This review contains spoilers for season 3, episode 5 of Invincible, “This Was Supposed to Be Easy.”
Less plot-centric than what we saw from Invincible last week, “This Was Supposed to Be Easy” may not strike the deft balance of early season 3, but it proves beyond a doubt that the show is at its strongest when it focuses on character. Even when it falters by (once again) splitting its attention between too many different threads, episode 5 takes its time where it matters, and lets the story’s themes play out in subtle ways that don’t demand exposition.
Todd Williams subs in for Mahershala Ali as local crime boss and supervillain Titan, who hasn’t been a major presence since his reluctant team up with Mark/Invincible in season 1. Among the most complex of the show’s baddies, he exists in a gray area that challenges Mark’s increasingly black-and-white beliefs. We see Titan without his rock-hard exoskeleton for much of the episode, spending time with his daughter while overseeing his largely reformed neighborhood. But the crime syndicate to which he reluctantly belongs – the Order, led by Machine Head and a relative newcomer, the metal-jawed, dragon-in-human form Mr. Liu – looms over his carefully-constructed domestic bliss.
Numerous dangling subplots collide when Multi-Paul finally re-enters the spotlight and tries (but fails) to stage a prison breakout, which sets off a domino effect on multiple fronts. On one hand, as Eve and Mark toy with the idea of getting their own place, they offer the prison their services as superheroes-on-call (for a retainer, of course) should another super-breakout occur. On another, Liu wants his right-hand-man Multi-Paul back and blackmails Titan into breaking him out, which leads to the local mafioso and Mark crossing paths once again. Mark, who’s been convinced all this season that “bad guys” belong in jail, is forced to confront the reality that Titan is an economic Band-Aid over his poor enclave (the alternate, an Order-installed crime lord, would be worse), leading to the superhero having to compromise on his stern beliefs for the first time in a while.
This refreshing result goes hand-in-hand with the question of whether Mark will leave the nest, and leave Debbie to raise Oliver – her adopted, purple-skinned, half-alien son – on her own, or whether Eve will become part of the family. One evening, when Oliver seemingly goes missing – upsetting an already fragile family dynamic, not unlike in Titan’s story – Mark and Eve rush to find him. However, in a surprise turn, they track Oliver down only to discover him being a regular, mischievous kid at the skate-park, fooling around with friends and dealing with bullies without resorting to excessive violence. It’s mildly irksome to see such a major arc was resolved off-screen – Oliver killing the Mauler Twins and seeming intent on killing more bad guys was a significant deal – but in viewing each outcome this week as though it protrudes from Mark’s shifting morality, it works like a charm.
Like last week, the action is steeped in characters cooperating, with their respective powers working in tandem, speaking to their evolving dynamic (remember Nolan and Allen tag-teaming a Viltrumite?). Namely: Eve conceals herself in a pink energy army and has Mark swing her around like a medieval mace to take down Liu’s dragon form. They work phenomenally well as a superhero couple (at least for the time being), and while the “who’s who” and “why” of the Order’s schemes don’t really amount to much, the interpersonal development between the show’s characters strikes a major chord.
Elsewhere in “This Was Supposed to Be Easy”: Rex cooks Rae dinner… Man, the show needs to figure out how to either better flesh out its B-plots, or forget them altogether!
