Invincible season 1, episode 8 review: Where I Really Come From

It’s a fight you didn’t know you needed to see in the season 1 finale of Amazon Prime’s Invincible.

Previously on Amazon Prime’s Invincible, Cecil went full force on trying to kill Omni-Man. As expected, all of his efforts failed. Everything from a $400 billion beam from space to reanimated dead soldiers (named reanimen) with super-strength failed. Not even the combined might of Immortal and a giant monster could work.

In the end, Omni-Man ended up killing Immortal for a second time. When Mark saw this, he looked on with shock. Omni-Man told him, “Son, we need to talk.” Wait until you hear what the conversation is about.

With that, let’s dive into the finale of Invincible, “Where I Really Come From”.

Where Omni-Man is really from

The story that Nolan told Mark about the Viltrumites is nothing like their reality. They aren’t peaceful; they’re the most brutal beings in the universe. Their way of deciding who lived and died on their planet was by combat. After the best and strongest prevailed, specific Viltrumites were sent to planets to prepare them to be part of the Viltrumites’ empire. Nolan originally volunteered to be the one who prepares Earth. He came to Earth, met Debbie, and the rest is history.

This whole scene, with the violence accompanying Nolan’s telling of the story, was vividly aggressive. It made it all the more striking and all the more disturbing. The way the Viltrumites wanted to make every planet part of their Empire was a narcissistic concept and that really came across because they thought that they knew better and the fact that they killed anyone who didn’t agree was even worse. The visuals definitely highlighted their savagery.

“Your true education begins now.” – Omni-Man

We’ve seen the violence in this show before, but the fight between Omni-Man and Invincible was difficult to watch. This wasn’t a battle between a hero and a villain; it was father against son. Nolan unleashed an onslaught that destroyed buildings and killed innocent people – all of that destruction just to prove a point that Mark will never understand.

It wasn’t just the physical beating that Mark took that was bad, it was the emotional abuse that hurt as well. The broken bones and internal damage will heal but the fact that he was destroyed by his father is something he will never forget.

Of course, we know that Mark can forgive him, but he’ll always remember what his father did – and said – to him.

Invincible emotion

You’d have to be made of stone to not feel something here. Mark went through the beating of a lifetime from his father and still loved him, telling him that even after everything he knew and loved was gone, he would still have him – a moment that hit Nolan so hard that he flew away and abandoned his fight and his Viltrumite mission.

Soon after, Debbie is with Mark helping him recuperate in a truly sorrowful moment. She’s upset because she couldn’t protect her son; all she could do was watch and wait as her son lay in bed broken. Mark then sees her crying in bed. This was first time we see Debbie vulnerable the entire season.

Invincible review

If this writer could just write, “This episode was perfect” and move on, he would. Everything about the finale of Invincible made it the perfect way to end the first season. We now know what’s going on with Nolan, Mark takes another step towards becoming a better hero and the ending highlighted what was going on with some of the other characters too.

Battle Beast is still searching the universe for someone to beat him in a fight, Doc Seismic has control over creatures made of lava and Cecil is building an army of reanimen – the latter of which is most likely in case Invincible needs to be taken care of. He won’t be caught unprepared again.

That’s only some of the things we saw and a taste of what’s to come. Thankfully, we now know that Amazon Prime’s Invincible was renewed for two more seasons, so be certain that what we’ll see going forward will be even better than what we saw in season 1.

Invincible rumination

Mark’s reaction to seeing what his father did to Immortal was really striking. It wasn’t rage; it was confusion. Also, the blood falling on the grass was a nice and brutal touch.

Omni-Man giving the villain speech was chilling. Then, telling his son that he loves his mother like a pet is one of the worst things anyone could tell their child.

Kudos to J. K. Simmons for breathing life into Omni-Man. No one could’ve done this better.

Mark saying, “I’ll still have you” is a moment that has to be highlighted. It was one of the moments that needed to remain from the comic and it was flawlessly executed.

What did you think of the Invincible season finale? Are you excited for season 2? What do you want to see going forward? Let us know in the comments below.