Following the release of the final trailer for Invincible Season 4, the new season of Prime Video’s acclaimed animated TV series—based on Robert Kirkman’s superhero comic book of the same name—comes to a close with the eighth episode, titled “Don’t Keep Me in the Dark,” now available to stream.
The season 4 finale of Invincible serves as the epilogue to the epic Viltrumite War, following Mark Grayson as he returns to Earth. However, scarred by recent events, the young hero can’t help but imagine the horrors that the Viltrumite leader, Thragg, might inflict on Eve, Debbie, and all his loved ones, with a series of horrific flashbacks from post-traumatic stress disorder tormenting his new, rediscovered daily life.
Upon reaching Earth’s orbit, Mark fears that Thragg and the Viltrumites are already on the planet and have begun slaughtering everyone… but once he reaches the surface, Invincible discovers that the Viltrumites have not invaded Earth. The question now for everyone is: where have Thragg and his men gone?
Throughout the emotional episode, the tension continues to mount: Eve reveals to Mark that she had an abortion while he was in space. Her powers have returned, and she assures her traumatized fiancé that she isn’t going anywhere. Meanwhile, Nolan has also returned to Earth, and after revisiting the mountain where he nearly beat his son to death in the first season, the now-reflective former criminal manages to convince Debbie to accompany him to Telescria. There, he’ll be able to stay by Oliver’s side as the boy recovers from the beating he suffered at the hands of Thragg.
Speaking of Telescria, Allen the alien discovers that, on Thadeus’s orders, he has been appointed the new leader of the Coalition of Planets. However, the council is firmly convinced that the only way to protect the universe is to kill all the Viltrumites, including Nolan and Mark. Easier said than done, but in the meantime, the Coalition begins building an alarm system around Earth to warn everyone in case the Viltrumites decide to arrive on our planet.
In the final scene, however, we discover that the flashes of Mark’s traumatic memories somehow concealed a certain truth. In fact, the Viltrumites have always been on Earth, hiding among ordinary humans: Thragg meets Mark and offers him a deal that is also an ultimatum: if he allows his people to remain on Earth and mingle with humans to secretly repopulate the Viltrumite Empire—producing new mixed-race children as Nolan did with Mark years earlier—the Viltrumites will not interfere in any way with Earth’s affairs and will not harm a single human being. On the contrary, Thragg threatens to kill billions of innocents and enslave the few humans who will remain alive after the apocalypse that he and his 37 Viltrumites will unleash on the planet.
Faced with this impossible choice, and aware that he cannot fight the Viltrumites—and perhaps even terrified at the mere thought of having to do so—Mark gives in and accepts Thragg’s proposal. The Viltrumite Regent immediately proves himself a man of his word, as he compliments Mark for saving billions of lives and bids him farewell, telling him they will never see each other again.
In a post-credits scene, we learn that before his death, Thadeus created the new Scourge virus after the original had nearly wiped out all the Viltrumites: this variant can kill Thragg and his people once and for all; however, now that the Viltrumites are on our planet, if the virus were used on Earth, Mark and the entire human race would also die. This leaves Allen facing a crucial decision ahead of season five.
Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, actor Lee Pace, who plays Thragg, shared his thoughts on the pact between the villain and Mark: “There’s a certain respect in this agreement, and I think there’s also a ‘You’re here, I’m here. You’ll have to deal with this, and I’ll have to deal with you, but I can’t kill you yet, and you can’t kill me—period.’ So I think that’s the point, because he could have done it without even warning Mark. That’s what Mark has always done. So he could surprise Mark by suddenly bringing in people with powers, but he won’t. He does it this way, and he’s direct. He’s telling him: ‘I consider you a powerful and important person. You could be the hero of this story. So I’ll look you straight in the eye and see what you’re made of and what you’ll do with this knowledge.’ Maybe Mark will become his ally at some point. Thragg doesn’t know. Maybe he hopes so. All he knows is that he’s devised this plan, and he’ll do whatever it takes to get the Viltrumite people where he wants them to be.”
The fourth season of Invincible is now available to stream on Prime Video. Note that season 5 of Invincible has already been officially announced and will be released next year on the platform.
