Spoilers follow for Invincible Season 4, Episode 6, “You Look Horrible,” which is available on Prime Video now.
After last week’s gruesome conclusion, Mark spends much of this week’s episode out of commission, though it’s a wonder he’s alive at all. During his two-month coma, the Viltrumite War finally breaks out in full force, sending the galaxy into chaos that one has to largely assume and intuit. It’s not the most elegant execution for such a long-awaited saga, but on the flipside, “You Look Horrible” also brings home some of its most intimate father-son drama to date, by way of Nolan and Oliver finally getting to share the screen for extended periods.
Some might say Invincible goes overboard with its stunt casting, but this week’s opening proves just how much the showrunners get right in the voicing department, as the aged Coalition leader Thaedus (Peter Cullen, Optimus Prime himself) bellows, in rousing fashion: “Let the war begin!” Meanwhile, Viltrum’s forces are spurred on by the subdued tones of Lee Pace as Grand Regent Thragg, who anoints his soldiers with icy proclamations. Few comic readers would’ve imagined anything but a booming, gurgling voice — perhaps along the lines of Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s burly Conquest, or Clancy Brown’s erudite Kregg — but Pace’s quiet delivery makes you lean forward in terrified anticipation. It’s a masterstroke, making it a bit of a shame that we don’t actually hear all that much from him in this episode.
Allen and Zoe, now gaming buddies under the protective bubble of the latter’s Tech Jacket suit, continue to stow away like a technological barnacle on the hull of a Viltrum vessel, before escaping to the Coalition stronghold on planet Talescria with the help of Space Racer and his Infinity Ray Gun. Joined by the feline warrior Battle Beast, they engage in the brewing galactic conflict as the show slips into montage mode once more, though it’s hard to say it works entirely this time. The electronic dance bop “Do You Feel Me?” by Oliver Tree & Whethan is certainly propulsive, but hardly matches the gravity of the series’ long-building conflict spread across numerous planets.
Thankfully, the breezy track is slightly more apt for the montage’s other half: the growing relationship between Nolan and Oliver, as they train and hunt on a desert planet. Mark’s grisly injuries afford the fledgling father-son duo some downtime to finally get to know each other, a bumpy process that begins with a much-needed confrontation over Nolan burying Conquest’s body, and maintaining sentimental connections to Viltrum’s culture. Oliver, it turns out, also overheard Nolan telling Debbie that his mother Andressa meant nothing to him, forcing Nolan to take further stock of his words. He’s also similarly forced to reappraise his actions when retrieving protein for the injured Mark by way of stealing eggs from a feral space lizard, which the former (and slowly-reforming) Viltrumite is ready and willing to kill. In a fun surprise, it’s the once-vicious Oliver who begs his father to show mercy, though in order to fully convince him, the teen hero has to reach for the purely utilitarian excuse of allowing the mother insect to lay more eggs down the line. It’s a small but vital step; words are one thing, but actually making Nolan confront his actions and consequences are entirely another. It hasn’t necessarily happened yet, but this feels like a definitive start.
The quiet downtime in “You Look Horrible” is not tonally dissimilar from the season’s fourth episode, the middling, Damien Darkblood-centric “Hurm,” but it’s also significantly more proficient at externalizing its characters’ withheld emotional dilemmas. Its empty, rural setting, with Nolan establishing a base camp and hunting for his children, strips bare the series’ focus on nuclear family by breaking it down to its prehistorical essentials and centering survival in its purest form. This allows Nolan to be paternal in the most primal sense, forcing him to actually be a father to Oliver in every way that matters — including helping his younger son complete his fight training. By the time Mark finally awakens, Nolan and Oliver have built a harmonious rapport. They even go fishing.
While time passes for the Grayson fellas, the same can’t really be said for the war itself. Events certainly transpire, but the actual face of the war is left to dialogue and gestures, via references to liberation that we never really see. The Viltrum Empire is, theoretically, on the back foot, but this is at best depicted in passing; it’s hard not to wonder if this conflict might’ve deserved its own entire episode (if not several). However, once the Viltrumites attack Talescria directly, the war finally takes on intimate dimensions, allowing for a brief but effective emotional rollercoaster where the Coalition experiences significant losses, before Mark, Nolan and Oliver arrive to even the playing field.
The Viltrumites are sent escaping with their tails between their legs, as the Coalition both incapacitates one of the villains’ space vessels and stops it from crashing down on their capital city, which would’ve caused even more widespread damage. The Coalition also finally uncovers the mole in their midst — one of the two unassuming data workers seen outside the leadership’s chambers — but this subplot has rarely been fleshed out as a worthwhile mystery, and has only played out through scant, disconnected references thus far. It’s impossible to really care about, but its discovery does, at the very least, lead Thaedus to concoct an exciting (if borderline suicidal) plan to retaliate against the Viltrumites when they least expect it by taking the fight to Viltrum.
As always, the episode ends on a note of anticipation, maintaining the show’s week-to-week momentum. It also features a fun little stinger that apparently teases yet another Conquest return, though its abrupt cut from foreboding music to silence (and creeping closeups to a wide shot of the warrior’s grave) is a bit of a relief. The big man has earned his rest, just as Mark has earned a break from his brutal advances. Phew.
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