Invincible Season 2 Part 2 is back, and while the return episode “This May Come As A Shock” was certainly dense with story and character development – plus some pretty thrilling action – there was a noticeable lack of some key storylines – namely the threats of the Viltrumite Empire and the dimension-hopping villain Angstrom Levy.
Videos by ComicBook.com
Invincible Season 2 set both Levy and Viltrumites up to be major threats to Mark Grayson/Invincible (Steven Yeun), so it was pretty conspicuous that they aren’t featured in the latest ep – at least during the main events of the episode. However, the mid-credits scene does feature a Viltrumite – one that’s been hiding in front of us this whole time!
WARNING: SPOILERS FOLLOW!
The post-credits scene of Invincible Season 2 Episode 5 features the return of Allen the Alien (Seth Rogen), who looked pretty dead after fighting the three Viltrumite warriors in Season 2 Part 1 – not to mention having his life support system de-activated by Thaedus (Peter Cullen) the founder and leader of the Coalition of Planets.
In the mid-credits scene, Allen awakens to find Thaedus by his bedside. The Coalition leader reveals that he had not turned off Allen’s life support to kill him, but rather to spark an evolutionary leap that would make Allen’s genetically enhanced body even stronger, to the level of being able to battle the Viltrumites.
The reveals don’t stop there: when Allen claims that he never wants to see another Viltrumite again, Thaedus pulls off his beard to reveal that he is secretly a Viltrumite!
According to the brief backstory we get from Thaedus, he was the first Viltrumite to rebel against the Empire. It’s an interesting reveal, as Thaedus being a Viltrumite who also started the Coalition of Planets is a contradiction that we didn’t even know was possible in Invincible. We’ve seen Mark stand against the Viltrumites, but he’s half-human and had incentive to do so; More curious is Nolan’s turn from one of the most loyal and accomplished Vilturmite warriors to showing signs of serious emotional growth in his role as emperor of Thraxa.
Thaedus represents the potential for Viltrumites to create as much unity and good as they can mayhem and death; that opens up exciting possibilities for where we could see Nolan’s character go – and/or what effect Mark may have on other Viltrumites. That latter point seems to be of particular note, as Thaedus recruits Allen to go back to Earth and bring Invincible to the Coalition, as Mark is “the key” to stopping Viltrum.
Invincible Season 2 Part 2 is now streaming new episodes weekly on Amazon Prime Video.
