Season 4, episode 4 of Invincible is a messy product of the show’s bloated world and stagnant character consistency. Additionally, it speaks to a strange dissonance between older, serialized television storytelling and the newer streaming-era model. Simply put, “Hurm” is the Hell episode of Invincible. Mark is summoned by Damien Darkblood after Volcanikka temporarily decimates his family. Damien and Satan convince Mark to help them retrieve the Molten Crown. Much of the preamble of the episode revolves around extensive expository dialogue from Damien and some of Mark’s brooding about being violent. Mark and Damien have some stale banter on their trip into a dark pit to grab the Molten Crown from Cerberus. This fight is not shown, as Mark throws Damien back up the hole they came down. Once Satan is restored to his buff, superhero form, he finishes reviving the Darkbloods, and the final battle ensues. While close, it ends with Mark blasting Volcanikka’s head off multiple times. Since she can regenerate, she retreats but vows to wreak havoc on the overworld. Finally, the episode touches on a few minor plot points, such as Ka-Hor finally getting a host, Eve telling William she’s pregnant, and Debbie telling her kids about the new house. The episode concludes just as Eve is about to tell Mark about the baby, as Nolan and Allen arrive.
As a highlight, the fight scenes are decently engaging, with Volcanikka’s intriguing powers being very entertaining. Ultimately, though, this episode suffers from Invincible-specific problems as well as issues permeating the television landscape at large. As for the Invincible-specific issues, it is very difficult to emotionally invest in the problems of the underworld at this stage in the show’s life due to how much else we have seen. The history of Hell, no matter how potentially interesting, is inherently buried beneath seasons of alternate dimensions, other planets, and government conspiracies. As a result, the already-expository scenes of Hell explanation drag on arduously. Finally, Damien’s family’s revival is not only a plot detail that eliminates a lot of tension from the episode, but it also makes his goals feel less desperate and results in less tension later on.
As for this episode being a byproduct of the strange state of television, it was surprising how familiar this story’s structure was to weekly television shows. It is not uncommon for an episode of a show to deal with a random problem in a villain-of-the-week style, however temporary the ending is. However, while normal and enjoyable in longer seasons, these episodes stick out like sore thumbs in eight-episode seasons. A Hell-focused episode of Invincible is not inherently problematic for the show, but its placement within the larger narrative and the extensive lore dumps make it seem all the more useless. On a smaller note, Mark going to Hell during an arc focused on his conflicted feelings about his violence comes across as very trite. Overall, while a filler episode such as this could have been used to explore character relationships or build a more focused sense of tension, its dive into Hell mostly bloats the world and provides more evidence of the show’s tiresome lack of permanent character death.
Rating: 3/10