Editor’s Note: The below contains full spoilers for the Invincible Season 2 finale.

The Big Picture

Angstrom Levy and Mark Grayson’s showdown delivers a powerful sequence in the
Invincible
Season 2 finale.
The finale cleverly ties in several memorable cameos and Easter eggs.
The Season 2 finale cements
Invincible
as a top-tier superhero story.

Invincible Season 2 has upped the stakes on just about every level, offering up dangerous new adversaries to Mark Grayson (Steven Yeun) — including Angstrom Levy (Sterling K. Brown) — as well as major character deaths, the beginning of Nolan’s (J.K. Simmons) redemption, the introduction to Mark’s half-Thraxan half-brother Oliver, and the beginning of a Viltrumite uprising. In the penultimate episode alone, we witnessed Mark and Amber’s (Zazie Beetz) emotional break-up, a showdown with the Viltrumite Anissa (Shantel VanSanten), and Angstrom Levy holding Debbie (Sandra Oh) and Oliver captive. It’s all been leading up to the explosive and heartbreaking Season 2 finale, “I Thought You Were Stronger,” which finds Mark at one of his lowest moments. Through all the chaos going on in the past seven episodes, this finale more than sticks the landing.

Invincible Release Date March 25, 2021 Creator Robert Kirkman Seasons 2 Developer Simon Racioppa Streaming Service(s) Prime Video

Mark Finally Faces Off Against Angstrom Levy in the ‘Invincible’ Season 2 Finale
Before we finally get to see the much-anticipated confrontation between Mark and Angstrom, the finale opens with Nolan attempting to fight his way out of the Viltrumite prison, brutally killing several guards in a bloody fashion, as per usual for Invincible. It’s not long before General Kregg (Clancy Brown) hovers into the room, taunting Nolan about his upcoming execution.

The confrontation doesn’t last too long, as the episode cuts to Mark arriving at his childhood home, which comically goes unnoticed by a neighbor trying to motivate himself while on an evening jog. When Mark enters his house, he is immediately greeted by Angstrom, who is clutching Debbie’s head and threatening to snap her neck as Oliver whines in her arms. Angstrom quickly blocks all signals within the Grayson household, preventing Mark from communicating with Cecil (Walton Goggins). However, Mark is still completely unaware of who Angstrom Levy is, causing the big-brained antagonist to chide him because his secret identity is public in nearly half of the dimensions in which he exists.

Angstrom proceeds to blame Mark for his disfiguration, which finally leads Mark to remember his confrontation with the Mauler Twins (Kevin Michael Richardson) in the Season 2 premiere. Mark refutes any blame, claiming that the machine he was using blew up on its own. The comment enrages Angstrom, who violently throws Debbie and Oliver onto the hardwood floor. Instead of exploding into a fit of pure rage, Mark tries to level with Angstrom, pleading that he needs help, but Angstrom refuses, claiming that even the most gifted doctors across all dimensions weren’t able to fix him fully.

‘Invincible’ Gets Its ‘Spider-Verse’ Moment in the Season 2 Finale

Mark swoops in to attack, but Angstrom quickly sends him to another dimension full of… talking dinosaurs with a craving for human flesh. Once Mark is transported back to his home, Angstrom continues to mock him, claiming that Oliver does not exist in any other dimension. It’s not long before Angstrom once again sends Mark into another dimension, and this one may seem a bit familiar for even non-Invincible fans.

Mark is transported to the city streets of New York, where he meets Agent Spider (Josh Keaton), who bears a strong resemblance to a certain web-slinging Marvel hero, currently battling against a Doc Ock-like villain named Prop Ock. Mark unintentionally flies into the villain, leading to a humorous exchange between him and the spider-powered hero. It’s a fun callback to the comics, where Mark does meet the real Spider-Man, but since that will likely never happen in the TV series, this sequence is enough to satisfy, especially since Keaton voiced the webhead in the cult-favorite animated series The Spectacular Spider-Man.

Mark is quickly teleported back home, where Angstrom begins to have flashbacks of his traumatic transformation and his family in alternate dimensions — including one where an evil version of Mark ruthlessly kills Angstrom’s son and countless other innocent civilians. Mark finally surrenders to Angstrom, offering him his life over Debbie and Oliver’s, but the villain turns him down and tricks Mark into flying through another portal to another eerily familiar dimension that bears a strong resemblance to Invincible creator Robert Kirkman’s other popular franchise, The Walking Dead.

Mark Grayson Finally Snaps in ‘Invincible’ Season 2

Angstrom continues to threaten Debbie, claiming that in many other dimensions, she joined Mark and Nolan on their violent path to world domination. She proceeds to defend Mark and prepares to hit Angstrom over the head, but fails when he attacks her and breaks her arm. Mark continues traveling in and out of alternate dimensions before he finally hits his breaking point and pounces on Angstrom, fighting him while continuing to travel through the villain’s portals. The two adversaries finally land in a desert wasteland, where Mark proceeds to beat Angstrom to a bloody pulp, killing him. Mark finally snaps out of his rage, realizing what he’s done, and breaks down in tears, while uttering “I thought you were stronger.” He also attempts to reason with himself by saying that he had no other choice before falling to his knees in defeat.

Invincible Season 2 has already had its share of moments that have carried a massive emotional weight, but this scene is easily the most effective. Throughout this season, Mark has made it clear that he doesn’t want to be like his father and has attempted to avoid killing anybody. Unfortunately, his emotions earn the best of him once his family is put in harm’s way. We, as viewers, know that Mark is nowhere near as violent as his father, and despite showing his immense amount of physical strength during this confrontation, he is at his weakest point emotionally, reminding us that he is still human. He may have just defeated one of his most dangerous foes to date, but the outcome is far from victorious. Meanwhile, Cecil and a team of GDA agents arrive at the Grayson household and tend to Debbie, who immediately asks if he knows where Mark is.

In the ‘Invincible’ Season 2 Finale, Mark Gets Visitors From the Future
Image via Prime Video

Back in the Viltrumite prison, General Kregg continuously punches Nolan, but stops short of mortally wounding him, claiming that for a Viltrumite to be executed, they must be “whole and intact.” Several other Viltrumites try to reason with Nolan, telling him that they have looked up to him since childhood, but Nolan rejects them. As Nolan is being escorted back to his cell, he crosses paths with Allen the Alien (Seth Rogen), who is delighted by the fact that his plan of getting captured worked. The two communicate telepathically, but their conversation is short-lived.

Mark, still stranded in the desert dimension amid a mental breakdown, is shocked to be visited by an alternate version of the Guardians of the Globe from 20 years in the future, led by Atom Eve (Gillian Jacobs). The superhero team attempts to console Mark, revealing that they already know about Angstrom Levy’s death, as the villain’s powers would have been Mark’s ticket back to his home dimension. Robot (Zachary Quinto) explains that in their dimension, time travel has already been invented, allowing them to go back and rescue Mark. He also reveals that in alternate timelines, Mark would have survived being stranded but that he “wouldn’t like what he’d become.”

As our hero gets ready to walk through the portal, Eve stops him andprofesses her love for him, encouraging him to tell his feelings to the Eve of his dimension. Once Mark departs, Robot takes off his mask, revealing that Rex (Jason Mantzoukas), not Rudy (Ross Marquand), was the one in the suit, warning her that she may have disrupted the timestream. Mark visits the GDA headquarters, thanking Cecil for treating Debbie, before visiting the latter in her hospital bed, crying into her arms. After having concealed any form of sentimentality, Cecil finally decides to comfort Mark, reassuring him that he’s not his father and he only killed Angstrom to keep his family safe.

Dupli-Kate Is Alive in the ‘Invincible’ Season 2 Finale
Image via Prime Video

Rudy attempts to apologize to Amanda (Grey Griffin) for trying to control her powers and treating them as a problem. Amanda accepts, telling Rudy that she only wants him to talk to her before he decides to try and help her again. Amanda then encourages him to ask her out on another date.

Meanwhile, the Immortal (Marquand) travels to a remote cabin in the snowy mountains where he finds Dupli-Kate (Malese Jow), still alive. Kate reveals that she had secretly made a spare copy of herself just in case of her demise, allowing her to walk away from her superhero life. She confesses that the Immortal led her to change her mind, and apologizes. In response, Immortal embraces Kate, reassuring her that it’s OK. While this is one of the few storylines this season to have a happy ending, it’s also an example of the fallacy of the fake-out death trope that populates stories such as these. It is great seeing the Immortal finally finding happiness, but it also puts a small dent in his emotional journey this season. One thing is for sure: it will be interesting to see how Dupli-Kate and the Immortal’s dynamic will change in Season 3.

Debbie and Mark return to their home, which has been rebuilt after the damage that was caused during Mark and Angstrom Levy’s battle. Debbie tries to persuade Mark to not give up on his academic aspirations. Mark refuses, telling his mother that he needs to learn how to improve and better himself without college. He later meets up with Eve, where he finally plans to tell her his true feelings, but stops short of it. Eve, seeing how much Mark is in pain, tells him that he doesn’t deserve to be in the situation that he is in, concluding the finale on a somber note.

Of course, this really wouldn’t be Invincible if there wasn’t a post-credits scene. Back in the Viltrumite prison, Allen begins to talk with Nolan, informing him about the coming Viltrumite rebellion. Nolan renounces his alignment with the Viltrumite empire and expresses his regret and sorrow over all the destruction he caused back on Earth. The episode ends with Nolan finally confessing that he misses Debbie, teasing a very interesting reunion for Season 3.

The sophomore slump does not apply to Invincible, with Season 2 acting as the Empire Strikes Back of Mark Grayson’s journey. The creative team has shown an immense amount of passion for this season, and all of that shows. We may have waited much longer than we would’ve liked for Season 2, but it was well worth the wait. Season 2 cements Invincible as one of the greatest superhero stories ever put on-screen.

Invincible REVIEWInvincible’s explosive Season 2 finale is thematically fulfilling while also offering up some of the series’ best moments.ProsThe outcome of Angstrom Levy and Mark Grayson’s showdown delivers one of the show’s most powerful sequences.The finale finds clever ways to tie in some memorable cameos.The finale cements Season 2 as the Empire Strikes Back of the Invincible saga. ConsThe reveal that Dupli-Kate is still alive diminishes some of the Immortal’s character growth earlier in the season.

Invincible is available to stream on Prime Video in the U.S.

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