r/Invincible • u/mwthecool Omni-Mod • Nov 17 '23

Invincible [Episode Discussion] - S02E03 - This Missive, This Machination! EPISODE DISCUSSION

Episode 3 - This Missive, This Machination!

Mark starts his college career, Debbie struggles with personal trauma, and Allen the Alien returns home to find a new threat facing the Coalition of Planets.

Full cast, crew and characters

Join the r/Invincible Discord server!

Please act appropriately and follow our rules. We ask you to report any comments that are uncivil/malicious or don't belong in the non-comic spoiler thread.

DO NOT post comic book spoilers in this thread - use [the comic spoiler discussion thread](LINK HERE) for discussion using comic book context

Please report comments discussing comic book spoilers in this thread.

1.9k Upvotes
  • permalink
  • link
  • reddit
  • reddit

98% Upvoted

2.9k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

1.2k

u/[deleted] Nov 17 '23

Honestly, Cecil really bothered me in this episode. I know he's been manipulating Mark all season (and even before), but telling Mark that he's like his father for choosing to go save billions of lives is especially scummy.

Cecil is really smart, but constantly gaslighting a teenager is not a good idea to turn them into a well-adjusted adult. I think at some point Mark is going to realize that Cecil only cares about control.

That's why Cecil's such a great character. He's somewhere between good and evil.

726

u/LMkingly Nov 17 '23

To be honest i don't think Cecile was wrong to distrust and not want mark to leave the galaxy on a drop of a hat because a random alien that came out of nowhere who somehow heard about him and specifically came to seek him out asked for help. And we see it ended up being bullshit anyway. Cecile is wrong to keep rubbing omni-man in mark's face anytime they have a disagreement but he wasn't wrong about this.

182

u/[deleted] Nov 17 '23 edited Nov 17 '23

I get where you're coming from, but I disagree. Mark is a hero, and part of that means taking risks to save lives. Mark had no way of knowing whether the bug alien was telling the truth, but he can't risk it if the alien isn't. How could you live with yourself if you knew that billions of lives were lost because you didn't trust someone?

(And Mark isn't really at risk - if Viltrum knows about him, then they can come to Earth and kill him literally whenever they want. He can't even beat Omni-Man, much less a squad of Viltrumites. There's literally no reason to believe that he's being lured to a trap that he can't handle.)

That's kind of the entire theme of Mark's arc in this season, too. At the start of the season, he blames himself for all the people that "he" killed, like in the subway scene. Everyone tells him it's not his fault, but he needs time to internalize that. In episode 2, he makes the heroic choice to save the fish people - not out of guilt (like he was doing in episode 1) but out of genuine heroism.

His decision in episode 3 is an evolution of that. He's not only learning to be a hero, but he's willing to make his own decisions and trust his instincts. It was a really powerful character moment.

Contrast that to Cecil. Sure, from his perspective, keeping Mark around on Earth is safe. Cecil would probably have no problem with billions of alien critters dying as long as it provides some marginal benefit to Earth. Cecil is not a good person; he's a pragmatic person. But Mark is good. Mark is a hero, and Cecil isn't.

9

u/pawstar21 Nov 17 '23

I disagree, mark was just getting his ass handed to him by the gang of blue clones. Danger should be at the forefront of his mind. Also he’s leaving earth relatively undefended.