say only the early Parts because well those are the only Parts he's in him holding Debbie and Oliver h hostage was it genuinely made my skin crawl with how he was tossing around oliv how Debbie just did everything she could to protect the baby yeah that baby's crying just set me on edge this entire first half I don't know the comics side what my comments have spoiled for me so I truly believe that there was an actual chance that Debbie could actually die here I didn't think they'd have it in them to kill the baby but this show surprised me before angstrom though slowly becomes more unhinge throughout this entire thing going back on his word devolving in just some lunatic but even through all that even through all the tension all the horror we still have plenty of time to just feel sorry and understand why he's like this stop there's too much power angstrom is pretty much the embodiment of one of The Season's core ideas of collateral damage and unintended consequences of superhero stories while for the heroes certain events were just Tuesday for them for other people they were life shattering events that permanently changed the trajectory of who they were inom was a well intention if semi delusional scientists who thought he could create a Utopia without anything bad ever happening to anyone but his alternate cells or at least a significant portion of them were victims of alternate marks so while the original man was a good one having all the memories of his other selves pile on to him overwhelmed his original identity till just some kind of mob mentality took over where only his strongest rawest feelings colored his perception of reality hence despite doing this to himself he still hates and blames ininal just like the thousands of other versions of himself that already did we watch him nearly crumble under the weight of all those other memories drawing out the actual events of just everything these other people have experienced and how that just makes him more feral in his quest for Revenge he starts hurting Debbie and that arm snap was the moment where you truly knew shit was getting real but again you understand why it's happening you understand why angstrom is like this and why even with that Knowledge from Mark's perspective despite still trying to talk him down none of it really matters as Mark went out on a limb and his mom nearly lost hers so yeah Mark is going to snap and attack this guy and it was Bloody glorious well I will also say I do love just for tense this hostage situation is angstrom never feels like he's completely in control there's always a sense that Mark might be able to stop him or Dodge a portal thrown his way as all he needs to do is getting close and he might be able to stop angstrom we watch Mark catch on to angstroms tricks forcing the ten head to come up with new ones which just makes this whole scene all the more nerve-wracking as you feel the desperation and the chance for things to go Mark's way only for them not to it's simple but effective with Mark's journey to alternate Dimensions only giving us some light levity as we still know what he needs to get back to and face but on the side at least we finally got to see Josh Keem play a spider person yet again hey thanks pal let's get this guy webbed up look I saw the portal I know you're From Another Dimension which that's awesome that is so cool for him let's talk about Mark becoming his dad thought you were strong now Mark finally gets his hands on angstrom who starts talking a lot of shit about how he's rebuilt himself to be strong enough to fight invincible he was wrong with everything that's already happened the threats to his family Anissa the breakup all of marks frustrations just come pouring out of him as he lets himself go all out unleashing his full wrath on someone who didn't just ask for this but practically auditioned for an ass whooping only for Mark to realize too late that angstrom may have been hyping himself up just a bit too much as Mark successfully did what Nolan failed to do to him by turning another man into a puddle this was horrific but one thing that I really love about this whole scene is Mark's line how I thought you were stronger can actually be read two different ways one is the obvious he thought angstrom was Stronger therefore a solid punching bag he could vent on but the other way and the one that I took when I first heard it was that I thought you were stronger as Mark talking to himself that he thought he was Stronger Than This that he wouldn't give into his anger and become like his dad that he was strong enough not to kill only a few hours ago he let Anissa choke him out rather than give up on his principles yet here he snapped and killed the man after all Mark's hesitations all of his attempts to prove that he wasn't like his father that he was better than this he ended up doing the exact same thing even though the context is very different but for someone like Mark that distinction doesn't really give him any comfort he him choking back a mental breakdown as he jumps between making excuses justifying his actions to making excuses again and finally just blaming himself I love the cont between the blood on his body and just the allwhite sand of this planet as it just makes everything really pop and feel extra shocking this was what this has all been building up to and I love it but RP angstrum though not going to lie him dying so quickly it does kind of validate one of my critiques I've had this season as a whole and that is the lack of a strong hook Mark we need to talk season one of Vil had one of the best hook SL through lines in just recent memory where even if we were on semi unrelated Adventures the story always found a way of inching us closer to the reveal of who Nolan really is and having that knowledge be revealed to the world and his family this idea hooked us and made us hungry to see what would happen next but in contrast season 2 like it doesn't really have one it's more about theme and watching Mark try and unpack the aftermath of just everything that happened everyone in the season is trying to deal with the Fallout of something which I like but even though I like what it's doing I think I did spend most of the Season waiting for the thing to really kick this story into high gear like I thought that was going to happen when we met the vites and no one got taken but then the story just mellowed out again I love the focus on more personal stories and all this character work I do miss that sense of buildup and Dread where I feel like we're making our way to something crazy we do have Cliffhangers but most of them just get resolved the next episode or just left for later which doesn't really do enough for me like some people tried to offend the saying that angstrom was supposed to be the big thing that we were working towards but no his appearances were too sporadic to feel like okay this is the true through line for the season as nobody in this story knows about him not to mention after all the buildup he just dies like you can almost describe this entire season as just the falling action of what happened in season 1 which I do like without knowing that this is what it was going to be like for the entire season I can see some people looking around waiting for like the big thing only to be slightly disappointed when it never drops I do think the season gets away with it I also think after how good the first seasons was you really feel the absence here though I'm sure season 3 will be insane so I'm not going to sweat it too much though I will sweat the literal DX Machina that was the future Guardians saving mark like this is fine it fits the world and after everything we've seen robot figur out how to time travel and dimension hop like that makes sense if he has enough time I just think that after the raw Devastation that was Mark versus angstrom watching Mark spal over what he did and not be able to find a way out of here only for somebody to show up and say you've suffered enough here's a right home it does feel like they're cheating just a little bit I'm sure this will be used to set up something later like besides the obvious thing I love you Mark I have for a very long time huh Also let's not sleep on the fact that Rex apparently died in this bad future as this this is 100% robot using Rex's name as Rex bless him he is not smart enough to be the resident Tech Guy of the team so this isn't all likelihood Rudy using Rex's name which does not bode well for the original like it's actually kind of funny that Rudy stole his jeans stole his face and is now just taken his voice actor as well I suppose you weren't paying attention when we discussed not damaging the time stream which that's going to be trippy we get like an older robot at some point and we have to have a voice actor who's so synonymous with douchy characters play a stoic and serious character for a change like that is going to be interesting that'll just have him like use the robot voice the entire time if you ever need a shoulder I I've got to also even Mark I'm glad they're not pretending that this isn't endgame anymore that this isn't the couple of the show is clearly built around but it's a little dirty to have eve even a future version dro the fact that she loves Mark and she always has the episode after the breakup with Amber like there's no Grace perod here from the writers room they really went we're done we can finally do the thing we've always wanted I'm glad they don't emely just full on hookup in this one Mark pulls back just a little bit on the bridge but it is they're doing it I just guess I didn't think they'd be this quick to just say okay fuck now I love you H like the fact that Mark is getting this bomb from his older version of Eve that is also something that I don't fully love as having an older Eve tell Mark about her younger self feelings is just it's giving speed running I'm glad Mark in this show is letting Amber finally go free but this turnaround though like the fact that Eve is being immedately presented as the next love interest it does undercut the Amber breakup for me just a little bit as again it was just an episode ago in baring Mark's time dilation it only happened like an hour ago in Universe like just want to keep that in perspective but that is the main action of the finale everything after this is mostly just wrapping up various loose threads while setting up events for the next season robon monster girl have a really good talk actually where Rudy over here fin STS feel like he's one breakup away from being a super villain in meaning that yeah he's socially awkward that his very specific C problem fix problem mindset has led him to piss off Monster Girl unintentionally but despite that he still wants to help which she appreciates and because she's a 30-year-old trapped in a 10-year-old's body she's willing to give him another shot which is cute elsewhere Debbie and Mark are reunited I can't fathom how they went back to living in that house after everything that's happened here like constantly Mark is very much not handling the fact that he killed someone very well with even cesil trying to tell him that it's okay shit happens but most importantly he tells him that yeah you're not your dad which after how much he's used that line to control mark this entire season this is probably the most sincere and honest thing he said this entire time and I really do like watching Mark grapple with what he's done as yeah angstrom specifically he did had it coming yeah he was also mentally ill but none of this was a good look in context is everything as Mark did let himself take out all of his anger on angstrom and kept attacking him long long long after he was incapacitated this wasn't just a line of fire something happened this was very much Mark giving into his worst impulses and him going way farther than he had to mark would be rattled by this not to mention all of Ang's claims about how he's so terrible in every other dimension so the cool off he does what all of us wish we could do go flying through the sky and screaming into Oblivion which leads him to unintentionally burying the same set of ruins which this thing I don't know if this is just going to be recurring gag or they going to do something absolutely insane with this story but knowing Invincible they could do either one this is either going to be the thing that saves the universe or the thing that is never brought up again but Mark yeah he is going through it and he is in fact dropping out of college which yeah in most hero circumstances this would feel like a bigger deal and is a huge thing here but in Mark's situation with the Vite Invasion coming being the Workhorse of the hero Community maybe taking a few years off of college to get this hero stuff under control might be the right call I think Mark is giving himself just a little bit too much of a hard time about controlling his powers where this isn't really his dad this is him being human and just happening to have superhuman strength let's going to be interesting to watch Mark try and grapple with all this and whether or not he'll start like getting okay with the idea of killing though we will definitely see Mark sacrificing all the normal parts of his life solely to focus on the mask which could cause trouble later down the road but he'll be having bigger Broms to worry about and he'll be dating a super so I think he'll survive love the final line by Debbie as yeah they'll never be able to get back that sense of normal scene things will never be the same again and just like that exploded house outside things happened and they can't pretend they didn't no matter how many times they rebuild their home to be exactly as it was the people in are the ones that changed and they still have to deal with all the shit they've been through I am so excited to see where the story goes from here but by far the thing that I need from season 3 is Allan and Nolan's buddy comedy episode these two are going to be so funny together with Allen's mix of normal guy versus Nolan's repressed Warrior bullshit as even the brief moments we see them together it's brilliant as just these two chatting gets known to admit that more than just him wanting vilum to kill him it's more about his inability to reconcile his Newfound sense of empathy and horror for his own actions with who vilum raised him to be so it's easier for Nolan to just let himself die then face what he's done on Earth with Alan being here and possy telling him what vilam has planned for Mark it just might be the kick of the pants he needs to break out of here and go hug his son with that final line on Nolan realizing he misses his wife no matter how much he talked about her just being a pet Nolan did love Debbie in all his time on Earth and I pray when they meet up again she shoots him in the face cuz she definitely deserves at least that I miss my wife Tails I miss her lot overall I love this episode and this season it's not exactly what people expected it kind of broke the mold of what the first did but seeing what they were going for I do respect it minus the mark and Amber stuff they really could not pretend to make us care about them again so I didn't really care when any that happened even if I like what they did everything else though amazing invin continues to be that show threading the needle between sincerity and brutal violence most other satires of superhero shows feel like they're just trying to tear them down but Invincible really feels like like it's able to poke fun of the tropes yet still show why they work so well and why we love them this show is just too solid with characters that I love and while it has its missteps I still can't wait to see what happens next and no I won't be reading the comics also I can't believe I skimmed over this Kate's still alive guess the backup clone theory was right and she is still begging Abraham Lincoln good for her all right tell me what you all thought of this episode what are your thoughts on the season as a whole and as always please no comic spoilers thank you all for watching like sh subscribe peace out have a good one hopefully for the season 3 won't be that bad but if that's the time they need that's what they need though I will say the fight for cartoon of the year is going to be crazy for 2024 as we have this and we also have Arcane season 2 shit is going to get crazy

Channel: Sarcastic Chorus

Views: 348,755

Keywords: invincible, amber, mark

Id: MuTdytM8cWY

Length: 15min 47sec (947 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 04 2024