The fourth season of Invincible feels different from the previous ones. The series is determined to raise the stakes and focus on the Viltrumite War. To achieve this, the episodic nature of the first half is put aside, and a more focused arc is presented in the second half of the season.
To this end, this new structure works. The Viltrumites stop feeling like a random, occasional threat and become the main antagonists of the series. However, this comes at a cost: the episodic nature of the series left many open threads and some of them are simply ignored or resolved off-screen. I spent the entire season asking myself what happened to Monster Girl and Robot, as their disappearance feels too impactful to be left on the back burner. Furthermore, while I think the Earth time skip is done mostly right, it feels a bit weird for Eve to have fixed her powers off-screen by the time Mark is back, given the focus on them at the beginning of the season. It feels like a setup with no payoff.
The high amount of open threads is, however, self-inflicted: the series seems unable to move on from previous plotlines well beyond their narrative purpose. For example, there is no clear reason why the Flaxans should be back now when they were apparently destroyed in the first season after three failed invasion attempts! It is annoying that nothing is permanent and there are no real conclusions. Oddly enough, the series seems self-aware of this by teasing a possible return of Conquest after his defeat, which is immediately discarded as a joke. Still, I think it only works as a joke because it is entirely believable.
Moreover, this lack of consequences cheapens the story as a whole. More than ever, Invincible relies on shock value to convey importance, but this loses its appeal when shock is all there is. For example, Mark is disemboweled during his fight with Conquest in one of the most gruesome moments in the entire series. I expected Mark to die or at least be permanently crippled from such an injury. Instead, he fully recovers after simply resting. The extreme violence stops being a narrative device and becomes just a visual element of the show.
I still enjoyed this season of Invincible. Moments like Nolan trying to atone for his mistakes and Mark suffering from trauma were great. Unfortunately, the season’s flaws make it fall apart under critical scrutiny, making me wonder if it is best enjoyed as a thoughtless watch. This would be a shame, as there is real potential in this story, but it may be too late to change course.