*Spoilers* Holy mackerel, this is perhaps the single most polarizing episode in the show's history (to me I mean, the critical reception was overwhelmingly negative, plus, notice how many polarizing episodes there are this year). On paper, this is one of the show's most disappointing and worst episodes. After three episodes of buildup (and arguably a whole season's lead up to that build up) to Zoom invading the city with a metahuman army, the worst of Zoom's army is taken down by the Flash in the span of an opening teaser. What a cop out. Barry literally had more trouble with Captain Cold's father than he did with an ENTIRE ARMY OF SUPERPOWERED CRIMINALS!!! After that (aside from the fact that the entire episode is at night, the police station is still under Meta control, and there are a few rogue metas running loose on the streets, albeit ones who are only tangentially more powerful than your common muggers or thieves) it's business as usual in Central City. Once again, the team must face a generic Earth-2 villain who is largely defined by sharing the face of a more interesting character and relatively boring powers. Hello, Black Siren! Of all the major characters to use, Laurel Lance, really? I mean, Katie Cassidy does a decent job as the villain, but it's not like Laurel had a really close friendship to Barry or the other main characters. Couldn't they have had Earth 2 Eddie be the bad guy for this episode? Plus, Barry is written as an overconfident, cocky moron who seems to have forgotten many of the lessons he learned in the last episode. Could his faith in the speedforce have been less unsubtle? Instead of getting the wise, zen like Barry that I was hoping we'd get (the experienced and confident Barry from the Bronze age of comics) he instead regresses into his pre-Reverse Flash encounter Season One self. Talk about a poorly handed character arc. And yet, in spite of all of those flaws, Invincible has some of the Seasons best moments. After spending the better part of three episodes being powerless, seeing The Flash take down that meta army and put out the fires that their rampage had caused while Zoom angrily watches on is beautiful. His rescue of Tina McGee is equally badass. The scenes between Barry and Hunter are excellent, wonderfully played by Gustin and Sears. Hell, Gustin manages to make Barry's overconfidence feel far more natural than it should. To add that extra cherry on top, that sequence between The Flash and Captain Singh is such a wonderful nod to the end of Superman: The Movie. It makes me smile just thinking about it. Caitlin's PTSD from being Zoom's prisoner is handled very well and actually quite frightening, in spite of the fact that his holding her captive was a plot thread that essentially was written in to fill screen time and the fact that it goes nowhere and is dropped next episode. FInally, this episode is the first time where Zoom is given a motivation that is interesting. He seems less interested with taking over the city and more interested with "corrupting" Barry, who contradicts his cynical worldview by merely existing. While I will say that I felt the ending was on the nose, I still really enjoyed this episode when it aired, and I remember enjoying it the second time I saw it as well. I think invincible is a perfect representation of the overall quality of Season 2. Great performances, some excellent and memorable superhero action, and a few cool ideas, but a flimsy story and lots of wasted potential.
Review of Invincible
