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Invincible Season 2 Episode 4 ending explained

Cameron Frew
Mark in Invincible Season 2Prime Video

Invincible Season 2 Episode 4 upends Mark’s life and tasks him with an impossible mission – so, here’s our breakdown of the midseason finale’s ending.

In our review, we called the new installment “an exceptionally ruthless, jaw-unhinging moment in superhero television; Episode 4 ups the ante, and the pain – and the worst is yet to come, we fear.”

After chronicling Nolan’s voyage of guilt and grief through the stars, it picks up straight after last week’s episode, with Omni-Man dropping three bombs on his son: he’s already left Debbie behind with a new Thraxan lover, he’s fathered another child, and Nolan needs Mark’s help to protect his new brother and everyone on the planet from the inevitable conquest of the Viltrum empire.

Sure enough, before Nolan has any time to train his son (Mark, not the half-bug baby) how to properly fight against Viltrumites, the same three soldiers who whooped Allen arrive – and carnage ensues.

Spoilers for Invincible Season 2 Episode 4… obviously.

Invincible Season 2 Episode 4 ending breakdown

Thraxa and many of its people are destroyed, but Mark and Omni-Man manage to kill Thula and Vidor. Just as they think their battle is over, Lucan appears out of nowhere and breaks Nolan’s back before succumbing to his injuries. Nolan is taken away to be executed, while General Kregg finds Mark and orders him to finish Omni-Man’s mission: forcing Earth to submit to the Viltrum empire.

Before we get into the Thraxa of it all, let’s clear up what happened to other people. Donald not only found the footage of his death, but stabbed himself to see if he was human – there was blood, but the knife also bent at the tip, suggesting he’s a robot clone.

Atom Eve ended up fighting Killcanon after trying to get some shuteye at Guardians HQ, but her impromptu superhero’ing nearly got two random people killed when they were blasted into the river in their car (they might have actually died, but the episode doesn’t tell us before cutting away). We last see her returning home to her parents.

Debbie’s struggles continue into the midseason finale, but she’s comforted by Art, who tells her she’s always been the strongest of her and Nolan because he has it “easy”, and she kept her family together. She tells Cecil she no longer wants the royalties from Omni-Man’s book sales and leaves the novels in a box in the front yard.

What happens to Mark and Omni-Man in Invincible Season 2 Episode 4?

Omni-Man in Invincible Season 2 Episode 4Prime Video

Mark fights Lucan in the Caves of Roclaine, but he’s easily overpowered by the Viltrumite soldier. Before he can kill him, Omni-Man spears him into the cave’s wall and slits his stomach open with his hand, before impaling him with a boulder.

Mark and his father head outside, where they’re confronted by the sight of the decimated city and thousands of dead Thraxans. Nolan can’t process his grief, as it contradicts his Viltrumite attitude; they’re the superior race, and therefore they don’t care about anyone but theirselves. Mark tells him he’s simply experiencing the feelings he should have felt on Earth.

Nolan then fights Vidor while Mark is, in a word, spanked by Thula. His dad then tells him to stop pulling his punches. “Stop holding back… she’s trying to kill you. If you’re not trying to kill her, you’re going to die. Don’t think: act. You need to fight like a Viltrumite,” he says, and moments later, Mark manages to draw blood.

Nolan makes light work of Vidor, crushing his head with a double punch on both sides of his skull. Mark can’t go the distance, hesitating at the exact moment he should have killed Thula – and he pays the price, with the soldier slicing his stomach open with her blade. He cries out for Nolan’s help, who swoops in and gives Thula one of the best deaths in the series: he throws her to one side and yanks her back with her hair so fast that her mouth rips apart upon collision with his elbow.

“Don’t worry, it’s over,” Nolan tells Mark – but this time, it’s Nolan who didn’t go far enough. Lucan crashes in like a mortar strike, breaking Omni-Man’s back before passing away on the ground next to him. “It’s done,” he tells someone with his final breath.

Mark falls in and out of consciousness, seeing Lucan being taken away in a stretcher while his dad is strapped into one himself. “Mark, don’t forget. the good I did, my deeds, my books… read my books, Mark,” he tells him, before Mark blacks out again.

When Mark next wakes up, an eye-patched Viltrumite is standing above him. “Good, you’re alive,” he says, before introducing himself as General Kregg. Mark asks what they’re doing to Nolan, but Kregg tells him not to speak, only listen, and delivers a molar-cracking punch when he tells the general to go f**k himself.

Before leaving Mark alone on Thraxa, Kregg gives him a chilling order: “You’ve survived your first true battle and proven yourself worthy of your Viltrumite heritage. Your father will be executed, and you will return to Earth. You will assume his mission and prepare the planet for our rule. I know this may not appeal to you, given your sympathies, so I’ll put it like this: you can kill a few humans to convince them to capitulate, or we will kill millions if arrive to find you or your planet still defiant against us. We will check on your progress soon, and unlike your father, we do not change our minds. Good luck on your mission.”

This means Mark will be returning home in a similar capacity to his dad, expected to not just warn Earth that it’ll soon be conquered, but be part of the conquest himself.

Invincible Season 2 Episodes 1-4 are available to stream on Prime Video now, which you can sign up for here. Check out our other coverage below:

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