Season 4, episode 3 of Invincible follows up on the premiere’s exciting conclusion, focusing mainly on Mark and Cecil’s reaction to the murder. From there, the episode follows two main storylines with subplots focusing on Eve and Debbie. Eve struggles with her deteriorating powers, causing some distance between her and Mark as he reckons with his violence. The primary two struggles of the episode focus on The Guardians and Master Liu. The Master Liu plotline picks up from the previous season, with Titan and his family getting attacked by a villain named Magnattack. Titan attempts to hire Invincible to help him, but Oliver shows up instead, forced to do battle with Master Liu in dragon form. The plotline with the Guardians focuses on a Flaxan invasion, with Monster Girl and Robot getting stuck in the Flaxan dimension. Invincible tears off from the fight to help Oliver, nearly killing Titan if not for Oliver’s pleas. At the end of the episode, Machine Head recruits both Titan and Master Liu to his Order.
On the whole, this was an entertaining yet ultimately flat episode of Invincible, dedicated mostly to setting up future plotlines. Additionally, this episode serves as a worrying indication of how cluttered the show can get. Firstly, it is important to note that the episode was successful in creating engaging fight scenes. From the mystery of Magnattack to the run-down cityscape of the Master Liu fight, the episode managed to have an extremely engaging back half. The character moments, which mostly populate the first half, are passable if not repetitive. While Mark is technically in a unique mental state, given what occurred in episode 1, he acts very similarly to previous examples of ethical struggle. Of course, bigger questions of Mark’s morality will be saved for later in the season. As it stands, though, watching Mark regret how violent he can get is progressively getting more and more tiring.
As it stands, “I Gotta Get Some Air” was not all too compelling on its own. The consequences of the Flaxan battle and of Cecil’s authority constantly being questioned were compelling, and his scene with Mark was the highlight of the first half. Eve’s power loss is playing out as most power loss stories do, so while it remains mildly interesting, her character winds up being placed in cyclical scenes of annoyance or sadness. Finally, both the Flaxan invasion and Master Liu’s fight serve as reminders of the show’s drawbacks. Notably, there is a palpable lack of tension in most fight scenes, given the invulnerability or extreme strength of the characters. However, the episode introduced a very compelling concept: Robot and Monster Girl getting trapped in the Flaxan dimension, even if this choice seems to be a shortcut for dealing with Robot’s inner Sequids while adding tension to the plotline of Eve losing her powers. Similarly, the only real tension of the fight between Oliver, Liu, Mark, and Titan comes from when Mark beats up Titan. That said, fight scenes where Mark almost loses control of his strength are getting especially overdone. Overall, “I Gotta Get Some Air” was by no means a bad episode of Invincible. Ultimately, it seemed to mostly serve to set up future tensions, bolstering those plotlines with surface-level, repetitive character work.
Rating: 5/10