With the arrival of Nolan (J.K. Simmons) on Earth, Mark (Steven Yeun) is going to be faced with some tough decisions. Is he going to help his father and Allen the Alien (Seth Rogen)? Or will he choose to stay a hero of Earth? The Viltrimites are already ready to do battle, and they could make their return to Earth at any point. Whichever choice he makes, Invincible is in real danger. He doesn’t even know what is going on with Eve’s potential pregnancy either. That makes “Give Us a Moment” great potential as a turning point for the series.
Invincible Season 4 Episode 5 Recap – “Give Us a Moment”
Allen shows off his pet to Atom Eve (Gillian Jacobs) while Mark and Nolan speak about his potential involvement in the war. Nolan comes clean about everything and tries to tell him the Viltrumites will always be a danger. Mark accuses Nolan of lying again, but his dad swears the only way forward is through trust. Mark agrees that there is no actual choice, because if the Coalition of Planets loses, the Viltrumites will come for him.
Allen goes to speak with Tech Jacket, but Nolan asks to speak with Debbie alone, and Mark leaves after yelling at his dad. Right before he rings the doorbell, Nolan decides against talking to her. However, she knows he’s there and opens the door to let Nolan into the house. He steps inside and gives a heartfelt apology. However, Debbie is not willing to listen to him, saying he can “repair” the relationship. She tells him to leave, and after she punches him in the chest, her hand starts bleeding. He leaves, and she does as well.
Tech Jacket (Zoey Deutch) fights a massive villain with electrical powers, saving a human in the process. Her father watches the fight from a ship in space, and together they take down the villain. He tells her to return to his ship because Allen is waiting for her. They discuss joining the fight, and she agrees to join the team.
At home, Mark comforts his mother, who drinks in the dark. Oliver is furious when he finds out Omni-Man did not even stick around to say hello and tells Mark he’s joining their team. He has just as much to lose, and his birth mother died because of the Viltrumites. Debbie agrees to let him go, but she needs one more thing first. With Eve and Paul over for dinner, they have a long family meal together.
Art arrives at his shop and is surprised when he sees Omni-Man in the reflection of the window. They agree to have beers together and catch up. Omni-Man thanks him for the time together, but when he suggests that Art dress him one more time, he’s turned down. Art only works with heroes. They say goodbye, and after Omni-Man flies away, Art collapses as he catches his breath.
Mark and Eve sleep together, following it up with pillow talk about their relationship. He asks what she wanted to tell him, but she says nothing. “You’re going away tomorrow; what could be more important than that?” She asks him not to die. He falls asleep with his arms around her.
The next morning, Mark and Oliver say goodbye to the family. Afterward, they fly up to the ship, where they meet Nolan in the docking bay. Nolan is furious that Mark brought Oliver with him, but Mark reminds him that Oliver once idolized Nolan. They all part from the bay as Tech Jacket arrives. As they leave, Cecil and the GDA hold their breath. They were monitoring Nolan’s ship the entire time he was on planet, and now that they’re gone, Cecil realizes Earth has no Viltrumites for the first time in twenty years.
In the two weeks in space, everyone gets to know each other. Nolan continues to remember his relationship with Debbie. Allen brings up the issues Nolan is having on the ship, but Mark thinks it’s because his father expected a better response. Suddenly, the ship goes into full alert when something damages it. The ship explodes, with Omni-Man and Oliver in the back half of the ship. The bridge takes off just before the explosion, saving Telia (Tatiana Maslany) and the non-hero staff.
Mark finds Oliver in the wreckage and revives him. Suddenly, Allen calls out to Mark as three Viltrumites arrive. One of them is Conquest (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). Before Mark can respond, he’s attacked while Oliver flies into battle. Conquest gets ready to crush Oliver’s skull when Nolan arrives. Allen and Tech Jacket fight off the third Viltrumite. Mark rejoins the battle to take on Conquest.
The battle looks bleak when soldiers hired by the Viltrumites arrive. Nolan sends Oliver to a local planet so he can breathe. Conquest sees and chases Oliver. Right before he strikes, Mark catches up with him, and the two fight again. Nolan clears a path for Allen and Tech Jacket, who hide for cover in the Viltrumite ship.
On the planet, Mark and Conquest put a beating on each other as Mark suffocates the Viltrumite. Mark bites off Conquest’s fingers while Conquest bunches through Mark’s stomach, pulling his intestines out. Despite this, Mark never lets go, eventually killing Conquest by suffocation. Afterward, he collapses, where Nolan and Oliver find him with his guts strewn everywhere.
Thaedeus (Peter Cullen) tells Telia to return to the coalition. It’s time they go to war. The Viltrumites look for Allen and Tech Jacket but cannot find them. We see that her suit has turned into a small ship, which now clings to the Viltrumite ship like a remora. They can stay hidden until their sensors go down. In the meantime, they’ll play video games.
Is Invincible – “Give Us a Moment” – worth watching?
Yes, this is an instant classic for Invincible, which pays off a number of incredible character beats in the first half of the episode. It then elevates with the Mark versus Conquest battle. If the series can so quickly vacillate between the emotions in the two threads, Invincible will only get better. The battle is gruesome in ways that we’ve come to expect, yet somehow they surpass themselves in terms of sheer goriness. To watch Conquest pull out Mark’s guts was truly vile, and how he survives is beyond us. However, he’s already been seen in images that have not shown up this season, so it must be happening.
While Oliver and Nolan are not on the same page, it was nice to see them bond for a couple of moments in the fight, even if it came as a child pushing back against their father. What they do now with Mark will undeniably be a focus of the next episode. The emotions are sure to be incredibly contentious. Yet more importantly, they’re going to need to figure out their next steps forward to make Oliver a contributing member of the team. He’s not a bad fighter; he’s just not at the level of the others quite yet. Maybe a training session with Nolan could be on the horizon.
The emotions coursing through “Give Us a Moment” showcases just how well drawn the characters have always been. Showing so many interactions with people who believed in Nolan highlights just how great his betrayal was. It was not only Mark, but Debbie and even Art affected by his actions. These are the most impressive aspects of “Give Us a Moment,” especially in the Debbie scenes.
Her resignation that the man has destroyed her life again for simply showing up is devastating to watch on screen. It’s a brilliant performance by Sandra Oh, who has low-key been one of the more impressive performers this season. The animators did an incredible job in the montage as well. The women, between Oh and Jacobs, really do impeccable work in “Give Us a Moment.”
Finally, the Allen and Tech Jack/Zoey dynamic was already a fun new wrinkle for Invincible. They’re unaware that they’ll be on Viltrum soon, and Allen has already acknowledged that would be bad for them. However, if they can escape, they could return to the rest of the team with valuable information from Viltrum’s surface. We’re curious how much we’re going to check in with them next episode and, ultimately, what happens with Invincible‘s Earth storyline moving forward. As Cecil noted, Earth is without a Viltrumite for the first time in twenty years. Can they actually defend the planet without one?
Invincible Season 4 Episode 5 “Give Us a Moment” aired on March 25, 2026. New episodes release every Wednesday.
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