History Recap / Invincible2021S02E02ALessonForYourNextLife

* ItsPersonal: Alternate Angstrom has a ''burning'' hatred towards Evil Invincible for the atrocities he's committed, reacting with outraged disgust when he attempts to lay hands on him[[labelnote:*]]Evil Invincible ''was'' about to kill him, but Angstrom's reaction indicated he was more upset about being manhandled by such an unrepentant mass-murderer than his impending gruesome death[[/labelnote]] and ranting at the duo that JusticeWillPrevail even as they're utterly nonplussed by his opinions. Even knowing that the Invincible who crashes the experiment is a multiversal doppelgänger of his Invincible (and presumably being aware that this Invincible didn't join up with Omni-Man) the sight of Mark makes him shoot a loathing-filled DeathGlare at him, apparently only not taking action because he's restrained in his chair. Ths sentiment unfortunately transfers over to Prime Angstrom when he's mutated and gets his memories mixed in with his alternates, being so overwhelming that it apparently overrides any others to compel the disfigured scientist to take {{Revenge}} against Invincible.

* IdentityBreakdown: Made worse by the identity in question being ''the same person''. Angstrom trying to stop the violence between Invincible and the Mauler twins gets him turned into a BodyHorror mutant with a brain so large it grows down his neck and over his back, as a result of his brain being meshed together with all the alternative versions of himself he was connecting to. This results in their memories getting mixed into his and Angstrom losing track of which universe his current body is actually from, believing that the Invincible that interrupted his experiment is just as bad/the same Invincible as his EvilCounterpart in other dimensions. This leaves him with a burning desire for {{Revenge}} against him despite Mark being pretty blameless for his current condition, as the scarred Mauler Twin points out.

* MoodDissonance: Evil Invincible and Omni-Man engage in a lot of weirdly casual conversations as they brutally subjugate their world, from Nolan complaining he's hungry because he put down a riot in Bangkok to Mark explaining he learned how to paralyze people by breaking their necks without outright killing them by practicing it on protestors like an athlete discussing a new technique. It's like how they'd normally banter while fighting criminals or supervillains but with innocent people instead.

* MoodDissonance: Evil Invincible and Omni-Man engage in a lot of weirdly casual conversations as they brutally subjugate their world, from Nolan complaining he's hungry because he put down a riot in Bagkock to Mark explaining he learned how to paralyze people by breaking their necks without outright killing them by practicing it on protestors like an athlete discussing a new technique. It's like how they'd normally banter while fighting criminals or supervillains but with innocent people instead.

* ItsPersonal: Alternate Angstrom has a ''burning'' hatred towards Evil Invincible for the atrocities he's committed, reacting with outraged disgust when he attempts to lay hands on him[[labelnote:*]]Evil Invincible ''was'' about to kill him, but Angstrom's reaction indicated he was more upset about being manhandled by such an unrepentant mass-murder than his impending gruesome death[[/labelnote]] and ranting at the duo that JusticeWillPrevail even as they're utterly nonplussed by his opinions. Even knowing that the Invincible who crashes the experiment is a multiversal doppelgänger of his Invincible (and presumably being aware that this Invincible didn't join up with Omni-Man) the sight of Mark makes him shoot a loathing-filled DeathGlare at him, apparently only not taking action because he's restrained in his chair. Ths sentiment unfortunately transfers over to Prime Angstrom when he's mutated and gets his memories mixed in with his alternates, being so overwhelming that it apparently overrides any others to compel the disfigured scientist to take {{Revenge}} against Invincible.

'''Evil Invincible:''' Yep, (''with a big smile on his face'') way ahead of you.\\

* DefiantToTheEnd: Alternate Rudy and Alternate Eve both continue resisting Alternate Omni-Man and Alternate Invincible even after their last hope weapon proved ineffective. On the brink of death, Rudy gives Omni-Man one last barb, while Eve insists to Invincible that death is her preference. Unfortunately for her, Invincible doesn't respect that wish.

* StumblingInTheNewForm: Rudy goes DeerInTheHeadlights the first time he experiences mortal fear, Monster-Girl alludes to him having to adjust to using the bathroom, and Rudy blames adjusting to his new body for his poor performance as a leader recently.

* AdaptationalContextChange: In the comics, Angstrom's motive for revenge was for the BodyHorror he suffered and his mind being screwed with from the procedure being interrupted, [[MotiveDecay becoming obsessed with killing Invincible after each failure.]] It is only ''far'' later that he belatedly realizes his animosity had been fueled by the memory merge conflating his understanding of this Invincible with the majority who turned on humanity, [[spoiler:a HeelRealization immediately followed by RedemptionEqualsDeath]]. Here, that element is introduced from the start and given more focus, to the extent that being disfigured distresses him less than his grief at his numerous alternate loved ones killed by an Invincible, and he asserts that he considers all his alternate experiences to be his even when the situation is explained to him prior to choosing vengeance.

* ThereAreNoTherapists: Debbie and Mark are clearly suffering from PTSD and maybe something else. But with all his power Cecil just tells Mark to wait for recovery. Debbie resorts to drinking a lot and is comforted by Olga a little, stating that she has nobody to talk to. Mark is comforted by Amber, but she also has to push him to talk. Granted, it's not like normal therapists can deal with their issues, but you'd think Cecil would have someone on staff with the right clearance.

Mark struggles to come to terms with his father's true nature after their brutal battle.

** Angstrom refuses to let the alternate Maulers kill Mark, saying he doesn't want his utopia be built on innocent blood. However he stops the experiment, which unleashes a massive power surge killing all of the alternate Angstroms, and turning him into a deformed and insane supervillain looking for revenge.

* GoodCounterpart: This actually bites Mark in the ass here ([[BeingGoodSucks But what else is new?]]), as it's mentioned that Invincible remains a heroic figure is actually an ''outlier'' amongst the various alternate universes, and most of his alternate selves are actually destructively evil in the same vein as Omni-Man, if not worse. As an example, the evil Mark seen in the episode's beginning still has feelings for Eve, which he shows by giving her a precisely-calculated NeckSnap to leave her alive but paralyzed, so he can keep visiting her, despite her clear hatred for him. As a result, when Angstrom gets the memories of his alternate selves merged into his current body, he undergoes IdentityBreakdown and comes to believe that our Mark is just as evil as the majority of his counterparts, despite the scarred Mauler Twin even telling him how little fault Mark actually had in his transformation.

* IdentityBreakdown: Made worse by the identity in question being ''the same person''. Angstrom trying to stop the violence between Invincible and the Mauler twins gets him turned into a BodyHorror mutant with a brain so large it grows down his neck and over his back, as a result of his brain meshed together with all the alternative versions of himself he was connecting too. This results in their memories getting mixed into his and Angstrom losing track of which universe his current body is actually from, believing that the Invincible that interrupted his experiment is just as bad/the same Invincible as his EvilCounterpart in other dimensions. This leaves him with a burning desire for {{Revenge}} against him despite Mark being pretty blameless for his current condition, as the scarred Mauler Twin points out.

* BaitAndSwitch: The opening has The Immortal and Invincible fighting, which will catch those who haven't read the comics off-guard while those who did believe it to be the confrontation due to the former's distrust of the latter. Then Omni-Man shows up and the two brutally murder the superhero before moving on to a ruined cityscape revealing this to be an AlternateUniverse.

** Todd tries to connect with Mark about their fathers and how losing them can hurts even if the father was terrible like Todd's is.

* ConditionedToAcceptHorror: Both Omni-Man and Mark treat killing people with complete banality. Before they kill the resistance fighters, Omni-Man casually says that he missed lunch and feels hungry. Mark performing [[NeckSnap Neck Snaps]] on a bunch of protestors a week prior was odd to Omni-Man, but not unusual enough for him to ask about it.

* DeerInTheHeadlights: Rudy freezes up when he's about to be crushed by The Giant. He can only describe the physiological symptoms, and Monster-Girl has to explain to him that he'd experienced fear of death.

* NoSell: Alternate Omni-Man is briefly surprised and pushed back by the WaveMotionGun that the rebels thought was their last hope of defeating him, but swiftly merges unscathed from the rubble and Alternate Invincible effortlessly swats away Alternate Eve's energy constructs.

* TemptingFate: Lampshaded. When one Mauler twin remarks that their machine is on track to work flawlessly, the other tells him not to say that. When the twin asks why, Invincible bursts in, and the other twin says that's why.

* ThereAreNoTherapists: Debbie and Mark are clearly suffering from PTSD and maybe something else. But with all his power Cecil just tells Mark to wait for recovery. Debbie resorts to drinking a lot and is comforted by Olga a little, stating that she has nobody to talk to. Mark is comforted by Amber, but she also has to push him to talk.

* TechnicalPacifist: Angstrom declares himself a pacifist, but regretfully orders the Maulers to attack Invincible to prevent him from stopping their machine. However, he refuses to commit MurderByInaction when the Maulers intend to beat Invincible to death.

* NoSell: Alternate Omni-Man is unphased by the WaveMotionGun that the rebels thought was their last hope of defeating him, and Alternate Invincible effortlessly swats away Alternate Eve's energy constructs.

* AdaptationalContextChange: In the comics, Angstrom's motive for revenge was for the BodyHorror he suffered and his mind being screwed with from the procedure being interrupted, [[MotiveDecay becoming obsessed with killing Invincible after each failure.]] It is only ''far'' later that he belatedly realizes his animosity had been fueled by the memory merge conflating his understanding of this Invincible with the majority who turned on humanity, [[spoiler:a HeelRealization immediately followed by RedemptionEqualsDeath]]. Here, that element is introduced from the start and given more focus, to the extent that being disfigured barely distresses him compared to his grief at his numerous alternate loved ones killed by an Invincible, and he asserts that he considers all his alternate experiences to be his even when the situation is explained to him prior to choosing vengeance.

** Todd tries to connect with Mark about the deaths of their fathers and how it hurts even if the father was terrible like Todd's was. Todd thinks the difference between them is that Mark's father was actually a good one, unaware that he was actually ''worse'', but he's not truly dead.

* AGodAmI: The payment the Mauler twins want for their service is a dimension with no superheroes, good food, and a population that considers them gods.

* CruelMercy: Alternate!Omni-Man and Alternate!Invincible both refrain from finishes off Alternate!Rudy and Alternate!Eve, the former allowed to die more slowly and painfully, and the latter given a FateWorseThanDeath that he seems to still consider a mercy.

* DefiantToTheEnd: Alternate!Rudy and Alternate!Eve both continue resisting Alternate!Omni-Man and Alternate!Invincible even after their last hope weapon proved ineffective. On the brink of death, Rudy gives Omni-Man one last barb, while Eve insists to Invincible that death is her preference. Unfortunately for her, Invincible doesn't respect that wish.

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: The Mauler twin's "You told us you were special!" reaction to learning Angstrom was working with alternate Maulers despite his claims otherwise brings to mind a reaction to romantic infidelity.

* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: PlayedForHorror with Alternate!Invincible and Alternate!Eve. Alternate!Invincible still has feelings for her, and doesn't want to kill her so he paralyzes her so he can still visit her and ensures that there are people who will care for her. The tone of his voice is rather somber despite his grotesque and entitled actions. It's not unlike how Nolan described Debbie as being a pet, something he loves but also something he owns.

* EveryoneHasStandards: Despite disliking Invincible and being irritated by his interference with Angstrom's experiment, not to mention in considerable pain from the fallout explosion of that, the scarred and disfigured Mauler Twin actually speaks up in his defense when the mutated Angstrom starts blaming Invincible for his new [[MyBrainIsBig deformity]], pointing out it was Angstrom's own decision to take off the helmet that was more to blame and realizing that he's getting his memories mixed up with his alternative selves when he starts babbling about Mark going on a killing spree in the millions. Even if Mark's reputation as Omni-Man's son has put him in a bad spot with the public, the Mauler Twin won't unfairly blame him for actions he hasn't done.

* FauxAffablyEvil: Despite Alternate Evil Mark's insistence that this is for the good of humanity, he and Omni-Man are flippantly cruel about slaughtering humans.

* KickTheDog: Plenty from Alternate!Invincible and Alternate!Omni-Man, but special mention goes to Alternate!Invincible performing a NeckSnap on protestors just to practice his ability to give Alternate!Eve a FateWorseThanDeath.

* NeckSnap: Alternate!Mark snaps Alternate!Eve's neck in a way that leaves her alive but paralyzed, leading Alternate!Omni-Man to realize ''that's'' what he was practicing with the protester's last week.

* NoSell: Alternate!Omni-Man is unphased by the WaveMotionGun that the rebels thought was their last hope of defeating him, and Alternate!Invincible effortlessly swats away Alternate!Eve's energy constructs.
* NotAfraidToDie: When Alternate Robot uses [[DyingDeclarationOfHate his last words]] to tell Omni-Man that he ''will'' die one day, even if he shrugged off the resistance's best efforts against him, he somewhat chipperly affirms this, showcasing that he's unafraid of his own mortality as per his Social Darwinist beliefs, and further demonstrating this when he retorts to Robot that he's somebody who "should have died at birth", leaving him to slowly die from his life-support being broken.

* PoorCommunicationKills: When Invincible goes to the Maulers, the Maulers don't bother explaining how dangerous stopping the experiment would be, rather just goading Invincible to fight them. Cecil is likewise unconcerned and just tells Mark to shut it down and not ask questions. Angstrom also just tells Mark what he's doing is for the greater good, without explaining further (Though being connected to a thousand other minds likely impacted his communication skills). This leads to Mark nearly getting beaten to death by alternate Maulers, then Angstrom stopping the experiment, causing a massive explosion that kills all of the alternate Maulers and Angstroms.

* WhyDidYouMakeMeHitYou: Mark asks Eve why she made him kill ''innocent people'', putting the full blame on her.