Invincible season 4 episode 7 has made its Prime Video debut — and I imagine you've got plenty of questions after what we just witnessed.
The critically-acclaimed Amazon TV Original's latest chapter, titled 'Don't Do Anything Rash', has been hailed as this season's best entry. In the hours since it was released and amid the praise it's received, though, fans have been desperately searching for answers about the episode's biggest talking points.
Luckily for you, I'm here to provide them — but, be warned: full spoilers immediately follow for Invincible's latest installment. Leave this page now if you haven't watched it yet.
Does Oliver die in Invincible season 4 episode 7?
No. Okay, he gets his ass handed to him by Grand Regent Thragg, aka the de-facto leader of the Viltrum Empire and Big Bad of the entire Prime Video show, but Oliver lives to fight another day.
Despite his older step-brother Mark Grayson's warning not to attack Thragg on his own earlier on in this week's episode, Oliver ends up doing just that. However, Thragg, who I'll chat about more later, makes light work of Oliver — the incredibly powerful Viltrumite severing Oliver's lower jaw, ripping off his left arm from the elbow down, and leaving him for dead.
As I said, though, Invincible season 4's penultimate episode isn't the end of the road for Mark's half-Viltumite, half-Thraxan younger step sibling.
In the final minutes of 'Don't Do Anything Rash', it's revealed that Oliver's body was recovered by the Coalition of Planets. Back on Talescria, aka the freedom fighters' planetary headquarters, its surgeons replace his dismembered body parts with cybernetic prosthetics, and place him in a medically-induced coma inside a stasis chamber to aid his recovery.
Is Nolan dead in Invincible season 4 episode 7?
No, Mark and Oliver's father also survives. That's in spite of him getting disemboweled by Thragg after Nolan, Mark, and Thaedus, with a little help from Space Racer's supremely powerful Infinity Gun, destroy the Viltrumites' home world.
Like Oliver, though, 'Don't Do Anything Rash' confirms that Nolan is still alive and kicking. After Mark comes around after his own beatdown at Thragg's hands, he's informed by Allen that Nolan didn't succumb to his life-threatening injuries. Moments later, we see Mark reunite with his dad in the room where Oliver's stasis chamber is based, which further confirms Nolan is okay.
Does Thaedus die in Invincible season 4 episode 7?
Unlike the aforementioned individuals, the Coalition of Planets' commander-in-chief is killed in this season's seventh chapter. Indeed, he's beheaded by Thragg after Viltrum's destruction.
It's something of an ironic death, too. Earlier in 'Don't Do Anything Rash', we get to see the moment before Thaedus murders Argall, i.e. the Viltrum Empire's former leader. Following Argall's demise, Thragg keeps the former's skull as a reminder of not only the autocratic values that are instilled in the Viltrumites from birth, but also of Thaedus' betrayal and Thragg's desire to get revenge on the man responsible for Argall's death. The fact that Thragg kills Thaedus by decapitating him, then, brings Thaedus' journey full circle.
Why does Thragg spare Mark and Nolan in Invincible season 4 episode 7?
Because there are literally only a handful of Viltrumites left. Thragg wants those who remain to rebuild the near-extinct race, so killing off two of his kin in Mark and Nolan wouldn't be in Thragg's or the Viltrumite species' best interests.
That's one answer, anyway. The other lies in the final line uttered by Mark before the screen cuts to black and this episode's end credits begin — that being, that Thragg and those loyal to him have headed to Earth.
Is Thragg about to lay waste to Mark's home planet? I'm not going to spoil what happens next but, if Thragg is seeking retribution after what just happened to his own world, keeping Mark and Nolan alive to witness Earth's own potential destruction would be a major reason why. You'll have to find out if that's what happens when episode 8 airs next week.
What is the Great Purge in Invincible?
Following Argall's death, Thragg assumes control of the Viltrum Empire — and one of his first decrees actually sets his race on a potential collision course with mass extinction.
In the comics and its adult animated adaptation on one of the best streaming services, Thragg calls on his fellow Viltrumites to weed out the weakest of their kind. Thus began a brief but no less catastrophic civil war where it was every male, female, and child for themselves as Viltrumites turned on each other to eliminate all but the strongest among them.
By the end of the conflict that became known as the Great Purge, those who survived rebuilt Viltrum and repopulated their now-significantly reduced numbers. While a hugely devastating event, it's an idea that, for a time, seemed to be to Viltrum's benefit because only the hardest and most formidable members of its species remained.
That was the case, anyway, until the Viltrumite betrayer known as Thaedus released the Scourge Virus — a microorganism designed specifically to kill Viltrumites — on his home world and decimated its population. Would this have happened if the Great Purge hadn't played out and, by proxy, the Viltrumites' gene pool had been significantly bigger? It's a question that Invincible's source material doesn't answer, but it's an interesting thing to ponder.
Why is Thragg so strong in Invincible?
This question is answered in 'Don't Do Anything Rash'. However, amid everything else that happens in the series' latest episode, it gets lost in the noise.
Essentially, though, Thragg has been trained from birth to be the strongest warrior at the Viltrum Empire's disposal. He's an expert combatant in many fighting forms and has fought in countless wars throughout the centuries, too, which makes him an even more formidable opponent for anyone to take on.
On top of that, Thragg was also bred to be Viltrum's most powerful fighter. He wasn't genetically engineered per se, but his pure Viltrumite DNA, coupled with the above training and his surviving of the Scourge Virus — the latter of which nearly wiped out the entire Viltrumite race — means almost nobody, if anyone at all, can best him in a duel.
Who voices Argall in Invincible?
That'll be Frank Welker, whose acting career stretches all the way back to 1969 when he voiced Fred in the original Scooby-Doo animated show..
Funnily enough, Invincible is a reunion of sorts between Welker and Peter Cullen, who voices Thaedus. In the Transformers animated series, the pair played Megatron and Optimus Prime, aka the respective leaders of the Decepticons and Autobots. Welker and Cullen also voiced characters in the Transformers film franchise, too, with Cullen reprising his role as Optimus Prime and Welker returning to play various Decepticons.
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