"I'm Not Going Anywhere" is the seventh episode of the second season of Invincible, and the fifteenth episode of the show overall.
Synopsis[]
As Mark attempts to salvage his personal life, a new villain arrives, presenting Invincible with his greatest challenge yet. Donald grapples with his past.
Plot[]
Mark and Amber’s strained relationship is immediately evident at a superhero convention. Mark is displeased to see others dressed in costumes resembling his likeness. Shortly thereafter, Atom Eve contacts him for help in battling “Octoboss,” and his timely intervention earns Rex’s gratitude.
Meanwhile, unresolved tensions continue between Robot and Monster Girl as the Guardians face significant challenges. Cecil presents Donald with footage of his repeated deaths and reveals that Donald chose to have his memories erased to avoid further trauma. Elsewhere, Paul invites Debbie on a post-work date, which she accepts, while Oliver continues to show remarkable growth.
Simultaneously, Rick struggles with suicidal thoughts triggered by traumatic memories of Sinclair, feeling as though a part of himself is lost; Donald empathizes with his distress and delivers a powerful speech that prevents Rick from taking a drastic step. Later, Mark commits to focusing more intently on his relationship with Amber and his academic pursuits. During a date, a Viltrumite named Anissa unexpectedly appears and threatens Amber, arguing that the Viltrumite Empire would ultimately save human lives.
She then assists Mark in defeating a giant sea monster, though their ensuing conflict leaves Mark resolute in his opposition to a Viltrumite takeover. Although Anissa prevails in their battle, she spares his life—a decision that ultimately precipitates a tearful breakup between Mark and Amber.
Additionally, Angstrom contacts Mark using Debbie’s phone, asserting control over Debbie and Oliver. In the epilogue, Anissa retreats to her base, disheartened by her failure, while Allen, bolstered by renewed strength, allows himself to be captured in a defiant gesture.
Cast[]
Starring[]
- Steven Yeun - Invincible
- Sandra Oh - Debbie Grayson
- J.K Simmons - Omni-Man (mentioned only)
- Lincoln Bodin - Oliver Grayson
Featuring the Voices Of[]
- Zazie Beetz - Amber Justine Bennett
- Chris Diamantopoulos - Donald Ferguson
- Walton Goggins - Cecil Stedman
- Gillian Jacobs - Atom Eve
- Andrew Rannells - William Francis Clockwell
- Sterling K. Brown - Angstrom Levy
- Shantel VanSanten - Anissa (debut)
- Tim Robinson - Filip Schaff
- Clancy Brown - Kregg
- Fred Tatasciore - Octoboss
- Eric Bauza - D.A Sinclair
- Luke Macfarlane - Rick Sheridan
- Cliff Curtis - Paul
- Jason Mantzoukas - Rex Splode
- Seth Rogen - Allen the Alien
Trivia[]
- This title "I’m Not Going Anywhere" is a reference to a line said by Rudy
- The villainous Viltrumite Anissa makes her debut in this episode, voiced by Shantel VanSanten, who was previously alluded in Episode 4's cliffhanger.
- Eric Bauza replaces Ezra Miller as D.A Sinclair, Bauza previously voiced an Atlantean Guard in Episode 2.
- When Rex does a hand gesture to fire his newly-built prostetic hand, it resembles that of Spider-Man's hand gesture when he shoots his web.
- Donald discovers he had died 38 times before his latest death by Omni-Man, as well as authorized his memories to be erased.
- After being threatened by Anissa, Amber breaks up with Mark for the final time, upon realizing that she was never going to fit in his superhero life as Invincible.
- Allen confirmed himself to be in the same level of strength as a high-ranking Viltrumite, when he battled Anissa, before allowing himself to get captured, so he could rescue Omni-Man from his soon to be execution.
- Angstrom Levy begins his revenge plot on Invincible and his family.
- While attending Comic Con, Mark meets Filip Schaff, the author of the Seance Dog comic book, at a book signing. During their conversation Schaff makes metacommentary on modern animated action shows (specifically Invincible the Amazon series). Schaff explains how modern action animation cuts corners with methods such as: wide panned-shots of still-frames, obscuring character mouths in order to limit animation, or even panning from behind a character while they are talking. These limitations allow the animators to over-animate fight scenes and even exaggerate character details in some scenes. As Schaff describes these methods to Mark the scenes featuring the two of them switch between the animation techniques which Schaff is describing in the moment.
- The conversation between Mark and Filip Schaff is adapted from issue 10 of Invincible, wherein Schaff made similar commentary on how comic book illustration cuts corners while these techniques were being used in panel during their discussion.
- Schaff also tells Mark that the next season of Seance Dog will come out in about a year do to animation difficulty. This is yet again commentary on how modern animation takes longer to produce.
- Schaff was redesigned for the show, portrayed as having a brown beard and mustache in contrast to his comic book counterpart, who had a shaved head and face.
- The song that plays when Amber and Mark venture in chicago is Feel It by D4VD, a very famous singer. In his song he features a scene where he fights a stranger and slams him with compendium of the Invincible comic, along with the Think Mark Think meme at the end of the video.
- This is Robert Kirkman's favorite episode of the series yet. In the creator's own words: "Episode 7 of Season 2 has a scene that I've been dying to adapt from the comics into the show. I can't wait for people to see the way that we changed it because it couldn't be done in the same way. I'm speaking in code now because of the way it is in the comics. We had to change it completely, and so we kind of had to like rebirth a fan-favorite iconic scene in a way that works in animation. So it's the same, but it's 100% fundamentally different. So I wanna see if it has the same effect and is as beloved."[1]