You Look Kinda Dead is a whole lot more somber than episode 5, which is a good thing because I’m not sure we can take those levels of intensity each week!
After spending 6 days in a coma, Mark is desperate for a bit of normality and decides to gatecrash Willams’ plans of visiting his crush, Rick (Jonathon Groff), at college and takes Amber with him too. I would say this episode deviates from the comics the most. It’s not until much later that we find out William is gay and his relationship with Rick isn’t initially romantic. Mark and William’s introduction to Rick is also different in the comics and a story line which should play out for quite a while, but is wrapped up within this episode.
DA Sinclair (Ezra Miller) is a major character and his introduction this week was great. As boys begin to go missing from campus, our first interactions with Sinclair are pretty sinister as we discover his creations, The Reanimen. He takes these kids and uses his scientific genius to create an army of killers. What I love most about them is Sinclair fails to completely remove their emotions and we notice this during Invincible’s first interaction with one. Entitled, douchebag Doug is one of Sinclair’s first casualties and during their fight Mark removes his helmet, Doug catches his reflection which has sad consequences. Both William and Rick find themselves at DA Sinclair’s mercy too for some great scenes towards the end of the episode.
Entangled throughout this instalment are plenty of personal moments for Mark. Amber’s frustrations with him are growing but there’s little he can do about it. William also discovers his secret identity but all his excitement is wasted on Mark who feels like he is a bit of a rubbish superhero. Let’s also not forget that things at home are starting to unravel behind the scenes.
Debbie continues her mission to discover the truth about Nolan’s actions and this leads her to Art’s door. As he investigates Nolan’s suit he all but confirms her suspicions which is getting awkward as Nolan is aware of what Debbie is doing. She drunkenly confronts him at the end of the episode and I’m starting to think it’s clear where this season is going to end. Atom Eve also makes big decisions this week as she decides to leave home and use her powers for the good of the world.
It’s common for film and TV to negotiate with the source material and sometimes it’s for the better. However, it pains me to say that sometimes the pay off after following a great storyline is immense, so to have such a long running story and so much character development dissolved into one episode kind of bugs me. That doesn’t mean this was a bad episode or that it’s been done badly – quite the opposite and the changes completely fit the series.
As usual, there’s a hint at something HUGE in the mid credits scene which will blow everything out of the water – I can’t wait….!
