House of R - 'Invincible' Season 2 Finale and Awards

Episode Date: April 8, 2024

Mal and Jo are back to dive into Season 2 of ‘Invincible.’ They break down the finale and the season as a whole (7:39). Later, they give out some Season 2 awards (59:59). Hosts: Mallory Rubin and Joanna Robinson Associate Producer: Carlos Chiriboga Additional Production: Arjuna Ramgopal Social: Jomi Adeniran Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, can I talk to you for a second? Over 25 years ago on September 29th, 1998, we watched a brainy girl with curly hair drop everything to follow a guy she only kind of knew to college. And so began Felicity. My name is Greg Grunberg, though you may know me better as Sean Blumberg, the inventor of Smooth A's and director of Docuventory. I'm still trying to get that released. I'm teaming up with my Felicity wife, Mandy,

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Visit weathertech.com today. No. This doesn't end until you and your family are dead. Stop frightening my family. No idea what I've been to. How much I've been holding. And welcome to House of Ar, a ringerverse podcast on the Ringer Podcast Network. I'm Mallory Rubin, and it is my absolute pleasure to invite you not only back to the Grayson family living room where everything is always quiet, calm, soothing, but also, goopy.

to House of ours newish podcast feed. Joining me today, e-gads! That's my best talking dinosaur. Wow. I don't know. I'm smirking on it. It's my favorite costumed hero. Joanna Robinson.

Hey, Joe. What's up? Bad babies. Hello, Mallory Rubin. I feel physically ill after that opening clip. Thanks for picking it. I'm sorry. Couldn't help it.

Just, you know, got to dive right in. I think for me, it's not just, and I hope someone does do a, if the video doesn't already exist, I hope someone does a behind the scenes of the fully work on Invincible and how much, like, you know, how many wet rags they're throwing around in the old sound department. For me on that clip, it was Sterling K. Brown's, like, bubbling gurgle. There's, like, a gurgle sound that he does right at the beginning, even before things get, like, like super, super, super goopy.

What a gross show, Invincible. Here we are, season two. If you can't tell, we are here to chat about the Invincible Season 2 finale. We're also going to hand out some awards. Look back at the entire season, some lightning round rapid fire season two superlatives. But before we fly through that portal, some quick programming reminders. Over on the ringerverse, the midnight boys. Boop, pew, pew.

Back on the Wednesday's schedule, they will be with you this week to talk about the latest X-Men 97 episode, potentially to break down the Joker trailer that is dropping this week. And then, on Friday, button mash will be with you

to talk about Fallout, which is dropping in full, season one, a binge, on Amazon Prime. So get ready for your button mash fallout. Breakdown. House of R,

one pod week for us. We will be back with you at the top of next week for our spring mailbag. So start submitting, keep submitting. I say start. You're already sending them. Keep submitting. Oh, yeah. Your mailbag questions for the seasonal mailbag.

We love a seasonal mailbag. We're going to make this an ongoing tradition. Hobbit of Dragons at gmail.com. Send your questions about impending releases, anything you'd like. Sign them with your pickle. The Joker Folly Idea trailer, which I will have a lot of thoughts and opinions on. Absolutely.

Absolutely. Joe, how can everybody follow along? Wow. Thrilled and honored that you asked me this question. Listen, first and foremost, why don't you just follow the pod, R-Pod, Rangervor. You know, that's a quite simple way to keep track of everything. But just in case you need a little more, a little extra, why don't you follow us on the socials on Instagram, on TikTok, Facebook, on Twitter, if you copy.

It X. You're just a bootlicker to Elon Musk. So call it Twitter. And keep track of everything that's going on there. And then, as we already mentioned, the mailbag is coming. But also, there's just like plenty of other stuff that we want to hear from you about. Hobbes and Dragons at gmail.com. Your Joker Follyadier trailer reactions.

Because really, that is the pop cultural event of the week as far as I'm concerned. I will only be discussing that film. in song. In musical form? Are you going to do it in like jukebox musical form? Like you're going to like the Joker movie is going to be like you're going to pick a pop standard. Yes. To express your feelings.

Now I am. Yeah. Or are you going to make up. Okay. I don't know. We'll see. Journey of Discovery. I don't know how you're going to top letting me know with the lyrics to piano

man a song that I really thought I knew. Mac and Fred. You know, we're always all learning new things. That's part of the beauty of this shared experience. Oh, it's a real earth shaker for me. Back to you, Mallory. Speaking to learn the new things, speaking of things we already know, it's the last programming reminder,

and it's the friendly neighborhood, spoiler warning. And it's a great day to talk about friendly neighborhood because Spider-Man might come up today. Do a slightly up-branded one. It is your convivial suburban spoiler warning. Cold a sack. Your cul-de-sac call-out. I don't want to make it do close.

No, no. Obviously, we'll be discussing the Invincible Season 2 finale. I thought you were stronger. So everything from that, it's on the table today. Also, everything from Season 2, because as we mentioned, we're handing out Season 2 awards.

And guess what? When talking about season 2, things from Season 1 are bound to come up, and we might mention some Invincible Comics canon. That is the spoiler warning for today. All right. Joe Engstrom is over there shouting about how

our podcast's legacy is blood, so I think that means it's time to pod. Let's dive in. Season 2 finale toe dip. It's not a deep dive. We're just going to spend a few minutes chatting about the finale.

Splash a little arterial spray on our bare chests. Before everything went so wrong, you know, when Mark and Amber were enjoying a last moment of piece of just grazing, the fingertips along the shiny, glassy surface of the water. That's the kind of dip we're doing today. Talking about the finale first, then we're going to get to the awards. Before we dive into the finale, let's do like the usual opening snapshot, though.

Give us a little taste in a moose-bush. Overall, thoughts and feelings on the finale. I thought you were stronger. Which, by the way, we should say, written by Robert Kirkman himself, he wrote the season one premiere and finale and co-wrote the Adam Eves special. This is the first episode in season two that Kirkman wrote, so that's exciting. And also just like a quick snapshot of your thoughts and feelings about season two overall. Thank you so much for asking me.

Listen. My pleasure. This is my absolute pleasure. I thought there was obviously a lot of like really strong stuff in the finale. I think Stephen Yun as Mark continues to be like one of the great voice performances of our time. I think he's wonderful. I think Sterling Kay Brown was a great get for, I was like trying to count up all the Oscar winners and nominees that are involved in this project's a lot. But, you know, so great antagonist, great moment of crisis for our hero, all of that juicy, sticky, goofy superhero stuff that we love from Invincible.

I think, though, when you put it in. in the context of the larger season, and this is something, you know, the Midnight Boys have spent a lot of time talking about, and I've seen it reflected all over the place. I think this was, like, a fairly bumpy season for Invincible. I think there are a couple factors there, certainly, as has been, you know, well discussed. I think splitting the season into two four-episode chunks was maybe not the move. And then I think, I already have this written in my notes, but I just want to, like, agree with something that the Midnight Boys said, which was that, and you've never heard me say it before, and I may not ever say it again, I think this should have been a binge drop because I watched the first half of the season week to week, and I watched this back for as a binge knowing I was like behind on it, knowing we were going to cover it. And I think the binge just like really favored the momentum of this season. So if this had been, you know, they're just like, binging, binge dropping the wrong things and parsing out the wrong things.

Like, Blue Eyes Samurai should have been week to week, and this should have been a binge drop, is how I feel about it. And overall, just like trying to understand what was, what this season was struggling with. I feel like I'm Monday morning quarterbacked the Engstrom issue, which is like we see him in episode one, and then we see him, like, briefly, and then we see him in the finale. And so I appreciate that Engstrom's not the real antagonist of the season, that mark his very self is the real antagonist of the season. But like, um, anyway,

I, I have some thoughts and feelings about how we could have parceled extram out a little differently. Um, but overall, this is like, this tends to be a Kirkman problem, which is that it just feels at the end of the day that this is getting too sprawling

in terms of the story that they're trying to tell where we're just like, I don't mind a show where there's a ton of going on and we're like bouncing, that the stories are coming fast and furious. I don't mind that at all. We talked about this with X-Men 97. That is a huge cast, and the storylines are going rapid fire on that show. But I think this were,

a lot of the stories are just too far spread out at this point. Too many cast members are getting their own, like, sort of side quests that were, like, too far away from the main spine of the season too often in this season. So there are certainly. some of those side characters who I would not, you know, not to curry favor with people we know, but I really think that Jason Manzucas's Rexpload is like a core key part of this season. And like, yeah.

I never, ever, ever regretted a minute, a millisecond that I spent with him. Amazing rec season. Yeah. I just loved him. Genuinely. But there are other side characters where I'm like, I find myself not caring. I want to get back to the main plot. But so it's a sprawl, which the Walking Dead became guilty of. Like a lot of Kirkman projects, I think eventually become guilty of this.

So that would be my assessment of the season, which had some real high highs and then some bumpy other stuff in terms of the form of the storytelling. Mallory Rubin, over to you. Back in the studio? It's like we're covering. whatever like hellscape Omni Man has left behind on the local news. I love it. This is Joanne Rumson reporting from downtown Chicago. Standing next to a lovely, very hastily constructed part.

A beautiful playground. What could possibly go wrong? I see a lot of children playing on it. I'm sure it's going to be great. Sound structural integrity. Oh, boy. Yeah, I thought, I broadly agree. I thought that the season was

uneven some high highs, some confounding dips, and obviously like exacerbated by the season split, which is not a new or unique opinion, but is one that I feel keenly. I think in particular

that, because I really enjoyed the premiere of the season, I loved the finale. I thought the finale was really good. And I thought there were strong moments in between like the fourth episode, which I guess in essence is the

Oh yeah. Season 2 volume 1 finale and mid-season finale, whatever we want to call it, was great. And so then you're just like desperate to continue and we have to wait again.

And then when we come back, it's one of the weaker episodes of the series to date for the reason you cited, which is it's not like the time in any one of those side quests or various missions is not interesting.

but there are so many component parts. And we are like, we were just back with, we were back with Omneman and Mark. We were back with Nolan and Mark. And now we're not, you know? And that's kind of in a way, part of the interesting alchemy of the series is like when it is super satisfying

to be with a character like Rex or to suddenly find that you are like emotionally invested in immortal, for example, which was a twist for me personally. I did not anticipate, but then ended up experiencing. Those are really satisfying moments. I could not possibly care less about The Immortal. But he's the way that he whimpered Kate when he walked into his little ice cabin.

I was like, oh, wow. I felt that. What a twist. But when we're making P.B. and Jay with Rudy and Amanda, with love for two young, increasingly younger, people just trying to find their way and navigate their problems. I'm like, boy, I really want to be with Mark. And that's why the finale was so satisfying because it was so. firmly rooted in not just gore and brutality and sensational, invincible finale set pieces, which are now I think we've grown quite accustomed to, two seasons in, we've gotten to

extraordinary finale showdowns. Those fights, the Mark Nolan fight in season one, and the Mark Engstrom, Mark versus Mark fight here, are so emotionally raw and show us so much about the fears that are driving the character, it was really, it felt right and good to be back in that. So I left the season on a high. I'm excited to chat about the finale

and then to, in our awards, go back and hit some of the things that we thought worked a little bit better and maybe inside of that some of the things that were longing for a little bit more of in season three. Did you know about one in three people with plaques psoriasis may also develop

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visit the website for full terms and conditions. Let's dive into the finale. And let's start with this long-awaited showdown between Mark and Engstrom. We, as you noted, get like a couple glimpses of Engstrom between the season two premiere and the season two finale, but very few. So this is like a thing

that we have been building toward and waiting for and anticipating. And Engstrom's not just like, let's brawl, right? He's using that big brain to study Mark dimension after dimension after dimension. And of course, that was how we met

Engstrom in the premiere is like seeing that these invincibles who have in fact broken bad and decided to team up with Omni-Mans are inflicting atrocities and horror on Engstrom after Armstrong after Angstrom. Using Debbie and sweet little Oliver, the hands on Debbie's neck,

like Mark finding Engstrom in this position coming off of episode seven where Anissa threatened to kill Amber in that way and Mark's life started to again unravel. Like instantly, he's right back in that horrific headspace. what did you think about where the finale started? Obviously, this was the end note for episode seven with the phone call and what it took to everything that brought us to this point

before we get into the fight itself. Here's where I'm going to inject my like sort of, if I were to give this season a rewrite, this is what I would do, which is just to say that in terms of like when we have a big bad like Engstrom, and again, I understand that Inkstrom isn't the real antagonist. It's the conflict inside of the human heart. I don't know if you've heard that phrase before, but like... Only thing worth writing about?

But when the concept of balancing a monster of the week versus an overarching season-long big bad really got its origins popularized on a TV show called Buffy Vampire Slayer, I don't know if you've heard of it. It's important to have those frequent check-ins with that character. so the character is present in mind, so we really understand the threat of that character. And keenly with Engstrom,

so that we can have that narrative, emotional satisfaction of the constant reminder of the parallels between these characters. This is Engstrom is in the one reality where he breaks bad, and Mark is in the one reality where he's the good guy, and they're both motivated by loss around their family

or fear around protecting their family, stuff like that. So I'm wondering if we, if it was a mistake to do the full Engstrom machine extravaganza in the premiere, and wouldn't it make more sense to follow our portal opening Engstrom all season? He's a hero all season. You know what I mean? Like on a quest of some kind.

And if so, and then we get those glimpses of the other marks who are terrible. Because, and this is something I want to say about both this. This is the classic Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg approach to. superhero storytelling, which they did with Preacher, which they do with the boys, which they do here, which is that they love, like, gruesome shit, and they love superheroes behaving badly. And so, and it's fun for us to watch superheroes behaving badly. Like, we can, you know, condemn or Omni Man in Season 1 or whoever we want to condemn, because we do agree morally that they're bad. They're really fun to watch. And Evil, Mark Grayson, is really fun to watch. And Evil, Mark Grayson, is

really fun to watch. It's horrifying and it's fun and entertaining. And so in terms of like going away from the main plot to check in every week, how is this angstrom doing, collecting the other angstroms from the various worlds, what are those evil marks doing every week? Another evil mark has done this. Another evil mark has done that. Why not parcel it out that way? I understand that that's not necessarily the comic book approach to this story, but like you're making television, which is different. And so again, the is rewriting the show. This is not the show they gave us.

And so I will just say that, like, Sterling K. Brown, incredible villain monologger. He did it on Brooklyn 9-9. He did it here. Like, he's really quite good at this. The idea of putting Debbie in danger. Debbie is someone we kept up with all the time every single episode of the season,

even though her progress didn't move that much emotionally. Until, like, towards the end. like putting the home in danger, all of that stuff is wonderful and brilliant. I just, it's just a rhythm and a cadence of storytelling thing that I can just imagine a world in which I just feel so much richer because that association of multiversal storytelling, something that you and I quite enjoy in something like Spider-Verse, or I think even more pertinently in this case, something like, Loki. We're watching something like Loki where there are so many evil lokeys and we're watching

our one good Loki try so hard to be good in a multiverse where he always breaks bad. That's a story we find so rich. And so I just think, I know it was like a long way around to answer your question. I just, I wanted to feel it a bit more. I really did feel it when Deb's arm snapped though. It did feel that. That was rough. Absolutely brutal.

I mean, the broken bones on Invincible always brutal, but that was a particularly gnarly one. And then the way we just keep seeing it like, and sweet little Oliver is just looking at it and just absolute horror and distress. Very upsetting.

Very upsetting. Yeah, I completely agree. I love your, I love your suggestion of following a good and righteous Engstrom for longer and saving the break bad. I think even if

the this is the person who did this to me, resentment still takes root in the premiere, I still would have wanted to check in with him every single episode.

Like, whatever the exact moment of the turn is, I, and especially in a show where, like, with love for Shapesmith that I found, genuinely quite amusing.

Yeah. We have multiple episodes where we check in with, like, the Seqid and everything happening on bars, you know? So we have the ability to peek back in for a scene when, and especially, I think, because some of what we heard, I found this sequence incredibly rewarding from Mark's perspective, but I think, like, to your point, it would have been even more heightened. And for Engstrom's perspective, if we had spent more time with him, and then that only further heightens what we get for Mark because of the parallels.

When we hear Engstrom say, like, is the Mark Grayson of this dimension a risk taker? It would appear not noted. Or when he comments on how there's no Oliver in any other dimension that he has encountered. Like, obviously these are interesting plot clues. But in terms of what that tells us not only about the depth of his obsession, right, that he has been going dimension, dimension to study and gather intel and course, his plot,

his path to this revenge, just as stupid in every dimension when he threw the knife. Mark's like, I will not go through another fucking portal and then he throws a knife and he knows the mark is going to fly after it and he does, right?

And you're like, okay, I can glean from that that you have had enough experience to know how to work him and play him, but wouldn't it have been cool and interesting to get to see more of those little vignettes where we watch him work toward those conclusions. I think from the Mark perspective, one of the things that I really enjoyed about all of the, like, immensely disturbing glimpses of evil, evil invincible that we got up dating, going back to the, we're in a different

universe fake out of the premiere. The season is about Mark's fear that he has, that he is, is turning into his father and then like the very rich and compelling Nolan aspect of that that we'll talk about more in a few minutes of like, oh, actually, this is happening in both directions and Nolan is becoming more like Mark and Debbie too in a good way. But you have this stretch where Engstrom, because he's absorbed the consciousness of all of the other Armstrong's, right? It's gone wrong. But like that part of the plan that he was seeking, he can't control it. And like, I think we're already thinking of multiverse of madness as we're watching like, you know, portal after portal, dimension after dimension. Here's a fun, weird little

thing. We're glimps in the zombies, the dinosaurs, et cetera, et cetera. So forgive me for then using the word incursion here and heightening the Dr. Strange cop. But the incursion of all of these other Engstrom's and their memories as the horror is mounting for Engstrom in this living room. And we see, I mean, we see evil invincible killing Engstrom's son. Like, we see him doing just completely foul, awful things. Knocking people's heads off their shoulders, you know. Just slice and slice and slice and slice and head after head after head. So much deli meat, you know.

It's like Yeah And was Such a effective way of taking the anxiety And the fear that Mark is feeling And giving us as a viewer An extra data point Like he's worried

Could I become like my dad? Right? When we and we actually got this flashback It was really heart wrenching When Mark is flying and screaming And flashing back to all of these key moments And we see like before he's got his new suit And he's just kind of doing it on his own right

And he's saying to his father, like, all I want is to be like you. And we're reminded of how that turned on him, how the thing that he wanted, his great desire and dream is now the thing that terrifies him. Like, what if I am like him? And we have all of these visuals through Engstrom of how real that is. And what that looks like. Ideal multiversal storytelling, you know, again, if it were just parceled differently, I think it would have been even more effective.

but yes, to externalize the internal struggle. It's interesting to me that Mark doesn't see... Again, I'm not an invincible comics reader. You're going to have to talk to Mallory or Charles or Jomey to get that until. Don't necessarily spoil it for me. But possibly in future he's going to meet other evil versions of himself, possibly even fight evil versus himself.

That sounds like a thing someone might do in a comic book. It's interesting to me that he doesn't get to see of that in this season, like Engstrom, which this is, but Mark doesn't, you know? What do you, that's actually, that segueues nicely into something I wanted to ask you about. This was a quick moment, but one of the things I loved in this sequence is that Debbie gets to absorb a lot of this. Now, she's not seeing it, but she's learning about it and hearing about it. And Debbie and Engstrom have a conversation about this.

Now, she does a very effective job of spinning this on him, and it's like, it seems like what's really going on is. Great job, Deb. As always, as always, great job, Deb. Anstrom tells Debbie. Because Debbie's like, it sounds like all these worlds are really different. And let me tell you a thing that I am certain of

is that I have raised this mark in a way that I know this is not the future that awaits him. And then Angstrom says to her, P.S. You join on. In a lot of these other worlds, you join them and you're a traitor to your people. Like, what did you think of that?

I loved that. And I love how complicated throughout the season that Nolan stuff is. like when Mark sees Nolan again for the first time, before he starts yelling him about his new wife, etc., he, like, hugs him. That's the first thing that he does, right? Or when Deb is talking to the guy from her support group about Nolan

and she's talking about the things that she, like, loved and misses about him and, like, how complicated that is for her where she's like, I want to hate him, I do hate him, but, like, also this person existed. And again, I am not a comic reader, so I don't know what's coming. But, like, you know, the Luke Invader parallels could not be stronger. So, like, I imagine for Nolan, we don't get, like, a full, you know, he doesn't get to live happily ever after, but he's on some kind of redemptive path. And so it's important that, like, Mark and Deb are holding these of two hearts kind of feelings about, about Nolan, I think that's really smart.

And the fact that Engstrom can only, Engstrom can only see it in black and white, good and bad, because he's had this terrible traumatic thing happen to him. And I love that she forces an existential crisis on him, right? That he's like, no, I wouldn't, I couldn't. I'm the good guy, you know, all this sort of stuff. And he's the monster. I would never save him.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. But like, but the whole point about Mark, the whole reason that at least this Mark and this Deb don't fall to the dark side is their humanity. And the humanity, the capacity of humans for forgiveness or to hold, you know, provide they have all been mushed together in a giant multiversal machine, like that capacity to see, you know, all kinds of. you know, all kinds of shades of gray in someone, Gray Sun, like is key, so key to this story. Yeah. And I love thinking about how they all inform and influence each other because like in every one of those dimensions,

Mark is Nolan and Debbie's son and is part human and part viltramite. So like what makes them, what makes this Mark different and what makes this Debbie different and then what makes this Nolan different? And all of those answers have to exist in connection to the answer for the other person, which is just a very interesting thing. I like not just thinking about the causality or parallels or connections inside of their family unit,

but then between the groups of people in Mark's life who he cares about the most, like we have his actual family, right? And then we have his relationship with Eve and the Guardian. And we have, of course, his relationship with, like, Amber and William and this, this idea of a normal life that he is so desperately, but ultimately, like, futilely trying to hold on to. And when we see, when Mark sees, when he's back and he sees Debbie's mutilated arm and sees that Engstrom has hurt a person he loves. I was thinking, like, we're thinking back to just the episode prior, episode seven, and that conversation between Mark, and Amber, when he told, he said to her, I wanted to kill her, Anissa, for putting a hand on you. I could feel it bubbling up, the parts of me that are like my dad. I don't know who I'd become

if you were hurt. And so that, of course, is there as this larger worry and obsession, but also just right on the eve of this, like a primer for the way that he is not able to control his response. So let's talk about how he does respond to what Extram has done. to his family. Engstrom takes Mark through the portal to this wasteland dimension. I was like literally screaming out loud. Mark,

of course I'm mostly concerned about the state of Mark's soul and humanity, but I was like he makes the portals. You got to get home. Don't do it. It's not like a, you're not like Ned and can just pick up a random sling ring

and suddenly you can do this. Exactly. Exactly. Oh, Ned, man. Wow. Yeah, that was wild. we see a very brutal evisceration. With his bare hands, Mark turns Angstrom to pulp.

This is the episode opening clip for today. You remember how juicy, how squelchy it was, Joe. What were you feeling watching her beloved Mark Grayson? I love this. I loved this. This is so good. Okay, obviously we're in like a, we're drawing, clear parallels to the ending of season one with Nolan and Mark, obviously, that's there.

It makes me think I'm about to spoil the ending. How quickly Mark found himself on the other side of that, man. Only took a season. What a difference a breakup makes. Just kidding. It's not why. I'm about to spoil a very popular, well-known movie. If you have not seen the film seven.

Please skip ahead. This is a juicy, delectable seven-esque ending where, you know, in the movie seven, our antagonist played by Kevin Spacey goads Brad Pitt's character into killing him. And so he loses, but he wins at the same time, right? Because he has proven his point about wrath. Wrath is the deadly sin and seven. That is – and so when Mark in episode seven talks about, I could feel. it bubbling up the parts of me that are like my dad, that's wrath, right? And so I just love,

I love how, I mean, that wasn't Anxter's plan. Obviously, Engstrom thought he could win that fight. I don't know why. But he was accounting for this possible outcome. The fact that he took him to a place he knew he couldn't escape, there's nothing there he could work with. It's like, well, if he beats me, then he's, he's fucked. Totally. But yeah, he's won because he's proven that all marks have this in them, even the quote unquote good mark. Right. And so. A little moment where Mark is like laughing to himself and sort of choking out, he kind of won, he kind of won, and like has to acknowledge exactly that. It's just like so heartbreaking. And, and so it's just like, it's, he's in such a bind because what does he do? And I just thought that that was brilliant

and I love that and devastating. And then just like, again, Stephen Young's performance, which we're going to, I know we're going to listen to a little bit of, but it's just sort of like, What can he do? And he's had to absorb the lesson that Nolan gave him when he's like, you're holding back. Someone's trying to kill you. If you're not trying to kill them, you're not doing it right. And in a season where Mark said as many times as Denarison season two says, where are my dragons? He said, I am not my father.

This embodying Nolan. And even worse, Nolan stopped at the end of season one. and Mark did it. Mark couldn't. So, or couldn't. Yeah. I think it's brilliant. I loved this so much.

My heart was like racing, watching this in that, in that wonderful, thrilling way. I love that this is like, this is such a Mark and Nolan specific fear, but also it is a thing that so many of the heroes in the show share, whether this is a thing they doubt about themselves or whether this is something other people are always trying to make them feel about themselves. that they have to actually then kind of rebuke. Like, you know, we have Eve's complete festering asshole of a father who is not exactly a paragon of wisdom or insight, but, you know, he is a character in this season who says, your powers don't make you a hero, they make you dangerous. And we, like Eve, Mark, we don't want to believe that that's true

for these characters who we have invested in. But in a moment when you watch Mark, do a thing like that. When you know it's not a thing he wanted. is just so, so harrowing. And to watch Mark, like, the way he's looking at, I mean, the blood is like, it's, he's coated in it. He's saturated in it. And the way that he says, I thought you were, I thought,

I thought, I thought you were stronger. And he's talking about Engstrom, but really he's talking about himself, right? And how he's needed to believe that this was a thing that he was, this was the distinction. This was the differentiation that he would be able to make choices that his father, that the viltramites, not just didn't

and weren't inclined to, but sometimes didn't want to, actually didn't believe we're right. Carlos, can we hear more of this incredible performance? Oh, God. Oh, God, oh God, oh God, oh God. I had to.

I didn't have a choice. I had to kill him. He tried to kill me. He was going to kill my mom and my brother. He made me do it. It was an accident, but he made me do it. I didn't want to kill him. I did it.

I had to. I had no other choice. I lost control. I wanted to kill him. What does that make me? I thought he was stronger. He told me he was stronger. That's like unbelievable.

I picked four clips for today and normally, like, trying to go for some character variance. No. It's so good. I've won Nolan clip, but like this is so, it's so good. Good. Stephen Young, give me the animated shoe that I've been promised for years.

Give me the chorus spinoff about the original, like, bender. Just give me all the voice performances from him. But also all the ons, because I also love staring in his face. So, like, just Stephen Young, no breaks, no rest. Just keep working. You're so good. He is just unbelievable. Unbelievable.

Thankfully, Mark didn't have to wait long for rescue because the guardians on Mark's Earth, our primary dimension, spend with four time machines in their possession, Joe, we learn 20 years looking for the place Mark went. So no time has passed for Mark. We see Eve. Great moment where the robot pops open and it's Rex because I was like, there's a way. I know there's like, but there's a couple things that are going on there that they're playing with. Like I do know like a few comic spoilers. So they're like playing with some stuff there. There's like, because Monster Girl is there, right?

But she's like in Monster Form so you don't know what the outcome of her story is. But then also this is all just like future versions of characters that we're not going to get because that's not the future we're going back to. Right. Because Mark is coming back. That's part of what was so interesting about the scene, I thought. Like we have a lot of emotional and interpersonal stuff to break down. But yeah, we have the timing why. We have like a couple acknowledgments of the perils of fucking with the time stream.

We get like a mention from Eve of just how bad things have been on Earth since Mark disappeared. So that's something we're thinking about. And something that Mark has heard now, right? And hopefully that can be a source of like strength. When I'm here, things are better. When I'm gone, things are worse. There's a little nugget from Rex. Like, Mark is like, I think how'd you found me, I don't know.

I couldn't have made it here. I wouldn't have made it here. And Rex is like, you would have. You did. But you wouldn't like what you had become, which was an incredibly ominous note and thing to think about. Like what happens to Mark when he is on this wasteland dimension, maybe alone, Maybe he finds other people, but what does he become when he is away from the people he loves, his friends, his family, right?

How does he get that blood off in a desert planet? A lot of sand, sand. My hope is at some point either he just flies really fast like we've seen Nolan do when he like burns off the blood or yeah, just does the old like dune style scrub your ass with sand, you know? Sure. It's good enough for Gurney. Why not? Why not for Mark Grayson? You know?

My super suit is full of piss. Like that? Oh man. Just an incredible moment in Dude Part 2. That was just honestly wonderful. Honestly wonderful. And Rex warns, don't say more. We don't want to fuck with a time stream.

And then after Eve stops Mark and says, I love you. I've always loved you. When you go back, tell me something. Tell me you love me too. Tell me you don't. but tell the younger me like something so I know and can in one way or another move forward with my life. And then Mark disappears and Rex goes to Eve and says, I suppose you weren't paying attention

when we discussed not damaging the time stream. So this is something Mark knows now that he shouldn't, that he takes back with him. I thought this was like a great comic bookie moment, a great time travel multiverse moment. Kind of a real betrayal, I think, from older Eve to younger Eve. Can you imagine? She should have done. If older, if older you, like, told, I don't know if you ever had, like, a secret crush in high school or whatever, but, like, went and, like, told your secret crush to someone. Who didn't?

Boy. Night sweats. Oh, God. Terrible. Terrible stuff. And then, like, we do see Mark to jump ahead for a minute here when he's back home. He seeks Eve out. He broke up with Amber, like, half a minute ago.

It's just, to be clear. The real timing for this revelation. How did you read the moment between Mark and Eve? I think he has, I mean, he's, that has always been there. The like Mark and Eve connection. He like, you know, hugs her eagerly when he sees her this season. You know, like it's, so I think he truly does, like, love Amber, did love Amber, but also, like, has this connection to Eve. they are like, they have more similar lives and, you know, similar resiliency to being punched, etc.

So that's always helpful. You know, when you're looking for compatibility, you're like, can I get punched as hard as you can get punched? I'd just like to know. If a Vilter might interrupts our dinner date, will you be able to, yeah, yeah, to cope? I think he could honestly in that moment hold her hand or say something. Maybe not like I love you yet, but like I have more than friendly feelings towards you. Very responsible for someone who just turned someone's head into paste. That he was like, maybe now is not.

Maybe just. Work on ourselves. Literally let the paint dry on this breakup before. I start something new. But also, the Amber timing aside, and shout at Amber, real one this season, real good stuff. Some great Amber stuff. Yeah. There's also that...

Got some other material coming in awards. Oh, for sure. There's also that, like, fear of, like, the people that, putting the people that he cares about in danger, that constant superhero fear of, you know, I just saw my mom's, you know... What is the radius and the ulna? Radius and the ulna? Yeah. Yeah. Broke both of them at the same time.

Roller skating ones. Terrible. I fell off. Oh, yeah. I broke rollerblading and also. off a bike. She's not sporty. Okay.

But remember when you were a kid and you'd have a broken bone and then people would sign your cast? Yeah. That was good. But then you have to go to school and take a French test with that cast on and it's just not. Mondea. All right. I never took French.

Though I did at one point convince at that point very new acquaintance now, dear friend, to not switch into a lower level of French that wanted to switch into because I wanted her to go to an orientation thing with me because I don't want to sit alone. And then she did not do well in the French class as she brings it up still.

It's like a decade and a half later. This is just like such a classic Mallory. I said, you strike me as someone who would be good at foreign languages. I'm sure that that second level of French that you placed into is fine. This was like the second day of orientation. And she's like, okay. I find out to work at the ringer and I find myself like two years later and I like know who the Orioles are playing. Like what happened? like to share my passions with the people I love. I have a similar read on the Mark Eves scene. Whether his initial processing of his feelings is like, this is something I want or I actually

want to let you down gently because I don't think this is something I want. He clearly is in a place where he doesn't trust himself to be close to anyone in any way and fears what being a part of his life brings for other people, which is just very Very upsetting. It doesn't hold her hand, but there is like heads resting on shoulders. And the touching of the hand, but then the pulling away. Mark, really working through what he wants. No, some real heartstopper.

Shout out the heartstopper fans. There's some real heart stopper energy of the grazing of the pinky fingers. But then they're like sort of like head on shoulders silhouette over the city. Yeah, a little like a little bit of like a Miles Gwen framing there. For sure. For sure. Well, more weights. Those two youngsters.

Speaking of two people positioned in a way that emotionally shredded me, can we talk for a moment about Mark seeing his mother healing in a hospital bed? And then she asks him if it's over and he has to say yes, which is akin to him admitting that he killed a person. And then he breaks down and sobs and curls up in his mother's arms like an infant and just weeps and sobs. This absolutely destroyed me. This destroyed me because he is invincible.

He is a superhero. He is part viltramite. He is the one the coalition is recruiting to try to thwart the empire. He is, as we have seen many times now, capable of saving the world, capable of destroying the world. But he is also just like a boy, a kid who is working through all of the pain that he is feeling and really genuinely does not know how to do that. And on the one hand, as we'll talk about in a second, doesn't think that he can stay in

college, like even attempt to live a normal life anymore. And on the other hand, like really all he is yearning for. for is like a hug from his mom and to know that she's okay and to like be able to show the person closest to him in the world that he doesn't think it is okay. It was just a really quick little scene, but I thought it was beautiful and very, very sad. Not as much, not as much catharsis from Cecil. He's just like, if the good guys are alive and the bad guys are dead, it's a good day. But then Mark was like, how do you tell the difference? I find Cecil to be such an annoying character and it's so lucky that

Walton Gaggagan's is playing him because I will listen to Walton Gagin's do literally anything. Always wonderful to be with Walton. Yeah. Always. Always wonderful. What did you think of Mark dropping out of college? Tell him Deb. It's not for me. Can't do it. It needs to work on himself. It's tough because on the one hand, sure.

He was not hit in the books the way that he should have been. He was not even in his dorm at all. William taking down his posters It's just like Wonderful William's another character who it's like There are some moments where I'm like Anyway

Andrew Reynolds is so funny Every delivery is so funny On the one hand Yes he does need to work on himself He does need to train up He needs to do all this sort of stuff He needs to be more emotionally regulated All these things on the other hand

As we said being human is his, like, biggest safeguard against becoming, you know, a viltramite supremacist. So I think breaking up with his human girlfriend and dropping out of college and no longer living with his human best friend is, like, kind of a step in the wrong direction to a certain degree. Yes. Yes. Yes. I agree. This was tragic. We understand, like, when Mark is saying, kind of choking out to Debbie, like, it's important. It's the most important thing I can do, I have to get better. Doesn't want to be around people, doesn't think that there's any value in going to school and learning

and planning for a career, etc. What am I ever going to use calculus, mom? I mean, that part I got. Yeah, indeed. When the moment when Debbie, when Mark's going to school and Debbie drops him off, this is episode three, and she says, this is your chance to figure out who you are. And I don't mean invincible. And so that's the thing that Mark is giving up on, like that there is anybody other than invincible,

that Mark is a person in his own right to work on and nurture and tend to. Do you think he should just take a gap year and go like backpacking in Europe? I liked his idea when he was like, I could just like raise Oliver for a year. Like, why not? You know, I'm already, I'm already behind on some coursework. I could raise Oliver. Yeah, I think, I don't know if backpacking across Europe really works if you can fly to Paris in like a minute.

Though obviously that's complex for Mark too, because like when he, you know, went to the Eiffel Tower in Vegas for a date and had to tell Amber, like, I can't fly you fast enough to the actual Paris without your skin tearing off. You know, I guess if they were just like strolling around Paris on foot,

that wouldn't be a concern. So a lot of stuff to noodle on. Yeah. Stinger. Omni Man. We end, of course, with Nolan. All of these worries for Mark, all season long about turning into his dad, we're seeing in little glimpses

that the opposite is true. In episode six, Clancy Brown just voicing character after character on invincible, always iconic, always a treat. There's a lot of that, you know, like Greg Griffin or Ross Marquan or like, you know, there are these, you know, Ben Schwartz,

like there are these people who are just like voicing 20 different characters on this show. It's kind of fun of fun. It's delightful. So one of the, you know, characters, Clancy Brown is portraying, General Craig. And that moment in episode six when he says, how did a mere moment on earth turn you into a weak,

sentimental traitor? Like, the season, we did not get as much Nolan as I would have liked. I actually thought it was really interesting. Kirkman, I believe this was in his post-finally interview with variety, where he basically said, I'm paraphrasing here, I was really happy that people like season one,

but really a little concern that they seemed to think the story was about Nolan, not Mark. So, like, we needed to put Nolan on the back burner a little bit in season two and really make this more about Mark. I felt, I will not lie. Every minute with Nolan,

I was like, this is a gift in every moment without him. I was like, where is Nolan? I just, like, it's such an incredible performance. So to be with him in Little Burst, episode four, what we get in the finale here, and to see before we're going to hear his telekinetic conversation with Alan

that ends the season in a second here. But before that, we're glimpsing little things along the way that show us that there's more complexity and humanity inside of Nolan Grayson than he wanted to allow himself or his family in season one to believe. Carlos, can we hear from Omneman? I'm not a viltrumite anymore.

Not really. I feel shame and regret for my actions. I see the suffering of lesser beings and it upsets me deeply. You say that like it's a bad thing. What I did on earth, the pain and to see. The destruction I caused was immeasurable. What I did to those people. What I did to my son.

Yeah, and your people are doing that on a thousand different planets right now. But you can help us stop them. I deserve death. Oh, God. And yet... What? What is it? I think I miss my wife.

incredible final note for the season. Joe, do you think he means that he misses her, like, the way one would miss a pet? Do you think he means his human wife or his Thraxon wife? Which one does he? I think he's probably, he's a rational guy. Has to know that Andressa has got like, you know, three minutes of life left. But the Thrasn lifespan. But that is such like a key part of all this, the Thraxon lifespan because like, you know, the fact that he has this reaction to the Thraxon's dying. Yes. that he like didn't necessarily have reaction to all the humans that he killed um but that thraxin education he got that even if the lifespan is you know out out brief candle like so so quick that it has value so like at the end of season one nolan's like these are ants under your boot right like these are you're you're all bugs uh three hush out last every fragile insignificant being on this planet. You'll live to see this world crumble

with dust. So like cheer again. Shout out three body problem. Shout out Loki. But like the fact that he then like goes and fucks a bug and makes a baby with a bug and those bugs live even shorter lives

um you know has plays a huge role in him understanding the value of um even if they don't last as long as you do. It doesn't mean that they're tissue paper, you know. I love seeing Nolan's enhanced perspective here. Part of what he says to Alan right before the clip we just heard is, like,

because Alan is telling him, Mark told me what you did. He's like, you saw Mark, right? Yeah. We're trying to recruit him, et cetera, et cetera. And what does Nolan say? He says, let the boy have a moment of peace. And like that idea specifically, even though you could say and Nolan could say like his entire experience. I thought I said, give him a moment for pity. Yeah, exactly. To us, that's what he said. Oh, yeah, okay. That's what I heard. We got to get that on the soundboard. That's great stuff. Oh, man, iconic. The, like, in a way, Nolan's entire experience on Earth could be characterized as just a moment of piece, but also

that was kind of the idea that he was trying to, like, that was the notion he was trying to disabuse Mark of, like that such a thing has any value at all. And so just, see that he doesn't believe that anymore was really rewarding and interesting. I think like Nolan in the Thraxen stretch with Mark saying to him, like, what I did on Earth was unforgivable. I made a mistake. I thought about you every day since, but also saying to Mark, I'm not supposed to feel this way.

How is this better? Like, he is changing, but he doesn't quite understand how to process. says that change and why he's changing and what it means that he's changing. And that brings us back to Debbie because there was like a little moment when Debbie and Mark were talking about relationships in episode seven when everything's going on with Mark and Amber. And Debbie was talking about how lonely it was. And this is of course a parallel to how Amber feels. But there was another moment inside of that that I just loved, which was Debbie talking about how she had to teach Nolan so much about Earth and about humans.

And she said it made us more equal. And like, I was thinking back to that line seeing Nolan in this state because he could have, he could say all he wants at the end of season one like like a like a like a pet. But no. Like, and also as as we've discussed before, like the bottom with a pet, it's a sacred. The highest compliment. So I'm like, wait, is this supposed to be a highest compliment you could possibly give. you can possibly give Adam is to tell him that you think of him like a pet.

Yeah. And then like the books, the sci-fi books, this plot in the season where as Nolan is being taken away by the viltramite, he tells Mark read my books. Mark thinks he meets the travel books. He learns from art that it's that Nolan used a pseudonym, part of hiding what he was doing, to write these sci-fi books and that they're like, I'm going to, I'll spoil that I'm coming back to this in one of my awards, so I'll maybe put a pin in it for now. But like, we, we, we, We have reasons over the course of the season to see that this isn't just Nolan reflecting after the fight with Mark. It's like there were parts of him before that.

Yeah, yeah. That we're preparing and readying for a different kind of life. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Which is cool to think about. Should we get to those awards? Is there anything else you want to say on the finale before we hand out our rapid fire season two? Rapid fire superlatives. Rapid fire superlatives.

Let's go. Let's do it. All right, these can come from anywhere in season two. It could be volume two. It could be volume one. it could be across the whole season, whatever you want. Favorite episode, award number one. I think I'm going to still give it to the premiere.

Even though the finale is strong, I still think is the premiere. Oh, exciting. Okay. I like it. I'm going with the finale. Going with the finale. Thought the finale was great. The premiere is a good pick.

I would probably put the fourth episode as my like, the closing up the top three. The mid-season finale. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Okay. I mean, you have no shortage of options for our second category here. Best fight scene. And yet I had no question about this.

You shouted out, This Must Come as a Shock, episode, as you thought it was the weakest episode. But I think the fight scenes, going back and forth between the sequins and then, like, Rex and co. Now am I kind of pissed in that Joanna common way that every single one of those characters

who seemed to die in that Rex fight scene did not die? Not even Kate. Like, Ray didn't die. Kate didn't die. Rex didn't die. But they wanted to make you think that all three did. Now, Rex says a fake out that, like, we can see coming.

That's fine. And that's great. And that's wonderful. And I loved when he was literally like spurning blood from his head. No. Never, please. Thank you. The bullet hole was, yeah.

So good. But the fact that then, like, Ray is also alive. And then the Kate thing really pissed me. I have to be honest with you. And I know that that's just like comic book storytelling. but like, anyway, yeah, this was come as a shock, bleeding, pun intended over into the beginning if it's not that simple. This is also actually my pick.

Even though episode five was not my favorite episode overall because of the balance between scenes, I did think specifically the Guardians Light Squad versus the Lizard League was incredible. And in part because it's not just what's happening inside of the fight, we have this like, the other guardians are off in space with Mark and Eve battling the second with, like the ones who are strong enough to go on that mission, go. And these are the ones, these are the, these are the members of the guardians who are left over. Yeah. And Rex just wants to order his fucking garlic knots and have a chill night.

It's like, get that garlic knots order. And Kate, we had the plan for the evening, Kate. It just killed me. And Rex explode, getting his. Luke and Anakin Skywalker moment. You know, you can't really be a hero until your hand is either gnawed off as you explode a brain from inside of a mouth cavity or have it sabred off one or the other. And it was wonderful to see Rex have that experience.

I was going to pick the Mark Engstrom finale fight, but we're so finale heavy today that I wanted to go with Guardians Light versus the Lizard League. So yeah, that's my pick as well. Look at that. Great stuff. Okay. Number three, funniest moment. I have an audio cue for this.

Carlos, can you play this? Oh, delightful. Oh, goodness. Tentacles. Yes. That would be our one-episode narrator, Paul Lop Tompkins, being flustered by the tentacles entering the scene and Allen's sex scene. Good stuff. Just the way he said, like, oh, tentacles.

Cut back from the Mark Amber second. scene to the Allen sex scene and then our break from both is seeing a space cat like it's asshole. Yeah. Television. Yeah. It's just Paul F. Tompkins doing his best.

Great pick. Great pick. I will go with the Comic-Con bit from episode 7. I'm not going on here, which is of course a bit from the comics. And in that form, it's about

the time it takes to get a new issue out and illustrate a comic and had a meta aspect inside of the comics era of Invincible. And the fact that they were able to, like, port this over, make it work perfectly for television animation and actually in some ways heightened the commentary because there was so much fan outrage about the delay between seasons one and two was just, this was, this really landed. This was great. Really crack me up about that is that right before they got to that sequence, I was like,

why do we keep seeing the same five background people shuffled in this. Like, there was like the girl with the green hair. I was like, wow, they were just being like unusually lazy with the recycling of the background characters of this comic con sequence. And then I was like, oh, it's a bit. It's a bit. We love a bit. Just one quick rewind to say, I'm going to smuggle in under tentacles, Amber asking about Mark's super sperm. This is what I was just going to mention is my smuggle.

Have to. I actually genuinely do you think about this all the time with super. superhero sex scenes, it's like, would this be safe? Yeah. So I was really, I genuinely appreciated Amber. She's always thinking. Wonderful stuff. Wonderful stuff.

It's like, you're not going to like crush me, are you? Oh, man. Also as a merchant enthusiast, I did love one. This was also from episode three, much like the super sperm line, when William was like, toys. Mark says, they're collectibles. Yeah. Same, Mark.

Same. Yeah. Okay. Would you apologize to your collectibles if you threw them in a dumpster? I would just go digging back. I know, but like, you succumb to peer pressure and you know, a moment of weakness. Would you then say, dear sweet baby Grogu? I would love a tarness. Never. Never. Never. Meal your my pet. Some other march, maybe. Maybe. Yes, I would probably apologize. From laughter to tears. Number four, most emotional moment. You know, I'm going to give this to the Amber and Mark Slow season breakup because we're in lockstep here.

Love it. Love it. Because it was so realistic. I really liked it because there were so many moments where I thought, I was like, oh, she's going to cheat. And I'm like a predictable way in which relationships fall apart, especially like in an eight episode animated show or something like that. But they're like very complicated and realistic. And then two people who genuinely love each other and genuinely are trying and genuinely want to make it work and have that whole, you know, and again, given Eve's feelings for Mark, like the way that Eve, though, is being like a true friend and a mensch when she's talking to Amber. She's not like working her own agenda or anything like that.

She's genuinely trying to help. Like all of that leading up to them, you know, parting ways, I just thought was really done. Really, really good. Yeah. I loved this as well. Like they just so badly want this to work. both know for so long that it probably can't. It's just very sad and painful.

And the brief, like that fleeting return to happiness, you know, Mark's got the earpiece out and Rex has offered to cover and they have this beautiful date night and it's like, oh, maybe it could work and then just to have that ripped away so spectacularly again. But I particularly loved, so this is my specific moment inside of the larger moment is in the moment of parting. Like, I just loved what Amber said to me. Mark, my life matters too. Maybe it's small. Maybe it's not earth shattering, but it matters. And it doesn't matter when I'm with you. Like, that was just crushing. Absolutely crushing. It was just one more way in which Mark had to confront whether he's more like his father than he wants to admit he is or wants to be. Does humanity matter? You know, like all of that. Yeah. When Debbie and Mark were talking in episode seven about Debbie and Nolan's history, she said, like, is it really a relationship if you're mostly.

alone, you know? And like Mark has to think about his version of that. Very upsetting. That's the real shit. Most gruesome moment, number five. I know we said we're already finale heavy. But it's either angst from getting his head gooped or Debbie's dangling radius and ulna, honestly. I was going to pick the Debbie arm thing too. There was something about that, even in a series of like heightened extreme graphic violence, like. We saw Rex lose his hand, but he's like a super, you know, Debbie's just like a human.

The way he used his gnarled bones as a knife after that, really just inspiring. Always thinking on the fly. But now he's got to, even when his brain has been mauled by a bullet. A photon blaster robot arm. Good for you. Yeah, that was dope. I love that. Okay.

Can I pick Shape Smith eating a frozen pizza without baking it? That's about bawling. Absolutely. hard by watching it. I was like, you can taste the ice crystal. Just awful. Okay, here's my actual pick to mix it up here. Um, non-Debby arm division. Okay, I will go with Mark and Nolan versus the Viltramites in episode four on Thraxa. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. There's so many gnarly things. It's the brain knife. The brain knife. No notes. Top two. Making a baby Bjorn out of fabric to hold your guts that are outside of your body.

And then, of course, the Nolan elbow to jaw kill. Astonishing stuff. I'll go with that. That was foul. Absolutely foul. Good old, good old, braid knife, by the way. Shout out Gray Griffin, who's sometimes knows as Great Elise, who, voice a lot of your favorite animated character.

I just brought a lot to that performance. I was a big fan of it. Delightful. All right, speaking of characters we're big fans of. Number six, the Adam Eve Award. Give this character an origin story episode. I have to assume we have the same pick here, but maybe not. Oh, I mean, he was already in Eve's episode, but I just want Rex to have his own episode.

I don't even need to be an origin star necessarily, but like. So obviously the pick that anything else would almost be, like, laughable. Disqualifying? Yeah. It has to be this. So Rex gets an origin story comic, just like Eve. This, there were many moments in the season where we're, like, learning a little bit more about Rex and seeing more of, like, the person he is and how he's maturing, but also where he came from. It felt like deliberate setup to an actual special like that for Rex.

So hopefully we'll get that. Got a shout out, Rexing to Eve. to fuck up as human Shakespeare said that yeah he sure did stuff from Zook as always to fuck up as human to forgive pretty dope

you know yeah yeah pretty dope wonderful wonderful stuff also Joe the magazine the home magazines like Eve telling Mark that she thinks Rex

likes these decorating magazines because he never really had a home like made me weepy oh this is like Jason has done so many good things but this might be the role he's born to play. Like, it's so good.

It is an incredible performance. It's so good. And the thing about, like, the Rex death fake out is, like, they even gave him that little, like, a shitty character has a major redemption right before he dies moment when he's, like, pep talking even to, like, getting back into it and stuff like that. I was just like, I really, there's a lot of those moments in this season of, like, they're really setting you up to expect a zig and then they zag. But yeah, Rex.

Great. Yes. delightful. Number seven. The villain we wish we'd gotten more of. I mean, I'll just say my pick is angstrom. We already talked about this. So we can just go to the next one.

Eight. Most delightful cameo. Couple just Pantheon candidates here. Just Pantheon. We don't have the rights moments. I'm going to give it shout out to don't call him Batman's fluttering tattered cape.

That's my pick is not Batman. No, I mean, you're a man who dresses like a bat and your name is, well, yeah, I mean, like, don't you think that's kind of lazy? But it's just the way that it is, like, the edge of the cape was just like fluttering, like, the whole time. It was really funny. It was absolutely delightful. Okay. I had a tie between two. You picked Batman, so I will go with Spider-Man and Doc Doc.

In distinctly non. Do you want to get? Do you want to get a suit? Pro Falk and Agent Spider Josh Keaton from Spectacular Spider-Man voicing the character here, delightful added touch here. The exchange that they share

is chef's kiss. Spectacular. Let's get this guy webbed up. What? No. Are you trying to hurt this old man? Look, I saw the portal. I know you're from another dimension. I've got way too much experience with that,

especially lately. Wonderful. Great stuff. I just want to, what I love about Josh Keaton's voice performance is that he's so clearly trying to, like, has been trying the whole time to, like, map Toby McGuire. So, like, it's, it's Josh Keaton, but also it sounds like Toby McGuire. It's great stuff. Fantastic. Number nine. Coolest new location.

I was going to give to Thrax up. Then I decided to give it to the diner where Alan and Talia are having their dinner. Great pick. And Alan is eating bugs. and Telia's eating the brain of a still alive creature. And I think given the way that the creature is like eating the bugs. And I think the way that the brains on the creature and the bugs, I feel like this is an Indiana Jones Temple of Doom reference.

Even if it's struggling from the comics, I feel like in the comics it must have been a Temple of Doom reference. But it's also just like a very much like a restaurant at the end of the universe kind of feeling. So yeah. Love. Love. Yeah. Now I want to go read Hitchhikers.

Thanks. Thanks for that. You're welcome. Awesome reads. Always open. I'm going to go with the Shadowverse, which we glimpsed in episode two, where not even not Darkwing. Darkwing do. Want to be Darkwing.

We'll stay for long. This was creepy and cool and just seemed like a really gnarly comics locale that I hope we get to go back to at some point. Okay. Number 10. Favorite ship? Who you ship and who are you most invested in on the shipping front after season two? After season two, I guess the even mark stuff. I mean, I thought the Rudy and Amanda stuff was very sweet. But yeah, even Mark. Come on. Okay. I mean, you had to, I know you're out on Amanda and Rudy because you don't believe in peanut butter and jelly. So, which is a thing I learned about you a few months ago. Peanut butter only. Thank you. Do you know, did I tell you that I then bought some peanut butter and white bread and I tried to make it and it was like the driest stick to my mouthiest experience I've ever had? Come on.

It's terrible. It was awful. I was like, oh, yes, my favorite childhood classic that I just talked about on a podcast. And then I was like regrets, I have a few. I can never tell Mallory about this. But a few months have passed. So I decided if you toast the bread and you spread the peanut butter on it and it kind of like softens. I don't like, I don't like melted peanut butter on a sensitive thing.

I appreciate you opening up and sharing this with me. So it's just back to- Just back to peanut butter on the Superior Grace with Apple. Wow. Man, I had a honey crisp right before the pod. And it was dynamite. Just dynamite. Got to tell you.

Okay, here's my ship. Here's who I'm really rooting for after season two. I am pulling for Debbie and Paul. I want these two to fuck and be happy. Now, Paul, this like handsome, nervous fellow real estate agent, who knows what awaits, but so far, seems like he wants to give Debbie one, compliments, two, bottles of wine. I'm here for it. Who could ask for anything more? Yeah.

She loves an earthy red. An earthy red. She's like, more tannins, the better. On the William and Rick front. rooting for them too. And we haven't talked about Donald at all today, so I'll just mention that I thought that Donald's little speech to Rick were not our bodies,

were the decisions that we make, the lives we change was a, it was good. A little moment. I was just like, Rick, I care so little about you. That feels illegal to say on Pride Month, so I take it back. Rick, I support you. Number 11.

Best needle drop. You love a needle drop. Yeah. Invincible season two had plenty. I have two. What do you got? The music budget on this show, my goodness. I have two. Wild. One is when Taylor's running through the neighborhood and he's listening Fat Boy Slim weapon of choice on his headphones. Incredible. And like a brief Fat Boy Slim needle drop through the headphones. Incredible. But the real one is the beginning of episode four.

Avalanche by Nick. Yeah, Avalanche by Nick Cave. playing this. Shout out a cover of a Leonard Cohen song now and always. As Nolan is sadly flying into space. I thought this sequence was gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous. Like seeing Nolan fly past all of these different cosmic vistas, the accompanying lyrics, you wish to conquer pain. Beautiful. I also just now, you know, Omni Man has done some things and we have some notes. but I do have to say that the beard that Nolan grew while he flew through space and Nick

Cave's cover of Avalanche's way looked great and I was a fan. I was definitely having a, oh, this beard looks good. Are we sure Omniband can't be saved reaction? Here's the thing I learned that I am excited to tell you that I learned. You and Deb, yeah. This cover, this Nick Cave cover of Avalanche was in Black Sales, Joanna. That's the thing I learned. It's so funny because I was recently rewatching season one of Peaky Blinders, which is like the Nick Caveiest, uh, showed to ever exist in this world. So it's been a real Nick Cave, uh, month for me. Fantastic stuff. Okay, number 12, best fit. So two options. Number one, one of the background players at the Comic-Con convention was cosplay Jody Whitaker's doctor. I thought that

looks great. Great pick. That's a great pick. But number two, Marks Thraxon tunic. This is my, come on. I mean, this has to be the pick. Thighs out. Out. Out. Out. Like a tank top with no pants. This is incredible.

I took a picture. This is my phone. This is just, what a choice. Mark's ready to go, like, time travel and audition to be on season one of Rome. Sadly, season one was the only season of Rome. What a great show. I had a moment where I was like, the evil, invincible in the chainsaw scene with the black goggles and the kick. No, it's this.

Yeah. It has to be. It's just unbelievable. It's the pantless wonder. Yeah. Okay. Lastly, number 13, most intriguing future plot setup. Which thing from season two are you like, oh, this got me hyped for what awaits. We already tease yours, which has some overlap with mine, so I'll let you do that one.

So I will do... the sequence scared the shit out of me. And I understand that, like, you're like, I don't need to check in on this fucking fake astronaut, though I love Ben Schwartz. I don't need to watch him eat frozen pizza. I don't need any of this stuff like that. But, like, I have always had a fear of, like, body snatchers,

and especially the sequence look. I love Shapesmith. That's wonderful. The sequins look exactly like, uh, or similar to, there's an episode of Buffy Vampire, are called Bad Eggs.

It looks like that. And that just gave me nightmares for years. And so it's the way that their eyes turned black. Yeah. When the sequins have latched on and when they took over like Eve and Rudy as, anyway. So the sequit like getting vomited up and then. Very like will vomit it up the little slug.

The bathroom sing vibes there. Okay. Okay. They're very upsetting. They're very upsetting creatures. and they seem determined to control all of Earth. So that's not good. That's not good.

Good pick. Mine, as I alluded to earlier, Omni Man's books, all of these little clues that Nolan was planting in his sci-fi tomes. Lit-based clues. I mean... This is just a delight for us. Are we going to like Da Vinci Code this shit? I'm ready.

Yeah, we are. I'm ready. It's going to be like back when we were watching Lost and like any time a book would appear in a scene and be like, I got to read. Carr and in the sea of stories to see what I can look about. I lost is going to end. I have to do it.

His books reminded me something, like giving me strong George McFly, sci-fi author vibes. Anyway, sorry, go ahead. Made me think a little bit of OB from Loki, back to Loki yet again here. So the space rider thing, because this is a space rider in the book, and then when Mark is talking to Alan,

he's like Space Racer. And so this confirms for Mark and for us that this theory that Mark has already building has extra fuel here. Like, these are real things, and he has planted clues. He's telling us, Mark says, how to defeat the empire.

So again, like, it's exciting to think about all these clues that await. Are they going to go hunt for the real version of the infinity ray? It required a steady hand and more importantly,

a steady mind for it wasn't a weapon to be used in haste. Tell me more about the infinity array. The planet with the dense gravity that made the creatures stronger? Like, what clues will they glean from the books? And then where will they go across the cosmos to gather strength to try to attack the Vilchram Empire?

This is just a really cool way to keep that larger, the true big bad across the whole story to move us toward that ultimate conflict. And also then if that's looking ahead, if we look back, like the implication that Nolan was preparing for this long before his regret after the season one finale, with Mark is just a very intriguing little character note there.

So that's my pick. We did it. We did it. Invincible. Let's get this pod web. That's a wrap. Thank you. To Carlos Chiraboga, who has not seen invincible, but did have the entire thing spoiled for him by producing this podcast.

Thank you, Carlos. You're a gem. Arjuna Ram Gapal for his additional production work on this episode and Jomi Adan for his work on the social for this episode. Remember, head back into the Ring ofverse on Wednesday for the Midnight Boys. BOOP-Bew, X-Men 97 and Joker trailer chat. We will be back right here in the House of Our top of the next week, next Tuesday, for a spring mailbag. So send the questions, Hobbits and Dragons at gmail.com.

Until then, we'll be here waiting, but we won't like what we become.