TV Review - Amazon's Invincible Season 4, Episode 5

Don't look now.

Invincible is a 2021-present animated superhero television series created by Robert Kirkman, produced by Skybound North, Wind Sun Sky Entertainment, Skybound Animation, Point Grey Pictures, and Amazon MGM Studios, and distributed by Amazon Prime Video. The series is based off of Image Comics's 2003-2018 comic book series of the same name. It stars Steven Yeun and J.K. Simmons. A fifth season has been confirmed.

"I wanted to say I'm sorry." - Omni-Man

Plot

When Omni-Man returns to Earth to recruit Mark for the upcoming war with the Viltrumites, he must deal with the pain he caused in Chicago and demonstrate that he is a different person.

The Sweet

After an incredibly frustrating and disappointing first half of the season, Invincible has finally returned to form.

Episode five, titled Give Us a Moment, feels like the episode we've been waiting for. After a bunch of slow, filler episodes, we finally get Omni-Man's return to Earth, and it is awesome. To me, Nolan is far and away the most compelling and interesting character in the show, so any episode that focuses heavily on him will automatically be good in my eyes. This episode deals with the fallout of the season one finale in a way that the show has been building to for multiple seasons at this point, and I really appreciated that.

Nolan's conversations with both Debbie and Art were just perfect. I love the way that Debbie's confrontation with him is shot. You see Nolan trying to apologize and all the while you don't see Debbie's face until she turns around. Sandra Oh absolutely knocks it out of the park with her performance here. You can feel the quaking anger in her voice, and it just hits you right in the feels. Debbie punching Nolan knowing that it can't hurt him but still trying her hardest to is such a powerful moment, and I think that it just shows how well the show knows it's characters and the quiet, somber emotions it wants to display.

The Art conversation was just as powerful as the Debbie one in my eyes. I love the end of it all as Art tells Nolan that he only makes costumes for heroes. You can see the pain in Nolan's eyes as it truly dawns on him how much destruction and suffering he caused. After Nolan flies away, Art's deep sigh of relief is just such an incredible and subtle piece of writing. You can see that these characters are not convinced that Nolan has changed and are just as fearful that he will return to the monster that he was in season one.

And, of course, about halfway through the episode, Mark, Oliver, Allen, and Nolan take off to go back to Talescria and prepare for the war with Viltrum. I love that Nolan is yet to be completely redeemed - he still shows signs of weakness and anger. His frustration at Mark being late is such a small moment, but it demonstrates that there's still a part of him that doesn't understand humanity fully. His refusal to accept Oliver's initial arrival also shows that he's not entirely ready to confront his failures either. The writers just have an iron grip over Omni-Man's character. Every piece of writing with him, big or small, is just so well crafted.

So now let's talk about the big final battle, because this episode may have my new favorite action sequence in all of Invincible. I don't think anything will be able to necessarily top the emotional gut-punch of the season one finale, but on just an action-based level, this episode was dope. Three Viltrumites led by Conquest show up and begin an epic battle with Nolan, Allen, Mark, Oliver, and Tech Jacket, and it is just glorious. As always when Viltrumites show up, you feel the stakes, but there's a personal vendetta between Mark and Conquest that makes every punch hit a bit harder. I love that each character gets their time to shine. We see how Nolan trying to deal with Oliver's recklessness while also battling his former allies. We see Mark's anger and determination to stop Conquest at any cost.

The final moments we get wtih Mark and Conquest are absolutely incredible. Invincible has always leaned a bit too much on shocking gore for my taste, but this time, it feels earned. Mark choking out Conquest as Conquest literally tears his guts out is just such a repulsive yet badass image. I love how far Mark has come. He knows he needs to kill Conquest, and he literally does not let go even with his organs actually spilling out of his stomach. It's such a cool (and obviously grotesque) moment that feels like the Invincible I knew and loved.

The Sour

I don't have much for this episode. It was pretty awesome. I just have a few nitpicks.

To me, Eve has not given a good reason to not tell Mark about her pregnancy. I get that she thinks there are more important things, but if Mark is going to put his life on the line to fight the Viltrumites, it seems like he should know that he may have a kid on the way. I also just don't buy that Eve would tell William and then not tell Mark. He literally tees her up to tell him and she backs off. I would be less frustrated with this if it felt like they were doing more with Eve's character, but right now, this seems like her only thing going on, and it's a bit annoying to me.

And this is a relatively minor complaint, but I do kind of wish this episode was a bit longer. One of the things that I found most frustrating about season three of Invincible is that it would pack all of it's awesome plot lines into one single episode while also having less interesting plot lines span multiple episodes. It feels like that's the case here. Up to this point, we had four pretty frustrating episodes, and we finally get an awesome one, but it feels like it moves almost too quickly. Now, if the next three episodes are just as awesome, this frustration will vanish, but as of right now, it stays.

But that's it. This was a great episode.

Final Thoughts and Score

Invincible finally returns to form with an emotional, introspective episode that also gives us some of the best action of the entire series.

I am going Sweet here. Age range is 17+.

SWEET N' SOUR SCALE

Sweet (Great)

Savory (Good) Sour (Bad) Moldy (Terrible)

"Invincible"

"Give Us a Moment"

Fun Factor: 9.5/10

Story: 9/10

Acting: 9/10

Characters: 9.5/10

Quality: 9/10

Created by Robert Kirkman

Rated TV-MA for strong bloody violence, frightening themes and images, language, thematic elements

Released on April 1, 2026

51 minutes

Steven Yeun as Mark Grayson / Invincible

J.K. Simmons as Nolan Grayson / Omni-Man

Sandra Oh as Debbie Grayson

Christian Convery as Oliver Grayson / Kid Omni-Man

Seth Rogen as Allen the Alien

Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Conquest

Zoey Deutch as Zoe Thompson / Tech Jacket

Gillian Jacobs as Samantha Eve Wilkins / Atom Eve

Mark Hamill as Art Rosenbaum

Cliff Curtis as Paul

Tatiana Maslany as Telia

Peter Cullen as Thaedus

Walton Goggins as Cecil Stedman

Chris Diamantopoulos as Donald Ferguson