Invincible Season 2 Episode 6 Recap (Spoilers)

Invincible Season 2 Part 2 got off to a somewhat rocky start – mostly because a lot of fans didn't know the show was back, and weren't all that happy at having to wait months to get the new episode.

 That all said, Invincible Season 2 Episode 5 was a pretty hard-hitting reminder of how densely layered and populated this series is – and a brutal cliffhanger ending reminded us that no one is safe, and it's always foolish to start breathing too easily when Invincible is around. 

Case in point...

Invincible Season 2 Episode 6 Recap: "It's Not That Simple" 

Does The Brave Man Survive? – Episode 6 picks up right where the cliffhanger left things: with Rex Splode (Jason Mantzoukas) at the mercy of King Lizard after his teammates Dupli-Kate and Shrinking Rae were both brutally killed in the fight with the Lizard League. Well, as stated, this is Invincible so the cliffhanger didn't set us up for any kind of dramatic twist: Rex gets part of his brains blown clean out. 

Squid Bait – The rest of the Guardians of the Globe are with Invincible (Steven Yeun) and Atom Eve (Gilian Jacobs) battling the parasitic Sequids from Mars, in space. Rudy/Robot (Ross Marquand) is working on a device to take down the horde of parasites, but Atom Eve is still out cold from having her defensive bubble overwhelmed. Martian hero Shapesmith (the cause of this whole disaster) heroically turns his body into a bubble to shield the team until Rudy's device is ready. The Immortal (Ross Marquand) grabs the payload to deliver the attack, but Invincible forcibly stops him, claiming to be faster and stronger. Immortal relinquishes the device, begging Invincible not to fail. As the parasites breach Shapesmith's bubble Eve gets back on her feet and mounts a new defense bubble. Invincible is nearly stopped by the human astronaut Rus Livingston who is the hivemind host of the Sequids, but with help from Immortal he breaks loose and sets off the pulse bomb. The Sequids are rendered inert, and Rus Livingston is freed; however, some of the parasites get on Eve and Rudy, allowing the hivemind to attack again with superheroes as its puppets. Immortal and Invincible quickly snatch Eve and Rudy and use another pulse bomb to free them. The Guardians flee the ship with Rus Livingston in tow, before the Sequids can recover and restore the hivemind. 

Dead? Shake It Off - King Lizard is busy negotiating demands for the nukes he's hijacked, when Rex gets up off the floor, not quite dead. Rex can really see, hear, or think straight – but that doesn't stop him from being supremely pissed off. Rex uses the bone from the hand that Komodo Dragon bit off to brutally beat King Lizard to death. When the cavalry finally comes rushing in, Rex is in such shock that he's laughing off their horrified questions about his state. When the dire extent of his injuries finally sink in, Rex passes out, spurting blood from everywhere. As the cleanup crew gets to work, Shrinking Rae manages to wriggle her way out of Komodo Dragon's headless corpse, apparently not dead either... Guardians win? 

Cheese It! - The Guardians in space are fleeing the Martian warship overrun by the Sequids. They are confronted by the native Martians who thank the heroes for their service – but demand they leave Shapesmith behind to answer for his crime. Instead, the Guardians all make a run for it, with Invincible flying into space and taking out the pursuing Martian ships. As Mark returns to the ship he and Eve have a charged embrace, with Eve praising his skills; Immortal gives Mark some overdue respect; however, when Monster Girl tries to give Rudy some adoration for his bravery in the fight, Rudy acts more like "Robot," concluding his new battle prowess is proof he could also fix her de-aging dilemma. Amanda doesn't want to hear that line again: strike two, Rudy. 

Childcare Options – Debbie (Sandra Oh) is taking care of Nolan's new half-Thraxan son when Cecil (Walton Goggins) drops by to update her on Mark and the Guardians surviving the Martian Sequids mission. Debbie calls out Cecil's ulterior motive: wanting to once again lean on her to accept a GDA-sponsored caregiver/spy. Cecil thinks dangling Nolan's betrayals over Debbie will make her reconsider, but it's just the opposite: Debbie cites the fact that it was her care that made Mark the hero he is, and even if she doesn't love Nolan having another son, she can appreciate Mark having a brother. She's willing to go it alone – as she did before. 

The Survivors, The Dead, The In-Between – Poor astronaut Rus Livingston makes it to the Pentagon with his mind deeply traumatized by the Sequid possession he endured (they never let him sleep). As Invincible, Eve, and the rest of the space mission team get to the medical wing with Livingston, they find horror as Donald (Chris Diamantopoulos) is waiting in the hallway, where Rex and Rae are getting medical care. A montage shows Immortal sitting in the morgue with all of his lover Kate's dead duplicates; Rae in an incubation tube hooked up to tubes with most of her body in a cast, and Eve watching Rex on the operating table, as the doctors try to dig a bullet out of his skull. The montage ends with Mark taking off his mask while watching outside of Rex's operating theater, only for the scene to cut to him standing with Amber (Zazie Beetz), who hugs him desperately, thankful he's okay. 

Lost Loves, New Names – Mark goes home after spending time with Amber and finds his mother has given his half-brother the name Oliver, which he likes. The scene cuts to Immortal giving a eulogy at Dupli-Kate's funeral, where he remembers her "real power" in believing that the world is good and fighting for it – dying for it countless times – much like Immortal himself. After the service, Samson talks to Immortal, who is broken and baffled by that fact, since he's lived long enough to have lost countless other lovers. With Kate, he confesses to naively thinking they would have more time together. 

Do You College Tho? – Mark tries to have a coffee date with Amber – and it gets awkward quickly. Amber's college woes and Mark's superhero conflicts and alien baby personal problems don't mix at all. Mark and Amber acknowledge the awkwardness, confessing how much she hates missing out on the college experience because she's constantly waiting on Mark. Mark fantasizes about never having powers, but Amber chastises him, saying he does have powers and if he didn't live up to the responsibility of using them to help the world, she wouldn't be able to love him. They can't get past that impasse, and Mark is perturbed by it afterward. 

(No) Worse For Wear – Back at his dorm room Mark finds that his best friend William's (Andrew Rannells) boyfriend Rick (Jonathan Groff) has had his nightmarish cyborg body fully restored to human status by the GDA medics and scientists. Rick is a bit muddled on how well he's doing, but William is overly enthusiastic and Donald is there to help him. When Mark marvels over how Rick looks like nothing happened to him, Donald begins to shake, countering that such reconstructive work always leaves scars of trauma. Mark goes to see Rex, who's away, and back to talking trash, telling Mark he's the one who looks to like crap. Rex's near-death experience opened his eyes to what a trash guy he's been to the women in his life, prompting Mark to spill his woes about the personal cost of hero life. When Mark leaves he runs into Eve coming to see Rex. Mark is somewhat awkward around Eve and quickly departs; Eve sits with Rex and picks up on offhand mention that Mark and Amber are having problems. 

Mrs. Spyfire – Debbie interviews a potential nanny – but quickly discerns the Mrs. Doubtfire clone is a GDA agent in disguise. The next candidate comes right on the heels of the first: a woman named April Howsam, who openly admits to being one of Cecil's picks despite being instructed to secrecy, based on the logic that trying to care for a mother's child while deceiving her is insane. Debbie likes that honesty and gives April an interview, and learns that she is completely up to date on Debbie's marriage to Nolan/Omni-Man, and Oliver's half-Viltrumite, half-Thraxan heritage. She easily sways Oliver away from some trouble with scissors while talking, but Debbie is still skeptical until April makes it clear that she works for Debbie and not Cecil, which is her whole preference for doing the work she's doing. It's an offer Debbie has to consider. 

Why You Talking To Me? - Cecil goes right to work rebuilding the Guardians, heading to Atom Eve's treehouse to ask her to rejoin the Guardians full-time. Eve is still considering her options and offers to help when needed; Cecil offers to keep her spot warm until she inevitably changes her mind. Cecil leaves just as Amber comes calling on Eve for relationship advice; meanwhile, Mark goes to see a superhero costume-maker Art Rosenbaum (Mark Hamill) as a surrogate dad to give him girl advice. Edits between the scene make Mark and Amber's respective outpouring of thought and feeling look like a conversation with one another – one clearly illustrating they are on the same page of feeling like they're failing their relationship. Art and Eve both tell them to talk to one another, not third-party listeners.

Missing Stories  – Mark starts to leave and Art apologizes for what happened with Nolan on Thraxa. That conversation leads both Art and Mark to the revelation that Nolan gave Art a stash of his old sci-fi books – the same books Nolan begged Mark to read, just before being arrested on Thraxa. Rick and William go for a nighttime stroll on campus, but the walk triggers Rick's traumatic feelings of what mad scientist Sinclair did to him, and the pain of not being able to remember it. Back in his dorm room, Mark reads a section of one of Nolan's sci-fi novels, about an "Infinity Ray" that the fictional character Space Rider uses to escape a school of carnivorous spacefish. The blast from the Inifnity Ray was powerful enough to destroy an entire section of space, with Nolan's narration noting that it could be a threat to Viltrumites. A second book details the mission Nolan went on to a planet that had a more intense gravity. The native dinosaur-like species, the Roggnars, had developed such strength and durability in that environment that they could easily kill Viltrumites – like Nolan's partner on the mission, who is torn apart like a paper doll. Nolan has a brutal fight with the creatures; we never see how the story ends, as it cuts back to Mark, who realizes that his dad's books are real accounts of his travels through the universe – and all the ways Viltrumites can be harmed that he discovered along the way. 

Space Bout, Round 2 - Cecil is trying to confront Immortal about his grief and instability, which Immortal proves by losing it on Cecil in a rage for questioning his resolve. A call comes into the GDA about an alien bogey headed for Earth, and Immortal flies off to confront it, assuming it's Omni-Man returning. Instead, it's Allen the Alien (Seth Rogen) trying to find his way back to Earth to find Invincible for the Coalition of Planets leader Thaedus. Immortal attacks, and keeps getting enraged when Allen psychically tries to talk him down; Allen almost unleashes his new power but Invincible shows up and stops them. Allen can only psychically communicate with one party at a time, so he must act as a go-between for Invincible and Immortal to convince the latter to stand down. Immortal leaves embarrassed at his outburst, and Invincible and Allen head back to his dorm to talk. Amber is seen standing alone against the wall at a wild college party, almost texting Mark but then reconsidering it. 

Call of the Coalition – Allen updates Mark on Thaedus being a Viltrumite rebel, while Mark updates Allen on what happened on Thraxa. Mark is looking for guidance on what will happen to Nolan, but Allen drops the tease that Viltrumites rarely just kill their own, without formal rituals of trial. When Allen asks Mark to join the coalition and venture back into space, Mark turns him down out of fear of leaving Earth and disrupting his life again so soon. Mark gives Allen a consolation prize of scanning all of Nolan's novels, after confirming Mark's hunch that they are based on real intel Nolan gathered. If Thaedus can also confirm it, the Coalition would have leads on weapons and/or tactics that could defeat the Viltrumites, making Allen's mission a success. Allen leaves Mark with a lead: there's a Viltrumite prison where Nolan could be being held. 

Omni-Prisoner – Nolan (J.K. Simmons)  is seen to indeed be imprisoned at the Viltrumite penal colony, with General Kregg (Clancy Brown) demanding to know why one of the empire's most dedicated and heroic soldiers had been softened by Earth. Nolan refuses to answer or fight back and Kregg tosses him back in a cell, where Nolan pounds the floor, proving he still has the power he needs to fight if he desires to. 

Waking Nightmare – Rus Livingston is trying to clean up the mess that Shapesmith made of his apartment, gagging at the rotting food left in it. That gag becomes a violent puke into the sink, only to reveal a surviving Sequid that leaps onto Rus's face, once again giving the hivemind a leader, now embedded on Earth. 

Good to be Home – The Mid-credits scene sees Angstrom Levy (Sterling K. Brown) buying a suit from a multi-armed tailor, saying he needs it for the occasion of seeing an old friend. Levy portals out of the shop and strolls through several ominous-looking dimensions – a zombie Earth, a prehistoric Earth, a snow-covered Earth, and finally back to Invincible's home dimension, where declares that "It's good to be home." 

[End Credits]

Invincible Streams new episodes on Thursdays on Amazon Prime Video.