We Need To Talk

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"**We Need to Talk**" is the seventh episode of the first season of *Invincible*, and the seventh episode of the show overall.

## Synopsis

*Feeling lost and confused, Mark looks for advice from Eve. At the same time, everyone's looking for him.*

## Plot

The ride back from Upstate University is silent, as Amber does not want to listen to Mark.

Eve makes herself coffee at her tree house and browses her phone while looking at the view.

Debbie wakes up and goes downstairs where she sees Nolan. She asks him why he had kept his suit and he tells her that he used it to take care of Damien Darkblood, but suggests that maybe he wanted her to find it and tells her that he wanted to tell her months ago, since he was not blackmailed. He asks her to trust him, but she says it is impossible since the Guardians were their friends. Nolan says he did not have a choice, so she tells him to get out of her house. He storms out and tells her they would talk later. Debbie calls Mark, but he does not pick up. Soon she is surrounded and Donald tells her to go with him.

Amber says goodbye to William and tells Mark that she did not want to put up with his bullshit anymore. As Mark was about to tell Amber he was Invincible she shut the door, but Mark flies up to her bedroom as Invincible and explains why he was always late. However, Amber already knew and she tells him that he lied to her and does not trust her, so she tells him to leave.

Monster Girl is welcomed back by the Guardians, who hug her. Rex tells them all they should party, handing her a milk carton which has beer in it. Monster Girl asks Black Samson how he had recovered his powers, and he tells her he thinks it was because he was putting up with Rex. Robot tells her he is glad she had recovered and that he would never let her die, but repeated the word die many times, which the Guardians in shock.

The Mauler Twins get a delivery by a hologram. When the truck opens up, Robot walks out and tells them to step back. He unveils the real Robot and asks to see their work, which he finds satisfactory except for a few details. He tells them to implement some fixes so they could discuss their payment, but the Mauler Twins want to talk about the payment first. Robot tells them what he would give them and they get to work.

Mark and William sit in the latter's car eating fast food. William wonders if Rick would ever go back to normal and Mark tells him Cecil would get him back. William tells him that if he had been helped right away, nothing would have happened to Rick, which Mark recognizes. William mentions that because Mark was a superhero, he had barely seen him in the last six months, but Mark tells him he was not Invincible anymore because he was a bad friend and boyfriend, saying he should have listened to his father, who he reveals to be Omni-Man. Mark starts sulking, but William tells him his truths, but Mark asks for sympathy and says he would talk to someone else.

Debbie makes it to the GDA, where she asks Cecil why he had kept Nolan's secret from her. Cecil tells her that he could not risk Nolan finding out they knew until they knew what he was doing and how they could stop him. He says that there might be only one person who could fight Omni-Man. He asks her where Mark is, but she tells him it would not happen.

Omni-Man practices how to tell Mark he had killed the Guardians saying it was his responsibility, confident Mark would understand. He says he would say something that would change everything.

The Mauler Twins work on Robot, who tells them he wanted to change his appearance because he had met someone. He leaves his pod and tells the Mauler Twins to hurry with him since air was toxic to him. They put a mask on him and place him on a bed so that the copy of his mind would start on the new body. The cloning process begins, but they run into some problems because his brain is different. The machines explode, but the process is completed in the end.

Rudy gets up and does not recognize if he was the clone or the original. He mentions he did not expect a feeling of continuance. The Mauler Twins explain that not knowing who the original was, was part of the process, but Robot's process appeared to have taken care of himself. Rudy tells the original he was sorry that it had not been him, but is told not to worry and be happy, changing the world. The clone cries and lets the original die. The Mauler Twins ask for their payment, so Robot gives it to them and tells them it is time for them to return to prison.

The Mauler Twins realize he is serious, but is only a teenager, but Rudy tells them that he was a 30-year old genius in a teenager's body, with a neural link chip, which allowed him to summon many robots. The Mauler Twins take care of the normally sized Robots until a bigger one emerges.

Nolan looks for Mark in his house, but finds nobody except a GDA agent, who he grabs and slams into the ground. He is shot at by many of the agents, who he kills swiftly. He finds the house the GDA had bought in front of them which infuriates him, but Donald tells him it was for his family's protection. Nolan tells him he had always been pathetic and crushes his spine. Donald tells Cecil that it had been an honor and blows the house up.

Debbie and Cecil watched the house blow up from the GDA. Debbie realizes Nolan would find Mark and says that she does not know what he will do. Cecil tells her that they needed to find Mark before Nolan did.

Mark runs into Eve and she realizes that she would be helping him today.

The Mauler Twins are mad at Robot since he had double crossed them. They fought the giant robot when Robot got a call from Cecil, saying that he needed the Guardians back at the GDA with a priority level of Apocalypse. The Mauler Twins plot how to defeat Robot, but he was already gone.

William drives home, when he is approached by an angered Omni-Man. William asks if he was okay, but Nolan simply asks where Mark was since William was supposed to drop him off an hour ago. He tells Nolan that Mark had gone with Eve. Nolan puts a dent in William's car, which scares him and asks where Eve is. William tells him where and Nolan flies off.

Cecil tells the Guardians to be quiet and sit tight until they were called. Rex is desperate and says they needed to know what was happening, which Black Samson agrees with. He asks if Robot can find out, but Robot did not respond. Rex hits the robot on the head until they are approached by the new Robot. He presents himself as Rudolph Connors, saying robot was simply a drone he controlled remotely. Kate asks how they could know he was telling the truth and Robot says they could ask him anything. Rex asks why he looked like him, but Robot told him to wait.

The GDA found that Mark was flying with Eve, but also saw that Omni-Man was six minutes away from Mark's location, which worries Cecil. Debbie asks why he could not use his teleporter, and Cecil explains that they needed to work a bracelet and could not do all of them at once. He says they need to buy some time.

Mark tells Eve what happened with Amber, which she empathizes with. He says he does not know who he has to be, and she says that the same had happened to her. She tells him that a lot had changed for her as well and she felt she had upgraded since living with her parents.

Nolan flies, but is struck down by an enormous beam of light coming from a satellite in space, which manages to bring him down and many forests, fields and animals around him, savaging square kilometres of land and leaving a giant crater in the ground. However, Nolan soon gets up once again, resisting the beam's energy and destroying the satellite. Cecil comments that 400 billion dollars had just been used for a nosebleed. Omni-Man went back to going after Mark and Eve while Cecil told them he would use his teleporter.

Rudy tells the Guardians everything that had happened, but Rex still wants to know why he had picked his body. Everybody thought it was wrong that he had not asked Rex first, but Monster Girl realizes that he had done it for her. Rudy explains that Monster Girl was slowly getting younger and he was trapped in a mechanical tomb, while she was stuck as well. Monster Girl goes through everything Robot had done and says that she needs time to process it.

Black Samson calls the Guardians and tells them he knew why they were on high alert. They see a video of Omni-man destroying the satellite.

Mark and Eve hear the explosion and Eve tells him that they should call Cecil. He tells her that it was not their problem anymore, since she had run away from Rex and being a superhero. However, she tells him that she did not ignore the world when it needed her. He says that the world was fine without him, but she tells him that he should do something to help and leaves.

Nolan is shot at by Cecil. He tries to grab him, but disappears just before Nolan grabs him. Nolan tells him to keep out of it but Cecil says that he could not do that, asking why he had killed the Guardians. He tells him that he never needed their help since they were weak, but Cecil points out that they had been his friends as he had once and suggests that there had to be a reason. He tells her that Debbie deserved an answer and tells Nolan that he had fooled her and all of them during 20 years. He asks Nolan if Mark knows, which worries him, but Nolan realizes Cecil was just wasting his time.

When Cecil leaves, Nolan is attacked by Sinclair's cyborgs, which put up a fight with him as he tries to get them off. He fights the monsters and rips them apart.

Cecil, DA Sinclair and Debbie watch Nolan's fight in horror as he starts ripping the bodies apart. Agents also tell Cecil that Eve and Mark were moving towards Nolan's location, which worries Cecil. When Nolan defeats the fallen soldiers, he places the camera inside their guts which makes people at the GDA retch in disgust and makes Sinclair furious.

The Mauler Twins comment that Robot was a dick as they try to bring The Immortal back to life. One of the Twins mentions that even Cecil could not bring him back to life, but the other tells him that Cecil was an idiot and The Immortal was not called that for nothing.

Nolan faces another monster on his way to Mark, which he tells Cecil he had defeated already. Cecil, however, told him the monster now felt no pain and was now juiced up with every drug, enhancement and upgrade available. Two news helicopters went to Omni-Man's fight.

The Guardians say they should help, but Cecil tells them to stay where they are until he told them to move because if nothing went well, they would be their last hope against Omni-Man. Rex is confused, but everybody confirms they heard what he did and they remember what had happened to The Immortal.

Nolan fights the monster, while Debbie tells Cecil to call Eve's phone since she was with Mark again.

As they flew, Eve tells him that she was glad she came to help, but he tells her that he was only there to make sure she did not get hurt. Mark saw Nolan being crushed by the creature and raced forward in order to help him.

As Nolan was about to be eaten, Mark punches the creature and sends it flying. Eve gets called by Debbie and asks what was happening. Nolan awoke and Mark happily told him it was about time they teamed up together. When the creature rose, Cecil tells Eve not to help them and get to Guardians HQ.

Mark and Nolan had a hard time with the creature. Debbie tells him to call it off, but Cecil says he could not do that since Mark could be allies with his father. After that, Debbie mentions that that was why she had always hated him, which Cecil sympathizes with.

The Mauler Twins finish working on The Immortal, who does not immediately wake. He is hit many times, and is suddenly being brought to life and remembering everything that had happened. He wakes up, furious, and is controlled by a collar. The Mauler Twins tell him to murder Robot and the new Guardians for them. However, Immortal rips the collar off and asks where Omni-Man is. They do not know and he flies off.

Mark asks why the monster was tougher now that they were fighting it, and Omni-Man tells him that there were many things he did not know since Cecil had sent it after him. Mark tells him that maybe he could explain after they killed the monster.

Cecil is told that a new object was approaching Omni-Man's location, turning out to be The Immortal, who catches up to him and immediately starts pummelling him in blind fury. The surprised Omni-Man quickly retaliates, catching one of his punches and callously remarking he should have stayed dead before brutally fending him off. However Nolan worries over Mark who is under the beast's control.

Mark grabs a cable and electrocutes the beast as Nolan and Immortal keep fighting. Nolan catches one of his punches and drives his fist through his stomach again, punching all the way through him and shocking the entire world, which was watching thanks to the news helicopters. However, even once again fatally injured, Immortal sticks his thumbs into Omni-Man's eyes in an attempt to blind him. In agony, Nolan eventually manages to kill the hero once more, tirefully and horrifically bisecting him and dropping his halved body as Mark watches. An emotionally exhausted Nolan approaches his son and tells him they need to talk.

## Cast

#### Starring

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

#### Featuring The Voices Of

* Zazie Beetz - Amber Bennett
* Chris Diamantopoulos - Donald Ferguson
* Walton Goggins - Cecil Stedman
* Grey Griffin - Monster Girl / Shrinking Rae
* Gillian Jacobs - Atom Eve
* Jason Mantzoukas - Rex Splode
* Ross Marquand - Rudy / The Immortal
* Malese Jow - Dupli-Kate
* Khary Payton - Black Samson
* Zachary Quinto - Robot
* Andrew Rannells - William Clockwell
* Kevin Michael Richardson - Mauler Twins

## Trivia

* This episode is titled after the final line spoken by Omni-Man to Invincible in *Invincible* #10.
* Right before Immortal wakes up, in the flashback, Aquarus head is not shown to be smashed.
* This episode reveals the Immortals origins via flashbacks, his earliest memories and some of the roles he had throughout human history, including the role of Abraham Lincoln, The United States's 16th president.
	+ One of his flashbacks shows the Immortal during his earliest years as a superhero, wearing an outfit based off of Superman's costume worn during the Golden Age of Comic Books (1938-1958).
* Mary Shelley's novel *Frankenstein, The Modern Prometheus*, is a key theme in Robot's B-plot of this episode. The entire novel's text was used as the cryptographic key for the mind controlling collar that Robot was going to hand over to the Maulers. The novel's plot involves a scientist trying to create life out of inanimate matter, succeeding in doing so but ultimately becoming disillusioned of his creation, which in turn went off to cause misery and suffering. This is somewhat reversed in the case of Robot wherein the originally malformed Rudy Connors perfectly gains a fully healthy clone body.
	+ The Mauler Twins reference Universal Studios's famous *Frankenstein* loose movie adaptation of the novel. One of them pointing out that the concept of a lightning bolt having brought the monster to life was exclusive to the movie adaptation.
		- Coincidentally, the Maulers's voice actor, Kevin Michael Richardson, had previously voiced Frankenstein's Monster on the animated sitcom *Rick and Morty*, season 2 episode *Total Rickall*.
* William indirectly references the legendary sword fight between famed Japanese swordsmen Miyamoto Musashi and Sasaki Kojiro as an analogy to Mark's short sighted reaction to Amber having dumped him, As the legend states, after both enemies had landed their respective final blows Miyamoto cut Kojiro's scalp off, but Kojiro had perceived the damage too late to notice, with the top of his head sliding off after a few moments after the sword's blow had landed. This scene is iconic within Japanese fiction and has been adapted in samurai films.
* Cecil mentions to Debbie that the ReAnimen, are dead soldiers serving their country one last time, this could be a reference to the 1992 film Universal Soldier, where the United States, ironically used deceased soldiers that were killed in the Vietnam War to save lives.