After a one-year layoff, Invincible returned for its fourth season in mid-March with a three-episode premiere. On the heels of an explosive Season 3 finale in which Mark battled his most fearsome foe yet, Conquest, Season 4 began by reestablishing Mark’s unrelenting superhero duties and his emerging willingness to use lethal force in combat. As Mark grappled with his evolving moral code, Invincible also laid the foundation for the war between the Coalition of Planets and the Viltrum Empire.
Omni-Man and Allen the Alien traveled across the far reaches of space to gather weapons to use against the Viltrumites, and the series developed the emotional stakes of the imminent conflict, partly by including a series of flashbacks that recounted Nolan’s life on Viltrum and the pandemic that nearly extinguished his kind. There were a lot of moving parts—too many, at times—but they mostly served as necessary setup as the series worked toward the culminating event of its first four seasons.
It came as a surprise, then, when last week’s installment, “Hurm,” halted the season’s momentum with what was essentially a self-contained side quest that centered on Mark’s unplanned visit to Hell to help Damien Darkblood. Written by Invincible creator Robert Kirkman and directed by Ian Abando, Episode 4 was a departure from both Kirkman’s comics and the show’s central plot involving the Viltrum Empire—and it wasn’t exactly worth the trip. But just one week after releasing what became its lowest-rated installment on IMDb, Invincible bounced back to deliver one of its most impactful episodes yet.
Episode 5 is Invincible at its best. Written by Adria Lang and directed by Sol Choi, “Give Us a Moment” follows Omni-Man’s momentous return to Earth for the first time since he nearly killed Mark and devastated Chicago in the stunning Season 1 finale. That episode, which was released in 2021, revealed the true nature of Nolan’s home planet and his secret mission to conquer Earth. The better part of these past three seasons, Season 2 in particular, has focused on how the show’s primary characters have been reconciling with the events of that series-defining episode. And Episode 5 demonstrates just how much they’ve grown since then.
As much as Invincible belongs to its namesake superhero, Omni-Man is the antagonist who served as the hook into the series. Even more than Homelander on The Boys, he’s the answer to a classic comic book hypothetical: What if Superman were evil? Omni-Man’s villainous turn in the series premiere remains one of the show’s most iconic moments. But ever since the day the mustachioed man realized he missed his wife in Season 2, Nolan has been changing. Omni-Man seeks redemption; he hopes to become the paragon of virtue he once pretended to be. Yet his return to the world he betrayed doesn’t go as he’d hoped.
Nolan and Allen arrive with the main goal of recruiting Mark and the superhero known as Tech Jacket to the Coalition’s cause—but Nolan also has ulterior motives. For Mark, his father’s shocking homecoming is only mildly blunted by their previous encounter on Thraxa in Season 2. That was another surprise reunion that didn’t end so well: Omni-Man was captured by Viltrumites; Mark almost died (again) before returning home with an alien half brother, Oliver; and Thraxa was devastated. The whole ordeal began with another of Nolan’s deceptions, and not only did Mark have to meet his father’s new wife, mere months after Nolan left Earth, but he also had to witness another planet be sacrificed as collateral damage from Nolan’s actions. Still, Mark had the chance to reconnect with his father and witness his nascent attempts at making amends, as ill-conceived as they may have been.
With the exception of Mark and Oliver, everyone on Earth in Episode 5 is seeing Omni-Man for the first time since his villainous reveal—and their fear of him is palpable. In Debbie’s case, fear of her estranged husband has crystallized into hatred. She spent the show’s second season struggling with alcohol abuse as she reckoned with Nolan’s betrayal, along with her guilt about failing to see it coming. Debbie began to heal in Season 3, and now Nolan returns just as she’s preparing to start a new chapter of her life with another man: a decidedly ordinary (but nice!) guy named Paul. Long after overhearing her beloved husband refer to her as a “pet” to their son before committing countless atrocities, Debbie is finally presented with the chance to confront Nolan head-on. And the emotional conversation doesn’t disappoint.
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Nolan issues an impassioned apology, but it’s nowhere near enough. The tense exchange ends with Debbie cracking her bloodied fist on Nolan’s chest before she tells him to leave. Nolan may have hoped for the immediate gratification of forgiveness, but Episode 5 is a wake-up call for him. After living as a godlike being for so long, Omni-Man is unfamiliar with the sensation of rejection and the inability to bend others to his will. Even his former tailor, Art, works up the courage to tell him he’ll never make another suit for him. “I dress heroes, Nolan,” Art says.
Invincible has always been the rare superhero story that reflects the lasting consequences of its core characters’ experiences as they reckon with all the chaotic, traumatic events that define each season. “Give Us a Moment” is a testament to that growth, which the series has earned through its deliberate character development across 29 episodes.
The episode saves its most emotionally charged moments for Nolan and Debbie’s dissolved marriage, but it still carves out space for a touching, quiet meal shared by the trio of Graysons—plus Paul and Mark’s girlfriend, Atom Eve—before Mark and Oliver leave Earth to join the Coalition of Planets’ fight against the Viltrumites. Invincible lingers on Eve’s continued silent suffering as she decides to withhold the news of her pregnancy from Mark during their last night together to spare him yet another worry before he leaves.
The first 30 minutes of the installment capitalize on three seasons’ worth of drama as Nolan observes how his former world has endured and moved on without him. It’s a satisfying payoff that doubles as further setup for the approaching conflict as Mark, Oliver, and Tech Jacket head back to Talescria with the Coalition to prepare for war. But just as the episode appears to be winding down, Invincible delivers one of its classic brutal action sequences when the Viltrumite War gets started early.
After escaping Cecil’s flimsy imprisonment in the season premiere, Conquest returns for a rematch against Mark as he leads two other Viltrumite warriors and an army of their subjects in an ambush of the Coalition’s knockoff Star Trek spaceship. As the battle breaks out in space, it seems as if the teenaged Oliver could be killed at any moment. When he flees to a nearby planet to catch his breath, Oliver is followed by Conquest, but Mark arrives just in time to save him—and end his rivalry with Conquest once and for all.
Mark and Conquest drag each other across the uninhabited world, destroying everything in their path. They quickly find themselves in a standoff: As Invincible chokes Conquest, the Viltrumite villain viciously pounds away at Mark’s body. At the end of the heart-pounding sequence, Mark wins—but only after Conquest has torn through his stomach and pulled out his entrails like a clown’s endless handkerchief. It’s at once acutely distressing, highly improbable, and so gross as Invincible puts its star on the brink of death yet again. But Mark is still alive. The episode concludes with Nolan and Oliver finding a debilitated Mark lying next to Conquest’s corpse while Allen and Tech Jacket hide as stowaways on the Viltrumite vessel outside the planet’s orbit.
Invincible is not without its flaws. Even this week’s exemplary chapter exhibits the occasional drop-off in animation quality, which has emerged as a consistent yet understandable concession that has helped shorten the hiatuses between recent seasons. But after a solid, if unremarkable, start to Season 4, this week’s episode serves as a reminder of just how good this series can be. Between the astute storytelling and the star-studded voice cast—with Steven Yeun (Mark), J.K. Simmons (Nolan), Sandra Oh (Debbie), and Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Conquest) delivering standout performances—which bolster an increasingly rich collection of characters, Invincible remains a gripping superhero staple that’s capable of elevating its beloved source material. And with just three episodes left in the season and the Viltrumite War already underway, the series is ramping up to another thrilling conclusion.
