Season 4, episode 2 of Invincible leaves Earth and follows Nolan and Allen on their journey to collect Viltrumite weaknesses. The first few scenes show the Viltrum Empire just before its mass extinction. Nolan, as a young man, gets beaten by both his mother and his father in a Viltrumite right-of-passage before he becomes a “man.” Before he can be assigned a task, Viltrumites around him start dying from a mysterious illness, expanding to a mass extinction. The main plot picks up afterwards, with Nolan and Allen trying to convince Thaedus to let them go on their mission. After joining a Star Trek parody space crew, they begin to collect Viltrumite weaknesses. They encounter and recruit Space Racer and are told of Tech Jacket on Earth. Hope dwindles, especially as Nolan learns the truth about the Viltrumite extinction. 

“I’ll Give You the Grand Tour” was a very tonally dissonant episode, with compelling moments of lore reveals, fun action sequences, and strange narrative arguments. As for the highlights, the action was fluid and decently creative throughout, such as with the frozen monsters and the asteroid-belt fight scene with Space Racer. The ways in which the Viltrumites dealt with their threats, as exposited by Nolan, were often very interesting. Additionally, since they met, Allen and Nolan have been an interesting duo, and the episode’s focus on Allen’s desire for Nolan to join his cause strengthened this relationship. Certain aspects of the Viltrum Empire were intriguing, notably how it set up future internal and external conflicts for Mark and Nolan through the introduction and further development of characters. The fight scenes in particular were fun to watch, especially as they pertained to Nolan and Allen’s dynamic. 

“I’ll Give You the Grand Tour” struggles comedically, with said humor undercutting and clouding already-strange dramatic moments. The recurring gag of Allen and Telia in the bedroom grew old extremely quickly, which was unfortunate given that its first occurrence was a genuine comedic highlight. Additionally, Allen’s quip about almost feeling bad for the genocidal Viltrumites was a strange choice, as it seems as though the show is using sympathy as a means of fleshing out the Viltrumites. The episode’s attempt to make the audience sympathize with the Viltrumites at large, or even with Nolan in his emotional pain, felt like an unintelligent shortcut to moral conflict. These choices, such as Nolan getting attacked by his parents in imagery akin to his own abuse of Mark, speak to a larger shortcoming of the show: Rather than giving characters truly compelling conflicts in the present, they either crowd their past or future with violence as a way to spark moral ambiguity and existential guilt that’s easy for the audience to swallow (in the context of a big-stakes superhero project). Finally, Allen’s jokes about the Viltrumite violence spoke to a tonal dissonance and a snark that did not work very well. While in keeping with Allen’s annoying personality, it seemed to imply that the show believed it had successfully made Nolan sympathetic and could, thus, crack as many edgy jokes as it wanted. Overall, the episode had entertaining segments, notably in its frequent action sequences, but left a sour taste with its shallow exploration of the Viltrumite past and violence. 

Rating: 6/10