Neil Armstrong, Eat Your Heart Out

"Neil Armstrong, Eat Your Heart Out"
Season	1
Episode	4
Air date	April 2, 2021
Writer	Ryan Ridley
Director	Jeff Allen
Episode guide
Previous	"Who You Calling Ugly?"
Next	"That Actually Hurt"

"Neil Armstrong, Eat Your Heart Out" is the fourth episode of the first season of Invincible, and the fourth episode of the show overall.

Synopsis

It's two firsts for Mark: a first date and a first trip to another planet. At the same time, Nolan and Debbie revisit their own first vacation together.

Plot

Zaeim steps out of a truck in the middle of the desert and tells a worker that they were going too slow, but he tells him that the desert was unforgiving. The workers lift a rock and reveal a secret passage. Zaeim moves everybody and goes down. When he makes it to the bottom, he walks to his master's tomb and brings him back to life, but shouts for help soon after. The workers realize he had resurrected Ka-Hor and run off. As Ka-Hor exits the secret passage the big stone door falls on top of him.

Omni-Man tells Invincible that he is messing up the desert since he was flying too low. When the latter turns around, he finds that he has created a big cloud of sand. Omni-Man tells him to build up speed and endurance by pushing himself, telling Invincible that being a Viltrumite was not easy. Omni-Man did a spin, and Invincible tried to follow, but lost control, so his father proposed going to Mount Everest, with the last one to reach it washing dishes for a week.

Omni-Man reached Mount Everest first, and told his son to take deep breaths since the air was thin. A hiker reached the summit and was surprised to see them both there, but going down soon after. Omni-Man tells Invincible that sometimes he forgets how beautiful the planet can be and told him that Viltrum was very different, having ended wars all over the universe, brought peace to thousands of galaxies and lifted alien races out of the mud. Invincible told him that he could not believe he had left everything behind to go to a planet he had never even seen before, and his father told him that when his grandparents died, he had felt lost for a long time and saw going to Earth as a chance to build something new. He told him that Debbie changed Earth from a job into a home, but Invincible told him that he did not know if he could leave everything behind, and Omni-Man replies saying that being like them took sacrifice. He proceeded to tell his son that the last one home would take out the garbage for a month, but Invincible took off before he could finish and got a head-start. Nevertheless, his father quickly passed him.

Olga was convinced that Josef's killer was known.

Olga tells Debbie that nobody cared about them or Josef, knowing how governments work. Debbie tries telling her that Cecil was searching for the killer, but Olga was not convinced and believes that they already knew who the killer is. She tells Debbie that she would be moving back to Moscow and asks her to sell her house, which she agrees to. Debbie askes Olga if Josef had ever lied to her, and she tells her that all heroes do, but she only believed him once: when he told her everything would be fine.

Debbie makes it home, grabs a bottle of wine, and starts working. She enters private browsing mode and looks up Damien Darkblood, who is described as a freak who could not even save his own soul, but turns out was a good detective. She hears Nolan and Mark making it back home; once they enter the house, Nolan tells Debbie that after trying to get their son to break the sound barrier, Mark had finally done it by getting ready for a date, which Debbie did not know about, but Mark did not consider it a date and did not even plan it. Nolan asks Debbie if she wants to go out as well, but she tells him that she wants to sell Olga's house, mentioning the conspiracy behind the murders. Nolan tells her that Olga needs to quit drinking, which Debbie did not like and made her suspicious.

Mark and Amber walk through a street, sharing a dessert. Amber tells him that she had volunteered building schools in the Philippines, which made her gain perspective. She asks him if he had ever traveled and he mentions that he had been to Mount Everest with his father. She asks him if he had liked Nepal or China, but he does not know how to respond and changes the subject, buying her a rice separator.

Omni-Man confronted Darkblood when the demon kept investigating him.

Darkblood pours himself a drink and receives Nolan, telling him that he had wondered if he would come. Nolan tells him that he had been in his house and frightened his wife. Darkblood mentions that he had murdered seven people, but Nolan tells him that perhaps it had been him, going to his house in order to finish the job he started, being a demon. Darkblood tells him that demons know evil when they see it, but Nolan ignores and tells him that if he goes back in his house he would not have to do anything, since people would believe him over the demon. Darkblood tells him that he would not give up, since the truth could not be hidden and his wife already suspected, wondering how long until his son did as well.

The Mauler Twin opens a warehouse and gets to work, by setting up a lab. He drills his arm until he gets blood and finds a cell, which starts to duplicate. He puts it into a big pod which closes. He greets his brother and tells him that he must be hungry, giving it food.

Robot is interrupted from watching the Mauler Twin work by Rex, who welcomes him to the new Guardian's new digs. Black Samson mentions it is good to be home again, which annoys Rex since he does not enjoy hearing him say he was an original member of the Guardians of the Globe. Monster Girl tells Robot she is nervous, and Robot tells her that he is as well. Cecil walks in and tells them to not be surprised since it was their job. Rex tells him that he had missed a spot when cleaning blood, but Cecil tells them that he had left that there as a reminder and would get cleaned off when they proved themselves to be worthy of the heroes that had come before. He is radioed, told that Omni-Man wanted to see him, so he leaves. Monster Girl asks Rex if they are cool and he says they are since she had beaten him up in front of assholes. Robot walks up to Rex and tells him not to let his personal life to meddle with his professional one since it was his fault they were alienating Atom Eve and did not want it to happen with Monster Girl. Rex tells him that when he grew a pair, then he could tell him how to swing his. However, Robot mentions that he was giving him an order, patting him on the shoulder with a needle which slightly hurt Rex.

Debbie works when Nolan approaches her, asking her if she wanted to go to bed, but when she refused, he asks what was going on, but she tells him that nothing. He tells her that being the wife of the most powerful man on Earth meant she should not have to deal with work, but she tells him that she was not just his wife and liked working. He tells her to be quiet, and at first she gets angry, but quiets down when she looks at his face. Nolan swiftly turns and grabs Cecil by the neck, throwing him against a bookshelf, but lets him go. Cecil apologizes and tells him that he meant to teleport to his front door, but had run into a problem. Nolan tells him that he had almost killed him, being jumpy for reasons Cecil would understand.

Amber and Mark head back to the former's home. She tells him to plan the date next time, which he likes. The two lean in for a kiss and Mark flies into the sky happily and heads back home. He finds Cecil and his parents talking about NASA's first manned mission to Mars and needed Nolan to shadow the mission so that nothing went wrong, but Nolan would not do it since he needed to train his son and was needed on Earth with the Guardians gone. Cecil tells Nolan that Earth needed a win, but Nolan tells him that nobody would care about Mars if there was an attack on Earth, saying that his priority was his family and the planet.

Mark says yes to the Mars mission

Mark volunteers, saying that the same had happened last time, but Nolan tells him that that was the moon, which hardly counts as space. He added that his responsibilities were bigger than four astronauts. Cecil says that if Mark wanted to go, he would be doing a great favor, so Nolan asked Debbie for support. She says that she does not like Mark missing school, but it would be for a good cause. Mark says that he could go to Mars and back in a second and Nolan mentions that the fact that he did not know how far Mars was was exactly why he should go to school. Cecil tells Mark that it was a two week mission, and Mark agrees with his father, saying that he was not ready and had things going well with Amber. Debbie tells Mark that many people would tell him how to use his powers, but it would be up to him to make those decisions. After that, Mark agrees to go, so Cecil tells him to pack a lunch since he would be leaving the next day.

Cecil teleports into the house in front of the Grayson's, and Donald asks how Mark going would help them with investigating Omni-Man. Cecil simply responds that sending Mark would give them a chance to see what Mark could do and if his heart was in the right place.

Mark and Eve talk about Amber.

At school, Mark tells Eve that he did not want to lie to Amber but also could not tell her the truth. Eve tells him that that was why dating normal people was not good, but Mark counters by saying that things between her and Rex had not worked out, which angered her. She tells him that she had a lot of things to deal with, so he asks her to help him out with Amber stuff and he would help her out with her stuff. However, she mentions that she does not know if she wants to be a superhero at the moment, so Mark tells her that he would be there for her if she needed to talk about it. She leaves but turns around to tell him that he should only tell Amber his identity if he was serious with her.

Amber watches the news, where the Mars mission is being broadcast and hears the doorbell ring. She sees Mark with a big, expensive baul they had seen on their date. She thanks him for it and invites him in, but he told her that he would be gone for two weeks in order to volunteer, asking her not to lose interest in him while he was gone. They kiss and he flies along with the Mars shuttle.

In space, Cecil told Invincible that he almost did not make it, but needed him to stay out of sight unless something went wrong and also needed him on the mission for the Martians, who lived underground and kept to themselves.

Nolan and Debbie watched the news, and Mark told her that the mission was a waste of Mark's time, but Debbie mentioned she was proud. Nolan told her that Mark did not understand his responsibilities, but Debbie reminds him that he was 17, also telling him that he had been different ever since their son had gotten his powers. Nolan says that he is trying to teach him, but Debbie points out that he had been distant, annoyed at everything, and mean. She also adds that he had been talking about Viltrum, so Nolan told her that he wanted his son to know about his people, but she told him that she did not know about them, only hearing stories. She told him that he had been hiding something from her, and she did not like it. Nolan tells her that he never thought he would have a family, but met her, who he loved, but when he saw Mark with his powers and after what happened with the Guardians, he did not want to lose everything. He told her that Mark would be gone for two weeks and asks her if she remembers their first trip.

Invincible gets comfortable next to the spacecraft, but does not like it when he bites into his sandwich which is completely hardened.

Nolan and Debbie walk through Rome until they get to L'Osteria Donato, a fancy restaurant which Nolan had made reservations to, which Debbie mentions is new.

Aboard the spacecraft, Invincible wakes up and sees Mars. They finally land, and he gets off before they do. The astronauts tell Houston they arrived, and one of them spots Invincible, but none of the others do, so he tells them to forget it and they get to work while Mark looks at pictures of Amber, mentioning that the mission sucked. When his phone dies, he wonders if the astronauts have a charger in the shuttle, only to find out the astronauts had been taken away.

Nolan and Debbie date in Italy

Nolan and Debbie reminisce about the past, remembering how Debbie had dumped him after the first date because she considered him to be a dick. Nolan told her that he had taken her to Rome, but she reminded him that he expected her to worship him for it, so he told her that he had been new to Earth and gotten better. Debbie tells him that he had only gotten a second date due to him saving kids, and was happy they were there. However, Nolan sensed that she still felt something was wrong, and she admitted she felt like she was standing on the edge of a cliff. Nolan tells her that he had not been honest with her about the murders, mentioning that Cecil believed he had something to do with the murders since he was not human, was the only survivor and had never been liked by Cecil. Debbie tells him that he needed to talk to him and Nolan tells her that he had tried, but needed her to trust him. A dragon shows up, but Nolan does not move, simply asking Debbie if she trusted him. She tells him she does and begs him to do something about the dragon, to which he simply responds that he was on vacation, so Cecil should handle it.

Back at the Grayson's, an orchid freezes as Damien Darkblood shows up and looks around. He takes notes and sees Cecil is there as well with cops, who point guns at the demon. Cecil tells Darkblood that Nolan had warned them about him.

Invincible remembers that Martians live underground. He lifts up a big rock, and is attacked by many Sequids. He throws them away and walks through the hidden hallway. There he finds a crystal-like object which turns out to be a Martian. He turns out to be surrounded and is ordered not to move. Invincible tells them that he was not there to hurt anyone. Another Sequid jumps at him which throws away which he quickly pull off and throws away, Invincible tells the Martians that they should keep their dogs on a leash, but they are surprised that he was unaffected by the Sequid, though Mark sarcastically tells him that he was very affected by them. The Martian then asks Invincible if the other humans were like him.

Mark is brought to the Emperor of Mars, where he is welcomed. He awkwardly greets the Martian and tells him that he was sent to protect fellow Earth-men on a mission to Mars and needed them to go back alive. He tells him that they should get going and suggests that they should keep their squid-dogs under control. The Martian tells him that the Sequids were the very reason why the humans were captured since they were a world-destroying race, who left a trail of destruction across the universe before crashing into Mars. He explains that alone, the Sequids were scattered and weak, but with an appropriate host, they were unstoppable. He adds that the Martian's shape-shifting abilities allowed them to resist the Sequids, but if just one of them got to the humans, they would be able to rise up, savaging Mars and Earth soon after. The Martian asks Invincible how he is able to resist the Sequids, and he explains that he is half Viltrumite, which the Martian mentions he had heard of. Invincible explains that Viltrums liked to help people, so he should take the crew members home, but the Martian refuses, saying that the humans were scheduled for immediate execution since they could not risk them coming in contact with a Sequid.

Mark meets Martian Emperor.

Invincible claims he understands and the scene cuts to black. Invincible and the Astronauts are then seen fleeing from the Martians back to their spacecraft. Invincible gets the astronauts back into the spacecraft and they hurry up lift off while Invincible faces off with the Martians. Invincible attempts to fight the Martians, but was outnumbered, so he lifts the spacecraft off of the Mars's surface, helping the astronauts escape. With the astronauts safe, Invincible lands back on Mars and asks the Martians if he could take a rock, much to their apparent confusion. However, in the spacecraft, a Martian disguised as one of the astronauts noticed the flag symbol on his suit was upside down and quickly fixed it.

On Mars' surface and after Invincible had left, the Martians turn to face the astronaut who had been replaced and saw he had been taken over by Sequids. The possessed astronaut unleashes a wave of Sequids on the Martians as their invasion of Mars begins.

On Earth, news told the success the astronauts had in Mars. Mark arrives home, hearing noises in his house, but when opening the door, he sees his parents awkwardly staring at him. Debbie asks him how Mars had been, but Mark tells them that less eventful than whatever had been going on in the house while he was gone.

Mark greets Amber at school. She kisses him and asks him how it was, to which he responds that it was boring and a few other details. Amber pointed out that his story was not very specific, but Mark tells her that he got her a rock, which she does not find very impressive. He tells her not to show it to any geologists, and she thanks him for the rock.

Damien getting sent back to hell.

At the Pentagon, Cecil and the officers take Darkblood through a hallway. Cecil told him that when they had searched his office, they had found dried blood. He tells him that it was planted since he did not try to kill Nolan or the Guardians, though Cecil tells him he knows, but says he has to excise him anyway since he had not dropped the case when he told him to. Darkblood claims that Cecil cannot since he had destroyed the book centuries ago, but Cecil reveals that he was able to reconstruct it. Donald starts the ritual which surprises Darkblood, saying he never thought Cecil would protect Omni-Man. Cecil exclaims to Darkblood that he demons can only see good and evil, black and white, and that he instead need to keep things gray in order to figure out why Nolan had killed the guardians and how to stop him. An angered Darkblood claims that there is a worse place waiting for Cecil than hell. However, Cecil remains unfazed as Darkblood is grabbed by chains and taken back to hell.

Debbie cleans up Olga's house, finding it to be a mess. She looks at a picture of her and Josef, and keeps going. She shows people the house, but keeps looking at the picture.

Robot approaches a deformed human, his actual self, and shows him the sample of Rex Splode's blood. Robot then exclaims that phase one had begun.

Later, Debbie tells Nolan that if she sells two more houses, she would break the monthly record. Nolan told her that she could do it and he tells her that new evidence had come up and so Cecil had apologized, which he never did.

Cast

Starring

• Steven Yeun - Invincible
• Sandra Oh - Debbie Grayson
• J.K. Simmons - Omni-Man

Featuring The Voices Of

• Zazie Beetz - Amber Bennett
• Clancy Brown - Damien Darkblood / Bryant
• Chris Diamantopoulos - Donald Ferguson
• Zehra Fazal - Astronaut #2 / Young Wife
• Walton Goggins - Cecil Stedman
• Grey Griffin - Monster Girl / Shrinking Rae
• Djimon Hounsou - Martian Emperor
• Gillian Jacobs - Atom Eve
• Jason Mantzoukas - Rex Splode
• Malese Jow - Dupli-Kate
• Khary Payton - Black Samson / Astronaut #1
• Zachary Quinto - Robot
• Andrew Rannells - William Clockwell
• Kevin Michael Richardson - Mauler Twins

Trivia

An astronaut right after landing on Mars.

• This title "Neil Armstrong, Eat Your Heart Out" is a reference to line spoken by one of the astronauts in Invincible Issue 18, when his group lands on Mars.
• Damien Darkblood's fate in this episode mirrors the death of Rorschach from the Watchmen graphic novel.
  • Darkblood is dragged back into Hell by Cecil in order to keep Omni-Man's murder a secret, similarly to how Doctor Manhattan killed Rorschach in order to keep secret Ozymandaias' killing of the Comedian and the mass murder of New York. Darkblood leaves behind a notepad of his discovery to be found by Debbie Grayson just as Rorschach delivered a journal of his findings to a major newspaper to be published in order to unmask the Ozymandaias conspiracy. Unlike Doctor Manhattan, who intended to keep the New York massacre a secret, Cecil only meant to keep Nolan's actions a secret until he could find a way to stop him.
• In the Mount Everest scene, Nolan makes mentions of his parents, Mark's grandparents, while the name of the mother/grandmother is uncertain, a theory suggests that Argall could be the father/grandfather, because he was the father in the comics.
• The corpse of Bi-Plane can be seen when the NASA space shuttle takes flight from earth's atmosphere.