*Spoilers from the end of season 1.*
I’m actually glad that it took a couple episodes for Andrew Rannells to show up on season 2 of Invincible. I liked season 1, but it’s been so long that my memories were a little sketchy. So it was nice to have the season 2 premiere, along with a special prequel episode featuring Eve’s origin story, to ease back into things before I had to write about it.
At the end of last season, Mark was forced to confront his dad when he learned the real reason his dad was on Earth: to bring the planet under the arm of the Viltrum empire, by any means necessary. Their fight was intense, emotional, and bloody, and it was brutal on Mark. Now, he and his mom are trying to pick up the pieces, with Nolan AWOL after an explosion prompted by a Global Defense Agency contingency plan.
In this episode, Mark has thrown himself into working with Cecil and the G.D.A. He’s dealing with some massive guilt, not just from the events of last season, but from a recent solo excursion that got out of hand in a devastating way. It’s comforting to him to be under Cecil’s command, even if he’s being run ragged in the process. Meanwhile, Debbie worries that Mark is too beholden to Cecil, and Eve has quit the Guardians and is doing her best to simply help people, but it’s easier said than done.
Any teenage superhero has way too much on their plate, but Mark is dealing with even more than most. He’s terrified of the thought of turning into his dad and desperate to avoid further costly mistakes. So he does everything Cecil tells him to, regular life falling by the wayside as he stays busy dealing with all manner of superpowered threats. He nearly misses his high school graduation because Doc Seismic is trying to steal the Washington Monument, and he’s forced to bail on a date with Amber because he’s “always on call.” It’s understandable that Debbie thinks he’s stretching himself too thin, and she doesn’t trust that Cecil really has his back.
As for Eve, she heads to Chicago to lend a hand with rebuilding after a superpowered catastrophe, but when she shows up and makes piles of rubble float with her powers, people’s first reaction is fear, not gratitude. She also runs into issues trying to help her own parents—whatever she does, it seems like she’s doing it wrong.
Rannells has some good moments near the start of the episode, then disappears—pretty sure we don’t see William again after the six- or seven-minute mark. I enjoy his running commentary during the graduation ceremony, especially when the principal offers an inspirational quote from Abraham Lincoln: “Did he, though? Did he really say that? Doesn’t sound very Lincolny.”
And between him, Mark, Eve, and Amber, William is the only one focused on kicking back during their last summer as teenagers. He urges Mark and Eve not to spend all their time on superhero stuff, and he’s horrified to learn that Amber is spending her summer volunteering for a local political campaign. “Do you even know your state comptroller?” Amber asks, to which Williams indignantly responds, “I don’t even know what a state comptroller is!”
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