Invincible EP reveals why now was the right time to kick off the Atom Eve/Invincible romance

In the Season 2 finale of Invincible, a potential romance that’s been bubbling in the background for the past few seasons finally came to a head. Or at least, started to come to a head. That would be the romance between Invincible/Mark (Steven Yeun) and Atom Eve (Gillian Jacobs), something fans of the comics by Robert Kirkman, Cory Walker, and Ryan Ottley know is integral to the story.

“We set it up in season one subtly, but obviously Mark and Eve have always had feelings for each other at the very least, very good friends,” EP Simon Racioppa told Bam Smack Pow. “We hinted a little bit early in season one that maybe there was something more there.”

In the episode, after being thrust into an alternate dimension – and stuck there – by villain Angstrom Levy (Sterling K. Brown), Invincible is confronted with a future version of super-team Guardians of the Globe. They create a portal home for him, but as he’s about to leave he’s confronted by the future version of Atom Eve, who tells Invincible she loves him and encourages him not to wait to tell his Eve how he feels about her.

The episode pre-credits ends with Mark and Eve sitting on a bridge, almost – but not quite – discussing their feelings for each other. And a large part of that has to do with the fresh breakup looming over their heads: last episode, Mark broke up with his longtime girlfriend Amber (Zazie Beetz).

“We wanted to make sure we treated that relationship well and honorably and made sure that that felt natural, the way that ended and it made sense,” Racioppa continued, on making sure things went smoothly from Mark/Amber to Mark/Eve. “Hopefully it's emotional for our audience to see that end. I think it ends for very good reasons. It's not a plot thing as much as something that could really happen to these characters in this world. And I think you would find it very difficult if you were a normal person to be in a relationship with someone who's super powered. Someone who goes through these trials and tribulations and has all this sort of collateral damage that can come around them.”

Racioppa continued to note that while Amber “had her own problems and her own issues with the relationship,” for Mark a lot of the issue stems from seeing his father, Omni-Man (J.K. Simmons) utterly betray his mother Debbie (Sandra Oh). Adding fuel to the fire is when alien baddie Annisa (Shantel VanSanten) shows up and almost kills Amber to teach Mark a lesson.

“That was a terrible experience for Amber,” Racioppa noted. “It'd be awful for anyone. It is essentially having a gun to your head and knowing that this might continue to happen in this relationship. So that's why that happened where it does.”

And that’s all well and good, but Mark and Amber do seem to be over for good. So is it all Mark and Eve from here on out?

“And then obviously Mark discovers that Eve– I mean, I think he already kind of knew, but he discovers on a really literal level that she has always had feelings for him,” Racioppa said. “And then decides to act on those feelings, or not act actually at the end of the episode, but he gains that knowledge and it's interesting to see where we go with that in season three.”

Invincible Season 2 is streaming on Prime Video.