Welcome back to a rose-petal-ridden instalment of Invincible as, “This Missive, this Machination” gives us the best it can in a straight-laced romance with only the occasional skull-shattering. Spoilers ahead for those who fear them.
1. Steamy structure
“This Missive, this Machination” was an exquisitely fun episode for the show that really hammered home two of the strongest forces in the writers’ room we have truly underestimated up to this point: sex and formalism. You can just tell there’s someone in the production who lets out a maniacal laugh every time they drop an Allen the Alien title card, or pull the credits at the halfway point of this episode. Who can blame them either? It’s fun and it’s got energy to it, at the end of the day What is a title card for? What are credits for? What are post-credits for?
Episode three might be the best yet from season 2’s offerings, just because of how unapologetic it is in its two premises, first as a cut-away episode to Allen, and then as a clear whole, when it shows the progression of four (maybe five if you’re pedantic?) romances. It does absolutely leave this feeling like two 20-minute eps mashed together, but I would rather have an unorthodox-albeit-clunky structure than something canned. It’s effectively sexy too, the chemistry is evident through all of these pairings and it’s just fun getting to compare them.
2. Dorm room woes
Mark’s all grown up! And this show decides to illustrate it in the exact same way every piece of American coming-of-age media I’ve ever seen has. Debbie drops Mark off to college, they have a sad, slightly cliche goodbye, and then he walks into his dorm with a suspiciously small amount of luggage. The plotline does get better through the episode but come on, you’ve got more in you than that mate.
William and Mark’s roommate chat is a great improvement (especially their respective obsessions with peak fake pop-culture in Magnum π and Seance Dog). They do feel like they’ve got a great contrasting level of dweebiness that keeps the whole thing cartoony but easily finding empathy in the viewer. Watching Mark give up Seance Dog in the episode’s beginning, and then having the “real” Seance Dog appear at the episode’s end though? Now that’s just tidy writing, and a lot of fun at that.
I would be deluding myself though if I said anything in Mark’s story was as good as the cut-away from a steamy Mark and Amber to the disembodied voice of Paul F Tompkins ripping the viewer into a Flash Gordon serial. I forgot they could rip that right from the comics! Just a delightful segue.
3. We interrupt this program…
Allen time is always a good time. I’m Allen-pilled after this, honestly what a treat to spend half an episode in this guy’s shoes. There’s so much to soak in from this episode, absolutely vile looking space food, the craziest aliens since the prequel, and a space-bird-cat that some animator has put excessive work into clearly having two arseholes.
As great as Seth Rogen is here as a nonplussed, confident space bureaucrat, there’s just nothing that compares to the moment Peter Cullen appears. The drama and gravity he can carry in his voice is something phenomenal. It’s obvious but that’s fucking Optimus Prime right there! From there we get another plotline that might be a bit thin on novelty, despite a rich cast and setting. Still, I quite enjoyed the arthouse meditation on Allen getting his shit rocked astronomically at the sequence’s end, love a sad, somber solar curbstomp. Hopefully we haven’t seen the end of our favorite Allen.
4. Duplicity and Dupli-Kate
The Guardians continue to be the weakest link of each episode they appear in. I can’t even tell if one particular character is any less charismatic than the cast surrounding them, but my eyes just glaze when the show descends into workplace romantic drama. There are highlights, Monster Girl just as a force, and Dupli-Kate bullying herself in a workout is pretty great, but there’s so little to work with here. Of all the romances, Rudy and Monster Girl’s is by far the most canned, I guess we just have to wait until the show catches up to the real gold of their relationship from the comics.
5. SOS: Spouses of Superheroes
Debbie’s story is arguably what ties this episode together, and acknowledges the core spoke missing, that this world is having to function around, all while being inarguably human. Sure the support group trope is a bit flat, and Sandra Oh could do with more to work with, but it is a strong tool to poke at the edges of her grief at a character.
Through this episode we are treated to vignettes of every stage in a relationship:
-The passing crush or fantasy of William and is-this-your-stuff guy
-The first bumbling beginnings of a relationship, where you learn more about a new sphere of the world from learning about someone else in Robot and Monster Girl
-That same teenage relationship growing into maturity with Mark and Amber
-A mature relationship being twisted into grief with Allen and Telia
-The failure to move past the grief and finding something new in Debbie and Theo
It’s a very eloquent progression that shows how all the aforementioned formalism in the show is more than just a party trick. That gaping hole I mentioned early is obviously Nolan, and the damage he wrought in his exit. So his brief return? A great moment, even knowing it was coming, the gravity is there. It certainly helps that he’s landed himself a spiffy new outfit.
Who would have thought, but next week is the last time I will get to talk to all you lovely people until the far-flung future of 2024! Let’s hope it gives us something to sit with.
