The closing line accompanying last week’s cliffhanger becomes this week’s title, as well as its dramatic linchpin: “It’s Been a While” (ironically, Invincible’s midseason finale before a break of several months). Spoken by a returning Nolan/Omni Man after luring Mark/Invincible to him under false pretenses, it sets up a complicated father-son reunion, to say the least, with stakes that seem to increase with each passing scene. Back on Earth, Mark’s mother Debbie also reaches a vital point of dramatic clarity, though it may have unintended consequences for her ongoing family feud, unfolding several solar systems away.
As usual, the Grayson family drama remains the series’ core, and its biggest strength. The show’s handful of meandering subplots still don’t quite work as intended, and mostly feel like incidental outgrowths without a real sense of cause-and-effect in relation to the main story. However, since they receive minimal screen time this week, the Jason Zurek-directed episode plays like season 2's strongest – a high note to go out on before the show’s to-be-determined return.
The episode’s music supervisor, Gabe Hilfer, proves to be its unsung hero – a trend continuing from last season. An on-point song selection up front (Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds’ covering of Leonard Cohen’s ballad of loneliness, “Avalanche”) scores a flashback to Nolan’s departure from Earth, magnifying the character’s guilt and despondency as he flies by the broken remains of other planets and hovers around an enormous black hole. This twinning of internal and universal chaos and emptiness is swiftly interrupted by a malfunctioning Thraxan ship, which Nolan rescues, as though his time pretending to be a Guardian of the Globe had actually imbued him with a superhero’s morals. This is how he came to be the ruler of Thraxa, home to a species of kindly blue insectoids whose lifespans last about one human year, ensuring that any connections he unwittingly forms will be fleeting.
Reunited with Nolan, Mark has a charged and complicated reaction befitting a son and his violent father: He hugs Nolan before cussing him out, bringing into sharp focus all the messy feelings he’s spent this entire season trying to either bury or get over. Before Mark can fly away in a huff, Nolan convinces him to listen and help, at least for the Thraxans’ sake. Not only does it turn out that Nolan has taken a Thraxan wife – Andressa, who Mark immediately sees as a replacement for Debbie – but they also have a child together, a cute, purple-skinned humanoid destined to outlive his entire planet. With the Viltrumites on Nolan’s tail for having abandoned his colonial post, all of this forces Mark to reckon with his anger and feelings of betrayal more immediately and vividly than he thought he’d ever have to. It's compounded by Nolan’s request that Mark help protect a half-brother who, until a few moments ago, he didn’t know existed, but now has to save from some overtly fascist goons who are none-too-thrilled about race mixing.
Back on Earth, Olympus’ “Blondshell” (thank you again, Gabe) soundtracks Debbie shuffling around barefoot – a walk of shame, of sorts – as she processes being rejected by her support group of superhero spouses for being married to the murderous Nolan. She even visits his empty grave, both a symbol of the lies which were told – and are still being told – to conceal his identity, as well as of the grief she feels at having been treated with such cruelty (she was called Nolan’s “pet,” as Mark reminds us early in the episode). She’s also temporarily comforted by another returning character, Art (Mark Hamill), though the scene doesn’t have as much consequence as her subsequent interaction with Cecil, on whom she tries to push the remaining copies of Nolan’s sci-fi novels, symbolically ridding herself of his burden.
Unfortunately, the other corners of the story don't have nearly as much emotional momentum or significance to the plot. Eve is still lost when it comes to how she ought to be a superhero (she also thwarts a break-in at Guardians’ HQ, which leads to a public battle), while Amber and William offhandedly mention Mark’s absence to her. Elsewhere, the half-burnt, surviving Mauler twin clones himself another unscathed copy yet again, who delivers a fleeting, distressed line about not being “the original,” though this story of carbon-copied consciousness continues to be a concept without much dramatic heft (see also: Robot’s story last season.), since it so quickly and frequently leaves the story’s purview. It’s even neatly resolved in the episode’s mid-credits scene, but while it has little weight of its own, it does at least mirror the Invincible's one truly meaningful subplot: Donald’s search for self as he realizes he may not be human, or even alive (if you’ll recall, he was killed by Nolan last season).
This mostly matter-of-fact reveal in the comics becomes the center of a particularly intriguing slow-burn which, despite its overt similarities to Marvel’s Agent Coulson, both tells a meaningful character story in the wake of Nolan’s actions (Donald’s identity crisis is not too dissimilar from Debbie and Mark’s), and widens the scope of how far Cecil is willing to go to protect his secrets and make people fall in line.
Earth isn’t a safe haven either, but Mark has no choice but to protect it, and it appears a reformed Nolan feels similarly too. When a trio of Viltrumite envoys attacks Thraxa, another one of the show’s vicious signature battles ensues (there’s blood and guts galore, and one literal jaw-dropper), with just enough downtime for Mark to get to know Andressa and see Nolan through her eyes. Unfortunately, things don’t end well for the father-son duo. Nolan is taken back to Viltrum for execution, while the planet’s ruthless general Kregg (Clancy Brown) instructs Mark to take up his father’s post and prepare Earth for an all-out invasion – though not before Nolan gives Mark some cryptic advice, nestled within what appears to be an honest plea: “Don’t forget the good I did. My work. My deeds. My books… Read my books, Mark.”
On one hand, this could just be Nolan’s last minute pride in his work, but it wouldn’t be surprising if he also left clues about how to defeat Viltrum within the pages. Either way, Debbie leaving a box of his books on the sidewalk becomes another cliffhanger unto itself. Is she potentially throwing away secrets that might help Mark and all of Earth survive what’s to come? Maybe, but what’s certain is that she’s begun to move on from Nolan, and let go of the man she thought he was, just when he’s finally started to become that person, and few things are more tragic than that.
