The first part of Invincible Season 2 featured King Lizard becoming the leader of the Lizard League. We learned that the Sequids had taken over the mind of an astronaut who was abandoned on Mars by the Martian, who dubbed himself the Shapesmith, and was heading towards Earth in a giant ship. Thaedus turned off Allen’s life support, probably because he was aware of the fact that there was a hidden Viltrumite in the Coalition of Planets (an anti-Viltrumite organization). Mark reunited with Nolan and learned that he had become the monarch of Thraxa and had a son with his new wife, Andressa. The Viltrumites attacked the planet, killed a major chunk of their population, and arrested Nolan. General Kregg tasked Mark with preparing Earth for the Viltrumite invasion, which, if he failed to do so, would lead to genocide. Debbie came to terms with the fact that she wouldn’t be able to live a normal life or cope with Nolan’s betrayal because the horrors inflicted upon humanity by him were too huge. Yet, Art Rosenbaum gave Debbie the push she needed to move on. Donald realized that he wasn’t human but an android. Atom Eve faced off with Killcannon, and the result was quite disastrous. Since she was quite disturbed by those events, she decided to move back with her parents. A new villain was formed with the help of the Mauler Twins, named Angstrom Levy. He wanted to solve the Viltrumite issue but ended up combining all his versions from the multiverse and then going on a quest to kill or capture every version of Mark Grayson.
Spoiler Alert
Cecil knows everything
Mark is rescued by the Thraxans, and he decides to stay there for a while so that he can rebuild their civilization. A few months later, Mark is informed that a ship that can help him travel all the way to Earth has been made, and he can leave whenever he wants. Mark doesn’t want to go because there’s a lot of repair work left. But the Thraxans insist. In addition to that, Andressa persuades Mark to take his stepbrother with him because Andressa has grown old (Thraxans have a very short lifespan). And she wants Oliver to grow up with someone to whom he is tangentially related by blood. Mark has no other option but to accept her request. So, he takes Oliver and flies back to Earth. Back home, Debbie is working again at her real estate job and shares an amicable relationship with Paul. As she prepares to sit down to have a glass of wine by herself (a decision that she seemingly walks back on because of her brief bout of alcoholism), Mark surprises her and then tells her all about Oliver.
Debbie is obviously distraught, angry, and confused regarding Mark’s revelations about Nolan. She points out how Nolan has destroyed another species and isn’t around to pick up the pieces again. Mark knows that, but he says they don’t have the luxury of weighing the pros and cons of this whole fiasco; they just have to deal with it. Mark says that he’s open to dropping out of college for one year to take care of Oliver. Since Oliver grows faster than humans, he’ll probably be able to take care of himself within that period of time. Debbie refuses to let him take a break from his academic journey and says that she’s going to take care of Oliver in one way or another. They both kind of agree that Oliver shouldn’t go to Cecil because they don’t know what he is going to do with him.
Talking about Cecil, Donald confronts him regarding the wiring and metal skeleton in his body. Cecil doesn’t sugarcoat and says that, technically, Donald died when they exploded the safe house to kill Omni-Man. But since they found out that his brain was functional, they put it in a state-of-the-art endoskeleton. Now, why did Cecil, an otherwise emotionless man, go to these lengths to save Cecil’s soul? I don’t know. Maybe he just loves Donald, or maybe it’s something else. Either way, Donald isn’t very pleased about being resurrected. Mark goes back to college and reunites with William. He informs Mark that he is about to be dismissed because of his low attendance (Mark was absent for two months). William wants to know what Mark has been up to, but Mark decides to meet Amber first. On his way to Amber’s room, though, Mark is confronted by Cecil, who reprimands him for disobeying his orders. Cecil apparently knows about Oliver, and he has sent a team to capture him as they speak. Mark tells him to back off and promises to arrive at the Guardians headquarters for debriefing. Cecil obliges but leaves him with a stinger about forcing Debbie to look after her ex-husband’s new kid.
Invincible joins the Guardians to fight the Sequids
Mark updates Amber about everything that has gone down. Amber gives some updates about her life too. We get brief updates on what the Guardians of the Globe have been up to: they’ve been fighting a giant called Omnipotus (during which Black Samson noticed Shapesmith shifting between his Martian and human forms) and then training with each other. Rudy tries to tell The Immortal that pushing Amanda to repeatedly change into her monster form is going to accelerate her de-aging. So, they should reserve that for important occasions. In the meantime, Amanda can fight with an exoskeleton devised by him. This irks Amanda a lot because she thinks that Rudy is trying to control her. Donald suffers a nightmare where he sees a metallic endoskeleton choking him to death. He is woken up by an assistant telling him to check something on their long-range radar. Cecil appears before the Guardians to tell them about the aforementioned Martian ship that’s full of Sequids. Black Samson coaxes Shapesmith to spill the truth, and once Cecil says that everyone knows who Shapesmith is, he tells them everything about the evolution of the Sequids and how his wishes to explore the galaxy have caused the Sequids to grow and become strong enough to invade Earth.
Cecil and the Guardians agree that Shapesmith is responsible for the doom of Mars and has paved the way for Earth’s demise as well, and he’ll face the consequences of his actions. However, seeing as he is the only person (?) who knows everything about the Sequids and the Martian vessel, he needs to be on the team to guide them through this treacherous path. The Immortal announces the members who are going along with him to space to stop the Martian ship from entering Earth: Bulletproof, Black Samson, Monster Girl, Rudy, and Shapesmith. Dupli-Kate, Rex Splode, and Shrinking Rae are instructed to hold the fort. Shapesmith says that they need more firepower to fight against the Sequids, and Rex Splode takes up the task of convincing Atom Eve to resume her superhero duties. Surprisingly enough, Rex Splode manages to get Eve out of her slump.
Cecil goes to get Mark, and he interrupts a little bonding session between Mark, Debbie, and Oliver. Mark is a little surprised that Cecil is asking him to don the suit after technically grounding him, but he doesn’t hesitate and goes off to fulfill his duties as a superhero. Even though Debbie and Mark are not interested in paying heed to any family-related opinions from Cecil, he tells Debbie to consider the option of putting Oliver in some kind of superhero creche. Before heading out to save the planet again, Mark informs Amber, and she calls up her friends to check if they have any plans for the night. I know that Amber is hated by a lot of Invincible fans, largely because she acts in a very human way, where she prioritizes herself over everything else. And I have a feeling that her arc in this season is going in that direction, and I hope that viewers actually follow the thinking behind her decisions instead of just rushing to lambast her.
Did Rex Splode, Dupli-Kate, and Shrinking Rae die?
The concluding moments of Invincible Season 2, episode 5, are excellent. Yes, a major chunk of the Guardians blast off into space in a spaceship, while Rex Splode, Dupli-Kate, and Shrinking Rae proceed to get some downtime because Rex Splode thinks that two atrocities can’t happen at the same time. That theory is immediately proven to be wrong as the Lizard League invades a nuclear plant of sorts, and then they wait for the government to deal with them while they hold New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago hostage. Rex Splode, Dupli-Kate, and Shrinking Rae are ordered by Cecil to head over to this facility and take care of the Lizard League, thereby ruining pizza night for Rex. The trio put up a very gory and incredibly bloody fight. However, Komodo Dragon gets the better of Dupli-Kate and tires her out until she can’t make copies of herself anymore. When she does manage to make a copy of herself, Komodo Dragon smashes them into a pile of bones, muscles, and blood. Shrinking Rae gets into Salamander’s head and kills him. Iguana and Komodo Dragon go after Rex Splode. Shrinking Rae tries to explode Komodo Dragon from the inside, but in the most grotesque display of his prowess, Komodo Dragon stops Shrinking Rae from expanding, thereby killing her, too.
Rex Splode splices Iguana in half and then dukes it out with Komodo Dragon. The latter chews up Rex Splode’s left hand. But since he consumes one of Rex’s explosive devices, his head explodes, and he dies. Rex Splode thinks he has won, but King Lizard shows up behind him, aiming a gun at his head. Mark, Eve, and the rest of their team somehow make it onto the Martian ship. As expected, the Martians are unhappy with Shapesmith because of his stupidity, which has led to this whole debacle. While they argue, Bulletproof kills a Sequid and alerts the Sequid hivemind about their location. The Guardians do their best to keep the Sequids at bay, but their numbers are so overwhelming that they can’t deal with it. Rudy tries out a method to use his suit to stun the Sequids, thereby risking his human body for the Sequids. Before he gets to try out his experiment, Eve breaks her force field barrier that has been protecting the Guardians so far. So, yes, it’s not clear if Rex Splode has been killed by King Lizard or if the Sequids have killed the Guardians. It’s a cliffhanger. However, I can say for sure that Dupli-Kate and Shrinking Rae are very dead. By the way, starting off the second part of Invincible Season 2 with the deaths of two female characters, that too in Women’s History Month, is not a good look.
Anyway, at the end of Invincible Season 2, episode 5, we see that Allen has surprisingly survived the Viltrumite attack. Thaedus reveals that he is the first Viltrumite to defect against his species. He admits that he did shut off Allen’s ventilator, but he wanted to see if that accelerated Allen’s healing powers or if it killed him. Clearly, his gamble has paid off. Allen, being the good guy that he is, takes all this pretty well, even though it sounds quite disturbing. Thadeus tells Allen to get in touch with Mark and bring him to the Coalition because, apparently, he is the key to turning the tide against the Viltrumite expansion. So, it’s safe to assume that Allen is going to be the one to save Mark and the Guardians from the Sequids, and then he is going to take him to Thaedus. What’s going to happen to Rex Splode? How is Debbie going to deal with Oliver in Mark’s absence? Where is Nolan? Well, I guess we will get the answers to all our questions in the upcoming episodes of Invincible Season 2.
