The Reel Rejects - INVINCIBLE 3x01 & 3x02 Breakdown & Review

Episode Date: February 6, 2025

CECIL ORIGINS!! Stop data brokers from exposing your personal information. Go to my sponsor https://aura.com/reelrejects to get a 14-day free trial and see how much of yours is being sold Invincible Season 3 Full Reaction Watch Along: https://www.patreon.com/thereelrejects Follow Us On Socials:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reelrejects/  Tik-Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thereelrejects?lang=en Twitter: https://x.com/thereelrejects Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheReelRejects/ The Guardians disband as Cecil Vs Mark in Invincible Season 3 Episode 1 & 2 episodes titled "You're Not Laughing Now" and "A Deal With the Devil," Mark Grayson, aka Invincible (voiced by Steven Yeun, The Walking Dead), debuts a striking new blue suit as he continues his journey as Earth's protector. Meanwhile, his father, Nolan Grayson/Omni-Man (J.K. Simmons, Whiplash), deepens his unexpected bond with Allen the Alien (Seth Rogen, Superbad) within the confines of Viltrumite prison. Tensions rise as Mark's relationship with Cecil Stedman (Walton Goggins, Justified) deteriorates after discovering a planted bug, leading to their disbandment. The Reanimen, under Cecil's command, play a pivotal role in thwarting Doc Seismic's (Chris Diamantopoulos, Silicon Valley) catastrophic attack on the Guardians of the Globe. Additionally, Oliver Grayson, Mark's half-brother from the alien Thraxan race (Christian Convery, Sweet Tooth), receives his own superhero suit, marking his emergence as Kid Omni-Man. The episodes also delve into Cecil's backstory, shedding light on his complex motivations. The stellar voice cast further includes Sandra Oh (Killing Eve) as Debbie Grayson, Zazie Beetz (Deadpool 2) as Amber Bennett, Gillian Jacobs (Community) as Atom Eve, Jason Mantzoukas (Brooklyn Nine-Nine) as Rex Splode, Zachary Quinto (Star Trek) as Robot, and Mahershala Ali (Moonlight) as Titan. New additions to the cast feature Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad) as the villainous Powerplex, Simu Liu (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) as a yet-to-be-revealed character, and Kate Mara (House of Cards) as Becky Duvall. Don't miss Greg Alba and Aaron Alexander's in-depth reaction to these action-packed episodes, where they explore the evolving dynamics and thrilling developments of the series. Follow Aaron On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/therealaaronalexander/?hl=en Support The Channel By Getting Some REEL REJECTS Apparel! https://www.rejectnationshop.com/ Music Used In Manscaped Ad:  Hat the Jazz by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ POWERED BY @GFUEL Visit https://gfuel.ly/3wD5Ygo and use code REJECTNATION for 20% off select tubs!! Head Editor: https://www.instagram.com/praperhq/?hl=en Co-Editor: Greg Alba Co-Editor: John Humphrey Music In Video: Airport Lounge - Disco Ultralounge by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Ask Us A QUESTION On CAMEO: https://www.cameo.com/thereelrejects Follow TheReelRejects On FACEBOOK, TWITTER, & INSTAGRAM:  FB:  https://www.facebook.com/TheReelRejects/ INSTAGRAM:  https://www.instagram.com/reelrejects/ TWITTER:  https://twitter.com/thereelrejects Follow GREG ON INSTAGRAM & TWITTER: INSTAGRAM:  https://www.instagram.com/thegregalba/ TWITTER:  https://twitter.com/thegregalba Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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collection erin you ready i'm so ready let's do this yes so hey snapping just now yeah all right i like it we'll snap together that was a poet thing they're trying to be a poet for a second i think poetry's overridden i just speak directly to me something so freaking abstract what's your deal oh wow wow well ladies and gentlemen we know there's three episodes out but damn i think the first two are worth talking about before having to be overshadowed by whatever happens in the third episode because that's the way brains work nowadays we're talking about invincible invincible season two episode no three episode

one and two erin erin my man oh my man how we feeling so far about the season how you feeling I'm feeling great I think episode one was very much, it was still really strong in establishing where we are the season at the beginning, but season two really kind of set the stage for thematically where we're going.

Episode two, season three, really set the stage. We're going in the season, talking about forgiveness, emotional complexities, motivations, and I'm here for it. And we really were both very captivated by this episode. And it's interesting that this is an episode where it really

not hammers home but holds the idea of just because you go bigger doesn't mean better because this episode alone isn't the largest stakes we've seen in Invincible but emotionally they were the biggest stakes we've seen in some time because we get to see all of the emotional complexities of where everybody stands

and I think that having it done this early is already an improvement over season two because I felt like season two kind of left some people's emotional arcs are just like having them be included in the story. I left them in the back burner a little bit and it seems like this season's a lot more inclusive even though obviously

Mark is the lead but seeing Cecil's perspective in a broader way really was really captivating, really interesting this idea of like we can be the good guys or we can be the guys who save the world and just the emotional clash between

Invincible's point of view knowing that he is this guy that holds this standard for what he perceives to be good versus Cecil and his experience. I just thought it was really interesting. Yeah, man, just watching Cecil take these measures and wanting to be somebody that believes in reform, an invincible kind of not, just because he's so young and so headstrong, watching them. And then the Guardian's kind of rippling off of that as well.

It all makes sense. I believe everybody's motivation. nothing feels like contrived or like they just wrote this in all these people feel like believable in where they're at right now and i'm also curious to see what happens with mark and oliver because he's now this brother slash mentor figure for his brother that his dad was and he's now in the cusp of trying to not be like his dad but also having to be in this position where he is like his dad in the sense that he's mentoring him i think there's a lot more room to explore that emotional complexity of that dynamic going forward but i like what we've established so far

i agree with every single statement you have made in that entire thing you said i want you to be heard erin i want you to feel seen right now i see you i see you brother er not that not with the a not with the a in this black history thank you know the difference yeah I thought it was another I thought it was fantastic

absolutely fantastic the the first episode was fine there's something about dock seismic that just doesn't quite do it for me I don't know what it is like he's just he seems like a very run of the mill kind of villain where everything else seems like to be elevating the text from what we're accustomed to from superhero media.

Yeah, I like the I like the concept of this scientist with, uh, who hates the way the system is run in society, but it just feels like so one note and underdeveloped. But he keeps fucking like coming back, right?

But at least I like how there was more weight, used around i thought this was the best usage of him so far undoubtedly yeah it's just they use him a lot he's used i'm not a lot but he's used once every season for a very important purpose it would seem and it did dawn on me like yeah i'm not i'm just not a big fan of doc seismic as a character but in terms of plot and where it landed them i thought was really good because it became the big propelling catalyst for what is ultimately the trajectory of the season when talking about forgiveness reform like the conversation of forgiveness is such a fascinating topic right because you know it's like there's self-forgiveness of individual having to forgive themselves so they

can believe they can change um or be okay with their actions even if it doesn't lead to change and then the other side is the individuals who have to forgive upon right like to particularly like any celebrity out there in the world who's done something wrong and been canceled my feelings about me forgiving them are going to be probably very different than a lot of other people forgiving them right because everyone's got their own freaking opinions now we're dealing on a very intimate personal level like this i loved how complex it was because like with cecil it would appear that he is he's arguing with mark calling him a hypocrite and being biased and i'm like well you aren't too actually like you both are you both are that's that's what

happens like biases form in this conversation of like who are we willing to give a second opportunity to who are we willing to give a second chance to and clearly mark's guard does tend to go went down as we saw in second season when he was around his dad as much he was like being aggressive and shit he was dressed in a situation where he did ultimately want to help him out um and with it comes to like darkwing and uh these reanimators like a big problem too is the introduction when you when you just have them show up no conversation like as cecil says no democracy like no one really gets an opinion about this matter it is just like you either roll with cecil's way of control or no and to not have consideration at all towards the way the

individuals might feel over something that is a very sensitive subject and then to put the plant in I'm like, oh, dude, you don't cross the big line here. It's like, you understand it, right? Like, there's a party that kind of gets it. Like, of course, yeah, you have to deal with Omneman. Like, I understood C's, like how Cecil was just straightforward. Like, yeah, of course I would do it. And like, of course, Cecil would do it.

And of course, Mark would feel completely betrayed by it and would never trust or want to work with him ever again. Because he literally had a device in there that could have killed him at any moment. It's just been there for a long time. And it's because he prayed on Mark's willingness to cooperate and be vulnerable in certain situations. So it's ugly business, but you understand where both characters are coming from on it on a subject that is very sensitive subject. And as you can see, it's like so complex amongst the guardians themselves. And it's the topic that I imagine is going to be more unpacked as the season progresses. But it's like themes and all that are fantastic and wonderful and you need that.

But it's like if it's not also right, it's got to be, it's got to have the one too. on both sides right if you could have good plot without good themes kind of empty and you could have good themes without good plot it's kind of it doesn't really have the fulfilling candy and this set thought was like really compelling it was tense of shit you know and they were like fighting and he like puts his hand like it's much noticing the cover finally like oh that's the cover we're mark like the reanimators or random mark as the is like holding cecil was like that moment happened like this was the cover when we clicked on it but that moment happens like holy shit what are gonna do mark you know you're gonna kill this guy yeah it makes sense

yeah yeah it's beautiful man it's beautiful writing and like seeing cecil's background i thought was really like the word to choose where to put it and seeing that he does make mistakes along the way and then maybe giving proper reformation to these other guys is a way him reforming for letting omneman be a part

of the game for a long time you know yeah no i think it was it's very well done also i like the fact that they saved cecil's origin for this specific moment because this is what's most relevant in our the point of our story you know seeing him in this place of going from mistrust to second chances but controlled second chances

because he's someone himself who went through this thing. And it's interesting because they both kind of have that similar thing of wanting to believe in a second chance, Mark from his experience with Engstrom Levian and him with his experience going to prison, but they just have different ways of going about that. And we just, we get to see them at this place. not something that it's not the greatest like life-changing stakes we've seen but it's the altering of perspectives the altering of of ideologies that's going to put us going forth throughout the rest of the season and it's interesting we're already at this point it's so

interesting already because we've spent time with these characters and I imagine we're not even to like the main threat of the main crux of what the plot is because we see some sort of one we have to deal with the fact that apparently we have time travelers or dimension hoppers from what it seems like from the guys who stole the Declaration of Independence, but also, we have this title credit scene that alters and shifts like something that's reminiscent to Spider-Verse, but we haven't even dealt with that yet. And I imagine seeing, that's maybe it's an excellent you're right, yeah, because it's all been internal conflict amongst people. Exactly. It's bread and butter, man, character. Give me that all day. I'm all about that.

But plot is great, but like this foundational stuff laying the ground from where we're going to be, that's the stuff that that really gets us. And I imagine this point of division is going to have us in a weak position for whatever larger threat is going to be on the horizon, whether that be the Wilhelm Empire or, you know, the Thanos or what, you know, because we see the previously on,

they go back to the Engstrom-Levy thing. So I imagine we're going to see a little bit more, if not a lot more of whatever that multiversal stuff was that they teased in the last season. All right, Reject Nation. I'm going to tell you guys about one of the, most stressful times in our YouTube journey. So a couple of years ago, our channel got hacked. And it wasn't just the channel, it was our AdSense account, too, where a YouTuber gets paid.

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of angstrom levy in the second season of how he's like introduces a big thing and he's kind not really there and he just shows up and gets killed and it's like plot of the multiverse but I really when I was watch when I rewatch it I was like oh I get it more now that that like you needed someone like invincible is a good guy like you need a good he's a really good guy so you need someone to a villain to have such a great a grand experience of hatred to justify a grandiose hatred towards invincible to push invincible to the point where invincible would kill the guy you know that has to be that serious of a threat and it has to be imbued in an emotional thing you know not just some like random villain he kills so the purpose of that i thought was great and like

the argument of destiny of like hey everywhere in the world in the universe you're a bad guy you know um invincible and then they're open up this conversation and they're carrying that they're still having that carry over thematically of when is a good time to kill is there a dude i like i love that conversation about that when it comes to particular to superheroes because like you know and I don't know what all the other justices are like, but the American justice system you know, we have like execution. There are criminals who we execute

and there's like wars and such so when is a good time to kill? When is it right for a superhero to kill? Like there's this no kill rule, but is it necessary? It's justified. Yeah, when is it justified? And I think

that's a really interesting conversation to bring up. And I like how that's something Mark is struggling with like maybe because we kill that doesn't mean we're bad people you know because there's so much emphasis on um invincible having killed and he doesn't want to be a bad guy because he he immediately correlates the two as if you killed you are bad and that doesn't that's his thing like he might not see that all the time with other people but he's having that hard time with him he's having that prove himself to be a good guy and i think that's why so that's why all the emphasis is on when it comes to dark wing when it comes

to these reanimator characters that he keeps going back to they murdered they murdered Sinclair murdered and I think it's really a fight against himself that he's having yeah yeah because he's having this this hypocritical thing about like I've done these done these people have done such bad things they don't deserve redemption while also dealing with the fact that he did something that reminded him of his dad and we're continuing to make those parallels between Omni Man and Mark because the way he was tearing down the

reanimators in the globe in the guardians headquarters it looks like almost shot for shot like when it showed the aftermath of when omni man killed the guardians originally and they purposely made that that parallel to show the hypocrisy of mark of holding this this higher standard while also being the one who perpetrates that at the same time which is which is great and i hope to continue to see the evolution of what mark per what is justice in the eyes of superheroes in the eyes of invincible because I imagine he perceives what he did to Anxham Levy as, you know, as justice, even though he, even though he does have conflicting feelings about it. And he even said it so, it was like, oh, but that was different. Like, that's like, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I was like, man. And I like, you're walking on your own hypocrisy. I love that flip because in the last episode, you know, a Cecil is telling him like, no, you did the right thing. And he's like, you weren't there, Cecil. And now that conversation about that is flip between the characters, you know. uh the ability to challenge yeah this is really good shit man i really i really like this a lot i think comparatively to where we were in the first couple episodes of the last season i think to now i think like these first two i mean there's i love the last season a lot

stayed strong consistent yeah i thought it was really great um but i'm i'm like ooh this it's just like the fact that there it's about inner character dynamics and and and the uh battles between um more morality and what is that line like i love it i think i think it's just like the subject matter is so interesting to me yeah yeah no i think invincible's greatest strength is its ability to have interesting stories and plot with honest emotional um character progressions uh and and because it feels realistic nothing feels contrived or like oh they had to write this character this way to progress the plot everything feels organic yeah that's cool shit man

I loved it. Aaron loved it. We all loved it. I guess our only little quam is like, there's not big doc seismic fits. It was okay. He serves the plot and I imagine in the next season they're going to do something else to progress him as well,

make him bigger and batter to serve some or other larger purpose as the show goes on until they eventually kill him or he becomes the ultimate bad. He's like the spot. Yeah, I mean, I just hope he, I really hope he amounts to something more. Maybe we'll get his origin like Cecil. to determine why and what would be on his side

and be like no you guys don't see the vision we have to take down the system well it's like I mean they're both they I think what's the last thing I'll say is like the way how we just talked about how Mark is battling against himself

and to look at the reflection himself Cecil's doing the exact same thing right totally like they keep talking about other people and other people would murder and whatever but it's like well Cecil did that too you know like Cecil's murder was in cold blood um in that moment right it had been decades it would appear decades or years are passed by not decades yeah

decades when he killed when he killed when he shot those two yeah because he was super he's like super old now he was super old then no i mean like when he shot those two was he old then i don't remember he was he was young he was he was young so i don't know how much time had passed but he just like killed them right when they just helped save his life yeah you know so that was like way colder than what mark did with um uh uh the reanimators no the fire freaking No, Sterling Brown's name?

Oh, Incham Levy. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Exeterlin Levy. Because they were, Ingleau was like literally trying to murder him right there, you know. He wasn't trying to like, he got revenge. That's the thing, is Cecil got revenge in that moment, revenge that he had been harboring for so long. And he had an opportunity that he interpreted as a threat, but really he just wanted revenge.

And he took it. And, but then he had, he was able to reform, though. And they say one of the best ways. I just heard this recently and I find this to be very true. And this is why I'm pretty big on like encouraging people to help one another out. It's like sometimes the best, this is not always, people can take this way too literally. One of the, a strong way to help other people out with, just help out with yourself with your problem is to help people out with their problem. And sometimes it helps you solve your problem.

it's like it's like the shit that we're doing with the tech stuff behind the scenes of trying to get everyone to learn how to do the tech if you help each sometimes when you're trying to show and teach someone how to do it or help them out with it it makes you make you make you figure it out and get better at it so you know that's just a direct thing for Aaron and not a general thing for everyone in the world but yeah probably said a very specific subject that are behind the scenes life here very specifically no one else does with the There's no one else who's watching the channels. It's like, yeah.

So just for the rejects. Yeah. But yeah, that was, that was great stuff, man. Aaron, what would you rate this out of 10? Oh, uh, two episodes. It's great, man. Two thumbs up. Two thumbs up out of 10.

Hell yeah. We're going to watch episode three next. Of course. Keep a lookout for that. Thank you for being here. We'll talk with you soon. Reject Nation. Peace.

Thank you.