That Actually Hurt

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"**That Actually Hurt**" is the fifth episode of the first season of *Invincible*, and the fifth episode of the show overall.

## Synopsis

*Feeling confident in his new abilities, Mark risks a team-up with a local villain to take down a crime lord, while simultaneously juggling school and a new relationship.*

## Plot

Two men smoke, but are confronted by Titan who turns himself to stone and enters the secret operation they were covering. He defeats everybody and tells the man in charge that if Mr. Liu was on their turf again, he would be less gentle the next time, but snaps his neck and tells another kid the message was for him.

People watched a video where Invincible fought a man who surrendered, but would not listen and hit him once again. At school, Mark greeted Amber, but she ignores him since he was twenty minutes late. Mark explains that he had gotten a cake for her and stays behind, but she drags him with her.

At a fire, Titan makes it even worse by throwing gasoline inside. He is confronted by a man, so he gives him some money and tells him where he could go until he got a new place.

Invincible fought another villain and thanked the crowd who celebrated. Later, his boss Mr. Sayer yells at him for being late once again, so Mark quits.

Titan accepts money from a man and spares his life after seeing he had a daughter.

Invincible and Omni-Man fought a villain, who they wanted to talk. Omni-Man taught him how to scare villains and dropped him, catching him later.

Mark rushes to school and is told that if he wanted to go to college they needed to discuss his attendance issues.

Titan breaks into a lab where he gets a chip, telling the guards that if they wanted to live, they should not shoot at him.

Later, Invincible cancels a date with Amber via text since he was fighting a villain.

Titan reaches his boss, Machine Head and handed him the chip, which he put in his head. He tells him he is done working for him, but his boss refuses, telling him that he only served to break heads and would work for him until he said so. Titan angrily breaks the boss's desk, which the latter mentions proved his point.

Mark attempts to stop an asteroid heading for Earth and manages to do so successfully, throwing it back into space. After a huge effort, Omni-Man tells him that the asteroid was small, which shocked his son. Mark gets a text from Amber and is allowed to leave.

Mark gets to Amber's home and apologizes for getting there late. He tells her that the food was great, but she tells him that dinner had been two hours before and asks him if she was important to him since he was bad at showing up. Mark apologizes and says things are not easy, but she tells him that she would not go down that road again. He is able to get one last chance and leaves.

As he walks down the street, he is called by his father, who tells him the Elephant was robbing a store and reluctantly goes to help.

Titan enters his apartment and hands his daughter a dessert. His wife asks him if he was out and is disappointed to see he still worked for his boss. From there terrace, his daughter spots Invincible carrying the Elephant. He tells her that people says Invincible is good and tries to be a good person himself.

Debbie gets cold in her closet and finds Darkblood's notebook, which she reads in the bathroom, confirming her lingering suspicions.

Eve is berated by her parents, since the only reason they had allowed her to become a superhero was because Rex was there to protect her, but she tells them she could take care of herself and that team was gone. Her father tells her that she could not be a superhero alone, but she leaves.

Invincible races through the sky and goes to a rooftop, where he meets Titan. Invincible remembers him and calls him a criminal, but Titan tells him that he does not even know the meaning of the word. He tells him he only needed a little money and asked him to help him take down his boss, who ran the city. Invincible tells him he only does big-picture things, but is convinced to see what happens in the real world.

Titan shows Invincible who Machine Head is and explains what he does. Titan tells him that if he helps him take Machine Head down, he would help real people. When Invincible asks why he had accepted money in the first place, he tells him that it had not been for him.

At dinner, Mark tells his parents that he can take down Machine Head, but Debbie was not listening. After Mark's explanation, Nolan tells him that he would be making a huge mistake because he was being used and that problem was beneath him. Debbie tells Mark that sometimes people are not who they appear to be and adds that helping someone was never beneath him.

The new Guardians of the Globe celebrate a victory against the Lizard League. They all celebrate with beers except for Robot and Black Samson, who emits a high frequency, which shatters their bottles. He tells them that people were in the hospital because they had not fought as a team. They go through the fight and Black Samson lectures them on what they could have done to save lives, but Rex was unhappy and told him they had done their best and won.

Debbie asks Nolan why he would tell Mark that saving lives was beneath him to which he responds that Mark did things on a bigger scale and she did not understand that. She reminds him that when he had first arrived at Earth he knew nothing about humans and she had taught him how to be a superhero for Earth. Nolan tells her that he believed Mark was trusting someone he should not instead of listening to them. They agree they wanted Mark to make good choices.

After class, Mark complains about a test, but Eve tells him it is important. When Mark asks if she was okay, she tells him she had left home and did not know what she was doing. Amber joins them and asks Mark if he would be joining her. Mark tells her he would and Amber tells Eve that Mark had volunteered to help at the Beckwell Community Center, where they cooked dinners for anyone who was hungry, which impressed Mark.

After Mark left, Amber invites Eve, who tried to excuse herself, but could not since she was no longer busy saving the world. Before she left, Amber asks Eve if she had seen Mark acting weird since he was always late and did not show at times. Eve defends Mark, however, telling her that even though Mark was bad at time management, he was a good guy.

Titan tells Mark about Machine Head's security, but Mark is not convinced since Isotope, Machine Head's teletransporter could make him disappear, but Titan mentions he took care of Isotope. They agree that once Machine Head was taken down, he could be taken to the GDA. Mark asks Titan about his daughter and is told that Fiona's second home was Beckwell Community Center.

At the Mauler Twin's lab, the clone is ready and is taken out of the pod. They both lay down and their heads are shocked. When the shock ends, the newly made twin welcomes the twin who made him into the world, calling him the clone. As they argue, Robot says he would never understand why they did that. The twins attack him, but stop when he stood on top of the replication chamber. Robot explains that he needs their expertise in tissue regrowth and DNA replication, telling them they would be rewarded.

Debbie calls Nolan, asking him to get food from Rome and wine from Provence. When Nolan leaves, she checks the house and finds the air vent has been moved. She also finds a bag, but hides it as Nolan comes back.

Titan and Invincible break into Machine Head's building, but when Invincible confronts him, he does not move. Machine Head reveals he knew they would come thanks to the new chip Titan had gotten. Isotope also reveals himself, which surprises Invincible. Machine Head accepts he is out of his league, but mentions it is a good thing he had money, so he could afford many supervillains, which Isotope teleported into the room.

Eve meets Amber at Beckwell Community Center, where the latter shows her around. When Eve asks if Mark was there, she is told that he had 15 minutes to be there or he would be dumped. Eve is handed an apron and is put on chopping duty.

Invincible and Titan fight the supervillains, but are overwhelmed as Omni-Man watches from a distance. Invincible is electrocuted while Titan is burned. After a sudden burst of energy, Invincible tells them they would die and swiftly kills two before having his head shoved into the ground by Battle Beast.

As he tries getting up, he tries getting up, he is thrown once again. Machine Head celebrates, but mentions he was getting a signal as the Guardians of the Globe show up. They mention that Cecil had gotten an anonymous call and would take it from there.

Machine Head tells his supervillains to kill the Guardians, and they swiftly defeat them. Battle Beast mentions he believed Earth had worthy opponents and told Invincible that killing him would be an act of mercy. Black Samson tries to shoot at him, but fails and Invincible is struck in his stomach and stops responding. Black Samson gets up and runs toward Battle Beast, who rips his hand from his wrist and throws him, cracking his head. Monster Girl tries to defeat Battle Beast as well, but is also swiftly defeated.

Robot shoots at him and while the Guardians looked at their fallen friends, they told the supervillains that they had messed up. Working together, they share an intense encounter with the villains and defeat them except for Battle Beast, who says there was no honor in killing insects and leaves.

Robot hold Monster Girl after seeing she was badly injured. Machine Head describes the events as strange and asks Isotope to get him out of there, but finds he does not respond and is hit by Rex. Mark awakens and Titan tells him that he did not mean for things to turn out the way they did before leaving.

Amber and Eve pour soup for everybody, who Amber knows. Eve tells her that being so involved was impressive, but Amber says that she had thought Mark would be there with her.

GDA doctors look at Mark and mention he was losing too much blood. Cecil arrives at the scene and is horrified by what he sees. He tells the doctors to save him since they needed Invincible, but also tells them to get a blood sample just in case.

Machine Head is dragged away, but before he leaves the room, Cecil opens his head and takes the stolen chip.

Mark calls for his father and shuts his eyes while the doctors mention they were losing him.

Eve receives a phone call telling her about Mark, so she tells Amber she needed to leave. She tells Amber that Mark loved her and would be there if he could before leaving.

Robot comforts Monster Girl and tells her he would fix her.

Nolan arrives home as Debbie takes a phone call.

Isotope teletransports himself into Machine Head's office and congratulates his real boss, Titan on what he had done. Titan tells him that he had told Invincible the truth - he would make the city better and greeted his family.

Donald goes to the lab, where he is told that Viltrumite cells just would not die.

## Cast

#### Starring

* Steven Yeun - Invincible
* Sandra Oh - Debbie Grayson
* J.K. Simmons - Omni-Man

#### Featuring The Voices Of

* Mahershala Ali - Titan
* Zazie Beetz - Amber Bennett
* Nicole Byer - Fiona / Vanessa
* Chris Diamantopoulos - Donald Ferguson / Isotope
* Jeffrey Donovan - Machine Head
* Michael Dorn - Battle Beast
* Walton Goggins - Cecil Stedman
* Grey Griffin - Monster Girl / Shrinking Rae / Betsy Wilkins
* Gillian Jacobs - Atom Eve
* Jason Mantzoukas - Rex Splode
* Malese Jow - Dupli-Kate / Kate Cha
* Khary Payton - Black Samson
* Zachary Quinto - Robot
* Kevin Michael Richardson - Mauler Twins
* Fred Tatasciore - Killcannon / Adam Wilkins
* Reginald VelJohnson - Principal Winslow

## Trivia

* This episode is titled after a line spoken by Invincible in *Invincible* #19, after he gets punched by the Tether Tyrant.
* Curt, an elderly man among the people whom Amber serves soup to at the Beckwell Community Center, makes a reappearance in the episode Where I Really Come From, onboard the subway train that is destroyed in that same episode. Curt is seen reading a book moments before the ill-fated event, likely the same book that Amber was going to lend to him in this episode.
* Titan's wife and daughter can be seen in the community center, when Eve and Amber are taking care of people.
* The Beckwell Community Center would be later seen again in the Atom Eve Special.
* This episode reveals Robot's feelings towards Monster Girl.
* Omni Man is seen several times in sky, watching Mark get beaten by Machine Head's forces including Battle Beast, a theory indicating why Nolan didn't help was that he was either afraid of Battle Beast or that he wanted Mark to learn a lesson for not listening to him prior in helping Titan.